Fests and events, 2/17.

By David Hudson on 02/17/2009

"A major shift in the festival world this morning as Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore announced that he is joining Tribeca Enterprises as the Chief Creative Officer for the company." Eugene Hernandez has the first round of details at indieWIRE. From Gilmore's statement announcing the move: "I believe that Tribeca Enterprises is well positioned to develop a film organization that can create a new paradigm for the future.... I've had a wonderful nineteen years at Sundance and will always be grateful to Bob Redford. For me this is a big decision, a huge change and an enormous opportunity." Karina Longworth comments at the SpoutBlog. Updates: The New York Times' David Carr: "It's a coup for the Tribeca fest, which has been popular with the locals since its inception in 2003, but has struggled in its curatorial efforts to gain legitimacy with cinephiles and critics." David Poland: "A great local festival is a beautiful thing. But Tribeca isn't funded at 10 figures to be a great local film festival. It is funded to have a national presence. And the festival, in its early years and still, has paid cash money to try to buy that presence. And it hasn't worked."

"When I write that 'Sparrow' is his greatest film, I don't mean that it's his only great one." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky in the Tisch Film Review: "[Johnnie] To has directed some of the best movies of the last two decades; he is more astounding than almost any other director working today. His cinema is exciting (but never tiring), intelligent (but never distanced), and, above all, emotional. He's an amateur sociologist, a crack dramatist, an occasional poet." "Sparrow" screens this evening at 6:15 at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

Electronic Arts Intermix "presents a screening and conversation with artist Takeshi Murata, whose extraordinary digital works refigure the experience of animation." This evening at 6:30 in New York; Brian Droitcour has a brief preview for Artforum.

"The tale of a young bottom-rung Tenderloin drug dealer with aspirations of becoming an artist, ['Harrison Montgomery'] charts from every angle the gulf that separates hardnosed reality from dreams of a better life." For SF360, Michael Fox interviews director Daniel Davila. "Harrison Montgomery" screens Friday at SF Indiefest.

Mike Phillips announces the Chicago premiere of "How to Be": March 8.

"With a multiracial, Hawaii/Indonesia-raised president in the White House, it's fortuitous that the issue of mixed race is also at the core of many films in the 27th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival." Michael Hawley sorts through the lineup. March 12 through 22.

Hollywood Bitchslap has begun interviewing filmmakers heading to SXSW: James Palmer ("The Ceremony"; site), Noah Hutton ("Crude Independence"; site), Aron Gaudet ("The Way We Get By"; site) and Zach Clark ("Modern Love is Automatic"; site). At the SpoutBlog, Karina Longworth has questions for Clark, too. March 13 through 21.

Egg City Radio unveils the lineup for "a full-on punk and post-punk film series!" Every Thursday in March and April at Cinefamily in Los Angeles.

Tags: Geoff Gilmore, Johnnie To, Sundance 2009, SXSW 2009, Tribeca 2009