Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? screens tonight at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) at 7:30 p.m.

Information from a press release:

Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, acclaimed director of the grass-roots hit The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

Winner of numerous International Film Festivals, Queen of the Sun takes us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, weaving together dramatic stories of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world.

The film has been reviewed by San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian, Variety, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Roger Ebert will be reviewing the film for the April 29th theatrical release in Chicago. Box Office Magazine calls Queen of the Sun, "the feel-good advocacy movie of the year."

Austin Counts, a former Weekly intern and current contributor (check out "Tea Party Pooper" here), is seeking funds to continue production of his film The Border: Issues in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands.

More details below:

A lot has happened in Southern Arizona over the past year and two UA journalism students want to bring that story to the silver screen, but need your help.

Opposing views over issues like SB 1070 and TUSD ethnic studies reached a fever pitch last year, putting Arizona in the national media spotlight. In turn, these issues have resulted in some negative consequences for people living on both sides of the border.

Austin Counts and Curtis Prendergast have been documenting these events and others for their upcoming film, THE BORDER: Issues in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, over the past year.

The project is being funded through www.Kickstarter.com, a website that connects people who have a creative project with those that want to fund creative projects. Counts and Prendergast have already raised their minimum goal of $1,500 to continue pursuing the project. However, in order to properly produce and distribute the documentary on the lowest possible budget, an additional $3,000-$4,000 is needed.

Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of "Fast Five"

Seems about right, although I wonder what's going on with that kid that he's writing sex scenes between Jordana Brewster and Paul Walker (or whatever happens in those movies, I've only caught a few minutes of some of them when they're showing on basic cable).

Why anyone would pretend to have seen a movie I'm not sure - no one thinks better of you because of a movie related lie, I think that's still exclusively book fib territory - but a British video rental service found that 80% of those surveyed had lied about a movie they claimed to have seen, with approximately 30% saying they had stretched the truth about having seen The Godfather. This was a survey of British people, so who knows what to say about their taste in films, but I'd hope that Americans picked something a little less essential to the history of cinema to fake-see. Titanic, maybe? Forrest Gump?

There are a number of things I like very much about the trailer for 30 Minutes or Less: I like the cast, especially Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride, I liked Zombieland a lot, etc.

However, the minute I saw that Jesse Eisenberg is playing a pizza delivery guy forced to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest, I thought of Brian Wells, the subject of a very strange series of events in 2003, which ended for him with a bomb exploding around his neck on local television, which is very, very far from what most people consider humorous. Obviously, 30 Minutes or Less was only vaguely inspired by the real life case, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to shake the real life case long enough to want to see the movie.

Tonight wraps up the Arizona International Film Festival and it seems somewhat poetic that a documentary about Fourth Avenue closes the festivities. The Avenue shows at the Screening Room tonight at 8 pm, and the filmmaker will be in attendance.

If nothing else, it'll be worth seeing the movie for a moment teased on the website where Bob Walkup says that "downtown and Rio Nuevo was worth the money".

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

You might have seen Terje Sorgjerd's time lapse Aurora Borealis film passed around the internet recently, but his newest short film from atop Spain's highest mountain might be just as beautiful, even if it does make me feel like I'm living inside a Windham Hill album.

From his Vimeo page:

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.
Spain´s highest mountain @(3715m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.

The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.

A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April (bit.ly/g3tsDW) and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.

Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.

From May's issue of GQ:

I was down there for Mardi Gras; Cage was probably down there to buy human skulls. I arrived early for my dinner at Stella! (an excellent restaurant whose only crime against taste is that exclamation point), so I decided to wait for my friends at the fine bar. There were four stools, three of them occupied: by a fortyish couple and a man in a Mardi Gras mask who was buying them flamboyant beverages. The man sounded an awful lot like Milton from Drive Angry 3D. He wore rings the size of iguana heads. I took a seat at the bar, and when I looked over again, I saw Cage, unmasked.

The woman was showing Cage cell-phone pics of the couple's adorable Latino-American kids. They must have been cute, because it drove him to melodramatic heights. "Now, that's AMERICA!" he declared, pounding the bar. More drinks!

He wanted to be friends forever. "Gimme your card. I want your card!" said Cage to the husband. The guy didn't have a card to give.

"How do I get in contact with you?" Cage nearly screamed. "GIVE ME YOUR DIGITS!!!"

You might remember that we discussed the first volume of the Atlas Shrugged film trilogy a while ago, mostly focusing on the fact that the director appeared on several episodes on the original 90210.

Well, it's Rand time at the El Con theater! Be forewarned, the liberal media is already sharpening their razor wit to take down this filmed assault on collectivism, with only 6% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, with Rolling Stone's Peter Travers commenting that "Ayn Rand's monumental 1,168-page, 1957 novel gets the low-budget, no-talent treatment and sits there flapping on screen like a bludgeoned seal."

Honestly, I tried to find a largely positive review from a legit source, but even Reason Magazine, which seems like the ideal audience for such a film, called it "like watching early rehearsals of a stage play that’s clearly doomed." Caveat emptor, but now I'm sort of wanting to see it, mostly because I like trains.

Documentary filmmaker Zachary Levi has made a unique film—both in subject matter and format.

Strongman tells the story of Stanley Pleskun, aka Stanless Steel, a professional strongman who is "the only person in the world who can bend a penny with his fingers."

The film took 10 years to make and uses a very rare form of verite (no interviews, narration, or even music in the film). Director Levi says, "It is probably one of only a handful of films to reach commercial screens in the last 30 years that doesn't have music in it."

How the film was financed is a story unto itself. Levi sold "Bush Cards" to fund the film. www.bushcards.com. The 52-card playing deck has Bush administration figures and will "help you call a spade a spade" and "is still perfect for the same old tricks you have become accustomed to." The cards have a variety of facts, figures and quotes designed to "shock and awe."

Even more unusual is that Levy is distributing the film himself without sales agents and publicists. The film opens at the Loft Cinema on Friday, April 15.

Reviews have been favorable. John Anderson of Variety wrote "A strange and strangely beautiful movie." Roger Ebert wrote, "I watched with quiet fascination."

Watch the trailer below.

Strongman Trailer from Zachary Levy on Vimeo.