I’m flattered to have just been invited to join Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary as a member critic. The organization is a “professional guild for film writers whose work appears primarily on the Web” that includes folks like my friend Acquarello of Strictly Film School and Ed Gonzalez of Slant. I’m looking forward to interacting with them.
Speaking of Acquarello, he’s starting his commentary for the New York Film Festival today, so keep an eye on his site; you won’t want to miss it.
And another friend, Mike Hertenstein, has begun adding some thoughtful reviews of the Chicago International Film Festival, which began yesterday. Apart from Elem Klimov’s modern classic Come and See (1985), his favorites so far appear to include Yoav Shamir’s Israeli documentary, Checkpoint, Iranian director Mohsen Amiryoussefi’s Bitter Dream, Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly, and a personal favorite of mine this year that I haven’t blogged about yet, Zana Briski’s and Ross Kauffman’s Born Into Brothels.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive has finally announced its Yasujiro Ozu retrospective, which it will offer in conjuction with screenings at LACMA. Disappointingly, it’s only a portion of the full series shown at last year’s NYFF.
And lastly, AFI FEST 2004 Presented By Audi (yes, that’s its official name), which will occur here in Los Angeles in a few weeks, has announced its full line-up. If anyone has any recommendations, I’m all ears . . .