Runs through Sunday, May 31. For more info, see Film, this issue, and queerdocfest.org. All films screen at the Clinton Street Theater.
City of Borders
Director in attendance. See Film, this issue.
Fig Trees
See Film, this issue.
Georgie Girl
A doc about Georgina Beyer, "the first transgender person in the world elected to a national political office."
Hand on the Pulse
A film documenting the life of "writer, activist, and sex-radical Joan Nestle." Followed by the short film 575 Castro St.
It Came from Kuchar
Director in attendance. See Film, this issue.
Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band
A doc about queercore band Pansy Division. Pansy Division founder Jon Ginoli in attendance.
A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square
A look at Triangle Square, a "housing project specifically addressing the needs of LGBT seniors in Los Angeles."
Projecting the Body
A film about photographer and filmmaker Stephen Cummins. Followed by Cummins' film Resonance.
Training Rules
Preceded by the short film Breakin' the Glass. Co-director in attendance. See Film, this issue.
U People
An "accidental documentary" shot on the set of a music video, U People asks questions like "What does it mean to be a woman of color? A lesbian of color? What about a transman of color seen as male, as female?" Directors in attendance.
Word Is Out
1978's "first documentary made by gay people, about gay people, for gay people."
Adoration
See review. Fox Tower 10.
Amarcord
Federico Fellini's 1973 film is a patchwork of vignettes loosely based on Fellini's memories of childhood. There are characters aplenty, but the lead role is the small city of Borgo—subbing for Fellini's hometown of Rimini, Italy—and we witness a calendar year in the life of the town during the 1930s during the rise of Mussolini. It's a comically sentimental and vulgar movie, full of toilet humor, thwarted sexual escapades, and surreal digressions into the fantasies of its characters. Amarcord tries very hard to be absolutely delightful; it almost entirely succeeds. NED LANNAMANN Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
The Best of the Northwest Film & Video Festival
Highlights from from the 35th Northwest Film & Video Festival, with work from Andrew Blubaugh, Laura di Trapani, and others. Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
The Brothers Bloom
Describing a movie as "quirky" more or less amounts to a critical bitch-slap these days, right up there with calling something "precious" or "twee." But it wasn't always so, and with the fantastic The Brothers Bloom, writer/director Rian Johnson (who previously helmed 2005's creepily original noir Brick) revisits an earlier cinematic era—one in which eccentricity is interesting and quirkiness has yet to become synonymous with Natalie Portman in a helmet. ALISON HALLETT Various Theaters.
Dance Flick
All in all, if you love dance movies (says the girl who owns Stomp the Yard) or are a diehard Wayans Bros. fan, you may think this is kind of/almost funny enough to spend $8.50 on. While it wasn't as bad as I initially suspected, I certainly wouldn't call it "good." MOLLY "THE INTERN" GEORGETTA Various Theaters.
Drag Me to Hell
See review. Various Theaters.
Edison & Leo
A stop-motion animated film from director Neil Burns. Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
Fados
Fado has been called Portugal's blues music, though it has been around longer than the United States itself. In his documentary on the genre, legendary Spanish director Carlos Saura completes an informal trilogy started 15 years ago with the lauded doc Flamenco and continued with the fictional Tango. It's perhaps with a loss of nerve that Saura breaks up his true story here with rather silly dance scenes which feel like stray satellite feeds from MTV Portugal. The lingering impression? A passionately bright idea gone horribly Euro-trash. ANDREW STOUT Hollywood Theatre.
Filmusik: Plan 9 from Outer Space
Ed Wood's so-bad-it's-brilliant non-classic, presented with a live original soundtrack. Hollywood Theatre.
Floating World Animation Fest
A "special preview screening" of Floating World Comics' 2009 collection of "senses-shattering video art and psychedelic animation." More info: floatingworldcomics.com. Floating World Comics.
The Girlfriend Experience
See review. Cinema 21.
Grindhouse Film Festival: Truck Turner
See My, What a Busy Week! Hollywood Theatre.
I Love You, Man
The affable, goodhearted I Love You, Man is very much a post-Judd Apatow comedy: It can't compete with Knocked Up or The 40-Year-Old Virgin on a laughs-per-scene basis, but its characters are similarly likeable. ALISON HALLETT Various Theaters.
The Lady from Shanghai
Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles in 1947. Not to be confused with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in 2000. Laurelhurst Theater.
Paper Covers Rock
A young mother's (Jeannine Kaspar) failed suicide is the point of departure for this New York story. The rest of the film rises, falls, and rises again on her slumped shoulders as she picks up the pieces. Paper Covers Rock is a quintessential indie-drama of the sort that feels adapted from a scrapped first novel or a Nick Drake song. This sedative might prove dangerous if mixed with alcohol. ANDREW STOUT Hollywood Theatre.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Two screenings of Tim Burton's 1985 film, both featuring costume contests and post-screening bike rides. Friday screening 21+, Saturday screening all ages. Bagdad Theater.
Portland Public Schools Film Festival
Media projects from Portland students in grades K-12. Awww. Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
Sleaze Double Feature: Night of Lust & Babes in the Woods
35 mm prints of 1963's "french crime potboiler" Night of Lust and 1962's Babes in the Woods, in which "three gorgeous ladies... go to camp, finding plenty of mischief along the way." Clinton Street Theater.
The Spirit of the Beehive
This week in "Movies Film Nerds Know About That You Don't": Víctor Erice's 1973 film in which "a sensitive seven-year-old girl living a small village in 1940 rural Spain is traumatized after viewing James Whale's Frankenstein and drifts into her own fantasy world." Fifth Avenue Cinema.
Until the Light Takes Us
A documentary "chronicling the history, ideology, and aesthetic of Norwegian black metal." Not screened for critics. Hollywood Theatre.
Up
See review. Various Theaters.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
As he's fond of saying in X-Men comics, Wolverine is the best there is at what he does—and now, we discover that what he does is star in crappy spinoffs. ERIK HENRIKSEN Various Theaters.
