Husband-and-wife moviemakers Bill Briles and Aleta Douroudian will be screening their film Reck and Ima today at Crossroads Grand Cinemas. See film times below.

This is Briles' second film. His first, Romance at Frisky's Bar, was released two years ago and is on Netflix. Both of his films focus on the struggle of finding that special mate.

Here's a summary from Briles' press release:

Reck, a 43-year-old Southern boy chases Ima, the love of this life, to Tucson, Arizona. While making a pizza delivery, he runs into Brent Thomas, a university student doing a research study on social rejects—or as young Mr. Thomas puts it, "the lives of losers." Reck, Ima and their rag-tag friends are enlisted for the study, but things get interesting when Lorris Patterson, a classmate of Brent, who disagrees with his thesis, secretly teaches "the losers" how to become "winners." Reck, throught the adventure, strives to win the heart of Ima.

The cast and crew of the film all reside in Tucson and the surrounding area. Visit reckandima.com for more information.

Screenings:

Thursday, April 15
Wednesday, April 21
Thursday, April 22
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; film at 7 p.m.
There will be a Q&A with the director and cast, along with a meet-and-greet for singles and couples.
Tickets are $7.75.

Crossroads Grand Cinemas
4811 E. Grant Road.

It's time again for First Friday Shorts at the Loft Cinema! Join "Red Meat" cartoonist Max Cannon and see what your fellow Tucsonans have cooked up this month. We hear a lot of buzz on The Cordial Dead, which will be premiering tonight! Details here.

Also at the Loft: North Face, A Prophet and Fish Tank.

The Loft's late-night Cult Classic this weekend: Howl's Moving Castle.

Sizzle comes to the Loft Cinema at 7 p.m. this Wednesday, March 31. Details here.

Randy Olson, a marine biologist who became a filmmaker with Sizzle, will be at the Loft for the screening and a subsequent Q&A that will include UA professors Julia Cole of geosciences, Diana Liverman of the Institute of the Environment, Brian McGill of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and Jacqueline Sharkey of the School of Journalism. (BTW: Sharkey is also my boss over at UA School of Journalism.)

Olson is also in town to help celebrate EarthWeek, "a showcase of research by undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences," according to Mari Jensen of the UA College of Science. Olson will deliver a lively plenary lecture that encourages future scientists to go a little more gonzo. You can catch "Don't be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style," at

Tonight at The Shanty: Drinking Liberally presents a screening of The Cove, which recently won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Details here.

It sounds pretty disturbing, based on what we read at Wikipedia:

The movie follows former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry's quest to document the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. In the 1960s, O'Barry captured and trained the five wild dolphins who would play the role of "Flipper" in the hit television series of the same name. This pop-culture phenomenon fueled widespread public adoration of dolphins. It was when one of the dolphins committed a form of suicide in his arms, closing her blowhole voluntarily in order to suffocate, that O'Barry came to see it as a curse not a blessing. Days later, he found himself off the island of Bimini, attempting to cut a hole in the sea pen in order to set free a captured dolphin.[9] Since then O'Barry has worked tirelessly as an advocate on behalf of dolphins around the world.

After meeting with O'Barry, Psihoyos and his crew travel to the small town of Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonder of the dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. But in an isolated cove, surrounded by wire and "Keep Out" signs, some of the townspeople hide a stark reality. It is here that the fisherman of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and a dubious and artificial market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in the unseen killing. Local volunteers physically block attempts by outsiders to view the dolphin killing taking place in the cove. Together with the Oceanic Preservation Society, Psihoyos, O'Barry, and the crew utilize special tactics and embark on a mission to get the truth on what is really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone else in the world.

So what if it's been described as an "exceptionally dirty-mouthed after-school special?"

I miss those after-school specials. Much more interesting than a story about a bad-girl-turned chainsaw carver, the other Cherie Currie story.

The Screening Room is mixing it up this year with a variety of films.

Tonight at 8 p.m., it's horror film Necrosis: Six friends are trapped in a cabin on the site of the Donner party's cannibalistic slaughter. As ghosts emerge, close friends start to turn against each other.

At 7 p.m., Saturday, March 6, Tucson filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson presents The Unholy Tarahumara, a non-traditional documentary about two Tarahumara families. The film has been screened in 13 film festivals in the United States and Europe.

Then at 8:15, Ferguson's Rita of the Sky screens. Here's the description from the filmmaker:

Rita of the Sky is a documentary about Rita, a mysterious woman who was erroneously placed in a Kansas mental hospital because her unrecognized native language was described as “guttural noises” of a mentally ill person. It has screened at the Arizona International Film Festival (Best Documentary, Best of Arizona), Cherokee Nation International Film Festival (Best Documentary), Boston Latino International Film Festival, and LA Femme Film Festival, Los Angeles. Borderlands Theater produced a play about Rita called The Woman Who Fell From the Sky. It just completed its 250th world presentation in Mexico City.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., Rita of the Sky screens and is followed by a discussion with Kathryn Ferguson; Barclay Goldsmith, director of the play The Women Who Fell From the Sky; and Mike Wilson, a Native community activist.

The Screening Room is located at 127 E. Congress St. Call 882-0204 for info.

Your friends and neighbors are making movies—and you can see them tonight at First Friday Shorts at the Loft Cinema! Details here.

This weekend's late-night cult classic: Dazed and Confused.

The Loft, BTW, is currently screening four Academy Award nominees. When you throw in beer and pizza, this has got to be Tucson's best theater, hands down.

The White Ribbon opens this week at the Loft Cinema. Details here.

City of Lost Children is the Loft's late-night cult classic this weekend. It's a treat on the big screen. Trailer after the jump.

BANDE ANNONCE DU TOUR DE FRANCE 2009

les lutins du court métrage | MySpace Video

French shorts at the Loft Cinema tonight! Details here.

In TQ&A this week, I interviewed Han Nguyen and Ceil Melton, about a great punk they pulled on an Austin, Texas church that doesn't care much for anyone under the LGBT banner. For the past few years, the lesbian ministers have been on a spiritual journey looking for a church that reflected Melton’s evangelical roots, but was accepting.

The journey took them from being rejected by an Austin Pentecostal church to the megachurch the couple punked when they posed as straight missionaries. The women, together for 16 years, documented the experience on film in Faith of the Abomination. It premieres at the Loft on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m. Read an extended version of interview after the jump.