Cinematical

Welcome to The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar, a weekly look at what's happening beyond the multiplexes all around North America. If you know of something indie-related happening near you -- a local festival, a series of classic restored films, lectures, workshops, etc. -- send the info to me at Eric.Snider(at)weblogsinc(dot)com and I'll add it to the list. (Please put "Cinematical" somewhere in the subject line so I can easily separate you from the spam.)

The theaters are jam-packed with indie fare this weekend, so really, there's no reason to have to watch Fred Claus. Here's what's on tap:

• Saawariya is a Bollywood musical romance about star-crossed lovers. It's the first Bollywood film to be produced by an American company (Sony), and it's being released simultaneously today in India and North America. Look for it in 33 U.S. cities and six Canadian ones; an expansion is possible if it does well.

• Hey! It's an Indian showdown! Om Shanti Om, a Bollywood mystery romance about a murdered 1970s actor who is reincarnated today and searches for both his killer and his lost love, opens in a handful of U.S. cities today. I found locations in New York and Chicago; it may be elsewhere, too, but my usual channels aren't showing anything.

• I'll Believe You is a sci-fi comedy about a late-night radio host who gets a call from what he believes in an extra-terrestrial. It has a pleasant cast: Patrick Warburton, Ed Helms, Mo Rocca, Chris Elliott, Fred Willard, Siobhan Fallon, etc. Opens today on about 30 screens in New York, L.A., Chicago, and and few other places.

• The documentary War/Dance opens in New York and L.A. after taking prizes at Sundance and Canada's Hot Docs fest. The film tells of a group of children in war-torn Uganda who find refuge in singing and dancing. Our Kim Voynar reviewed it at AFI Dallas and loved it. Early talk is that it will probably be an Oscar contender.

• The second annual After Dark Horrorfest begins tonight and runs through next Sunday, with eight unreleased titles each playing for two or three days at about 350 locations nationwide. You can find the theater list and more details at the Horrorfest website. The films are: The Deaths of Ian Stone, Nightmare Man, Crazy Eights, Unearthed, Borderland (here's Scott Weinberg's review from SXSW), Mulberry Street (I don't have a review, but I liked it at SXSW), Tooth and Nail, and Lake Dead.

After the jump, festivals and events in North Carolina, New Hampshire, NYC, L.A., Portland, Fort Forth, and St. Louis....Asheville, N.C.: The Asheville Film Festival started last night and runs through the weekend, with 27 narrative features, 28 documentaries, and a couple dozens shorts on the roster. Among the noteworthy features are Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Murder Party, and The Savages. Doc titles include Greensboro: Closer to the Truth and War/Dance.

Concord, N.H.: Shorts and unknown works are the focus at the Somewhat North of Boston (S.N.O.B.) Film Festival in Concord, N.H. Many of them are by Northeastern filmmakers, and the website promises special guests and free massages, so that sounds pretty awesome.

Fort Worth, Texas: Why let Dallas take all the fame and glory? Remember, people, it's the Dallas-Ft. Worth area! (We also feel bad for Minneapolis' barely mentioned sibling, St. Paul.) Ft. Worth is home to the Lone Star International Film Festival, continuing at several venues through the weekend. Quite a few noteworthy titles, including Grace Is Gone, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Education of Charlie Banks (directed by Fred Durst [?!]), Darius Goes West, and the Lovecraft-inspired Cthulhu.

Los Angeles: American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica is celebrating the work of Max von Sydow this weekend. Tonight is a screening of Pelle the Conquerer (1987), which won the foreign-language Oscar. Saturday is the new Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Sunday is an Ingmar Bergman-directed double feature: The Seventh Seal (1957) and The Virgin Spring (1960). Even better, von Sydow will be there in person for discussion after Saturday's screening and between Sunday's features. Von Sydow's most recent film, Rush Hour 3, is not part of the tribute.

New York City: The American Museum of Natural History is home to the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, which runs tonight through Sunday. The fest is devoted to international documentaries, particularly those that "tackle diverse and challenging subjects." Most of the titles being screened aren't likely to be seen at a lot of other fests, so here's your chance. And if, like me, your first thought was that Margaret Mead wrote Gone with the Wind and you couldn't see what the connection was, please note that that was Margaret Mitchell; Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist. Which makes a lot more sense.

Portland, Ore.: The 34th Northwest Film & Video Festival commences tonight and runs through next Saturday, with a few dozens shorts and a handful of features unspooling, all of them made by filmmakers in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the notable titles are Hear and Now, Fido, and Outsourced; the rest are new discoveries, mostly unseen until now!

St. Louis: Cinema fans in the Midwest are flocking to the 16th annual St. Louis International Film Festival, which kicked off last night and runs through Nov. 18. A whopping 66 features, 24 documentaries, and about a billion shorts are on tap, including some very buzzworthy titles: Juno, Persepolis, The Band's Visit, Grace Is Gone, Son of Rambow, The Savages, and many more. This is a seriously stellar lineup, so if you're in that part of the country, you should check it out.

Is there something cool going on in your city? Send me a link! Eric.Snider(at)weblogsinc(dot)com (and please put "Cinematical" in the subject line!).