Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 23

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW?
Washington City Paper's Guide to the 13th Annual Washington, D.C., International Film Festival

Cover Story

God only knows what will happen between now, the 13th Annual Washington,

D.C., International Film Festival, and next year's installment. Will the

world say goodnight? If so, you'd be wise to catch many of this year's

films before it does. But the bigger question is what won't happen: The

city will not likely see an appreciable surge in its number of movie

screensóat least, not enough to break the overwhelming franchises that

Loews Cineplex and, to a lesser extent, AMC have on the District's film

market. In any case, you'd better get moving, because many of the finer

offerings in this year's Filmfest will be otherwise shut out by the sheer

lack of venues that constipates D.C.'s movie economy. And there are a lot

of intriguing arrivals. Among our reviewers' favorites: Day of the Full

Moon, The Hole, The Book of Life, The Life Jacket Is Under Your Seat, and

The Milky Way.

This year, Filmfest D.C. brings in more than 75 films, 31 of which are

reviewed here by Washington City Paper film critics Arion Berger, Mark

Jenkins, and Joel E. Siegel. The program emphasizes Latin American film,

whose exemplars suggest that religious mysticism (Life Is to Whistle, The

Life Jacket Is Under Your Seat) and magical realism (Call of the Oboe, The

Day Silence Died) retain as firm a hold on storytelling in the region's

film as they do in its literature.

It's hard to tell if the other themes Filmfest delineates were decided... Continued

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW?
Washington City Paper's Guide to the 13th Annual Washington, D.C., International Film Festival
Cover Story By Arion Berger, Mark Jenkins and Joel E. Siegel
Petal to the Metal
Elaine Haug and Kathleen Kust have the most unusual botany lab in town.
The City By Jason Cherkis
Inoffensive Alliance
With police on the lookout for mad bombers, run-of-the-mill protesters can't even get arrested before the NATO summit
The City By Colin Bane
The Nuclear in Winter
History buffs want to keep Cold War implements of destruction from being destroyed
The City By John Dugan
The Transistor Closet
Some tips on straightening out WGAY
The City By Michael Schaffer
Days of the New
The Mail By Robert W. Porter
Voodoo Child (Slight Rewrite)
The Mail By Mike Fekula
The Wind Cried Bravo
The Mail By Charles Schaffer
Grand Opera
The Mail By Patricia Richter

A Lion and a King
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Gunplay In early April
City Desk By Jason Cherkis, Laura Lang and Elissa Silverman
IT'S WAR!
Loose Lips By Erik Wemple

His Old School Mates
The Saturday afternoon jam sessions of bluesman Archie Edwards continue, though the master himself has left this world
Arts By Dan Gilgoff
Historian in the Marketplace
Artifacts By Louis Jacobson
Echoes of War
Artifacts By John DeVault
A Measure of Fugazi
Artifacts By Colin Bane
The House Negro Blues
Books By William Jelani Cobb