52nd City

New WU Film Calendar Out

Spent nearly five hours last night watching student projects from Webster U. film and video types and, boy!, that's one way to spend a Saturday evening. No complaints, though, because it meant hanging out with some talented students, the P-D's Joe Williams and the ringleader of the WU Film Series, Michael Steinberg. Out in the hallway was the latest bit of his hanidwork, the new WU Film Series calendar for May, June & July (and just a pinch of August).

Among the highlights:

May 4: Crispin Hellion Glover. Yeah, yeah. More on this Tuesday, when I post the interview with CHG. That tape's a keeper.

May 6: The Webster Student Film & Video Festival. Live music plus two-hours-and-change of the best work from WU's current batch of student filmmakers.

June 7: "Dazed and Confused" at the Bottleworks. Best teen movie ever. Ever, ever, ever. Except for "Say Anything."

June 8: "Vinyl." An exploration of record collecting culture. Are you kidding me? Out there for five years, this is the STL premiere.

July 7-9: "Crossing the Bridge." Wonderful German/Turkish director Fatih Akin ("Head-On," "In July") explores the street music of Turkey with Alexander Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten. Wow. That's spells: Weird Subcultural Audience. Me included. Hey-o!

July 15-30: A Louis Malle retrospective with 10 films shown over three weekends. Now, Netflix has made life cinematic life so easy, with the chance to dip back into all those movies that you meant to see but never did. Still, it's not the same as seeing these classic works on the bigscreen. The films here span the French director's career, with titles from 1958-1990, including one of those pieces I always meant to see, but never did, "My Dinner with Andre."