Washington is about to be overrun by film festivals, so get your comedies and dramas, your Hollywood actors and local wannabes, your serious documentaries and hilarious animations starting tonight. Well, not tonight. Tonight you’ll be at Unbuckled. But the rest of the weekend is your film reel playground!
The DC Shorts Film Festival is playing 94 movies by independent filmmakers from all over the world. Most of the festival, which runs until September 21, will be held at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. You can purchase a pass for the entire week, or individual tickets for one block of shorts, which run about ten apiece. Since tonight’s screening is already sold out (what to do?), buy your tickets soon if you want to get a seat for later shows. Two free screenings will be held at the Canadian Embassy on Saturday, on a first-come, first-served basis, as part of the Arts on Foot Festival in Penn Quarter.
Also on your cinema to-do list this week should be Amnesty’s second annual International Film Festival, held at the National Geographic Society. Screenings begin tonight with Catch A Fire, based on the true story of South African rebel fighters. The movie stars Tim Robbins, who, along with his co-actors, the film’s director, Phillip Noyce, and the real-life person Robbins portrays, will attend tonight’s showing. Check out the other films, which explore everything from the gruesome Darfur countryside to the international popularity of Sesame Street. The festival only runs until Saturday, so get your tickets now.
Finally, the DC Labor FilmFest, sponsored by the Washington area AFL-CIO, is playing at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, though September 19. Starting tonight with Man Push Cart, about a Pakistani pop star turned hot dog cart pusher in Manhattan, the Labor festival’s films focuses, naturally, on jobs and office life. Well-known titles like North Country and Office Space as well as a few lesser knowns, such as A Day Without A Mexican and Workingman’s Death will be screened. Buy your tickets here.
