Fests and events, 2/21.

By David Hudson on 02/21/2009

Andrew Chan opens Reverse Shot's special section on Film Comment Selects with, naturally enough, a review of the film that's opened the series: "Imagine each of us arrives in this life equipped with a kino-eye, and that we're given the task of producing a mix-tape of our favorite sights and impressions. Michael Almereyda has turned in his first draft of the assignment, 'Paradise,' and it's a film intoxicated by the exponential possibilities of its form.... Repeated viewings of 'Paradise' reveal a transfixing and richly patterned patchwork, but on the first try it feels like alien territory, and it can be difficult to find one's way in."

"[E]ven by the relative standards of an uncompromisingly dour and slow-paced Gallic auteur, 'Frontier of Dawn' happens to be the most audience-friendly [Philippe] Garrel of the ten or so I've had the pleasure of seeing," writes Michael Joshua Rowin. "'Frontier of Dawn' is all in the delivery - in the way Garrel shoots a familiar dramatic moment from a surprising angle, the way he holds a scene until his quasi-somnambulant actors betray a telling gesture, the way he frames a bare interior to express its inherent loneliness, the way the sound mix gives sharp distinction to the gentlest, and often most nefarious, ambient noises."

And Salon's Andrew O'Hehir has capsule previews of seven films in the series.

"The 16th edition of the San Diego Latino Film Festival, which runs from March 12 - 22, is hosting the US premiere of noted queer auteur Julián Hernández's third feature film 'Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo' ('Raging Sun, Raging Sky,' 2009)." A preview from Sergio de la Mora at the Evening Class.

Geoff Gilmore's "cross-country jump [from Sundance to Tribeca] is only the latest in a trend of festival execs moving up, not only for a bigger paycheck, but for a bigger canvas - a way to expand art and indie film out of a broken domestic model and into a global one." Mike Jones at indieWIRE: "Moreover, it shows that fests have turned into hunting grounds for certain companies looking for a different kind of exec - one who can take ideas formed within their microcosmic event and apply them to an international strategy."

By the way, there's a rumor rolling around the Spirit Awards red carpet that Peter Scarlet will be leaving Tribeca.

More SXSW interviews: Erik Childress with David Gargani ("Monsters from the Id"; site) at Hollywood Bitchslap) and Karina Longworth with Eileen Yaghoobian ("Died Young Stayed Pretty"; site) at the SpoutBlog

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Primitive" is on view at the Haus der Kunst through May 17.

For Bomb, Montana Wojczuk files a dispatch from the Muse Film Festival, running throughout the month in New York.

Damon Smith wraps his Berlinale with 11 short reviews; and the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle looks back at the festival, too.

[Photo: "Paradise," Michael Almereyda, 2008]

Tags: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Geoff Gilmore, Julián Hernández, Michael Almereyda, Peter Scarlet, Philippe Garrel, SXSW 2009