Two notable indie releases this week are covered in more detail elsewhere (reviews not up yet, though): Julian Schnabal's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Todd Rahal's The Guatemalan Handshake.

Robert Wilonsky of The Village Voice wrote that Aaron Wolf's King Corn "is as much a thoughtful meditation on the plight of the American farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines." The doc follows two college friends as they learn about their shared "agricultural heritage, and the tale of how kernels of corn have insidiously worked their way into America's diet." The DVD from Balcony Releasing includes deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, photo gallery, and "the lost basement lectures."

The Japanese Army's horrific massacre of thousands of Chinese is documented in Nanking through the use of "vintage footage, interviews with survivors, and a staged reading of excerpts from journals and letters by a group of actors," according to Kim Voynar's review. She felt it was "deeply affecting" and that "the scripted reading actually works more effectively than mere voiceover would have, bringing to life the people who were a part of the events that happened." The DVD from ThinkFilm looks bare bones, with just a trailer gallery included.

Bobby Roth wrote and directed Berkeley with a great deal of affection. He based it on his own life experiences during the time that he attended UC Berkeley in the late 1960s and cast his son Nick Roth in the lead.

Two holdovers outperformed new releases in the indie weekend box office totals, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Jason Reitman's teen pregnancy comedy Juno grossed $35,500 per screen at 40 engagements in major markets, more than twice as much as Joe Wright's period wartime romance Atonement ($15,720 per screen but at nearly three times the locations: 117).

Both Juno and Atonement will expand to more than 200 theaters this coming Friday, where they'll have to compete with five major releases over the long holiday weekend. Juno will ramp up to more than 850 theaters on Christmas Day and more than 1500 screens on Friday, January 4. Will its reputation as a critical darling keep it rolling along, or will it need more endorsements from teen audiences?

Among new releases, Marc Forster's character drama The Kite Runner did the best, pulling in $14,490 per screen at 35 locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote in his review: "It makes us truly see the people ... in many ways for the first time; that's the film's greatest achievement, and ultimately the best reason to see it." Nanking, a doc about the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, opened in one theater in New York City and earned $6,200. Our own Kim Voynar called it a "deeply affecting film [that] doesn't offer any easy answers."

Adam Rifkin's surveillance camera peek-a-boo project Look got raked over the coals by certain critics -- check out selected quotes gathered by David Hudson at GreenCine Daily -- yet still averaged $5,150 at the two screens where it opened. That means it did better than Francis Ford Coppola's return to the big screen, Youth Without Youth, which managed $4,630 per screen at six locations -- not quite disastrous, but not very encouraging, either. Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote an excellent, measured review, which examines the film in the light of Coppola's entire career.

Here are some of the latest posters to hit the net:

Though its release date was pushed back yet again (it's not coming out in theaters until this February), a new poster for Teeth has hit the net. I absolutely loved this flick when I caught it in Berlin earlier this year, and even had a chance to sit down and talk with the film's star, Jess Weixler, about how freaked out I was after watching it. She called it the "perfect date movie," and I'd agree, except I'm not so sure this is good for couples who haven't, um, gone all the way yet. Might freak the dudes out a tad. In Teeth, Weixler plays Dawn, a teen abstinence preacher who discovers teeth down in her private area and then ultimately uses them to her advantage. Oh yeah, it gets nasty. Hopefully the Weinstein Co. left the flick as is and didn't chop the hell out of it. (Bonus: Check out the trailer over on Moviefone.)

A new poster for the much buzzed-about Nanking has arrived. Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, the film tells the real-life story of how, in 1937, invading Japanese raped and murdered thousands of Chinese. Cinematical's Kim Voynar called Nanking a "deeply affecting film," and added: "Twenty-two Westerners stayed in Nanking to try to do something to help, and through their letters and journals we feel the moral dilemma they faced: They could get out and secure their own safety, but what about their Chinese friends and neighbors who couldn't leave? Who would protect them?" Nanking recently became one of the 15 docs shortlisted for an Oscar nod. (Bonus: Check out Moviefone's Unscripted featuring Rosalind Chao and Sonny Saito discussing the film and the book, The Rape of Nanking.)

Finally, there's a new poster out for The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the popular books, and starring the adorable Freddy Highmore. Film tells of three siblings who find themselves pulled into an alternate world following their family's move into the run-down Spiderwick Estate. It kind of reminds me of the Narnia films on acid. Not bad. It arrives February 15. (Bonus: Check out the flick's first trailer over on Moviefone.)

Documentary filmmakers deserve much more love and attention than they receive. One way to get more attention is to make the list of 15 documentaries short-listed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Variety has this year's list and cites three Iraq War-themed films as being "center stage": Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight (which Cinematical's Kim Voynar gave high marks when it played at Sundance) and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.

Kim is a self-styled "documentary dork" -- her words, not mine -- and wrote a column two months ago about films she thought "have (or ought to have) a shot at Oscar gold." She included No End in Sight, as well as the following docs that all made the short list: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine's War/Dance, Michael Moore's Sicko, Daniel Karslake's For the Bible Tells Me So, and Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking. Kim was pulling for Logan Smalley's Darius Goes West, which sadly did not make the list. Other notable exclusions included David Singleton's In the Shadow of the Moon and Seth Gordon's The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

Here are the remaining eight that did make the list. First, the ones we've covered so far: Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire, Richard Berge and Bonni Cohen's The Rape of Europa, Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me and Peter Raymont's A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman. Next, the ones we haven't seen yet: Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which has played on HBO), Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side (due for release in January), Bill Haney's The Price of Sugar and Tricia Regan's Autism: The Musical.

Now the Academy's Documentary Branch will review the 15 films and narrow the list still further to the final five nominees, which will be announced on January 22.

The Toronto International Film Festival is over, we have a couple months respite before Sundance, so naturally thoughts turn to the Oscar race. While I'm as curious as anyone else which films will end up garnering the big nod (and I will be really surprised if Juno doesn't get a few noms, especially for screenwriting), as an indie girl I'm most interested in the docs and foreigns. I'm a documentary dork, and one of the things I most look forward to covering at any given film fest is the doc slate -- which, as both David Poland and Anne Thompson have noted in post-Toronto columns, have been weak this year relative to the past couple years. No one really seems to be sure why this is, exactly, although the surprising success of March of the Penguins in 2005 fueled an interest in documentaries that led, perhaps, to a bit of a glut.

The trouble with documentaries is that, penguin love aside, docs are not something your average person is going to go out of their way to shell out ten bucks to see at a theater. Rent from the video store or add to your Netflix queue, perhaps, but when you're looking for a film to see on date night, the depressing topics that tend to make up much of the available documentary fare are not really the first thing that comes to mind. When's the last time you said, "Hey, honey, I know what to do tonight -- let's get dinner at that place over in Little Italy we like, and then let's go see that new Iraq war doc!" Given a choice between a bummer doc and, say, Superbad, most folks are going to opt for the laughs over the conscience-pricking dose of reality.

The 11th annual DocuWeek showcase kicks off tomorrow night, Friday, August 17 continuing through August 23 at two locations in Los Angeles before traveling to other parts of the country. Presented by the International Documentary Association (IDA), the program has featured 21 films that were eventually nominated for Academy Awards, with five capturing the little gold man. One of the goals of the showcase is to help filmmakers meet the AMPAS rules for Academy Award consideration, which requires that a doc play for one week in Los Angeles or Manhattan by August 31. (A multi-state theatrical roll-out is also required by November 15.) Another is to encourage exhibitors "to dedicate more screens to nonfiction films," according to a statement by IDA Executive Director Sandra Ruch.

The 12 feature-length docs include War/Dance, a tale of children in a refugee camp in Uganda, which moved our own Kim Voynar to write: "I can't imagine anyone could watch War/Dance without feeling heart-wrenched over these kids' stories and being touched by their heart and courage." She also liked Nanking, about Japan's invasion of China's capital city in 1937, describing it as "deeply affecting." Chops looks at high school jazz musicians; Erik Davis said "you're overcome by this overwhelming feeling to hug each one" during the film's best moments. In the Shadow of the Moon, Hear and Now, Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone, A Promise to the Dead, The Price of Sugar, Protagonist, Taxi to the Darkside and We Are Together will also be screened. The IDA site has complete information.

AJ Schnack's Kurt Cobain About a Son will also play during DocuWeek. At his blog, Schnack notes that "somewhat secretly, the opening round of competition for this year's Oscar for Documentary Feature is about to play out in theaters all around Los Angeles," as films attempt to meet the AMPAS criteria. Schnack has a detailed list and information about where the docs are playing, as well as his comments on a number of them.

With plans to screen 100 documentaries in just six days, SilverDocs 2007 gets under way Tuesday, June 12 with Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, directed by Jim Brown (no, not that one; this one), which promises to interweave folk music, social upheaval and Seeger's life and music. Among the six films competing for the Music Documentary Award will be Hip Hop Revolution (history of hip hop in South Africa), Kurt Cobain About a Son (the late musician narrating his own journey) and Nomadak Tx (from Spain, about two musicians and a "magical instrument"). The Beyond Belief program explores "faith, fanaticism, spirituality and ethics in civil society," according to the press notes, and includes the world premieres of Living Goddess (a young girl worshipped as the incarnation of a Hindu goddess lives peacefully in traumatic times) and Orthodox Stance (love that title: a young immigrant in New York City must balance his Hasidic beliefs with his rising career as a boxer).

Politically-charged movies are certainly on the agenda. Just three higher-profile titles that caught my eye: 14 Women (Mary Lambert examines the lives of female US Senators), Lake of Fire (Tony Kaye on abortion; the press notes say it's "carefully balanced," but this is Tony Kaye, whose insane career Erik just wrote about) and State Legislature (Frederick Wiseman spends 217 minutes on "the inner workings of the democratic process," specifically in Idaho). And then there's the latest by Liz Garbus (Coma relates the stories of four victims), Mike Mills (Does Your Soul Have a Cold?, in which Japanese marketers tackle antidepressants), Helvetica (which James reviewed at South by Southwest) and the local premiere of the controversial Nanking (which Kim reviewed at Sundance). Artic Tale is the closing night presentation. My head is swimming with the possibilities. Even if you aren't planning to attend, the film guide is well worth checking out to see the wide range of material that's screening this week in and around Silver Spring, Maryland.

It's almost time for one of my favorite film fests, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which runs a whopping 25 days, from May 24-June 17. Not only is SIFF one of the longest (if not the longest) film festivals on the planet, which is pretty cool, but it's sustained almost entirely by local support, with screenings generally well-attended throughout the fest.

I love this fest not just because it's in Seattle, where I live, which makes it a non-travel fest for me (good thing, since it's so long!), but the atmosphere of the fest is so ... Pacific Northwest. The weather is generally gorgeous -- June is one of the best months to be in Seattle, most of the venues serve popcorn with REAL butter instead of nasty "butter-flavored" grease, and folks are laid-back and friendly. This year SIFF will bring Seattle 405 films, in a sched boasting 48 world premieres and 39 North American premieres.

To most movie fans, Sundance is this far-off and distant place they can't visit because, well, it's a pretty damn expensive trip -- and who the heck wants to spend a week on a mountain in January and not ski? The second question I'm always asked upon my return home from Sundance (after "What good movies did you see?") is "What famous people did you meet?" But the third question is usually something like "So when will I actually get to see these movies that everyone's been chattering about for the last two weeks?" And so I decided to collect all the acquisition news from this past festival and offer it all up on one convenient platter. I'll keep the chatter to a minimum, but if you want more info on a particular film, please do partake of all the links below.

• Clubland -- Warner Independent Pictures -- $4,000,000
• Crazy Love -- Magnolia Pictures -- n/a
  
• Grace is Gone -- The Weinstein Co. -- $4,000,000
• How She Move -- Paramount Vantage -- $4,000,000
• In the Shadow of the Moon -- ThinkFilm -- $2,500,000
• Joshua -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,000,000
• King of California -- First Look Pictures -- $3,000,000
• La Misma Luna (The Same Moon) -- The Weinstein Co. & Fox Searchlight -- $5,000,000
• My Kid Could Paint That -- Sony Pictures Classics -- $1,500,000
• Nanking -- Fortissimo Films -- n/a
  
• Once -- Summit Entertainment -- n/a
  
• Protagonist -- IFC & Netflix -- Under $1,000,000
• The Signal -- Magnolia Pictures -- $2,300,000
• Son of Rambow -- Paramount Vantage -- $8,500,000 (some say even higher)
• Teeth -- The Weinstein Co. & Lionsgate -- $1,000,000
• The Ten -- ThinkFilm & City Lights Home Entertainment -- $4,500,000
• Waitress -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,500,000
• Weapons -- After Dark Films -- $1,000,000

Thanks to Variety, Movie City News, THR's RiskyBiz Blog, and our own Cine-maniacs (particularly Jette and Karina) for all the info. [Have any updates, additions or corrections? Leave 'em in the comments section please!] Added Bonus: After the jump you'll find a list of movies that already had North American distribution set up before they arrived at Sundance!

Nanking, a documentary about the 1937 invasion of the then-capital of China by the Japanese army, competed at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in the documentary competition. Nanking producer Ted Leonsis sat down with Cinematical at Sundance to talk about the film (full disclosure: Leonsis is an executive with AOL, Cinematical's parent company).

Cinematical: The first question I have is about how you came to be involved with this film – it's my understanding that your involvement in this film was much more personal than a producer's role often is.

Ted Leonsis: I was on vacation with my family and went to a bookstore and everything was in French. And the owner had 45 days of the NYT and so I bought them all and read them all. And one of the things in there was an obituary that said, noted author Iris Chang had committed suicide, and as I read it I saw that she was married with two children; I'm married with two children, and I so I was drawn by that. And then I later threw the newspapers in the garbage and that obituary landed on top and as I was going in and out I kept seeing it. As we left I ran back in and grabbed it and stuck it in my briefcase. Then when I got home I did some research on her in Amazon, and bought all her books and was drawn to the story about Nanking.

More after the jump ...