FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
MUTUM Living on a remote Brazilian farm, a boy tries to understand the ways of adults, using Catholic doctrines of sin and redemption as his guide. (Also Sept. 22) 6 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
FINDERS KEEPERS In this Cold War farce, British rock legend Cliff Richard and his band, the Shadows, are pulled into the search for a AWOL A-bomb. (1966, 94 min) Shown with RHYTHM 'N' GREENS, in which the Shadows deliver a rockin' history of Britain. (Cliff Richard has a cameo as King Knut). (1964, 32 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
WONDERFUL TOWN In Aditya Assarat's moody drama, a Bangkok architect who's designing a new resort for a tsunami-devastated Thai town falls for the woman who manages the otherwise-unoccupied hotel where he's staying. (2007, 92 min) Shown with Christopher Chong's Malaysia-set short, POOL. (2007, 13 min) 7 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
LOVE, PAIN, AND VICE VERSA In this thriller, a romantically frustrated Mexico City architect enlists the police to find the man who is literally her dream date: She's encountered him only in her sleep, although it turns out that he really exists. (Also Sept. 21) 8 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
PARAISO TRAVEL As a newly arrived Colombian immigrant flees New York City cops, flashbacks recount the hazardous journey he and his girlfriend undertook to reach the U.S. (Also Sept. 20) 10 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
LATIN SHORTS This program includes films from Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil; in the last of these, sexy Alice Braga plays a woman involved in a Romeo and Juliet-like scenario. (Also Sept. 21) 12:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD In 1960s Venezuela, two imaginative kids await word of their parents, revolutionaries who have gone underground, or perhaps overseas. (Also Sept. 21) 1 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
CHILDREN PLAYING GODS This documentary observes Varanasi's festival of Ramlila, when children take to the streets to depict stories from the Ramayana. Directors Irfana Majumdar and Arshad Mirza will attend the screening. (2007, 60 min) 2 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
ALL INCLUSIVE While ostensibly reconnecting on a package vacation in Mexico, the members of a Chilean family head in separate directions, mostly in pursuit of sex. (2008, 95 min) 3 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE MYSTERY OF SAMBA This Brazilian documentary, which features singer Maria Monte, considers the career and inspirations of Velha Guarda da Portela, the group that long been the most honored at Rio's annual carnival. (Also Sept. 21) 5 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
WHOSE GARTER BELT IS THIS? In 1980s Argentina, a woman tries to reconcile a friend and her straying boyfriend, leading to comic complications. (2007, 107 min) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
THE SHORT FILMS OF APICHATPONG WEERASETHEKUL Short films by the Thai director of such film-fest hits as Syndromes and a Century and Tropical Malady. 2 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
INQUIETUDE The theme of identity links the various strands of Manoel de Oliveira's film, which knits a play and two short stories by three different writers into a single narrative. (1998, 100 min) 4:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
MY TIME WILL COME After years on the job, an Ecuadoran medical examiner gradually realize that his profession is getting to him. (2007, 90 min) (Also Sept. 21) 5 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE SKY, THE EARTH, AND THE RAIN This picturesque Chilean film depicts the quiet, lonely lives of three women and one man who live on a remote island in the country's wintry far south. (2008, 111 min) (Also Sept. 25) 9 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
BLIND DIRECTOR Defying traditional cinematic structure, Alexander Kluge fragments narrative to show how one moment can define both past and future. 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW. $6.
DAYS IN SINTRA Paula Gaitan's experimental film contemplates her return from Brazil after a long period in Portugal, where her husband, Cinema Novo pioneer Glauber Rocha, died in exile. (2008, 90 min) (Also Sept. 24) 9 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
A GLIMPSE OF DE KOONING In this short, the painter discusses his style with cohort Franz Kline and critic Harold Rosenberg. (1968, 20 min) noon, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
JOURNEY TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE This documentary explores the lives of people who reside north of the Arctic Circle, and the possible effects of global warming on their traditions and livelihoods. The film's director, German TV correspondent Klaus Scherer, will host the screening. (2006, 90 min) 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW. Free; RSVP rsvp@washington.goethe.org or 202 289 1200, ext 160.
EVE'S BAYOU There are three elements to actress Kasi Lemmons' feature-directing debut, which turns out to be two more than the film can credibly handle. Lemmons' portrayal of middle-class African-American life in segregated early-'60s Louisiana is remarkable and distinctive, but when she adds incest and voodoo to the mix, things become a lot less convincing. The film's narrator, 10-year-old Eve (Jurnee Smollett), is the worshipful daughter of dashing doctor Louis Batiste (producer Samuel L. Jackson). That worship, however, is tarnished during the first scene, a party where Eve discovers what her mother Roz (Lynn Whitfield) already knows: That Louis is a philanderer. Eve's life is further complicated by the influence of her aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), who has "the gift of sight," and her older sister Cicely (Meagan Good), who accuses dad of what's known in contemporary jargon as "improper touching." For a first-time director, Lemmons attempts some ambitious sequences, and she gets memorable performances from the cast, especially Jackson as the insouciant Louis. 7 pm, National Museum of Women in the Arts Reservations recommended; reservations@nmwa.org or 202 783 7370. $5.
2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY An American example of "serious farce" genre, this strenuous (and bloody) ensemble-cast exercise begins when a woman hires a killer to dispose of her husband, and expands to include a suicidal director, weird cops, and a personal trainer. The valley is the San Fernando, of course. (1996, 107 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
THE SIGNAL An Argentinian box-office hit, this is a tale of small-time detectives during the Eva Peron era. (2007, 95 min) 9 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
RASHOMON Akira Kurosawa's international breakthrough is most often cited as the film that put Japanese cinema on the map when it won the Grand Prize at the 1951 Venice Film festival and a Best Foreign Film Oscar. But its ambiguous narrative, shifting viewpoints, and stylistic mix were also a crucial influence on the French new novelists and new-wave directors (especially Alain Resnais), inspiring a mode of film noir mystification that continues in more recent movies like The Usual Suspects. Told in flashbacks, this is the story of a bandit (Toshiro Mifune) who rapes a woman (Machiko Kyu) in an attack that leaves her husband (Masayuki Mori) dead. There are three different accounts of how he died, each offered by one of the participants. (The slain man's testimony is eerily presented by a medium.) Then a witness (Takashi Shimura) offers his own version of the incident. 6:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
COCALERO This Bolivian documentary offers a complex view of the U.S.-directed war against cocaine, and its effects on local politics and the livelihoods of indigenous coca farmers. (2007, 94 min) (Also Sept. 29) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
TUPAC: RESURRECTION Using substantial footage of the late hip-hop icon, this documentary sketches the life and Tupac Shakur. (2003, 110 min) 7 pm, National Portrait Gallery, McEvoy Auditorium, 8th & F Sts NW. Free.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
SELECTED WORK: STEINA AND WOODY VASULKA This program of shorts by the pioneering video artists includes Woody's Vocabulary and Soundgated Images. (1970-78) 6 pm, Smithsonian American Art Museum, McEvoy Auditorium, 8th & G Sts NW. Free.
THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE Directed by Michael Curtiz, and based on an Erle Stanley Gardner novel, this is a zippy Perry Mason mystery. (1935, 74 min) Shown with JIMMY THE GENT, also directed by Curtiz, in which James Cagney plays a con man who specializes in the heirs of people who have died without a will. (1934, 67 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
AMAL The simple goodness of New Delhi rickshaw driver Amal so inspires one of his passengers that the stranger decides to make the driver rich — much to the dismay of the benefactor's potential heirs. Filmmaker Richie Mehta and star Rupinder Nagra will attend. (2007, 118 min) This is the opening night program of the 9th Annual DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival. 7:30 pm, Landmark E Street. $15-20.
UNDER OUR SKIN This award-winning documentary about Lyme disease is sponsored by NatCapLyme. 8 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. Free, but reservation required.