13 Conversations About One Thing
USA, 2001 (103 min.)

Dir. Jill Sprecher Cast Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Alan Arkin

A well-acted (if you can stand McConaughey), well-written (if you don't mind "coincidence") variation on the modern-age morality tale that overcomes its moist tendencies by way of restraint and intelligence. Accidents and misery befall the characters, but no super-resolution is offered. It's just solid observations and strong ensemble dynamics. Spoiler alert: the "one thing" is life. C.B. ANDERSON
Pacific Place Sat May 25 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Wed May 29 4:30 pm

* 13 Moons *
USA, 2001 (94 min.)

Dir. Alexandre Rockwell Cast Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Jennifer Beals, Sam Rockwell

Steve Buscemi, as Bananas the Clown, fights the good fight against a real career during a single night in L.A., in which he encounters a manic-depressive Santa and two, count 'em, two clowns.
Egyptian Fri June 7 7 pm

Egyptian Mon June 10 4:30 pm

24 Hour Party People
Great Britain, 2002 (113 min.)

Dir. Michael Winterbottom

Tracing the interminable 20-year history of some very annoying music indeed, this film follows the development of the Manchester techno scene. A comedy from Michael Winterbottom, a man blessed with the most British-sounding last name of all time.
Egyptian Fri May 31 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 15 6:30 pm

9/11: A Coda
USA, 2002

A collection of short films about the worst thing that ever happened in America: China Diary (Evallona Brzeski), Site (Jason Kilot), Voices From Ground Zero (Steven Rosenbaum), Late For Work (Scott Peehl).
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 9 4 pm

101st Kilometre
Russia, 2001 (101 min.)

Dir. Leonid Maryagin

Just after Stalin's death, life is just one big party for the scion of a wealthy Jewish family who, unlike many other post-Stalinist scions, is alive, and so gets to mess about with gangsters, love, and the big, bad, KGB.
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 1 9:30 pm Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 3 4:30 pm

Abandoned
Hungary, 2001 (98 min.)

Dir. Arpad Sopsits

A young Hungarian boy is discarded by his father at one of the most militant and awful orphanages I've ever seen on film. A brutal coming-of-age story, it unnervingly also contains loads of sexual references. KELLY O
Harvard Exit Sat June 1 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 2 9:30 pm

* ABC Africa *
Iran, 2001 (83 min.)

Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

A video documentary in which Iranian master Kiarastomi turns his gaze to Uganda, and examines the lives of homeless orphans amidst the social wreckage of AIDS, war, and hunger, and discovers, as he has in the past, human beauty. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 24 4:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun May 26 11:30 am

* Afghan Alphabet *
Iran, 2001 (45 min.)

Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf

The director of Kandahar uses his big subversive finger to poke the Taliban right in the eye. The film sets out to expose the subtler religious undertones of Mujahadeen education (look closely; they're there).
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 2 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 5 4:30 pm

Agitator
Japan, 2001 (150 min.)

Dir. Miike Takashi

Riding in on a crashing tsunami of violence, this film explores the consequences of the "most intense of all Japanese family ties," the love of a Yakuza for his Prada shoes.
Pacific Place Fri June 7 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 9 4 pm

All About Lily Chou-Chou
Japan, 2001 (146 min.)

Dir. Shunji Iwai

Disaffected Japanese youth take refuge from schoolyard tormentors, uncomfortable sexual awakenings, and the fear of death (i.e., life) in the superflat chatroom dream world of pop star Lily Chou-Chou. The film is based on an "interactive Internet novel," which sounds like a "non-cleaning poisonous toothpaste."
Pacific Place Thurs June 6 9:30 pm

Cinerama Wed June 12 1 pm

American Gun
USA, 2002 (89 min.)

Dir. Alan Jacobs
Cast James Coburn, Virginia Madsen

Somewhere in gun-riddled America, yet another gun kills yet another girl moments before she has a reconciliation with her estranged father James Coburn, who packs up his grimace and goes off in search of the gun's origins. Cinerama Thurs June 13 9:30 pm
Cinerama Sat June 15 1:45 pm

the Anarchist Cookbook
USA, 2002 (102 min.)

Dir. Jordan Sussman Cast John Savage

Hey! You got your "no-holds-barred political satire" in my "coming-of-age romantic comedy"! No, you got your "coming-of-age romantic comedy" in my "no-holds-barred political satire"!
Pacific Place Fri June 14 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 16 1:45 pm

* Angelus *
Poland, 2001 (110 min.)

Dir. Lech Majewski

A cunning surrealist fable about the world's pending destruction and the seven miners/painters that labor to intervene by sacrificing a naked male virgin in the path of Saturn's deadly ray. Majewski sprinkles his well-crafted narrative with historical references and biblical imagery (Hitler, Angels, Stalin, Noah's Ark). CORIANTON HALE
Egyptian Sun June 9 1:45 pm

Egyptian Tues. June 11 7 pm

Around the World in 80 Minutes
(80 min.)

Who says globalization is bad? Brju (Heeraz Marfatia), Dos Mas (Leon Siminiani), The Time I've Eaten Popcorn (Catherine Agniez, Heloisa Passos).
Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 3 9:30 pm

Asoka the Great
India, 2001 (180 min.)

Dir. Santosh Sivan Cast Michelle Yeoh

Having broken the Busby Berkeley mold of Indian cinema with his sweaty, claustrophobic The Terrorist, Sivan puts it back together again chip by glittering chip with this Bollywood-esque epic of romantic tyrants and third-century musical battle monks.
Egyptian Thurs May 30 9:30 pm

Cinerama Tues. June 11 1 pm

Bang Bang, You're Dead
USA, 2002 (92 min.)

Dir. Guy Ferland

Based on a play performed at high schools around America, this film examines the American tradition of students blowing each other away with guns.
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 7, 4:30 pm

Cinerama Sat June 15 6:30 pm

Cinerama Sun June 16 4 pm

Beijing Rocks
Hong Kong, 2001 (109 min.)

Dir. Mabel Cheung

Hey! Are you in the mood for a Chinese-language, rock 'n' roll fairy tale about music legends born to live too fast and die too young? What about one that does double-duty as a cautionary tale about the conflux of cultures, dreams, and individuality, as the political barriers between Mainland China and Hong Kong rapidly dissolve?
Egyptian Mon June 10 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Wed June 12 7 pm

* Biggie and Tupac *
USA, 2002 (60 min.)

Dir. Nick Broomfield

As the years since their murders roll by, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur remain hiphop megastars, and two of the worst casualties of stupid-ass macho bullshit of the 20th century.
Pacific Place Sun June 2 4 pm

Egyptian Tues June 4 9:30 pm

Black Picket Fence
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Sergio Goes

A well-made, well-intended, but ultimately unsatisfying documentary on a struggling unknown hiphop artist named "Tiz," a former petty criminal/occasional drug dealer from Brooklyn. Shooting on video, director Goes apparently followed Tiz's life for two years, a fact that makes the film's vacancies all the more glaring. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs May 30 7 pm

Harvard Exit Fri May 31 4:30 pm

Blue Gate Crossing
Taiwan/Hong Kong, 2001 (85 min.)

Dir. Chih-yen Yi

The latest installment of Yi's "Tale of Three Cities" series is a sweet little drama chronicling three hot 'n' horny high-school students as they come of age in Taipei.
Harvard Exit Fri June 14 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 16 11:30 am

Boys & Boys and GirlS & Girls
USA, 2002 (60 min.)

This short homo film roundup carries on the grand tradition of Lesbian Comedies: The World's Shortest Film Festival. Acid Petit Fours (Jonathan J. Dextrixhe), Breaking Up Really Sucks (Jen McGlone), No Prom For Cindy (Charlie Adler).
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 1 4 pm

* Bring Me the Head of * Alfredo Garcia
USA, 1974 (112 min.)

Dir. Sam Peckinpah
Cast Warren Oates, Kris Kristofferson

SIFF is proud to present an archival screening of Sam Peckinpah's classic cinematic ode to adamant decapitation. For extra fun, bring along a bottle of tequila. DAVID SCHMADER
Egyptian Fri June 14 4:30 pm

Britney Baby, One More Time
USA/Netherlands, 2001 (82 min.)

Dir. Ludi Boken

This wannabe campy documentary focuses on the journey of a film crew and a wanna be Britney Spears drag queen. The film is all fiction and falls flatter then Britney's chest in her first video, as bad acting and poor dialogue grind the desperate comedy to a slow halt. JENNIFER MAERZ
Harvard Exit Sun May 26 1:45 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. May 28 9:30 pm

Brother
Hong Kong, 2001 (89 min.)

Dir. Yan Yan Mak

He's a prepubescent chap from Hong Kong, wandering the picturesque vistas of Northern China, looking for his brother, who proves difficult to find.
Harvard Exit Thurs June 6 7 pm

Harvard Exit Fri June 7 4:30 pm

Bungalow
Germany, 2002 (84 min.)

Dir. Ulrich Köhler

The young man at the center of this languid film is the sort I would cane regularly if I were headmaster of a boys school. His terrible posture, his indifference to others, his lazy manner of speech can only be corrected by a committed cane. That said, Bungalow is not bad. It has a little sci-fi theme, a sexy Scandinavian, some terrorist activity, and German soldiers. But all of these sensational elements never enter and awaken this sleepy, slow, and at times amusing film. CHARLES MUDEDE
Harvard Exit Fri May 24 4:30 pm

Harvard Exit Mon May 27 9:30 pm

Butterfly Smile
China, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. He Jian Jun

The destinies of a beautiful fashion model and the amateur photographer hired by her husband to stalk her are bound together after a hit-and-run accident. Watching this excruciatingly meditative exploration of identity and morality is about as interesting as watching the paint dry on a mural of Mao. TAMARA PARIS
Harvard Exit Thurs June 13 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 15 1:45 pm

* A Cab for Three *
Chile, 2001 (89 min.)

Dir. Orlando Lübbert

After a cab driver gets hijacked by two petty criminals, the allure of easy money leads him into an uneasy alliance with the thugs. Plagued by incompetence and investigating cops, the cab driver grows more and more conflicted when the thugs move into his own home and become friends with his family. This description may sound like a stiff political allegory, but this strong movie is alive with details and complications, both moral and emotional. BRET FETZER
Harvard Exit Mon May 27 4 pm

Harvard Exit Wed May 29 9:30 pm

* the cabinet of Dr. Caligari *
Germany, 1919 (67 min.)

Dir. Robert Wiene

Illusion, atmosphere, and eye make-up are what this legitimately creepy silent classic is all about. If you've been saving up your drugs, you won't be sorry if you take them now. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Mon June 10 7 pm

Camel(s)
South Korea, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Park Ki-young

Two people drive to the seaside town, eat some dinner, swap chit chat, get their juices flowing, then stain some sheets in a motel.
Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 12 4:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 15 6:30 pm

* Catching Out *
USA, 2002 (80 min.)

Dir. Sarah George

A fascinating documentary about a fascinating subject: modern-day tramps. Director George, shooting on digital, chronicles the hopping adventures of a group of travelers, showing in great detail their craft, as well as hints of their psychological makeups that may have led to their shunning of society. Very good. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Broadway Performance Hall Sun May 26 4 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Wed May 29 4:30 pm

Cherish
USA, 2002 (100 min.)

Dir. Finn Taylor
Cast Robin Tunney, Tim Blake Nelson, Liz Phair

Tunney plays a self-destructive dot-commer who winds up under house arrest, and soon yearns to break free. By the time it shifts into unlikely full-blown suspense mode, this lightweight film's many charms (Tunney and Nelson chief among them) have already got you, either despite or because of its heavy reliance on seemingly innocuous '80s hits. SEAN NELSON
Pacific Place Fri May 24 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sat May 25 4 pm

Chicken Rice War
Singapore, 2000 (98 min.)

Dir. CheeK

Guess what, it's Shakespeare time again, kids. But wait, there's a twist! Instead of your traditional Romeo and Juliet humdrum, this film portrays two unsuspecting lovers who are cast in a school production of the play.
Egyptian Wed May 29 7 pm

Egyptian Sat June 1 11:30 am

* Chinatown *
USA, 1974 (131 min.)

Dir. Roman Polanski
Cast Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Polanski's post-Manson neuroses are painted all over this gem of a mystery. TIM SANDERS
Egyptian Sun May 26 4 pm

* Cinemania *
USA, 2001 (80 min.)

Dir. Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak

A minor slap in the face to hardcore SIFF fans, this documentary chronicles a handful of New York cinephiles who spend day-after-day consumed by movies. Socially inept, their lives have been completely given over to le cinema. Both hilarious and sad, Cinemania will most surely remind some viewers of themselves, ergo, sensitive film geeks may want to stay away. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs May 30 4:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 31 7 pm

* the Cockettes *
USA, 2002 (99 min.)

Dir. Bill Weber & David Weissman

A funny and hypnotic documentary about a troupe of revolutionary socialist hippie drag queen midnight movie cabaret performers in San Francisco in the--surprise!--late '60s/early '70s. Everyone loved them, but once they took their show to New York, things got all serious. Features interviews with survivors and witnesses, including John Waters. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Wed May 29 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Fri May 31 9:30 pm

* CQ *
USA, 2001 (91 min.)

Dir. Roman Coppola Cast Jeremy Davies, Angela Lindvall, Elodie Bouchez, Jason Schwartzman

The feature debut from this video genius is rich with style and substance. Set in Paris, 1969, the film is like a visual hybrid of Barbarella, Weekend, and David Holzman's Diary, but its narrative texture is far more human than any of these arch influences would indicate. Davies is a would-be filmmaker caught between theory and inexperience, and a job making a trashy sci-fi movie affords him the ironic opportunity to become an artist. Dean Stockwell has a touching cameo as Davies' father. SEAN NELSON
Harvard Exit Fri May 24 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat May 25 11:30 am

the Cuban Game
Spain/Cuba, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. Manuel Martin Cuenca

Most people know two things about Cuba: cigars you can't buy and a lumberjack dictator. It turns out there's a lot more to our commie neighbors, including a love for baseball that makes Mariners fans look like piddling ninnies. Doubling as a history lesson, this sports documentary weaves our national pastime with Cuba's rocky political atmosphere. Tasty tidbits include Fidel at bat (if he'd been a better ballplayer, history might've been very different), and Cuba's team wiping the field with the Baltimore Orioles' asses. TIM SANDERS
Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 10 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 15 4 pm

Daddy and Papa
USA, 2002 (57 min.)

Dir. Johnny Symons

File this insufferable documentary under "gay, cloying," for its portrait of the travails affluent San Francisco gays must go through before they're allowed to adopt underprivileged minority children. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 6 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 4 pm

the Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
USA, 2002 (105 min.)

Dir. Peter Care Cast Jodie Foster, Kieran Culkin, Vincent D'Onofrio

How do you make a movie that mixes comic book animation with film, but still allows Jodie Foster to play a terrifying nun? Start by adapting a script from a novel about a '70s Catholic school where boys read a whole lot of comic books. Add Todd MacFarlane (of "Spawn" fame) to handle the cartoon end. Serve chilled.
Pacific Place Sun June 2 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Tues. June 4 9:30 pm

Dark Water
Japan, 2002 (101 min.)

Dir. Hideo Nakata

A demonic apartment building gets miffed at a woman and her 6-year-old daughter, and proceeds to toy with them to its heart's content. Koji Suzuki, known as "The Stephen King of Japan" wrote the original story.
Egyptian Fri June 14 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 15 midnight

* Das Experiment *
Germany, 2001 (116 min.)

Dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel

The good news is, this movie's about a journalist who takes part in an interesting scientific study of power dynamics, in which volunteers play guards and prisoners. The bad news is, the Stanford Prison Experiment had to stop because the "guards" got too violent. If you believe that humans have a core of decency within them, you may want to skip this one.
Pacific Place Sat May 25 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun May 26 1:45 pm

* David Hockney: Secret * Knowledge
Great Britain, 2001 (72 min.)

Dir. Randall Wright A balls-out investigation into the heart-pounding world of painting. Get ready to be startled as painter Hockney sets out to prove how even the master artists projected images onto their canvases to assist their painterly prowess.

Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 11:30 am

Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 31 4:30 pm

* Days of Heaven *
USA, 1978 (95 min.)

Dir. Terrence Malick Cast Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard

Rumor has it that all the prints of this astonishingly powerful "tone poem" (Lord God, how I hate those words, but they fit here) about America's vanishing spaces were mistakenly destroyed by Paramount, in a quest to rid the vaults of all the prints of Days of Thunder. Man. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Fri May 31 4:30 pm

the Devil in the Holy Water
Canada/Italy, 2001 (94 min.)

Dir. Joe Balass
Cast The Pope

Watching this well-intentioned but boring-as-hell documentary, I was reminded of a wedding I once attended, where guests were provided with disposable cameras to document their views of the proceedings. Replace that wedding with Rome during the overlapping Vatican Jubilee and World Gay Pride celebrations, and the camera-happy wedding guests with aimless director Balass, and you'll get an idea of what Devil has to offer. ADAM SCHWARTZ
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 9 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 14 4:30 pm

Dog Days
Austria, 2001 (120 min.)

Dir. Ulrich Seidl

Dog Days, like Gummo and Mouchette, indulges in the conceit of a world where all relationships are stunted, gnarled, and pointless. In place of narrative, entertainingly freakish performances and the fragile, fleeting poetry of redemption leaven this grim weather report on the Austrian soul. MATT FONTAINE
Harvard Exit Thurs May 30 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 2 11:30 am

Door to Door
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Steven Schachter
Cast William H. Macy, Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick

Don't let the amazing cast fool you; this is an unwatchably maudlin turd of a film even for network television, from whence it came. The filmmaker is an evil alchemist with the power to turn gold into crap--I would have thought getting flat and syrupy performances out of both Helen Mirren and William H. Macy to be against the laws of physics. MATT FONTAINE
Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Mon May 27 1:45 pm

* A Dream in Hanoi *
Vietnam, 2002 (91 min.)

Dir. Tom Weilinger
Cast F. Murray Abraham (Narration)

This documentary records the bizarre and historically first ever Vietnamese performance of Shakespeare's classic, A Midsummer Night's Dream. East meets West as two theater companies, one from Oregon and one from Hanoi, turn Shakespeare into a mess of misunderstandings, disasters, and interpreters. It's a great cultural study. KELLY O
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 9 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Thurs June 13 4:30 pm

Elling
Norway, 2001 (89 min.)

Dir. Peter Naess

The success of this comedy in its native country, Norway, offers conclusive evidence that the closer one gets to the Artic Circle the stranger the sense of humor becomes. Nothing in the world would convince any who lives near the Equator that this film, about the two madmen who are attempting to reenter regular society as roommates, is in the least bit funny. To its credit, Elling does have a few remarkable shots of Oslo. CHARLES MUDEDE
Egyptian Thurs June 6 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 9 1:45 pm

the Emperor's New Clothes
Germany/Italy/U.K., 2001 (107 min.)

Dir. Alan Taylor
Cast Ian Holm, Tom Watson, Nigel Terry

Its 1828 and Napoleon's got to get off the island of St. Helena! He escapes by trading places with a lookalike deckhand on a ship bound for France. But the ship may not make it. What's worse, everyone thinks the lookalike is the real emperor, and the lookalike digs it!
Egyptian Fri May 31 7 pm

Egyptian Sat June 1 4 pm

Enfants de l'amour, Les
Belgium, 2001 (88 min.)

Dir. Geoffrey Enthoven

Belgians, once known for their waffles and their national surliness, are now known for alarming divorce rates. The heroine of this movie, which originally had dreams of being a documentary, has chalked up two ex-husbands and three critters. The tots are being crappy because their folks are being crappy, and everything gets done the hard way. Bring a date!
Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 12 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 16 4 pm

Family Fundamentals
USA, 2002 (75 min.)

Dir. Arthur Dong

Dong deftly explores the clash between gay children and their fundamentalist Christian parents through three families: the son of a Mormon bishop, and his Salt Lake City extended family; a Pentecostal church lady and her lesbian daughter and gay grandson; and Brian Bennett, a gay Republican who worked for Catholic conservative California Congressman Bob Dornan. AMY JENNIGES
Harvard Exit Thurs May 30 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 1 11:30 am

Female Trouble
USA, 1975 (89 min.)

Dir. John Waters Cast Divine

Divine stars as Dawn Davenport, a noir-styled bitch in heat whose parents' neglect (they won't buy her the right shoes) leads her to a life of sin and dissolution. If you like John Waters films, this is one. Waters is scheduled to attend. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Fri June 7 9:30 pm

Firefly Dreams
USA, 2001 (104 min.)

Dir. John Williams

A pleasant, harmless generational tale, set in Japan, from American John Williams (not the composer). Naomi, a "troubled" teen, is sent away to the country to live with her aunt and uncle. There, she befriends (and of course learns from) an elderly woman. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Harvard Exit Mon May 27 6:30 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. May 28 4:30 pm

THE Flats
USA, 2002 (102 min.)

Dir. Kelly & Tyler Requa

Brothers Kelly and Tyler Requa take up-and-coming actor Chad Lindberg out to Mt. Vernon to shoot this tender film about a young man who is a lover at heart but is caught up in his desire to rock the boat (the one with no engine that's for sale on the front lawn of any house in Mt. Vernon).
Cinerama Thurs June 13 7 pm

Cinerama Sun June 16 11:30 am

* Gigantic (A Tale of * Two Johns)
USA, 2001 (100 min.)

Dir. A.J. Schnack

The great New York art pop duo They Might Be Giants are the subject of this very well-done documentary, which chronicles the Giants' rise from avant-garde downtown weirdos to stars of the so-called alternative revolution of the early '90s to eternal cult figures (who just happen to, like, win Grammys and score TV series and McSweeney's issues and what not). Generously apportioned with snippets from the band's vault of brilliant videos and interviews with the likes of Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, and Syd Straw, Gigantic's chief flaw is that it should be longer. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 6 9:30 pm

* Girls Can't Swim *
France, 2000 (101 min.)

Dir. Anne-Sophie Birot

The dark tension of hormones gone haywire fuels this excellent directorial debut, which follows a pair of girls--best friends, for now-- who are trapped in their homes and bodies for a particularly grim summer at the seashore. The film brilliantly captures the almost invisible vectors that send teens crashing into and away from one another. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 31 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 2 1:45 pm

* God is Great, I'm Not *
France, 2001 (102 min.)

Dir. Pascale Bailly Cast Audrey Tautou

The unstoppably pixie-ish Audrey Tautou plays a model who naturally feels the need to explore her spiritual side. In an attempt to justify her existence, she explores every religion from East to West until she finally realizes that God is incapable of recognizing anything so absurdly human as blasphemy.
Harvard Exit Wed May 29 4:30 pm

Pacific Place Tues. June 11 9:30 pm

Good Hands
Estonia, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Peeter Simm

Odd little film about a Latvian con artist who flees to Estonia after her partner in crime is nabbed in a botched car theft. The tiny town in which she stops is portrayed as a sanctuary for eccentrics; she first encounters a hypersexual dentist, then his cop-obsessed son, then adopts the boy next door when his crazy mother suddenly dies. Surprisingly touching in places and strangely compelling overall. SARAH STERNAU
Harvard Exit Tues. June 4 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 13 7 pm

* the good War and Those * Who Refused to Fight It
USA, 2001 (57 min.)

Dir. Judith Ehrlich

Given all the parallels drawn by our government between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, it's a particularly good moment to see this documentary about conscientious objectors during WWII. The documentary is a little scant on their religious and philosophical reasons, but delves compellingly into the alternative paths these men took. BRET FETZER
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 11:30 am

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 11 7 pm

Gossip
Sweden, 2000 (134 min.)

Dir. Colin Nutley Cast Pernilla August

Nine actresses who would all kill for the chance to take on Garbo's role in a remake of "Queen Christina."
Pacific Place Sat June 1 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Mon June 3 4:30 pm

Green Dragon
USA, 2000 (111 min.)

Dir. Timothy Linh Bui
Cast Patrick Swayze, Forest Whitaker

Director Bui's first full-length film examines the American milieu during the waning period of the Vietnam War (as opposed to the waxing period that no one seems to remember). Despondent refugees struggle to situate themselves among the ruins of their past and future, and to defeat the mysterious "Green Dragon" who lurks in a nearby forest. COLIN BOOY
Pacific Place Sun June 2 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Tues. June 4 4:30 pm

the Grey Zone
USA, 2001 (108 min.)

Dir. Tim Blake Nelson Cast David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino

The Grey Zone offers a desolate vision, portraying a group of Auschwitz Jews who postpone their own fate by manning the camp's death-machines, and their creepy idolization of a girl who survives gassing.
Egyptian Thurs June 13 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sun June 16 1:45 pm

the Happiness of the Katikuris
Japan, 2001 (113 min.)

Dir. Miike Takashi

Takashi, a SIFF "Emerging Master," has been known to make seven or more films in a year, and as is the case here, he occasionally splices all of them together in a fit of drunken rage, producing what is variously described as a comedy, musical, soap-opera, and horror flick, all rolled into one messy (and Japanese) burrito.
Pacific Place Sat June 8, 9:30 pm

Cinerama Mon June 10, 4:30 pm

Happy Times
China, 2001 (96 min.)

Dir. Zhang Yimou

The Happy Times Hotel is actually an abandoned bus with the inside painted hot pink, another of the well-intentioned scams perpetrated by the sweet, middle-aged protagonist of Zhang Yimou's latest, a harmless bit of fluff. Trying to raise enough money to convince his latest fiancé to marry him, he spins bigger and bigger lies until he's forced to come clean to save the monstrous woman's blind, neglected stepdaughter, who is, of course, cute as a bug. MATT FONTAINE
Egyptian Sun May 26 6:30 pm

Egyptian Mon May 27 4 pm

Head Cases

A program of mind-mining shorts: Doppel-ganger (Gareth Smith), Dream a Little Dream for Me, The Duchess (Eric Koziol), The Host (Nicholas Tomnay).
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 6 4:30 pm

Hejar
Turkey, 2001 (120 min.)

Dir. Handan Ipekçi

A five-year-old Kurdish runaway who escapes certain doom with the help of an aging judge; her "sad little face" causes the judge to mellow out about that Kurdish thing and proves once again that a display of ingratiating cuteness trumps just about anything--even race hatred!
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 10 4:30 pm

Her Majesty
New Zealand, 2001 (105 min.)

Dir. Mark Gordon

The young heroine and proto-queen Elizabeth, stifled by the façade of '50s consumerism, becomes lost in a seductive mirror--world of perky breasts, narrow waistlines, and intricate lineages.
Harvard Exit Mon June 10 4:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 15 11:30 am

Her Mother, the Whore
France, 2001 (98 min.)

Dir. Brigitte Roüan

Like a film by Jean-Luc Godard, Her Mother, The Whore is about the declassé housewife-cum-streetwalker. Unlike a Godard film antiheroine, however, this housewife walks the streets to find the goons who killed her daughter and shove an icepick between their ribs.
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 7 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 14 9:30 pm

Herencia
Argentina, 2000 (95 min.)

Dir. Paula Hernandez

A charming if somewhat plodding story of repeating and rectifying mistakes made in affairs of the heart. Peter is an inscrutable 24-year-old German who comes to Buenos Aires in search of a long-lost love. There he meets Olinda, a foul-tempered restaurant owner who is galvanized into her own soul-searching by this wanderer who reminds her so much of her younger self. SARAH STERNAU
Harvard Exit Mon June 3 7 pm

Harvard Exit Wed June 5 4:30 pm

Hi, Dharma!
South Korea, 2001 (95 min.)

Dir. Park Cheol-kwan

The opening scene of this movie is one of the best I have ever seen. But the rest of the movie sucks. A pack of defeated gangsters retreat to a peaceful monastery while things cool off in gangland. The juxtaposition of the gangsters with the priests is supposed to generate laughs. But the laughter never makes it to your throat. It sits in the belly like weak coffee. CHARLES MUDEDE
Cinerama Wed June 12 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 16 9:30 pm

Hi, Tereska
Poland, 2001 (86 min.)

Dir. Robert Glinski

"Hi, Dharma!" "Hi, Tereska," she replied, dapper as ever. "You know," I remarked, "I'm really bummed out over here in Poland, what with the poverty and casual violence of my suburban home--I'm telling you, it's an uphill fight, 24-7."
Harvard Exit Mon June 10 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. June 11 9:30 pm

* the hired Hand *
USA, 1971 (90 min.)

Dir. Peter Fonda Cast Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom

Peter Fonda's overlooked film exemplifies the hallucinatory, existential westerns of the '70s.
Egyptian Sun June 9 6:30 pm

* Hope Against the Wind: * The Life of Harry Hay
USA, 2001 (57 min.)

Dir. Eric Slade

Harry Hay was a Marxist and the founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay-rights organizations in America. The number of Marxists (at least in name) who have helped persecute gays is uncountable; as such I declare this Harry Hay fellow to be all that and more, despite his unfortunate name. COLIN BOOY
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 6 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 4 pm

Hush!
Japan, 2001 (135 min.)

Dir. Ryosuke Hashiguchi

A film about a Japanese lady who wants to get it on with an apparently gay Japanese engineer, for the purpose of having his baby.
Harvard Exit Sat June 8 6:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 9 4 pm

* I Will Not Be Sad In * This World
USA, 2001 (56 min.)

Dir. Karina Epperlein

Blessed with a subject as fascinating as Zaroohe Najarian--a nonagenarian survivor of the purge of Turkish Armenians during WWI, currently living a simple, happy life in Fresno, CA--the filmmaker can't resist overbearing, redundant narration that almost ruins everything. Then you see Ms. Najarian's incredible face, and the documentary soars. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 1 4 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 4 4:30 pm

* Igby Goes Down *
USA, 2002 (120 min.)

Dir. Burr Steers
Cast Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Ryan Phillipe

A melancholic comedy that captures the privileged heartbreak of Salinger far better than The Royal Tenenbaums ever could. Igby, a preppie with a punk streak, gets kicked out of his last boarding school, and takes to Manhattan, where he squats purposelessly, has sex with junkies and JAPs, and basically seethes, until life more or less insists that he make a move. A sharply-observed film down to the upturned collars and half-Windsor knots, Igby gets to the heart of its characters without either indicting or apologizing for its cultural framework. SEAN NELSON
Paramount Thurs May 23 7:30 pm

I'm Going Home
Portugal, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Manoel de Oliveira Cast Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich

The very old de Oliveira (93 years old) directs the only slightly younger Piccoli (76), in a film about an aging actor whose career is stumbling. Then the guy loses most of his family in a car wreck, and is left to care for his grandson. Jesus.
Pacific Place Mon June 10 7 pm

* In Praise of Love *
France, 2001 (98 min.)

Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

A Parisian director is all set to shoot a film about love, as seen by three couples spanning the generations. When he discovers that his leading lady has killed herself, he spirals down the via dolorosa and takes all of cinema down with him, indicting the death of filmmaking as anything other than a moneymaking endeavor. Spielberg takes some lumps.
Pacific Place Fri June 7 4:30 pm

Cinerama Mon June 10 7 pm

In The Mirror of Maya Deren
Austria, 2001 (127 min.)

Dir. Martina Kudlacek

A film theorist of the 1940s and '50s and heroic figurehead of the American underground film movement, Deren's life and work are remembered by her fellow avant-garde chums.
Harvard Exit Sat May 25 4 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Mon May 27 9:30 pm

Inheritance
Brazil, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. Daniel Filho

Four sisters are reunited after their mother's death, and as they split the inheritance booty--most of which is tied up in an apartment they must sell--they are forced to recast their relationship without Mom between them. Fiery Brazilian actresses and a skillful script make the emotional ups and downs feel authentic. SARAH STERNAU
Pacific Place Fri May 31 7 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 2 11:30 am

* Inner Tour *
Israel, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. Ra'anan Alexandrowicz

This was shot in September 2000 just before the intefada would have made it impossible. Alexandrowicz follows a mixed group of displaced Palestinians across the green line on their first trip to Israel on a three day bus tour. It's an excellent and resonant glimpse into the frictions and multiple meanings of an impossible situation. NATE LIPPENS
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 2 4 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 4 9:30 pm

* Into the Fire: * American Women In the Spanish Civil War
USA, 2001 (60 min.)

Dir. Julia Newman

The story of ordinary women who found themselves compelled to fight fascism recount their experiences of serving in or reporting on the Spanish Civil War. This often harrowing documentary features astute observations of a war famously fought by men. KATHLEEN WILSON
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 11:30 am

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 11 7 pm

Jiyan
Kurdistan, 2002 (102 min.)

Dir. Jano Rosebiani

This sweet, slightly underdeveloped story takes place in Halabja in 1993, five years after Saddam Hussein's chemical attack that killed and disfigured thousands. Both the most and least interesting thing about the film is that nothing really happens after that, leaving the view of life in Iraqi Kurdistan unobstructed by plot. SARAH STERNAU
Harvard Exit Thurs June 13 7 pm

Cinerama Sat June 15 11:30 am

Joint Security Area
South Korea, 2000 (110 min.)

Dir. Park Chan-Wook
Cast Yeong-ae Lee, Byung-heon Lee, Kang-ho Song

Intrigue on the 38th Parallel! Two Koreans-- one Northern, one Southern--lie dead after shots are fired at the titular encampment. Busted by the neutral Swiss, a rogue ROK soldier offers only name, rank, and serial number--and that's where the action really begins. An encore from last year's festival.
Harvard Exit Sat June 15 4 pm

Just a Kiss
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Fisher Stevens
Cast Ron Eldard, Kyra Sedgwick

A team of stalwart Hollywood regulars of the kind that guarantee heavy rotation on Starz! serve up a frothy portrait of love-gone-wrong gone more-wrong gone big-and-wrong.
Egyptian Wed June 12 7 pm

Egyptian Sat June 15 4 pm

* Kennewick Man *
USA, 2001 (86 min.)

Dir. Ryan Purcell and Kyle Carver

I fully expected to be dulled out of my bean--such is the massive yawn the ancient skeleton has inspired in me over the years. But then the well-made story suddenly caught me. One of the better documentaries I've seen from the festival this year. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Broadway Performance Hall Sun May 26 1:45 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. May 28 9:30 pm

Khaled
Canada, 2001 (85 min.)

Dir. Asghar Massombagi

One of North America's increasingly diverse cities, Toronto is the setting for this story of a remarkable child in emotional turmoil. Half-Algerian pre-teen Khaled couldn't have it any harder dealing with his ethnic background and a mother who counts on him as a primary caretaker. Then she dies.
Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 6:30 pm

Harvard Exit Mon May 27 1:45 pm

Killer Tattoo
Thailand, 2001 (111 min.)

Dir. Yuthlert Sippapak

What's not to love about a "rock 'n' roll action comedy" set in Bangkok in the year 2012? Chaotic genre-spoofing and good-natured mayhem mark this tale of an inept hit-man and his crew of inspired lunatics.
Egyptian Fri June 14 midnight

Kira's Reason--A Love Story
Denmark, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. Ole Christian Madsen

A loving husband (fresh from his mistress) welcomes his wife back from the psych ward by fucking her brains out (hardcore-style) and then surprising her with a big party. Dark secrets are revealed in due time. A bogus little flick about the kind of fake nutcase who could only exist in the movies. DAN SAVAGE
Egyptian Fri May 24 4:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun May 26 6:30 pm

Lan Yu
China, 2001 (83 min.)

Dir. Stanley Kwan

Taken from an novel posted by an anonymous author and distributed on the Internet, this movie promises to avoid generalizations about Chinese gay culture while offering up a narrative about an older man who becomes taken with a younger, inexperienced student.
Egyptian Sun June 9 9:30 pm

Egyptian Tues. June 11 4:30 pm

Last Call
USA, 2002 (106 min.)

Dir. Henry Bromell
Cast Jeremy Irons, Neve Campbell, Sissy Spacek

F. Scott Fitzgerald ruled the '20s with the touch of a golden god. Cut to the '40s, when Fitzgerald's alcoholism is getting in the way of writing a new novel. Fortunately a young woman hired to type the manuscript steps up to help him write.
Pacific Place Fri May 24 7 pm

Last Dance
USA, 2001 (84 min.)

Dir. Mirra Bank Cast Maurice Sendak

This slim documentary records the collaboration between Pilobolus Dance Theatre and The Night Kitchen Theater in a production based on Maurice Sendak's stories. Pilobolus's athletic and abstract choreography is the most fascinating aspect of the film. But the soaring sequences are consistently interrupted and intercut by talking heads commenting on the transcendence of physical movement and deflating it in the process. NATE LIPPENS
Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 2 1:45 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 4 7 pm

the Last Kiss
Italy, 2001 (106 min.)

Dir. Gabriele Muccino

Climb aboard this sprawling epic about the ups and downs of a group of friends and family spanning three generations! Watch them fall in and out of love! Marvel as they cling to their ideals of adolescent passion! And thrill as they deny the inexorable grip of infirmity! Pregnant women and those who suffer from heart conditions cautioned that this ride may cause drowsiness. TAMARA PARIS
Pacific Place Fri June 7 7 pm

Pacific Place Sat June 8 1:45 pm

the Last Wedding
Canada, 2001 (100 min.)

Dir. Bruce Sweeney Cast Molly Parker

Three Vancouver guys and their three respective girlfriends/wives let us into their tedious relationships. One pair is just about to get hitched but they've only known each other for a few months, another duo compete with each other in the architectural field, and the third couple is actually a triangle. You wish they'd all break up. AMY JENNIGES
Harvard Exit Sat May 25 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Mon May 27 4 pm

* the lawless Heart *
Great Britain, 2001 (86 min.)

Dir. Neil Hunter & Tom Hunsiger

A charming and effective film that combines the addictive tactics of British TV drama with a moderate structural experimentation that keeps viewers on their toes. Heart's characters are intricately related, by blood, love, and random geographic circumstance--and a single death unites them even more than they realize. Wonderful acting, a sharp script, and the avoidance of perfunctory gay sentimentality distinguish this highly recommended picture. SEAN NELSON
Harvard Exit Sun June 2 6:30 pm

Egyptian Wed June 5 4:30 pm

Liberty Stands Still
USA, 2001 (95 min.)

Dir. Kari Skogland
Cast Wesley Snipes, Linda Fiorentino, Oliver Platt

A poor married lady on her way to a date with her lover gets a call on her cell phone. Minutes later, she's handcuffed to a hot dog vendor's cart, and there's a bomb among the hot dogs (huh?). Note to cell phone owners: you don't HAVE TO answer it, you fucking slaves.
Egyptian Wed June 5 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sat June 8 4 pm

Ljubljana
Slovenia, 2001 (79 min.)

Dir. Igor Sterk

Independent since the early '90s, Slovenia sets a dull industrialized backdrop for this lazy film centered around the lives of five young adults stumbling through days and nights with little direction or real enthusiasm. Some pop ecstasy and rave all night, some fight with their family, some sleep through medical school, but post-communist Ljubljana identifies its new self no clearer than the aspirations of this film's weary characters. CORIANTON HALE
Pacific Place Fri June 14 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sat June 15 4 pm

Love in the Time of Money
USA, 2002 (90 min.)

Dir. Peter Mattei Cast Michael Imperioli, Steve Buscemi

Lovers are linked all over present day New York City in yet another version of La Ronde.
Pacific Place Mon May 27 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Tues. May 28 4:30 pm

* Lovely & Amazing *
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Nicole Holofcener Cast Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Dermot Mulroney

This follow-up to the similarly graceful Walking and Talking is a shrewdly respectful character study of a fractured family of women trying to ride herd on their raging neuroses. Fantastic acting and sensitive writing underscore the simple DV directorial approach. Sure to be an audience favorite. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Sat May 25 6:30 pm

Egyptian Sun May 26 1:45 pm

THE Lover
Russia, 2001 (140 min.)

Dir. Valeri Todorovsky

A well-to-do linguist and a soldier discover an unlikely common cause in this drama, from the director of Land of the Deaf.
Pacific Place Sat June 15 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 16 6:30 pm

Mad Love
Spain, 2001 (117 min.)

Dir. Vincete Aranda

Supposedly the story of a wacky 15th-century Spanish Queen, the thin pseudo-historical varnish does not conceal the sweaty Harlequin Romance beneath. After one night of noisy "wookie" with her swarthy Flemish husband, Juana's better judgment is immolated by her all-consuming horniness for his Loveship, who quickly abandons her in favor of a devil-worshipping Moor. Bodice-ripping ensues. Not a complete waste of time, but close. MATT FONTAINE
Egyptian Tues. May 28 7 pm

Egyptian Thurs May 30 4:30 pm

Malunde
South Africa/Germany, 2001 (119 min.)

Dir. Stephanie Sycholt

Set in the "new" (post-apartheid) South Africa, Malunde tells the story of a fate-driven friendship between an older, white salesman and a young black street kid. The social/political aim is true, but be warned that the film is slower than a day in the desert. JENNIFER MAERZ
Pacific Place Thurs May 30 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 1 4 pm

Mapmaker
Ireland, 2002 (88 min.)

Dir. Johnny Gogan

When the titular cartographer takes a job mapping a small Northen Irish town, he discovers the bitter legacy of conflict in the land after meeting a widow and her fatherless son.
Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 5, 7 pm

Harvard Exit Fri June 7 9:30 pm

the Map of Sex and Love
Hong Kong/USA, 2001 (130 min.)

Dir. Evans Chan

A Chinese American filmmaker goes to Hong Kong to make a documentary about the soon-to-be-built Disneyland. But instead of documenting the very event that symbolizes his cultural situation (Disneyland = America/ Hong Kong = Chinese), he falls in love with a young woman who lost a few screws in Belgrade. CHARLES MUDEDE
Egyptian Thurs May 30 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 2 4 pm

Mariages
Canada, 2001 (95 min.)

Dir. Catherine Martin

This ghost story is set in the age of ghost stories, the 19th century. Ghost stories never really crossed the line into the 20th century; the 20th century has only horror stories. Mariages has all the right stuff for a 19th- century ghost story: dark woods, weird Canadian French accents, and a pair of unhappy sisters. CHARLES MUDEDE
Harvard Exit Mon June 10 7 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 16 4 pm

May
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Lucky McKee

McKee's film is about a young woman named May who has difficulty finding lovers who won't cheat or abandon her. To compensate for her failure as a "natural woman," May becomes obsessed with a refrigerator full of body parts. CHARLES MUDEDE
Egyptian Sat June 8 midnight

Maya
India/USA, 2001 (105 min.)

Dir. Digvijay Singh

What seems like a leisurely and well-observed meditation on childhood, with an emphasis on the schism between the perceptions of children and adults, takes a darker turn late in the movie when a girl who has just reached puberty undergoes a religious ceremony, supported by the entire village, in which she is ritually raped by the priests. A note at the beginning says this is based on actual practices, suggesting that the film is meant as an exposé. BRET FETZER
Harvard Exit Sun May 26 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Mon May 27 11:30 am

* McCabe and Mrs. Miller *
USA, 1971 (120 min.)

Dir. Robert Altman
Cast Warren Beatty, Julie Christie

I don't suppose I need to tell you the many reasons why this is not only the greatest Western, but the greatest American film of all time, so I'll just say that if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass so much, you follow me? SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Sun June 2 1:45 pm

Me Without You
Great Britain, 2001 (107 min.)

Dir. Sandra Goldbacher

Best friends must ultimately become "worst of enemies." But at the very moment when the worst of enemies are about to kill each other, something (a bar of soap, a word, a song) interrupts their raging violence and they realize that they were once best friends. CHARLES MUDEDE
Pacific Place Mon June 3 7 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. June 4 9:30 pm

Men With Brooms
Canada, 2000 (104 min.)

Dir. Paul Gross

Men With Brooms is a Canadian comedy, and Canadians are the funniest Americans in the world. Men With Brooms takes shots at the "sports movie genre."
Harvard Exit Fri June 7 7 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. June 11 4:30 pm

* Merci Pour Le Chocolat *
France, 2000 (99 min.)

Dir. Claude Chabrol Cast Isabelle Huppert

This film is by the wonderful French director Chabrol. The film has Huppert, a murder, a double, and a chocolate-factory owner--pure Chabrol. CHARLES MUDEDE
Egyptian Mon June 3 7 pm

Egyptian Tues. June 4 4:30 pm

* Millennium Mambo *
Taiwan/France, 2001 (115 min.)

Dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien

Those who are acquainted with this director's work need not bother with this blurb. Those who don't know the director should not read this blurb because to break down his film into three or four sentences is as cruel as putting a cat into a microwave oven. CHARLES MUDEDE
Harvard Exit Mon June 3 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Wed June 5 7 pm

Minoes
Netherlands, 2001 (88 min.)

Dir. Vincent Bal

Somewhere between The X-Files, Stalker, and Dark Angel is Minoes. The film is about a cat that is accidentally transformed into a beautiful woman with cat-like tendencies--she likes to hang out on roof tops, cover her shit with dirt, and, with one leg in the air, lick her own genitals. CHARLES MUDEDE
Pacific Place Sat June 1 11:30 am

Minor Mishaps
Denmark, 2002 (105 min.)

Dir. Annette Olesen

We are only briefly introduced to this story's matriarch before she abruptly dies, leaving behind a dysfunctional family comprising a needy husband, clueless brother-in-law, and three crazy kids. The untidy storyline makes it unclear whether Mom's death was the start of the family's many problems, or just one more in a series. A Dutch comedy in the now-clogged vein of Italian for Beginners and Celebration. SARAH STERNAU
Egyptian Thurs June 13 7 pm

Egyptian Sun June 16 4 pm

Missing Persons
USA, 2001 (85 min.)

Dir. Dan O'Donnell, Matthew O'Donnell

Really, what is one to make of a computer generated film that has a man who swims one foot below the surface of the Atlantic ocean breathing through a straw, a WWII robot, and cops called Funn and Snookie? CHARLES MUDEDE
Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 24 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 9:30 pm

Monkey Love
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Mark Stratton

Ah, a college love triangle... Blond bombshell Amy Stewart screws two of her oldest guy-friends, who are best friends themselves. Because, you know what? That's what women do. They fucking come at you with their little fucking fluttering eyelashes and their little "oh, I don't want to ruin our friendship," but you know what they're really thinking!
Cinerama Wed June 12 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 16 6:30 pm

Monrak Transistor
Thailand, 2002 (90 min.)

Dir. Penek Ratanaruang

The director of the Tarantinoesque 69 is already back with another film about hopelessness, desperation, and broken dreams. His new film involves a singer who has tried hard to become something but has achieved absolutely nothing. As with all men who have spent their future, all the failed singer has left are distant memories. CHARLES MUDEDE
Egyptian Fri June 14 7 pm

Egyptian Sun June 16 6:30 pm

* Mostly Martha *
Germany/Austria, 2001 (105 min.)

Dir. Sandra Nettelbeck

When her sister dies, workaholic chef Martha must step out of the kitchen and into the real world to care for her surviving niece. She's a fish out of water with real family, but feels like she's swimming with sharks at the restaurant, where the chef who's been hired to help during this rough period has charmed her entire staff. Beautiful food shots, clever montages, and the sparks that fly between chefs counterbalance a hurried conclusion. SARAH STERNAU
Pacific Place Sat June 8 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Mon June 10 4:30 pm

* Murderous Maids *
France, 2001 (94 min.)

Dir. Jean-Pierre Denis

Silvie Testud and Julie-Marie Parmentier play the titular servants, who were also sisters, who were also lovers, who savagely bludgeoned their employer to death in France in 1933. This film, which follows Genet's The Maids, and Sister, My Sister in treating the fascinating story (and all its attendant class/sex/national reverberations). SEAN NELSON
Pacific Place Sun June 9 11:30 am

Cinerama Tues. June 11 9:30 pm

My Brother Silk Road
Kyrgizstan/Kazakhstan, 2001 (80 min.)

Dir. Marat Sarulu

A quartet of village kids suck the marrow out of life (and the birch nectar out of trees) as they traipse through the Kirghiz forest, en route to the train tracks that run along the ruins of the Great Silk Road. And, to paraphrase Chekov, where there are tracks, there's sure to be a train.
Harvard Exit Fri June 14 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 16 6:30 pm

* My Voyage to Italy *
Italy, 2001 (246 min.)

Dir. Martin Scorsese

Scorsese bears witness to the masters of Italian cinema, excerpting the likes of Rosselini, Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, and generally holding forth (for four hours) in the insightful, engaging manner that made his Journey Through American Cinema such a profound pleasure. SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Mon May 27 11:30 am

Broadway Performance Hall Wed May 29 7 pm

* My Wife is an Actress *
France, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. Yvan Attal

Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a married actress who has a fling with Terence Stamp. I mean, how Euro do you want it?
Pacific Place Thurs June 6 7 pm

Egyptian Sat June 8 1:45 pm

* the navigators *
Spain/Germany/U.K., 2002 (96 min.)

Dir. Kenneth Loach

Working-class humanist Loach measures the effects of the corporate buyout of British Rail on five Yorkshire railroad workers.
Harvard Exit Fri May 31 7 pm

Harvard Exit Wed June 5 9:30 pm

No News From God
Spain/France/Italy/Mexico, 2001 (115 min.)

Dir. Augustin Diaz-Yanes
Cast Victoria Abril, Penélope Cruz, Fanny Ardant

Diaz-Yanes reaches into the erotic imagination of every lusty male in Spain and casts Abril and Cruz as an angel and a devil fighting for the soul of a virile young glassjaw facing certain death in the boxing ring. Meanwhile, back in the sexual psyche of France, Ardant plays God.
Egyptian Mon June 3 4:30 pm

Egyptian Wed June 5 7 pm

No Regrets
Germany, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Benjamin Quabeck

Daniel, a 19-year-old virgin with no prospects, loves Luca, a wild, elusive girl. This coming-of-age story dresses itself up in indie colors and camera gimmicks but it's really just your basic teenage soap opera. Except that it's German and everyone is frighteningly good-looking. EMILY HALL
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 14 7 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 16 4 pm

Nynke
Netherlands, 2001 (108 min.)

Dir. Pieter Verhoeff

Her country (post-Monarchy Netherlands, Friesland province) is run by domineering socialists. Her husband wants her to stay home and cook. What's a righteous protofeminist author like Nynke van Hichtum to do?
Harvard Exit Sat June 1 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 8 11:30 am

On the Road to Emmaus
Finland, 2001 (77 min.)

Dir. Markku Pölönen

A cynic from the city proves that you can, in fact, go home again, but once you get there, the ghosts of your past make it hard to pack up and sell the place. A thin slice of mordant European comedy, served up Finland style.
Pacific Place Sat May 25, 1:45 pm

Pacific Place Mon May 27 6:30 pm

One Day in August
Greece, 2000 (105 min.)

Dir. Constantine Giannaris

Three young Greek couples leave the swelter of their Athens apartment building to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. By the time they return, everything has changed--just like it did for the Blessed Virgin.
Harvard Exit Sat May 25 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun May 26 11:30 am

the Orphan
Hong Kong, 1960 (104 min.)

Dir. Sun-fung Lee Cast Bruce Lee

A thuggy 19-year-old Lee stars in one of his last Hong Kong features.
Egyptian Sat June 8 4 pm

Egyptian Thurs June 13 4:30 pm

* Orphan of Anyang *
China, 2001 (84 min.)

Dir. Wang Chao

The broom of modernity clears the path for a middle-aged peddler to become embroiled in a babysitting scheme with a moll whose gangster is none too keen on the idea. Hidden cameras were employed to capture the harsh urban reality of Anyang.
Pacific Place Tues. June 11 7 pm

Pacific Place Wed June 12 4:30 pm

* Our America *
USA, 2002 (95 min.)

Dir. Ernest Dickerson

As if a madman had been struck on the head by an unexpected brick, lucidity has returned to Dickerson's vision after the embarrassing Bones. Granted, the subject matter of the film--inner city youth telling white America the truth of the matter--is not original. But Dickerson and his cast manage to turn the ordinary into something close to wonderful. CHARLES MUDEDE
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 7 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 9 1:45 pm

Outpatient
USA, 2002 (110 min.)

Dir. Alec Carlin

The best thing about this locally filmed, low-budget psycho-thriller is the sly and nuanced performance of primetime hottie Justin Kirk as a near-catatonic writer traumatized by the childhood murder of his mother. Worth watching for the many scenes of Kirk bare-ass naked and for the fun of guessing where stuff was filmed. Could that stunning tango bar really be the Showbox? TAMARA PARIS
Egyptian Sun May 26 9:30 pm

Cinerama Thurs June 13 1 pm

* the parallax View *
USA, 1974 (102 min.)

Dir. Alan J. Pakula Cast Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels

Beatty plays a two-bit hack journalist who stumbles onto a story that just might explain how every time you turned around in the late '60s, "they were knocking off one of the best men in the country." Plus: See what it's like when someone falls off the Space Needle! SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Fri June 7 4:30 pm

Parallel Worlds
Czech Republic, 2001 (100 min.)

Dir. Petr Vaclav

From the director of Marian and Prague Stories comes this sober tale of a dying relationship between two lovers who try in vain to live alone together.
Pacific Place Mon May 27 11:30 am

Pacific Place Tues. May 28 9:30 pm

Passionada
USA, 2002 (108 min.)

Dir. Dan Ireland

A sexy single mom/ nightclub singer plays hard-to-get while her precocious teenage daughter hangs out a shingle. The focus of all the estro-energy is some hobo with a gambling problem. Billed as a "cheeky romance," Passionada is the third film by SIFF co-founder Ireland.
Cinerama Sun June 16 6:30 pm

* the piano Teacher *
Austria/France, 2001 (129 min.)

Dir. Michael Haneke
Cast Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot

Handjobs. Blowjobs. Rape. Porn. Peeing. Peeping. Bondage. Beatings. Vaginal mutilation. And incest--all set against the insufferably stilted world of Viennese classical music. Maverick director Michael Haneke's latest creation (abomination?) follows a lonely, repressed middle-aged virtuoso pianist (Huppert) and her sadomasochistic relationship with a love- struck young student (Benoit Magimel). The film that broke the bank at Cannes renders an unflinching autopsy of a dream deferred. FRED MEDICK
Egyptian Sat June 8 9:30 pm

Cinerama Mon June 10 9:30 pm

* Picnic *
USA, 1955 (115 min.)

Dir. Joshua Logan Cast William Holden, Kim Novak

William Inge won a Pulitzer Prize for the play and when James Wong Howe shot this 1950s scorcher in Technicolor and CinemaScope, Kim Novak and William Holden became bigger and sexier than ever before.
Harvard Exit Sat June 8 1:45 pm

* the Pinochet Case *
France, 2001 (114 min.)

Dir. Patricio Guzman

Everyone knows that Augusto Pinochet is responsible for the "disappearing" of thousands of Chileans between 1973 and 1990. Ace documentarian Guzman examines the 1998 London arrest of the former dictator, and the subsequent international hubbub.
Broadway Performance Hall Mon May 27 11:30 am

Broadway Performance Hall Tues May 28 7 pm

Pipe Dream
USA, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. John C. Walsh Cast Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker, Rebecca Gayheart

In this screwball romantic comedy, a plumber borrows his neighbor's screenplay for the chance to "audition" beautiful actresses. However the stakes are raised when the film becomes the hottest thing in Hollywood and the plumber finds himself laying more pipe than he ever dreamed of. Wah wah wah.
Pacific Place Wed June 12 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Fri June 14 4:30 pm

Pistol Opera
Japan, 2001 (112 min.)

Dir. Seijun Suzuki

Tall and dangerous, "Stray Cat" is a professional killer blasting her way into the hearts of those she meets along her journey to the top of the assassin food chain. This visually intoxicating thrill-ride will not disappoint fans of Suzuki's 1967 debut, Branded to Kill.
Pacific Place Sun June 9 9:30 pm

Egyptian Wed June 12 4:30 pm

Pleasure and Pain
USA, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Danny Clinch Cast Ben Harper

This "gift with purchase"-style Ben Harper documentary is the directorial debut of rock photographer Danny Clinch, so it's not surprising that it often plays like a photo shoot on motor drive. It's also eye-rollingly literal: Merch person says fans "want this guy to walk on water," and we cut to an introspective Harper strolling on a dam.
Cinerama Fri June 14 noon

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 15 9:30 pm

Ploys of Sex (and the Ruses of Romance)

You know how sex inevitably leads to bitterness, resentment, and emotional terrorism? That's what these shorts are about. At Dawning (Martin Jones), Baking Lessons (Lisa Porter), Ballad of Courtney and James (Steve Collins), Barrier Device (Grace Lee), The Fine Line Between Cute and Creepy (Robert D. Slane).
Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 4 pm

* the princess Blade *
Japan, 2001 (92 min.)

Dir. Shinsuke Sato

A teensy-tiny, ass-kicking, samurai chick-assassin struggles to avenge her mother's death, find true love, and fulfill her destiny in a brutal, Orwellian futurescape. Tight direction, yummy production design, an adorable love interest, and bone-crushing sword fights make this a must-see for each and every member of a geek subculture. Get in line now. TAMARA PARIS
Egyptian Tues. May 28 midnight

Egyptian Fri May 31 midnight

the Prisoner of Zenda
USA, 1937 (101 min.)

Dir. John Cromwell Cast Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Assuming the identity of a kidnapped king of a made-up country, an unsuspecting Englishman is caught up in the adventure of a lifetime. Lensed by SIFF honoree James Wong Howe.
Harvard Exit Sat May 25 1:45 pm

* the private Life of * Sherlock Holmes
USA, 1970 (125 min.)

Dir. Billy Wilder

Touted now as one of the best films of 1970, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was all but ignored when it was first released. Holmes is presented by way of tribute to the late Billy Wilder, whose assumed greatness has become nauseating, but which you really pretty much have to give it up for. Egyptian Sun June 9 4 pm

Pumpkin
USA, 2002 (113 min.)

Dir. Adam Larson Broder, Anthony Abrams
Cast Christina Ricci

Exploring the truism that Greek-sponsored social service projects lead to true love, sorority babe Ricci finds happiness and fulfillment with a disabled athlete.
Harvard Exit Thurs May 30 4:30 pm

Egyptian Sun June 2 9:30 pm

* Pursued *
USA, 1947 (101 min.)

Dir. Raoul Walsh
Cast Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright

The coolest actor in history not named Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum was known for his bad choices on-screen and off. This brooding mix of film noir and Western made during the artistic height of both genres wasn't one of them. TOM SPURGEON
Harvard Exit Sat June 1 1:45 pm

Quitting
China, 2001 (119 min.)

Dir. Zhang Yang

You're young, you're gifted, you're an actor, and you've begun your ascent to superstardom. How do you avoid becoming completely alienated? If you said, "Have your traditionalist parents declare their intention to move in with you," you'd be horribly wrong, but you'd also be describing the plot of this new movie from the talented director of Shower.
Pacific Place Wed May 29 7 pm

Pacific Place Sat June 1 4 pm

Rain
USA, 2000 (97 min.)

Dir. Katherine Lindberg Cast Melora Walters

This rare cinematic excursion into the great state of Iowa promises sex, crime, buried secrets, and personal redemption.
Harvard Exit Sat June 8 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 9 11:30 am

Read My Lips
France, 2001 (115 min.)

Dir. Jacques Audiard

Anyone who has ever enjoyed hiring power at a job where everybody hates her or his guts will sympathize with secretary Carla's potentially Christopher Makepeace-style choice to hire a newly-minted ex-con as her assistant.
Egyptian Fri May 24 7 pm

Egyptian Sat May 25 4 pm

* the red Squirrel *
Spain, 1993 (114 min.)

Dir. Julio Medem

Too chicken to kill himself, musician Jota finds a steady girlfriend the old-fashioned way: by lying to an amnesiac. What sounds like the creepiest version of Pygmalion ever is actually a wistful, metaphor-laden treatment of love and willful illusion. TOM SPURGEON
Pacific Place Sat June 1 1:45 pm

Reunion
Sweden, 2002 (100 min.)

Dir. Mans Herngren, Hannes Holm

This mysterious film will perhaps tell a story about a reunion.
Egyptian Wed June 12 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 15 11:30 am

RISOTTO
Greece, 2001 (97 min.)

Dir. Olga Malea

The country that centuries ago invented the story of women teaming up to turn the patriarchal order on its head serves up a modern version. Several paragons of wifely virtue decide the best way to deal with their clueless, shiftless, selfish husbands is to officially take over the household and make the men ask for the rights they take for granted.
Harvard Exit Tues. June 11 7 pm

Harvard Exit Wed June 12 4:30 pm

Route, La
Kazakhstan/France, 2001 (85 min.)

Dir. Darazhan Omirbaev

A filmmaker from Kazakhstan navigates writer's block by journeying home to see his dying mother, pausing along the way to reflect on the natural beauty and existential irony of life. (Looks like the Kazakhs have been smoking some of that Iranian weed.) SEAN NELSON
Harvard Exit Tues. June 11 7 pm

Harvard Exit Wed June 12 4:30 pm

the Rule of the Game
Taiwan, 2001 (103 min.)

Dir. Ho Ping

Root for killers, moneygrubbers, and the generally amoral as they unknowingly vie for that special prize in nature's waiting room while openly pursuing more familiar tingles in all the usual pleasure centers.
Harvard Exit Fri June 14 4:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 15 9:30 pm

* Running Out of Time 2 *
Hong Kong, 2001 (95 min.)

Dir. Johnnie To, Law Wing Cheong

The original was a crowd-pleaser at SIFF in 2000; the good news is the sequel is more Godfather II than The Evening Star. A battle of wits between detective and villain that one-ups North American versions of the "conflict between colorful leads." TOM SPURGEON
Pacific Place Thurs June 13 7 pm

Cinerama Sat June 15 4 pm

Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House
USA, 2002 (56 min.)

Dir. Deborah Dickson

The filmaker hangs out with two Jewish old lady lesbians from Brooklyn, who, after being best friends raising their daughters for 15 years, got consciousness in the early '70s and dumped their husbands, fleeing their provincial Jewish apartment house shtetl to live (and sleep) together. Today, they run coming-out support groups and kibbitz with old friends about how they once scandalized their Jewish community. JOSH FEIT
Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 3 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 5 9:30 pm

the Safety of Objects
USA, 2001 (121 min.)

Dir. Rose Troche Cast Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson, Dermot Mulroney

Vignettes from the kind of suburban neighborhood familiar to everyone, but featuring stories of a type mini-van driving parents usually don't share with their backpack-toting children until they're well into adulthood.
Egyptian Sat June 1 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Mon June 3 9:30 pm

Sass
Germany, 2001 (107 min.)

Dir. Carlo Rola

The subject matter seems interesting enough-- two struggling auto mechanics who abandon hard honest work to become celebrated robbers. And it's set in an interesting place and time--Berlin in the 1920s. But somehow the arithmetic of all these interesting cinematic possibilities came to equal naught. (Naught means zero, for those who did not have a colonial education.) CHARLES MUDEDE
Broadway Performance Hall Thurs June 13 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 15 11:30 am

Satin Rouge
Tunisia, 2002 (100 min.)

Dir. Raja Amari

Beware the dark allure of the modern cabaret. Even TV moms know if you're going to confront the man romancing your daughter, it's probably better if he doesn't represent a world of possibility that speaks directly to a lifetime of suppressed desires and regrets.
Pacific Place Sat June 15 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 16 11:30 am

A Savage Soul
Chile, 2001 (120 min.)

Dir. Raoul Ruiz Cast Laeticia Casta

From Jean Giono's decade-spanning novel marking the impressive and slightly terrifying rise of servant girl Therese over the diminishing circumstances of her wealthy, surrogate parents. Much more terrifying than some movies about a young person's descent into evil currently playing out there, and the visual élan of Raoul Ruiz filming in Haut-Provence is lovingly computer-free. TOM SPURGEON
Pacific Place Fri May 24 4:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun May 26 9:30 pm

* Secret Ballot *
Iran, 2001 (105 min.)

Dir. Babak Payami

This charmer from Iran features the traditional buddy-cop teaming of female voting official and male soldier-chauffeur as they travel to a distant island in order to rock the vote. Satirical targets include elections in general, Iranian elections specifically, and attitudes towards women most of all.
Harvard Exit Sat June 8 4 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 9 6:30 pm

See You Off to the Edge of Town
USA/Hong Kong, 2001 (87 min.)

Dir. Ching C. Ip

Two parents from Hong Kong, one daughter ready to graduate from college, and an older daughter already living the American Dream of easy cash flow and lots of credit--road trip! Between LAX and the Grand Canyon, this film earns its Alpha Cine Award through dead-on performances and a unique visual vocabulary. TOM SPURGEON
Cinerama Fri June 14 7 pm

Cinerama Sun June 16 1:45 pm

A SELF MADE HERO (UN HEROS TRES DISCRET)
France, 1996 (105 min.)

Dir. Jacques Audiard

Mathieu Kassovitz's performance as the post-war protagonist who slips into a new, grander personal history in post-War France like a Gallic George O'Leary is reportedly so good it makes those who have seen it no longer wish to hit him in the face for directing Hate.
Egyptian Sat May 25 1:45 pm

Sensational Animation

Cartoons from around the world: 1,000 Marys (Christina Gruppuso), Apocalypse Part 9 & 16 (Zbigniew Dowgiallo), The Crab Boy (Aaron Thedford), Extreme Man and Insane Boy Episode I: The Screaming Skull (Webster Colcord), Hasta Los Huesos (Alejandra Guevara Castillo), Henry's Garden (Moon Seun and Kevin Geiger), See the Truth (Jerold Howard).
Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 8 1:45 pm

Sex and Lucia
Spain, 2001 (127 min.)

Dir. Julio Medem

Perhaps the ultimate movie about the benefits of having people stay out of your stuff, Medem's melodrama follows a woman to an ex-lover's writing pad and into his unfinished novel.
Pacific Place Fri May 31 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 8 6:30 pm

Shag Carpet Sunset
USA, 2002 (80 min.)

Dir. Andrew McAllister

From a talented local independent filmmaker comes a beautifully shot and smartly constructed feature that concerns... sigh, a slacker who... sigh, won't grow up because... sigh, he "doesn't see the point." Sunset manages to overcome the '90s clichés built into its conception by way of brains, comely actors, and good old film sense, but you can't help wishing the filmmakers had chosen a more compelling central character than "Tuck," who hosts a puppet show on cable access, drinks a lot, and ambles around Seattle like the losers we all knew--and were--10 years ago. SEAN NELSON
Broadway Performance Hall Sun May 26 6:30 pm

Cinerama Fri June 14 4:30 pm

* Sherpa--Unsung Heroes *
USA, 2001 (86 min.)

Dir. Win Whittaker

A solid documentary about the heroic expertise of the Sherpa--young Asian men and women schooled at the revered yet secretive Himalyan Mountaineering Institute to help expeditions climb Mount Everest. JOSH FEIT
Cinerama Thurs June 13 4:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 16 11:30 am

Shopping (Petites Miseres)
Belgium, 2002 (78 min.)

Dir. Philippe Boon, Laurent Brandenburger

Adam Smith's invisible hand takes center stage in this deadpan comedy about a repo man for high-ticket consumer goods goes about his daily routine while his wife starts to indulge buying habits that may eventually put them in conflict.
Harvard Exit Sat June 15 6:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun June 16 9:30 pm

Shorts Stories

You know me, I just like a good story: Against Sadness (Beatrice Sasha Kobow), Eight (Sarah Bassine), Empty (Jared Micah Herman), Faithful (Marzena Grzegorczyk).
Broadway Performance Hall Tues June 11 9:30 pm

Skins
USA, 2002 (84 min.)

Dir. Chris Eyre

The ghosts of Wounded Knee work their way into the frustrating lives of two brothers who live on the Pine Ridge reservation, where the infamous massacre took place. One's an alcoholic Vietnam vet, the other's a vigilante cop with a hard on for wife beaters.
Pacific Place Wed May 29 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Thurs May 30 4:30 pm

* Smith Family *
USA, 2002 (88 min.)

Dir. Tasha Oldham

An incredible documentary by any measure, this film is even more amazing for its protagonist, a 40-something Mormon mother of two whose gay husband has full-blown AIDS and is the source of her own HIV. Kim Smith bravely steers her "forever family" through the mazes of sickness and spirituality, projecting wisdom born of necessity and transcending all potentially applicable stereotypes. A stellar directorial debut. SARAH STERNAU
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 14 2:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 16 1:45 pm

Smokers Only
Argentina, 2001 (87 min.)

Dir. Verónica Chen

While bathing alone a young Argentinian singer knocks over a bottle and accidentally slits her wrist. Rather than get out and dress the wound, she lies in the bathtub imagining or recollecting an abusive--or advantageous-- love affair with a male prostitute. Smokers Only tries to be seedy, but the blasé aimlessness of the young and confused is a done-to-death story. KATHLEEN WILSON
Harvard Exit Sun June 9 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sun June 16 9:30 pm

* Soft For Digging *
USA, 2002 (74 min.)

Dir. J.T. Petty

This chilling movie begins when an old, reclusive man wanders into the woods near his cabin, looking for his lost cat. He then witnesses a little girl's murder, which haunts him--and when he tries to lead police to the body, they can't find it. The sparse winter landscape and nearly non-existent soundtrack help you go crazy along with him. AMY JENNIGES
Broadway Performance Hall Fri May 24 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 1:45 pm

A Song for Martin
Denmark, 2001 (119 min.)

Dir. Bille August

Horribly depressing. Horribly, horribly depressing. August's latest tackles the subject of Alzheimer's with an unusual frankness and attention to detail. A middle-aged couple, one a composer, the other his lead violinist, fall in love only to have their perfect world crumble around them as the disease takes over their lives. Despite the fact that it is exceptionally smart and well made, the film nonetheless is hard to recommend for viewing. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Pacific Place Tues. June 4 7 pm

Pacific Place Wed June 5 4:30 pm

* Spagnola, La *
Argentina, 2001 (87 min.)

Dir. Steve Jacobs Cast Alice Ansara

A film that recalls quirky early '90s Australian releases such as Flirting. Ansara glows as 14-year-old Lucia, whose stereotypically hot-blooded Spanish mother has gone loca since her philandering husband left her for a young Australian. Mom struggles to find independence as a foreign woman in the outback while Lucia comes into her own as a second-generation immigrant. SARAH STERNAU
Egyptian Mon May 27, 6:30 pm

Egyptian Tues. May 28, 4:30 pm

Spooky House
Canada, 1999 (106 min.)

Dir. William Sachs Cast Ben Kingsley

The night in the haunted house is a metaphor, people. You travel into a deep, dark night of puberty and everything just goes fucking haywire, just like it does in this little Canadian treasure. Meanwhile, Ben Kingsley appears in a turban, which is a metaphor for I don't know what.
Pacific Place Sat June 8 11:30 am

* Strange Fruit *
USA, 2001 (57 min.)

Dir. Joel Katz

In 1939, Billie Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit," a song about a lynched body hanging from a tree. This film explores the legacy and history of the track, which was written by a Jewish schoolteacher in the Bronx, and uses the findings to explore larger issues of black/Jewish identity and relations.
Broadway Performance Hall Mon May 27 4 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Thurs May 30 9:30 pm

Streeters
Mexico, 2001 (85 min.)

Dir. Gerardo Tort

Corrupt cops in Mexico City? Yes, it's a shocking setting for a movie about rotten souls, sewer rats, and glue sniffing, but this film uses Mexico's less-than-pristine capital as a backdrop for 15-year-old Rufino's run-ins with the pockmarked underbelly of modern urban life.
Harvard Exit Sun June 2 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Mon June 3 4:30 pm

* Sunshine State *
USA, 2002 (141 min.)

Dir. John Sayles Cast Timothy Hutton, Miguel Ferrer, Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, Jane Alexander

Human dynamo John Sayles rallies a small army of great character actors through a satisfyingly intricate story about the ghosts and dreams that haunt the residents of a small Florida island being transformed by golf courses and housing developments. No story is simple for Sayles. Every character gets a fair shake; it's watching them navigate the consequences of their choices, rather than seeing good beat evil, that gives the film its emotional kick. MATT FONTAINE
Egyptian Sat June 1 6:30 pm

Egyptian Sun June 2 4 pm

* Super-8 Stories * by Emir Kusturica
Germany, 2001 (90 min.)

Dir. Emir Kusturica
Cast Emir Kusturica, Joe Strummer

For those not up on their late '70s world punk, the No Smoking Orchestra was a cult band that made a hybrid of noise out of everything from jazz to folk. This story documents their career in an area torn apart by violence and political upheavals.
Egyptian Sun June 2 6:30 pm

Harvard Exit Tues. June 4 4:30 pm

Supplement
Poland, 2002 (100 min.)

Dir. Krzysztof Zanussi

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A little trip to the monastery yanks one man off his track of being a mountain climbing doctor and into a self-reflexive spin that threatens his relationship with a woman in the film industry.
Harvard Exit Wed June 12 7 pm

Pacific Place Thurs June 13 4:30 pm

* Sweet Smell of Success *
USA, 1957 (97 min.)

Dir. Alexander Mackendrick
Cast Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis

Two mediocre movie stars are set alight by the greatness of the film they were fortunate enough to star in, as, respectively, a corrupt maven of a newspaper columnist, and an up-and-coming publicist who can't wait to get his hands dirty and his feet wet. (Cinematography by James Wong Howe--this year's SIFF honoree.) SEAN NELSON
Egyptian Sat June 15 1:45 pm

Swimming Upstream: A Year in the Lives of Karen and Jenny
USA, 2001 (73 min.)

Dir. Jennifer Freedman

A documentary that chronicles a dyke couple as they prepare to have a kid. Jenny and mother-to-be Karen are interviewed as they pick baby names, get ultrasounds, bicker, make up, and spout sidewalk observations on lesbianism and homophobia. Then sometimes, the camera will mysteriously pan to a sequence of the two frolicking underwater to some folk guitar music. It's a lot of uninformative, pseudo-progressive pomp and circumstance. MEG VAN HUYGEN
Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 3 7 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 5 9:30 pm

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
South Korea, 2002 (129 min.)

Dir. Park Chan-wook

A child is kidnapped for a kidney (kidneynapped?) and then things start to get really, really violent. Recommended for first dates!
Cinerama Fri June 14 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Sun June 16 1:45 pm

Tadpole
USA, 2002 (78 min.)

Dir. Gary Winick Cast Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth

Like most 15-year-old boys whose stepmother is played by Sigourney Weaver, Oscar wants to doink his stepmother (Sigourney Weaver). But for the sake of efficacy and realism, he's willing to consider his stepmom's friend Bebe Neuwirth (hello!) as a fall-back position.
Egyptian Tues. June 4 7 pm

Egyptian Thurs June 6 4:30 pm

Take Care of My Cat
South Korea, 2001 (112 min.)

Dir. Jeong Jae-Eun

Four Korean teens come of age in the restrictive confines of Inchon Harbor. With a title like this, it can't go anywhere good... not if you're the cat, anyway.
Pacific Place Sun May 26 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Mon May 27 1:45 pm

Teknolust
USA, 2002 (85 min.)

Dir. Lynn Hershman-Leeson Cast Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Davies, Karen Black

This Dean Koontz-penned episode of Teletubbies--stars Swinton as clueless Dr. Rosetta Stone and the three colorful automatons inhabiting her computer. Stone, a virgin according to her medical records, has programmed her automatons to subsist on a diet of old movies chased by tea made from semen, causing one of them to walk the night seducing losers who later develop barcode-shaped rashes on their foreheads. SARAH STERNAU
Egyptian Fri May 24 9:30 pm

Cinerama Tues. June 11 7 pm

Temptations
Hungary, 2001 (88 min.)

Dir. Zoltan Kamondi

I have no idea what this movie is about. A young guy fights with his mother over her new lover, tries to find his real father, and buys a gypsy girl with psychic powers, who he uses to scam money out of banks. The sequence of events isn't hard to follow, but what they signify is curiously opaque. BRET FETZER
Harvard Exit Thurs June 6 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sat June 8 11:30 am

Tokyo Noise
Sweden, 2001 (79 min.)

Dir. Kristian Petri, Jan Roed, Johan Soderberg

This documentary asks whether Japan should wield its mighty sword against the West's pervasive cultural imperialism or just roll over on its belly and let the inevitable happen.
Broadway Performance Hall Mon June 10 7 pm

Cinerama Tues. June 11 4:30 pm

THE Trip
USA, 2002 (96 min.)

Dir. Miles Swain

In attempting to essentially bottle the entire early gay rights struggle into a single relationship, director Swain both succeeds and fails. The Trip feels authentic, even if its characters often reek of glaring fabrication. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Egyptian Sat May 25 9:30 pm

Harvard Exit Sun May 26 4 pm

Tropical, La
USA, 2001 (95 min.)

Dir. David Turnley

In this smart but lumbering b&w documentary, director David Turnley takes us inside Cuba's most famous open-air dance hall. It's an interesting film with great scenery, music, and a colorful cast of characters but goes on way too long. PAT KEARNEY
Broadway Performance Hall Sat May 25 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Tues. May 28 4:30 pm

Turning Paige
Canada, 2001 (112 min.)

Dir. Robert Cuffley

Paige is a young writer from the wilds of New Brunswick who has carefully organized her world into manageable, bite-sized nuggets until dramatic tension arrives in the form of her estranged brother, who's hell-bent on turning her tidy little world upside down.
Harvard Exit Tues. May 28 7 pm

Pacific Place Fri May 31 4:30 pm

* Two Towns of Jasper *
USA, 2002 (90 min.)

Dir. Whitney Dow, Marco Williams

In June of 1998, when I read what three men in Jasper, TX had done to James Byrd Jr. (killed him by dragging him for three miles from a pickup truck), my heart sank, my body hurt, and I almost started crying while still holding the newspaper. Now, after watching the documentary which follows the trial of the three men, there was no almost about it--I cried like a baby. MEGAN SELING
Broadway Performance Hall Mon May 27 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sat June 1 6:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 7 2:30 pm

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror
Japan, 2000 (90 min.)

Dir. Higuchinsky

A "fever dream" of naughty hijinks adapted from Junji Ito's comic book about a superficially normal small town whose folks are transmogrifying into slow-moving, slime-covered snail people.
Egyptian Sat June 1 midnight

Egyptian Mon June 3 9:30 pm

Versus
Japan/USA, 2001 (119 min.)

Dir. Ryuhei Kitamura

Fans of Japanese kitsch or Evil Dead-style films will appreciate this Yakuza-ninja-zombie B-movie, while the uninitiated who wander into the low-budget gore-fest will feel as if they've gotten stuck watching someone play Zombie Revenge for two hours. Two escaped convicts rendezvous with their Yakuza consorts and the girl they've kidnapped, only to discover that their meeting place, a burial ground for enemies of the mob, is also the Resurrection Forest. SARAH STERNAU
Egyptian Sat May 25 midnight

Virginia's Run
USA, 2002 (103 min.)

Dir. Peter Markle
Cast Gabriel Byrne, Joanne Whalley

Sexual subtext struggles to become just plain text in this flick about a young girl and her beloved horse, Stormy. Forbidden by her father from riding since her mother's death, the headstrong lass gallops nightly through the forest. Rrowwr!
Egyptian Sat May 25 11:30 am

Walking on Water
Australia, 2002 (90 min.)

Dir. Tony Ayres

Gavin's not feeling so hot--in fact, he's dying. And he's calling on his two best friends, Anna and Charlie, to be his own li'l Hemlock Society and usher him to the other side since he feels he can't go on.
Harvard Exit Wed June 12 9:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Sun June 16 9:30 pm

War Live
Yugoslavia, 2001 (101 min.)

Dir. Darko Bajic

A bunch of Serbs made a movie during a war about a bunch of Serbs making a movie during a war. Set in charming, half-demolished Belgrade, War has a couple merits (like some delightfully profane dialogue) but they're just not enough to keep you interested. MEG VAN HUYGEN
Pacific Place Wed June 5 9:30 pm

Pacific Place Thurs June 6 4:30 pm

the Way We Laughed
Italy, 1998 (126 min.)

Dir. Gianni Amelio

A Viscontiesque epic, in CinemaScope, no less! Two brothers navigate the post-war boomtown of Turin and the primal sibling tropes.
Pacific Place Thurs May 30 9:30 pm

Egyptian Sat June 1 1:45 pm

* What About God? *
USA, 2001 (57 min.)

A scrupulously fair-handed examination of the evolution vs. creationism debate--or more accurately, evolution vs. biblical literalism. The movie focuses on the internal conflicts of aspiring scientists at a Christian college and a group of high-school students who want creationism taught in their science classes. BRET FETZER
Broadway Performance Hall Fri June 7 noon

Whispering Sands
Indonesia/Japan, 2001 (104 min.)

Dir. Nan T. Achnas

Young Daya yearns to see her absentee father and daydreams that his return will bring back better days. But the stern hand of her mother keeps her tethered in the miserable moment. Then they move to a desert, dad returns, and things get really hairy.
Cinerama Wed June 12 4:30 pm

Pacific Place Thurs June 13 9:30 pm

Who the Hell is Bobby Roos?
USA, 2001 (93 min.)

Dir. John Feldman Cast Roger Kabler

Conceived as an "improvisational marathon" for a real-life actor-impressionist who plays out the downward spiral of an imaginary actor-impressionist possessed by Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro, Peter Falk, and others.
Broadway Performance Hall Tues. June 11 4:30 pm

Broadway Performance Hall Wed June 12 9:30 pm

the Wild Bees
Czech Republic, 2001 (97 min.)

Dir. Bohdan Slama

The depressing but beautifully shot film centers on a group of twentysomething Czechs bored with life, but too poor and drunk to get out of town. PAT KEARNEY
Pacific Place Sat June 1 6:30pm

Pacific Place Sun June 2 1:45pm

Wild Flowers
Czech Republic, 2000 (82 min.)

Dir. F.A. Brabec

If you go for fairy tales, this anthology of macabre Czech fables should do you for a while. It's all water nymphs and murdered babies and dead lovers and love curses and prayer books and witches and cottages, all dreamily staged and filmed with an appropriately mythic sexual atmosphere, and verse subtitles. SEAN NELSON
Harvard Exit Wed June 5 7 pm

Harvard Exit Thurs June 6 4:30 pm

Winning Girls Through Psychic Mind Control
USA, 2002 (93 min.)

Dir. Harry Alexander Brown
Cast Bronson Pinchot!

Pinchot has come out of hiding to star with some other guy as two over-the-hill lounge singers who hit upon a potential gold mine in the form of the other guy's psychic powers. You can bet the description of this flick as "alternately comic and tragic" is not far off the mark.
Pacific Place Sun June 9 6:30 pm

Pacific Place Sat June 15 1:45 pm

Written on the Body of the Night
Mexico, 2000 (128 min.)

Dir. Jaime Humberto Hermosillo

The director's recollections of a youth spent simmering in a household packed with passionate women: his neurotic mother, a sexy tenant, and his wise, no-nonsense grandmother. Pickling in his own hormones, he can only find relief by escaping to the relative calm of Hitchcock flicks. That's like growing up surrounded by lions and taking solace in safari footage.
Egyptian Mon May 27 9:30 pm

Egyptian Thurs May 29 4:30 pm

* Yellow Asphalt *
Israel, 2000 (86 min.)

Dir. Danny Verete

Telling three separate tales set in the desert-- one of consequences, one of fear, one of love--Danny Verete's short, tight film examines, at its core, the consequences of culture. Centered around the Bedouin tribes of Israel's West Bank, Yellow Ashpalt is a fascinating, often emotion-slapping event. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Pacific Place Sun May 26 4 pm

Pacific Place Tues May 28 7 pm

* the zookeeper *
Denmark, 2001 (108 min.)

Dir. Ralph Ziman
Cast Sam Neill, Gina McKee, Om Puri

In an unnamed Eastern European city ravaged by civil war, a zookeeper (played by sturdy and studly Neill) silently atones for some secret sin by caring for the animals until international help arrives. But his solitary vigil is interrupted by the arrival of a 10-year-old boy and his mother.
Pacific Place Sun June 9 1:45 pm

Egyptian Tues June 11 9:30 pm