Tonight, the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (aGLIFF) starts at the Arbor Theater and runs through Oct. 8, with a variety of films and parties scheduled. The opening-night films will be followed by a gala event down at City Hall. I'm covering the festival for Cinematical, so look for reviews and highlights over the next week.

Other special screenings and film-related events around Austin:

• Indie films opening in Austin today include the documentary The U.S. Vs. John Lennon at the Dobie, and Edmond at Alamo Lake Creek.
• Alamo's Saturday Morning Kids Club features a Joseph Losey film this month: the 1948 movie The Boy with Green Hair. Free admission to the Saturday noon screening at the South Lamar location, which might provide an interesting contrast with Austin Film Society's series on Losey.
• If you missed the epic adventure film Beowulf & Grendel (pictured above) at Fantastic Fest, you can catch it at Alamo Downtown on Saturday afternoon and Sunday night.

Indie filmmakers have been trying all kinds of ways to show their films when they're unable to find a good distribution deal. Sometimes their methods seem as creative as the filmmaking. Two of the films I saw at SXSW this year have selected some innovative methods of distribution:

• 51 Birch Street, the personal documentary directed by Doug Block, will be distributed via Landmark's new Truly Indie program. Filmmaker/blogger A.J. Schnack points out that this is great news for filmmakers, because Block is a prolific longtime blogger and will hopefully share the pros and cons of his experience with Truly Indie.

• Jumping off Bridges, the narrative feature directed by Kat Candler, is being self-distributed. Storie Productions will tour the Austin-shot feature around the country in the next few months. What's different for this film is that many of the screenings are co-sponsored by local suicide prevention groups and counseling centers. The drama's storyline centers around teen and adult characters who have to deal with a suicide.
  

If you're interested in this sort of thing, IFC has also posted some recent news about indie films trying various self-distribution strategies. [via CinemaTech]

Summertime in Austin brings many prayers for rain, mosquitos when it finally does rain, big blockbusters in air-conditioned theaters ... and tons of free movies. I love all the free movie opportunities in town all summer long, even if most of them are meant for children. The AMC theater chain isn't extending its free summer movies to Austin, but other venues are, such as the Regal-owned Westgate and Lakeline theaters. No one usually checks to see if you're with kids, so take advantage of the wealth of free movies in theaters, coffeehouses, parks, and anywhere else imaginable.

• This week's AFS@Dobie film, which will play all week at Dobie Theatre, is Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy. The 2005 documentary explores Buddhist monasteries in India and Nepal.
• The Paramount kicks off its Summer Movie Classics series this weekend with the traditional screening of Casablanca, this time in a double-feature with The Maltese Falcon tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. Other screenings this week: West Side Story on Saturday and Sunday, a double-feature of To Catch a Thief and The Trouble with Harry on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Shadow of a Doubt with The Lady Vanishes on Thursday.
• Alamo Lake Creek is showing Dr. Strangelove at midnight tonight (Friday) and Saturday. No, they are not offering grain-alcohol-and-rainwater drinks.
  

It feels like an explosion of Austin film news and events is going on this week. In addition to the screenings listed below, some limited-release movies are finally reaching Austin: Summer Storm, Don't Come Knocking, Awesome; I F***kin' Shot That!, and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.

• The Cine Las Americas film festival starts on Wednesday 4/19 and runs through Sunday 4/23. This week's issue of the Austin Chronicle contains previews and recommendations for the festival.
• Held over: Austin filmmaker Kyle Henry's film Room has extended its run at Alamo on South Lamar for another week.
• Nacho Libre is getting an Austin premiere, done in a very Austin way: outdoors and with live wrestling. Director Jared Hess will attend the Lucha Libre Extravaganza on Saturday 5/27, outdoors at the Glenn. You can buy tickets now or reserve a free ticket if you promise to wear a Mexican wrestling mask.

Jumping Off Bridges was the last of a half-dozen feature-length films shot in Austin that I saw during SXSW this year. I wish I could say all the films shared some vital Austin trait, or that they each reminded me of Austin in different ways. But Jumping Off Bridges has a universal look and feel: this film could have been shot anywhere, about people in any town. Apart from the Town Lake bridge, I could not tell the setting was actually Austin. Although the movie is set in the early 1990s, it doesn't drill nostalgia for that time into our heads. The teenagers who are the film's focus might be from your high school or mine. (Well, maybe not mine specifically, since it was an all-girls' school with uniforms, but you get the idea.)

Jumping Off Bridges is no glossy teen comedy. The title refers to a game Zak (Bryan Chafin) and his friend Eric (Glen Powell Jr.) have developed over the years. They take photos of bridges, then jump from those bridges into the water late at night. When the movie begins, the 17-year-olds are joined by their female friends Grove (Savannah Welch) and Lindsay (Katie Lemon). Lindsay refuses to jump, scared by the possible danger, but Grove joins the guys eagerly. The question the film raises is about what's behind the ritual, and how it affects the teens' lives.