It's that time of year again, when film fans salivate and film critics duck for cover. It's film festival time. Movies. Lots and lots of movies, some of them good, some of them bad, some of them strange, some of them weird, but all of them . . . movies.
It's the 23d edition of the annual Baltimore International Film Festival, opening April 1 at the Senator Theatre and then running at the Baltimore Museum of Art for the next four weekends in April. The festivities accumulate until 21 different features, a double-feature program and three programs of short films have been shown.
"We've put together an eclectic festival that brings the best of current world cinema to Maryland audiences," said Victoria Westover, festival director and executive director of the Baltimore Film Forum, which administers the festival.
The festival opens with "Daughters of the Dust," a highly praised first effort by Julie Dash that examines the culture of the Gullah people of the Sea Islands off South Georgia. The Gullahs have remained true to their African ways and are reluctant to emigrate to the mainland; the movie is set on a day at the turn of the century when one family decides to make such a move. It is said to be extremely visual and, presumably, will look gorgeous on the Senator's big screen. A champagne reception at 7:30 p.m. precedes the 8:30 screening.
On April 2 -- this and all subsequent screenings will move to the Baltimore Museum of Art -- the Mexican film "Cabeza de Vaca" will be shown at 8 p.m. Set in the years after Columbus' discovery of the New World, it chronicles the journey of a Spanish aristocrat through the Americas of the 1520s. Directed by Nicolas Echevarria, the film makes the point that the pre-Christian Americas were themselves cultures of intense spirituality.
Another Spanish-culture film runs at 7 p.m. April 3. This is "Confessing to Laura," directed by Jaime Osorio Gomez. Set in Colombia's deadly civil war of the late '40s, it follows an extramarital affair, drawing power from the juxtaposition of the political and the domestic. It was Colombia's entry to this year's Academy Awards. At 9 p.m., "In the Shadow of the Stars" will be shown. A backstage documentary, it covers the chorus of the San Francisco Opera, and finds a group of singers obsessed with stardom and ambition. Directed by Irving Saraf and Allie Light, it's another Oscar nominee.
The early show, at 7 p.m. April 4, is "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One." It's a relic from the '60s, directed by William Greaves as a "mix of drama, cinema verite and improvisation." Filmed in Central Park, it begins with a plot but then permutes into something quite strange, including a mutiny by its own crew. Mr. Greaves will be there to explain everything when the movie is done. The late show, at 9:30, is "Proof," an Australian psychological thriller about a blind photographer, his friend and his lover, who become involved in an intense plot. Writer-director Jocelyn Moorhouse was nominated for seven Australian Academy Awards and received a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival for this film, which will go into national release this spring.
On April 5, the 7 p.m. screening is "Thank You and Good Night!" A personal film by Jan Oxenberg, it begins as an account of her grandmother's life but transmutes into a kind of early Woody Allen essay on comic angst and being a Jewish-American. Oxenberg herself will appear after the screening.
The 23d Baltimore Independent Film and Video Makers competition winners will be shown April 9 at 7 p.m. The program consists of 11 short features, including competition winner "The Japanese Version," by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker.
For the prurient, "The Good Woman of Bangkok" (7 p.m., April 10) should prove irresistible. Directed by Australian adventurer Dennis O'Rourke, it penetrates Bangkok's oldest profession as it studies the life of a prostitute. The director is one of her customers, and he will be there to answer questions after the screening. The late show (9:30 p.m.) that night is "Tinpis Run," billed as "the first fiction feature ever made in New Guinea, and by a native Papuan" director. Directed by Pengau Nengo, it follows a Papuan chief who is trying to live in both his ancient culture and modern times as the owner of a taxi company.
A classic returns at 7 p.m. April 11, when the film that some consider the most suspenseful ever made is shown in a restored version. This is Henri-Georges Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear," about four end-of-the-road European losers who volunteer to drive a nitroglycerin shipment through the jungles of Brazil to put out oil well fires at a remote site. Hit a bump and go boom! The movie stars Yves Montand. It was a great world-wide hit back in 1953, but 43 minutes of anti-corporate American sentiment, references to homosexuality and views of Third World poverty were eliminated. This is the complete version, all 148 minutes.
At 10 p.m. that night, the documentary "Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight" will be shown, an account of the famous musician's performance before 500,000 at a 1970 rock concert that has been called "the last tribal gathering of the '60s."
The April 12 show is "The Tigerman," a Hindu film by Buddhadeb Dasgupta. It's the story of a ritual dancer -- he mimics the movements of the tiger -- who struggles with his art in an increasingly uninterested world.
"Lung Ta: The Forgotten Tibet" is shown April 16 at 8 p.m. Narrated by Richard Gere, this documentary chronicles the Chinese destruction of Tibet with nuclear waste and human rights violations. At the end of the film, the Dali Lama addresses ++ the audience, asking for aid to Tibet.
April 17's program begins at 7 p.m. with "The Garden," by Derek Jarman, a passion play with two homosexual lovers appearing as Christ. Jarman, a controversial British filmmaker who has said publicly he's HIV-positive, has broken through to a larger audience this year with "Edward II"; this is an earlier work. At 9 p.m., the festival's head-banging double-feature clicks in, with "Neo Tokyo," a Japanese high-tech animated film similar to "Akira"; and a repeat of "Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight."
A strange American film opens the program at 7 p.m. April 18. This is "A Little Stiff," directed by Greg Watkins and Caveh Zahedi. Zahedi stars himself as a UCLA film student who becomes obsessed with a coed after riding up an elevator with her and then throws himself at her in an almost demented way. Zahedi will appear after the film.
Another sexual obsession is the centerpiece of the 9:30 show, "Golden Braid." From the brilliant Australian director Paul Cox, it's the story of a man who . . . falls in love . . . with a hairpiece he finds in . . . an old piece of furniture. Hmmm. It's based on a Guy de Maupassant story.
On April 19, the film is "Save and Protect." That's a strange title for a film that is really the Russian version of "Madame Bovary," but many critics have said this one is much better than the sumptuous French "Bovary" with Isabelle Huppert of last fall.
On April 23, the great South African playwright Athol Fugard's play "The Road to Mecca" comes to the screen, as directed by Fugard himself and Peter Goldsmid. The stars are Fugard, American Kathy Bates and Yvonne Bryceland. It's about a widow who devotes the last 15 years of her life to building a sculpture garden in her backyard and then, afraid she is about to die, asks a long-lost friend to come to help her.
The late show at 9 p.m. is a series of three short films by graduates of New York University's acclaimed Film School. The three are Randy Fairbanks, Robert Curtis and Mark H. Williams, and all will be present to discuss their work.
On April 24, at 7 p.m., the Portuguese film "Alex" will be shown. It's about the last days of dictatorship in Portugal, as perceived -- by the son of a man drafted to fight in the Portuguese army in Africa. The late show, at 9:30, is "Berdel," a Turkish film that examines the custom of "bartering women," by which families arrange marriages by giving up younger children in payment. It was directed by Atif Yilmaz.
On April 25, the early screening, at 7 p.m., is "Locked Up Time," which looks very interesting. An East German political prisoner, arrested, detained and ultimately expelled, goes back after the fall of the Wall and interviews each of the people who persecuted her. Sibylle Schonemann was the victim and the director. The late show is "Animation by Michel Ocelot," one of the great animators working today.
The festival closes April 26 at 7 p.m. with "A Chinese Ghost Story III." This exuberant Hong Kong action film is full of costumes, martial arts and magic.
Tickets to the festival films are $6 general admission and $5 for Film Forum members, senior citizens and students. Advance tickets to the opening ($25 and $20) are available by mail from the Baltimore Film Forum, in care of the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore 21218. Tickets may be purchased in person at the BMA's Museum Shop. Tickets for the gala opening also may be purchased at the manager's office at the Senator. Call (410) 889-1993.