Tucson filmmakers Ari Luis Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnis' documentary Precious Knowledge, about Tucson Unified School District's battle over and heart of Mexican American Studies, is making the film festival rounds.

The latest screening at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival earned the documentary an honorable mention, a standing ovation and some kind words from Edward James Olmos.

From the San Fernando Valley Sun:

A deeply moved audience gave the producer and participants of the documentary film "Precious Knowledge" highly enthusiastic applause when they appeared on stage following the screening of the film at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF). Actor and Producer Edward James Olmos, one of the founders of LALIFF, said the film fulfilled the purpose of the Festival.

"It is to give venues to films like "Precious Knowledge" that the festival exists," Olmos said. "There are many film festivals in the world but very few devoted to Latino films. I believe LALIFF is the greatest Latino Film Festival in the world."

Mexican American Studies (MAS) teacher José Gonzalez and two former students who were featured in the documentary, Crystal Terriquez and Pricilia Rodriguez, joined producer Eren Isabel McGinnis on stage to take questions from the audience.

Teachers and students, along with family members, including the head of the Mexican American studies department Sean Arce and others, were part of a contingent that had driven to Los Angeles from Tucson to attend the premier.

"Precious Knowledge" gives it's viewers a front seat into the lives of Tucson high school students and their teachers who are on the front lines of a current civil rights battle to ban Mexican American studies in Arizona.

A community screening, as part of a fund raising effort to support the legal challenge against the law banning the MAS program, was held at Self Help Graphics in East L.A. Wednesday night.

It's been a long time since Lucasfilm released a movie that wasn't related to Star Wars or Indiana Jones (1994's Radioland Murders, which you likely have blocked from your memory, if you heard of it at all) and he's been working on this since 1988, so there's instantly a bit of anticipation for Red Tails, which focuses on the Tuskegee Airmen. While I've been burned before anticipating something George Lucas was in charge of, the trailer for Red Tails is definitely promising. Mostly, I'm just excited that two of my favorite modern R&B singers, Ne-Yo and Jazmine Sullivan, are in the cast. We'll see in 2012, I suppose.

Spoiler alert: Leachman's character finds out she might have contracted an STD via her husband's philandering and it all goes downhill from there.

Someone I Touch is available on Netflix Instant.

Maybe it's too much to ask of the movie adaption of the peg-based guessing game to have a plot or make sense, after all, there wasn't much to work with. Note to the people who make these decisions: you could have just made a movie about ships and saved yourself a lot of money.

However, I don't think I would have expected aliens would be involved:

A contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle against an alien race is known as The Regents. They come from a world similar to ours, and aren’t actually looking to take over humanity or the planet Earth. Instead, they’re on a mission to build a power source in the ocean, which is where they come in contact with a navy fleet. The film will also show us both sides of the story—from the aliens’ perspective, as well as the humans.

I'm glad someone is finally is going to present the perspective of the aliens. It just seems unfair that the otherworldly invaders never get their say on why they came here to pillage our resources and discard us like trash. I still won't see this movie, of course, but I appreciate balance.

While it looks like it's still playing the festival circuit, I'm hoping Hit so Hard, a documentary about the career of Hole drummer Patty Schemel, will eventually make its way to our lovely Loft. Not that I really want to find myself sucked into Courtney Love interviews like a freak-show voyeur, but anything that tells the story about a woman drummer and offers more from other women drummers is a documentary worth a dozen stinky quips from Love.

From the LA Weekly:

There is a segment in the riveting new documentary Hit So Hard- The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel that explores the concept of "Saturn Returns" (the astrogical phenomenon which is said to influence and test a person's life development beginning at 27 years old; the exact age that rock n' roll icons including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and —as is intimately recalled in the film by those who were there— Kurt Cobain and Hole bassist Kristin Pfaff died). Friends feared Schemel might end up another victim of the "27 Club" and talk about it in the film. After all, the Hole drummer not only was a full-blown heroin addict at 27, she was forced to deal with the deaths of two of her best friends, removal from her band's anticipated follow-up record, homelessness, and (maybe most challenging) the intimitable Courtney Love.

She survived and even thrived, telling her story (which ends happily, in fact) in the film. The same obviously can't be said for Amy Winehouse, who was also 27. Winehouse's death this weekend reiterated a sad reality of rock n' roll: Rare talents and tortured souls often go hand in hand. It's a recurring thread in many of the films offered for this year's "Don't Knock The Rock," the 7th annual music-themed film festival created and curated by director Allison Anders and daughter Tiffany Anders, at the Silent Movie Theatre.

Director P. David Ebersole told us Hit So Hard, (which sold out last Thursday night and added a second screening) has been picked up for major theatrical release and even if you're not a Nirvana or Hole fan, you must see it. It's easily one of the most touching, honest, funny, refreshing and simply badass films of its kind. (We've seen a whole lotta rock docs, so we don't say this lightly). It chronicles the meteoric rise of Hole before and after Live Through This and Celebrity Skin, via tour footage and interviews (Love, Eric Erlandson and Melissa Auf de Maur all weigh in), Schemel's relationship with Kurt, Courtney and baby daughter Francis Bean (via intimate, pretty amazing home movie footage), the challenges of female drummers everywhere (interviews with Gina Schock, Debbi Peterson, Roddy Bottum), and her rebellious childhood in Washington, growing up as lesbian punk chick (her mom's interviews nearly steal the movie). The story has a dark, even clichéd, arc, but throughout, Schemel's raw and uncensored recollections and enduring humor make even the rough stuff absorbing. Love, looking clownish in a wild multi-colored ensemble and chomping cookies throughout, is highly entertaining, of course.

Flor De Muertos Trailer (2011) from Brink Media on Vimeo.

Flor de Muertos, the documentary shot largely at the 2009 All Souls Procession and the Calexico and friends concert that followed at the Rialto Theatre, will be screened all weekend at the Rialto. Stephen Seigel wrote about it in this week's Soundbites:

If you missed the sold-out world-premiere screening of Flor de Muertos at the Loft back in May, have no fear. The Rialto Theatre, where much of the film was shot during Calexico's annual Dia de Los Muertos blowout concert in 2009, will be showing the film four times over the weekend, with bonus live performances attached to a couple of them.

The documentary was directed by BrinkMedia's Dan Vinik and intersperses concert footage from that 2009 show with scenes of the All Souls Procession, and interviews about the border situation and the attitude toward death in Mexican culture. Reports from the premiere screening were overwhelmingly positive, so don't miss it this weekend.

Flor de Muertos shows at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St., at the following times: 8 p.m., Friday, July 22 (patio reception begins at 6 p.m. with a performance by Salvador Duran; $10); 2:30 p.m., Saturday, July 23 ($6); 8 p.m., Saturday, July 23 (a performance by Mariachi Luz de Luna will follow; $15; free admission for film crew listed in credits); 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 24 ($6). All showings are open to all ages. For more information, call 740-1000, or check out The Rialto Theatre.

Everyone loves a cash-grabbing sequel to a popular (or even semi-popular) film, right? Unfortunately, the idiots behind Marley & Me stuck with the real life story of the dog who taught its owner to live by including (spoiler alert!) the dog's death.

But, wait, why not just go back? When Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston meet Marley, he's a puppy, but there must have been a little bit of time between his birth and that fateful adoption day, right? Oh, and let's just make the dog talk...everyone loves talking dogs:

Fortunately, Twentieth Century Fox has found a way around Grogan’s selfishness with the straight-to-DVD Marley And Me: The Puppy Years, a Godfather Part II-like prequel that will fill in the blanks on all those lost chapters of Marley’s life before he rose to power in the rough-and-tumble hallways of Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston’s unlikely large house. (The film is, oddly enough, co-written and directed by Michael Damian—the former soap star turned “Rock On” singer turned filmmaker specializing in straight-to-video family sequels like Flicka 2.) This prelude returns to a happier time, picking up when Marley is just a “pint-sized pup,” so it lacks a Wilson or Aniston to vocalize their loving frustration with Marley’s rambunctious antics.

But the filmmakers have prepared for that contingency, as Marley not only coincidentally pals around with a “Bodie Grogan” as they conspire to “wreak havoc” on a neighborhood dog contest, he also “now has a frisky voice and an attitude to match,” allowing Marley himself to offer running commentary on his own that-darn-dog-ness. Of course, your enjoyment of said friskiness may be sullied by knowing that, eventually, Marley dies. But then, so do we. So do we.

A few free ideas for Hollywood, along these lines:

The Shining: Jack's Alright With Me - Jack Torrance is an author and teaches at a prep school. He drinks a bit too much. That's about it.

Before The Perfect Storm - Some sailors hang out on the ocean. Make jokes, do whatever sailors do when there isn't a terrible storm.

A Salesman - Follow Willy Loman as he goes door to door selling something. Something funny, hopefully.

Debbie Makes Out With Texarkana - She isn't quite ready to go all the way, but she can still have a good time!

I don't know all that much about The Grandmasters, but as a Wong Kar-Wai fan, I'm excited to see what he does with the martial arts genre, and the cast includes Kar-Wai regulars like Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. Plus, there are people kicking each other in a heavily stylized rainstorm. That's a movie right there, just slap some plot around it.

[NYMag]

The Loft kicks off their Fifth Annual Tucson International Children's Film Festival this Saturday, July 23rd at 10am. The event is sponsored by Tucson Medical Center and hosted by the sweet-heart staff at Ms. Tiggle Winkle's Toys. And best of all, it's free!

Before each feature, great short films from around the world will be shown. This Saturday's feature is a sing-a-long to the musical Annie, featuring everyone's favorite curly headed ginger! (Well, unless you prefer Carrot Top). You and your kids can sing your little hearts out to classic hits like "Tomorrow," "It's a Hard Knocked Life," and "Your Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile."

In addition to the screening, there will be fun games, interactive activities, free giveaways, tons-o-popcorn and crazy surprises. Seating is limited to availability on a first come-first seated basis. No advance tickets. The Loft folks ask that you please arrive before 10 am, since many screenings will be filled to capacity. Seriously, get there really early. Otherwise, you'll be dealing with a disappointed child who thought he or she would be seeing a movie. No one wants that.

The Film Festival runs every morning at 10am from July 23-July 31 at The Loft. For more on the festival and upcoming screenings, visit the Loft's website.

Great news from the Loft Cinema's Facebook page today: Beats, Rhymes, and Life - The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest opens at the theater on August 26th. The documentary has had a strange journey on its own, as half of the group has disowned the movie irritated by how they appear in the film, despite the fact that they requested producer credits post-production.

Regardless, there's no way I'd miss a documentary about one of my favorite groups ever, so I'll be there. A few videos from the group below the cut: