The Loft Film Fest continues today with all kinds of great picture shows, including an appearance by legendary director Roger Corman tonight.

The Range made it over to the Loft last night for the very first film projected on the new Screen 3. Peggy and her crew have done an astounding job of transforming the former auto-repair garage into a theatre with plush and comfy seats, stadium seating, and great design that incorporates elements of the old garage—including some old iron support beams that give it a nice, industrial look. A Liar's Autobiography, the Graham Chapman biopic, looked spectacular in 3D. Congrats, Peggy!

We also enjoyed the wonderful collection of Roger Corman trailers that were shown in the party tent outside. Here's our vote for a few encore screenings of those this weekend!

Lots more good stuff on tap, including Corman's World tonight, as well as Death Race 2000. For those interested in more cerebral fare, Wrong looks really great.

But that's just the tip of the cinematic iceberg. Check out the whole schedule here and get over to the Loft for a movie!

The Weekly has a big cover story on the third annual Loft Film Festival, which begins tonight with A Royal Affair, which was a big winner at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

Loft programming director Jeff Yanc had this to say about A Royal Affair:

This is the Danish Oscar submission this year. It's an 18th-century historical film, very juicy. It looks at love and politics. It's a love triangle with an insane king and a queen and a German physician, and trouble ensues, of course.

There's a whole bunch more on tap, including tomorrow's grand opening of Screen 3, the Loft's new theater. Check out the festival schedule here. There's something for everyone at the festival, so get over there sometime this weekend, OK?

I generally don't dig horror movies, myself—something about watching people get hacked to bits in odd ways makes me a bit uncomfortable—but Dick Night sounds like the kind of movie that I might consider breaking my anti-horror-movie oath for...and not because its title sounds like both a very honestly-titled porn flick and the name of a gritty noir detective.

Here's a blurb about the film, taken from its website:

Rachel hasn’t left her house in two months since being left at the altar. But today she’s moving on — she’s getting out of the house and going in search of some rebound sex to get over her broken heart. How hard could it be to get laid on Dick Night? If she can just deal with these goddamn vampires…

Dick Night was filmed in the Old Pueblo, by born-and-raised Tucsonan Andy Viner, who graduated from University High before getting degrees at Duke and USC.

If the trailer here has you intrigued (or, like me, you're wondering just what the hell "Dick Night" is as a concept) you'll soon be able to find Dick Night via Video on Demand starting Oct. 30.

I've always had a huge interest for past and current social movements in the U.S, Latin America and the rest of the world — especially everything that went down in the 1960s and 70s.

Since I can't time-travel back to that era, I have to settle for watching documentaries and reading about all the history and movements that took place.

A long time ago, an old classmate of mine recommended me the documentary "Sir! No Sir!" I looked through Casa Video's web site and I was happy to see they had it so I went over and rented it. This one definitely reenergized me, and got me excited about exploring the doc section again, after forcing myself to watch (the kind of annoying) Autism: The Musical.

"Sir! No Sir!" is about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam. The documentary shows amazing real-life footage from protests and tons of interviews with some of the soldiers who were part of the movement.

Watching this was such a learning experience. I knew that a lot of GIs, who had been overseas, came back and joined movements to end the war, but this documentary filled me in with a lot of the sacrifices they made and risks they took when joining the movement (even facing prison sentences and death threats).

A lot of the soldiers thought they were in it for the right reasons until they saw the attrocities being committed against innocent people. One of the names I remember is Donald Duncan. He was one of the first GIs to quit the war. Duncan came back to the states and started giving speeches about his experience in Vietnam and why he thought the war was totally fucked. Another interesting part was learning about the Presidio 27. Presidio was an army stockade in San Francisco where a lot of these soldiers were sent as punishment for not wanting to fight in the war or for abandoning their tour early. You'll have to watch the doc, as I did, to learn more about the Presidio 27. I don't want to give anything away.

I strongly recommed this one! It's interesting from beginning to end. I will even go as far as saying that I will probably purchase it online. Here is what the New York Times had to say about it.

No, this documentary has nothing to with a bunch of theater actors singing about austim. But when I read the title, the thought crossed my mind for a split second.

"Autism: The Musical" follows Elaine Hall and her Los Angeles based, musical theater program for kids with autism, The Miracle Project. The main story is Elaine's challenge to prepare five of the kids for an upcoming musical performance. Here's why she became so involved with autism: Elaine adopted a Russian baby who was later diagnosed with the developmental disorder. After years of being a stay-at-home mom, and taking care of her son, Neal, she went through a divorce and had no other choice but to go back to work. She was afraid to be apart from Neal, so the perfect solution was to start a theater program for kids with autism.

It was both touching and amusing to get to know the five kids. One of them, Henry, had an obsession with dinosaurs and that is, LITERALLY, all he talked about -at an incredible speed too. Another kid, Wyatt, made me laugh a couple of times with his inappropriate comments, one of them relating to his genitals.

The story itself is very uplifting. It was cool to see that there are people out there trying to include these kids more in normal activities. Just because they have autism, doesn't mean all they do is sit in a room rocking back and forth. They have huge talents that, with the help of very patient people such as Elaine, they can exploit and amaze their communities.

This documentary is good to watch on a Sunday morning, when the mood is right, though I found myself fast forwarding through some parts. But, if you are interested enough to see how the musical turned out, go to Casa and rent a copy. Here's what The New York Times had to say about it.

I finally got a chance to see Iron Sky last night—and it's the most looney bit of cinema I've seen since Bubba Ho-Tep. The description from The Loft:

"In 1945 The Nazis Went To The Moon. In 2018 They Are Coming Back."

In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers. When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer (Udo Kier) decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare for the ultimate invasion. As the final hour looms closer and the Moon Nazi UFO armada darkens the skies, ready to strike at the unprepared Earth, every man, woman and nation alike, must re-evaluate their priorities. Can the Earth possibly survive this all-out attack by the Moon Nazis? See the SS sci-fi action/comedy extravaganza of the year and find out for yourself!

There are a lot of influences in this movie, including Dr. Strangelove, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, Game Change, the Ilsa film series and even a little bit of The Watermelon Man. All I can say is that I got a big kick out of it. The run at the Loft ends on Thursday night, so you've only got a few more nights to check it out on the big screen.

The term "la bestia" or "the beast" refers to the freight trains traveling from Southern Mexico to different cities in Northern Mexico. Many Central American migrants aboard la bestia to avoid traveling the immensity of Mexico by foot. Ultimately, their goal is to come to the U.S. driven by the hope to have a better life.

Those who haven't started their journey hear about the atrocities other migrants encounter on la bestia — by "on la bestia," I mean they, literally, sit on the top part of the freight trains, stand in between the train cars or try to hang below them, hoping to God they don't fall off — but they are so eager to come to the U.S. that they disregard these warnings or they, simply, have no other choice but to disregard them because the only option they see in front of them to escape the extreme poverty in their native countries is to come here and work.

For Central American migrants, crossing the Guatemalan-Mexican border is like entering the gates of hell. They not only have to worry about falling off the train but also defending themselves from Mexican gangs that are like crows, waiting for the best opportunity to come on the trains with machetes and rob the migrants; female migrants add rape to that list of concerns.

Living in Arizona, sometimes, we only hear about the dangers migrants face in the desert. But what about migrants who come from as far as Guatemala and Nicaragua?

La Bestia has been the saddest documentary I've watched so far. It features a bunch of interviews with them, so you will learn about why they decided to leave their native countries and hear about their experience on la bestia.

Tucsonan director Evan Grae Davis hosts a free screening of his film It's a Girl tonight at 6 p.m., at the UA Gallagher Theater. The film is presented by the UA Department of Gender and Women's Studies and Shadowline Films, and marks the launch of the film's international tour. Davis will host a Q&A after the screening.

From a press release:

A powerful and thought-provoking documentary film, It’s a Girl brings attention to the gendercide happening every day in India, as well as China and other parts of Southeast Asia. The United Nations estimates that there are as many as 200 million girls missing around the world today because of gendercide. This war against girls is told through the stories of the victims, families, global experts and grassroots activists. Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl asks why this is happening and why so little is being done to save girls and women.

For more information, visit www.itsagirlmovie.com.

I made yet another trip to Casa Video and rented a copy of American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein. This is a name I had heard before, but had little knowledge about the controversy surrounding it. This documentary filled those holes.

Finkelstein is seen as either the biggest asshole or the bravest intellectual to ever speak against violence. Here’s a little background history, all of which I learned from the documentary:
Both his parents are Holocaust survivors and fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. After having seen the atrocities people are capable of committing against each other, Finkelstein’s mother became an extreme advocate against violence. She passed along these beliefs to Finkelstein and his two siblings.

During parts of the documentary, filmmakers followed Finkelstein as he promoted his book, The Holocaust Industry, around Europe. This is where it starts to get uncomfortable. During a press conference in Berlin, Germany—the setting makes this even more uncomfortable—he called the Holocaust an “extortion racket.” He goes on to say that Jews are using the Holocaust to victimize themselves and justify their violence against the Palestinians. Yes, he went there. And this is why Finkelstein is known as a “self-hating Jew.”

Oddly enough, the more I watched the documentary, the more I began to see him as an advocate against violence, not a self-hating Jew. Finkelstein is trying to defend what his mother taught him as a child: violence is never justified. He may have taken her message to an extreme. A lot of people think he should not use the Holocaust in his anti-violence crusade. However, he does have a point. Does every nation that is oppressed by another have the right to turn around and oppress their neighbor? I don't think so and Finkelstein doesn't think so. But his point of view has certainly put a neon-colored target on his forehead. Those who oppose him want his head, bad.

Aside from the controversy, this was an amazing documentary. It captured what Finkelstein is like backstage, before speaking in front of thousands of people, most of whom probably want to kill him and piss on the remains. Whether you’re into debates or not or whether you agree or disagree with him, it doesn’t hurt to rent a copy of this and get a little more knowledge on who he is and why the hell he’s causing such a ruckus.

Casa Video's documentary section is almost endless. Last time I was there, I spent close to an hour reading the synopses on the back of a ridiculous amount of DVD's. Time flies when there are too many damn good options.

I ended up choosing 8: The Mormon Proposition. In spirit of the upcoming presidential elections, and considering Mitt Romney has not shown any support to the LGBT community, I thought this documentary would enlighten me as to why.

In short: the documentary brings to light documents, recordings and interviews dealing with the Mormon Church and its involvement with funding Prop 8 and blocking anything that would benefit the LGBT community. I mean, these people went out of their way — as far as spending mega millions — to stomp and spit on even a thought of equality for the LGBT community.

The Mormon Church is not alone in this fight, of course. But it was very interesting to learn about them specifically. Also, what about polygamy?

Watch the trailer. And, here's a critic's response to the doc. Make a trip to Casa, grab a bag of their free popcorn and rent a copy.