(PRE-BORAT) Long before Borat, Alan Abel was giving interviews as ridiculous characters and whipping the world into a lather. In the 1950s, he ran a decency campaign to clothe naked animals. In the 1970s, he claimed to run a school for panhandlers. His 1976 film The Faking of the President inspired a riot. In 2000, he began a campaign to ban all breastfeeding. This loving documentary by Abel’s daughter shows the master of the hoax as he really is—amused, amusing, and sometimes wonderfully cantankerous. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 329-2629. 7 and 9 pm, $5—$8.)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....