Results tagged “polish”

No, really - did some memo go around saying all film festivals had to be scheduled within the same two-week period? The Polish Film Festival continues, flanked by the South-East European Film Festival & the last stands of the Los Angeles Jews & the Pacific Asian subcontinent. But with all the talk of Iran lately, the Noor ("light" in Arabic) Film Festival may prove the most noteworthy. While stark, realistic Iranian New Wave films by the likes of Abbas Kiarostami & Mohsen Makhmalbaf have nabbed accolades at Western film festivals for decades, less "artsy" films like the historical epic Flags of Kaveh's Castle & crime thriller In The Dark reveal a different side of the country. This theme of revelation & East-West conflict motivates much of the festival, coming to a most human (and most absurd) head with Donkey In Lahore, undoubtedly the first and only documentary to follow a Gothic Australian puppeteer, his teenaged Pakistani fiance & her traditional Muslim family.

It's a very festive time right now. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and there's a lot of copying & pasting in Film Digest land. The Indian Film Festival continues its run at the Arclight, as well as its mixed masala line-up. Joining it are the 10th Annual Polish Film Festival, the 4th Annual Jewish Film Festival & a virtual continuation of last week's Japanese Film Festival at the Egyptian with a series dedicated to controversial auteur Nagisa Oshima. If those aren't exotic enough, you can always make the journey to San Pedro for the L.A. Harbor Film Festival, or trek all the way to Orange County for the Newport Beach Film Festival. Even the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is getting in on the act, with panels dedicated to Hollywood biographers & the adaptation of The Soloist.

Autumn is upon us and here in LA we are harvesting art, music, and mayhem. For whatever reason, it seems that this is the busiest festival weekend of the year, with something for all ages, in all corners of LA, and all times of day and night. If ever there was a weekend to clone yourself and be everywhere at once, this would be it. Jump right in. Swerve Festival: This looks to be...