Film Journey

My favorite documentary at AFI FEST turned out to be one I had initially passed on. The Unforeseenwas described in the catalogue as “the story of how big developers spoiled a city treasure, and about the consequences continued development has on us all,” which didn’t exactly sound like cinematic gold. But after talking with critic Robert Koehler, who assured me that I couldn’t miss it, I did some last-minute rearranging and was very glad I did. I also took in two documentaries about film personalities Pierre Rissient and Val Lewton, both of which were amiable films about interesting figures, …

This year’s animated shorts program at AFI FEST proved to be a mixed affair, but well worth a look. While there was the usual style-over-substance and slapstick-yelling-hitting-scatalogical humor entries, a handful of the thirteen pieces were works with a little more ambition. Here are my top five.

Tower Bawher

Bulgarian graphic designer and animator Theodore Ushev‘s exhilarating homage to Soviet constructivist art is set to Georgy Sviridov’s rousing score from Time, Forward! (also heard in Guy Maddin’s The Heart of the World and, apparently, nightly on the Russian news program Vreyma). The music’s driving momentum unifies Usher’s abstract …

AFI FEST 2007 is progressing smoothly. With its improved emphasis on world cinema, it’s offering a better roster of higher profile titles that have played at festivals around the globe, even if it still has a way to go to compete with the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the best festival for international films in Southern California.

It’s also one of the few events here in Los Angeles sponsored by AFI worth attending, including their ongoing “100 Years, 100 Movies” series of popular “classics” (almost all of which are widely available on DVD) and their Cinema’s Legacy program that should …

AFI FEST is about halfway through now (expect my midpoint summary tomorrow), but I ran into critic Robert Koehler last night and he offered to post his recommendations for films that are still screening. If you live in Los Angeles and you haven’t yet gotten a ticket or two, <a href="
” target=_blank>get a move on! –Doug

* * * *

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECOND HALF OF AFI FEST

With AFI Fest at roughly mid-point, I thought it might be helpful to suggest several strong films screening either once or twice between now (Wednesday afternoon) and closing day Sunday. …