Decades ago, United States armed forces were shipped off to southeast Asia to fight in a jungle war against an enemy that used guerrilla tactics, in a conflict that was meant to finally liberate a population recently divested of a European occupying force, but as yet unused to democracy. Opinion back home was mixed, and prominent figures in the media called the whole affair a “quagmire”. No, not that conflict. Keep going a few more decades back.

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Brother From Another Planet / Return of the Secaucus 7 The National Gallery continues presenting programs from the excellent traveling UCLA Festival of Preservation this weekend with a double feature of early films by John Sayles. He’s a director who has spent his career demonstrating that the line between B-movie genre movies and personal, socially conscious…

The D.C. Political Comedy Festival, jointly sponsored by the American Film Institute and American University’s School of Communications kicks off tonight with a sneak preview of John Sayles’s new film Silver City (IMDB) to be followed with a discussion with the director. Both the AFI and American U. have posted schedules of events for the festival, which also includes screenings of Primary Colors (Fri.), Election (Sat.), Wag the Dog (Sun.). All the screenings will be…