Fests and events, 1/14.

By David Hudson on 01/14/2009

Let's start with San Francisco because Brian Darr has put together quite a collection he's calling "I Only Have Two Eyes": lists from 15 contributors that, together, "might provide a reasonably accurate view of the range and depth of cinematic experiences to be had for a Frisco Bay rep-head in 2008."

"It might not be spring, but love is already in the air, thanks to a Berlin and Beyond lineup crammed full of romance - as mysterious and elusive as the first vernal crocus," writes Nicole Gluckstern. "From the grief-stained impressionistic canvas of Götz Spielmann's 'Revanche,' to the addled office politicking in André Erkau's 'Come in and Burn Out,' to the sweetly scandalous wartime liaison of Ulla Wagner's 'The Invention of Curried Sausage,' the vagaries of love, lust, and even plain old like are on diverse display."

Michael Hawley previews a batch, too; his favorite so far: "La Paloma: Longing Worldwide." The series runs tomorrow through Wednesday.

Back in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Max Goldberg: "Munich Filmmuseum director Stefan Drössler's traveling program 'Unknown Orson Welles'" is "an especially invaluable assemblage for a new generation of Welles scholars, a group who will not feel obliged to reconcile Welles's degraded performance of his personality (the wine commercials and bit parts that financed his work) with his tremendous record of creative freedom." Saturday and Sunday.

San Francisco Film Society is hosting a forum on online distribution on February 9.

"Given the rainbow muddle that is Jewish identity today - from born-again to secular and all the way to couldn't-care-less - what does a Jewish film festival mean?" asks Ella Taylor in the Voice. "A very big tent is what, to judge by some of the movies previewed in this year's New York Jewish Film Festival." Today through January 29.

"Palm Springs is probably the only place cinephiles can take in 16 French movies in two weeks and watch a roadrunner scuttle alongside the base of a snow-capped mountain," writes Alicia Lozano in the Los Angeles Times. Through the weekend.

The Film Panel Notetaker went to work last night following a screening of "Upstream Battle," the doc which has opened the winter season of "Stranger Than Fiction," running through March 17.

Tags: Darren Trumeter Jr, Demon Ouija Board, Episode 108, IFC, Sam Brown, The Whitest Kids U Know, Timmy Williams, Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger