Herewith, notes on the Portland International Film Festival's Grimm (and grimmer) opening-night silent-film Blancanieves, and the edgy, Man VS. Nature doc, Leviathan, plus notes on the recently restored stone-cold classic doc, Cousin Jules.

Simply put, Michael Haneke's Amour is an instant, harrowing classic about one of the most important issues of our time.

Like a comet, The Roots orbit Planet 'Roo in nearly five-year intervals, from the festival's second year ('03), through its middle ('07) and, if the cosmic doomsayers are correct about 2012, its end.

Released from the van like a fish returning to water, I hit the streets of Austin dazed, before I eventually was lost in the crowd, as their caravan rolled on.

I'm re-posting this review from NYFF#48 to earnestly remind fans of engagé cinema that today is their last chance to screen Post-Mortem, an essential, unflinching meditation on Chile's semi-recent history -- and by extension, its (and our own) ongoing internal reckoning.

From Iceland's first sound feature through a look at DIY music circa '81, to a certified international blockbuster, New York cinephiles are getting a terrific, once-in-a-lifetime primer on less-exposed, eminently worthwhile films from Iceland.

I was invited to film some Rubber Tracks sessions at the Converse/The Fader Fort during SXSW, and the afternoon I made it in with my camera served as a reminder that sometimes the raw process is more arresting to witness than the finished result.

I think it's important to live in the past and the present simultaneously -- it's what makes us what we are. We all do anyway, might as well admit it and embrace it.

At the New York Film Festival, three instant classics of engagé cinema -- one from Egypt and two from Iran (including BFF Oscar-winner A Separation) -- quite stunningly took on the weight of history.

If the end of the world or your final film? is when you say what you really mean, perhaps with The Turin Horse, Béla Tarr is giving the last laugh to the Gypsies of his state-seized debut film (shot at age 16) and delivering a stone-cold classic.

In anticipation of 12/21/12, this past year saw a return of the doomsday film. Melancholia was an okay end-of-the-world movie, but for this fan, it was not a very good Lars Von Trier film. Perhaps a third viewing is in order.

This is not a year-end list -- the headline says it all -- herewith, two dozen filmed performances.

Sunday's race wasn't the only marathon in town. As the New York Film Festival approaches year 50, the team at the Film Society of Lincoln Center is curating a year-long countdown.

Tonight, New York cinephiles are getting a once-in-a-lifetime experience as Paul Morrissey, Warhol's in-house Factory cameramen turned indie auteur debuts his new film, News From Nowhere.

For most Americans, it may be hard to believe there is another nation on Earth for whom 9/11 is a defining day -- but to Chileans, it is, and was so, long before ours. In fact, Chile's 9/11 occurred with the aid of unseen US influence facilitating a bloody military coup d'etat.

Here's Anna Calvi performing at Le Poisson Rouge, which was once the legendary jazz venue the Village Gate.

Into Eternity, a film positing our suicidal quagmire of nuclear waste, is an open letter to whatever life may exist 100,000 years from now.

As I look through images from the sold-out 2010 Coachella, and prepare for my beloved Bonnaroo, I'm posting an essay I wrote for a magazine published ...