The Virginia Film Festival

Steven Spielberg's intelligent sci-fi thriller. Strange, global phenomena give clues to a visit by creatures from beyond. Richard Dreyfuss is captivating as the everyman driven by forces beyond his control. Best Cinematography award went to Vilmos Zsigmond.

On its 25th anniversary, El Norte will be examined in depth by director Gregory Nava. Nava will discuss the background and editing of selected sequences from the film, and take questions from the audience, in this popular annual workshop.

Feeling like he is only the residue of greatness, the clone of a Nobel Prize winning scientist sets out on a mission to destroy the reputation of his genetic sire. Richmond filmmaker Megan Holley’s first feature toys with the distinction between science fiction and actual scientific trends and technologies.

Peter Riegert’s directing debut is a clever midlife comedy, filled with remarkable performances. Leo (Riegert) struggles for direction as his father (Eli Wallach) ages, his daughter rebels, his position at work is threatened and his wife (Isabella Rossellini) grows impatient. Shown with Peter Riegert’s award-winning short, By Courier.

Texas ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones, who also produced and directed) develops an unlikely friendship with Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada. After the corpse of Estrada is found in a shallow grave near the Mexican border and re-buried in the town cemetery, Perkins finds the border agent responsible for his friend’s death. At gunpoint, he forces the agent (Barry Pepper) to disinter Estrada once again, then sneak the body across the border in order to fulfill a promise and bury his compadre in his own home town. Through their shared journey, both rancher and border agent learn of the perils faced by immigrants every day. Inspired by a real incident, the film is Jones and Arriaga’s attempt to portray the full tragedy of Mexican-American relations along the notorious border.

The Sixth Section documents how immigrants in America are organizing across borders. The film shatters expectations, and greatly broadens the discussion about the immigrant experience. Rivera will screen and discuss this groundbreaking film, as well as earlier work, including Why Cybraceros?, and the Borders Trilogy.

Robert Griffith gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look at Virginia’s film, television, commercial and video production industry. Screening with short film highlights from the first Virginia Independent Film Festival, presented by the Virginia Film Office.

Silent swashbuckler The Mark of Zorro features Douglas Fairbanks’ amazing athletic prowess as the masked champion of Spanish California.

Ari Folman’s animated documentary feature recounts the 1982 invasion of Lebanon through both his own eyes and those of his comrades in a delirious mix of facts, half-remembrances and dreams. As inventive as it is intelligent, this Israeli film proved to be one of the major revelations at Cannes this year.

Four short films by Charlottesville filmmakers addressing aspects of the Aliens! theme: Space Movie by Aidan Keith-Hynes and Chris Yeaton, an animated short film from Light House that takes a whimsical and irreverent look at the possibility of alien life forms. My Day With Conrad, in which local filmmaker Doug Bari gets the chance to spend a whole day with Conrad Brooks, the last surviving member of the original Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space. Sahar Before The Sun, by Sahar Adish, the story of a young Afhani teenager's escape from the Taliban, produced at Light House. Rosalina's Faith in America, by Elizabeth Howard, tells the story of an Italian immigrant whose religious conversion leads to family fury and the building of a church she believes in. This film is narrated by Vito Cetta, Rosalina's son and a Charlottesville architect.

Fifty-seven years after her first encounter with an extra-terrestrial, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is found by a salvage ship. When the crew finds her unstable and finally abandons her, she joins up with a team of high-tech colonial marines to face her fears and return to LV-246 — the place where her nightmare began. Stan Winston created the special effects and James Cameron directed.

Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a beautiful and mysterious Serbian immigrant living in New York City, believes that she suffers from an ancient curse: when emotionally aroused, she will transform into a beast and kill her mate. Director Jacques Tourneur evokes the solitude of an outsider separated from her humanity.

Infamous found-footage cult collagist Craig Baldwin mashes together miles of stock footage, supplemented with his own live-action scenes, to produce “a rapid-fire pulp serial-cum-political tract piss-take of California’s major military, entertainment and religious industries” (SF Film Festival).

This well-received documentary examines the Israeli/Pakistani conflict through the eyes of six female soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories. Their testimonies reveal the growing prominence of women on the frontlines and the fascinating intersection between gender, ethics, and morality during wartime. Showing will be followed by the short film Hamdi and Maria.

Kent Mackenzie’s intimate vérité examination of Los Angeles’ small Native American population never saw theatrical release upon its completion in 1961, but has long been regarded as one of the most important documents of 1960’s Los Angeles by those lucky enough to encounter it. Presented by OFFScreen. Tickets for this event are $3 and are available on the door.

Kent Mackenzie’s intimate vérité examination of Los Angeles’ small Native American population never saw theatrical release upon its completion in 1961, but has long been regarded as one of the most important documents of 1960’s Los Angeles by those lucky enough to encounter it. Presented by OFFScreen. Tickets for this event are $3 and will be on sale at the door.