Your Guide to the 2012 Nashville Film Festival

The name doesn't lie: With an unprecedented number of selections from Middle Tennessee filmmakers, it really is the Nashville Film Festival this year. At age 43, the city's annual celebration of regional, foreign and independent cinema reflects an outpouring of local efforts — so much so that the festival's opening night, Thursday, April 19, has been largely set aside in their honor.

Throughout this year's fest, running through April 26 at Regal's Green Hills megaplex, you'll find documentaries featuring topics of hometown concern, from the indomitable Nashville Rollergirls (Hell or High Water, 8:30 p.m. April 19) to the phenomenally successful The Contributor (Street Paper, 4:45 p.m. April 22). You'll find local performers such as the gifted Nashville stage actress Tamiko Robinson, making her starring feature debut in Ernie Park's hour-long coming-of-age drama Late Summer (5:30 p.m. April 19). And you'll find local filmmakers working in styles and genres as varied as animation (Mike Salva's "Pound Dogs," screening before George the Hedgehog, 10 p.m. April 22), horror (Motke Dapp's The Many Monsters of Sadness, 10 p.m. April 19) and superhero slapstick (Potsy Ponciroli's Super Zeroes, 10 p.m. April 20).

But it's having these talents recognized as part of a broader pool, including films from the worldwide festival circuit as well as regional discoveries, that prevents the NaFF from becoming an exercise in either boosterism or self-congratulation. Because scheduling presents tougher choices every year, we've previewed more than 40 selections at this year's festival, offering tips on movies you shouldn't miss (and a few you might avoid).

We also offer these practical tips for navigating a festival that could draw as many as 25,000 visitors over the next seven days. First, buy tickets early at or in the Green Hills downstairs lobby — especially for any screening or event that includes celebrities (such as the epic Nicole Kidman/Famke Janssen/Beth Grant/Carrie Preston panel, 4:30 p.m. April 21). Watch the boards in the lobby for added screenings, sold-out shows, cancellations, etc. Second, line up at least a half-hour early to assure your seat. That'll also give you a chance to strike up conversations about what you've seen and what others are seeing — a great way to find movies that otherwise wouldn't appear on your radar.

Watch the Scene's arts blog Country Life for daily updates, trailers and other festival dispatches. So find a seat. The show's about to begin.

★ = Highly Recommended

Thursday, April 19

★ERASING HATE (4 p.m.)

A stirring chronicle of former skinhead Bryon Widner's attempt to redeem himself, Erasing Hate offers an intimate and thoughtful look at both the causes and consequences of involvement in the white nationalism movement. Though Widner and his family have moved to Middle Tennessee to get a fresh start, his face is covered with racist tattoos — making it hard for him to get a job, let alone cleanse himself of his hateful past (which included stints as a violent enforcer for several organizations). Enter the Southern Poverty Law Center, which pays for Widner to have his tattoos removed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Erasing Hate captures the excruciatingly painful process — 25 surgeries over 20 months — in unflinching footage that is difficult to watch, but it helps demonstrate how this agonizing physical penance helps Widner find some semblance of peace. Most importantly, the former skinhead offers his own personal testimony on how fear, insecurity, family turmoil and personal dissatisfaction can form fertile soil for scapegoat ideologies. Lawrence O'Donnell narrates. A 45-minute cut aired last year on MSNBC, but writer/producer/director Bill Brummel is raising money to buy back the feature-film rights from the cable network so he can pursue a theatrical release for the 92-minute version screening here. For information, visit indiegogo.com/ErasingHate-campaign. JACK SILVERMAN

★THE DYNAMITER (5:30 p.m.; also 11:30 a.m. April 21)

Like its hero — a laconic 14-year-old (newcomer William Ruffin) dodging the law as he tries to hide the fact his mom skipped out on him and his little brother — this affecting Independent Spirit nominee by first-time director Matthew Gordon is a real diamond in the rough. Cast persuasively with nonprofessionals, shot on Mississippi locations so tactile you can chew the dust, it's largely a movie about hanging out with this wily kid as he handles a job, messes with girls, holds his scraggly family together as best he can when his troublesome older brother shows up, and gets his ass kicked a few times but always goes down swinging. Comparisons to Days of Heaven and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows suggest less the style or level of accomplishment than the mark the movie leaves in memory: When it was over, I worried that this compelling little scrapper wasn't as nimble a survivor as he thought he was, and I've thought about him ever since. JIM RIDLEY

★ATTENBERG (5:45 p.m.; also 2:45 p.m. April 20)

Few films this year will offer the same quotient of joy, melancholy, and unalloyed strangeness as Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg, another gem from the recent "Weird Wave" in Greece. In some vague respects a kind of feminist obverse to last year's Dogtooth (whose director, Yorgos Lanthimos, plays "the love interest"), Attenberg is the odd tale of Marina (Ariane Labed). She has grown up unintentionally asexual (possibly because of the failed modernist housing project her dad designed), and she plans to do something about it. Nature documentaries, tongue-kissing practice, and unfathomably goofy walk-dancing will help in her quest. Highly recommended. In Greek with subtitles. MICHAEL SICINSKI

BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING (6:30 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. April 22)

At one point in Neil Berkeley's documentary, with smartass mock bravado, artist-designer-puppeteer Wayne White holds up a 2009 Scene cover story on his work and says, "Look, Mom! I made it!" But in his feature-length debut, Berkeley wisely plays up White's underdog status even as he moves from Pee Wee's Playhouse and Peter Gabriel videos to his celebrated word paintings. He's not the warmest protagonist, but you end up rooting for him anyway because his irreverent defiance is so much fun to watch — and because he's plainly a huge talent. Berkeley does a great job of following the many strands of the Tennessee native's career from MTSU parties and joblessness to contemporary art darling with a seemingly unlimited array of accomplishments — not to mention a talented wife (Mimi Pond) and two cool kids. White and Berkeley will attend. LAURA HUTSON

★THE ROMANCE OF LONELINESS (7:15 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. April 20)

It's difficult to classify Sarah Ledbetter and Matteo Servente's brief and subtle yet strangely enthralling feature. At just under an hour, the Tennessee-shot picture seems in some ways like the middle portion of a film removed from its context: it has the feel of a novella as it follows three Southern women — a grandmother (Lynn Cohen) and her two granddaughters (Memphian songstress Amy LaVere and Rebekah Brandes) — who attend a relative's same-sex wedding. The movie's themes and point may be somewhat elusive, but there's never any doubt about the filmmakers' control: even if you can't pin down exactly what the film is trying to say, the way it's communicated is riveting. STEVEN HALE

★AFTER (9 p.m.; also noon April 20)

Following a meet-cute shattered by a catastrophic accident, After wastes no time immersing us in the lives of two individuals who may be the only people in the world. Since there's a giant wall of swirling evil slowly contracting around them, the metaphorical race is on. As with most suspense/otherworldly thrillers, you find yourself hoping that it's not going to settle for a dumb twist or rote predictability: the exciting surprise is how smartly co-writer/director Ryan Smith avoids those pitfalls. The lead performance from Magic City up-and-comer Steven Strait is great, and Nashville's Magnetic Dreams devised some remarkably good special effects (including a first-rate monster): a couple of simply magnificent images of weird, surreal power will stay with you. Some dialogue rings a little flat, and some narrative transitions seem a bit too on the nose, but it's been ages since we've had a local effort this strong. JASON SHAWHAN

HIT SO HARD (9:15 p.m.)

The template for rock docs seems calcified, thanks to Behind The Music and the urge some artists get to justify their careers and/or new records. But drummer Patty Schemel (of Hole and The Licks fame) isn't selling a new record or herself as an unsung icon. She just wants to rock (and maybe help take care of some dogs here and there). At its best, Hit So Hard provides an intimate wallow in the rock life, with Schemel's amazing Hi-8 footage from the '90s offering telling glimpses of the Cobains and their extended musical family; it's also a fiercely political film about sexism, homophobia, industry chicanery and drugs. Never grandiose or maudlin, Schemel is a deftly funny subject, and her life story has triumph and tragedy in equal parts. If the film can't break as many boundaries as its subject did and sometimes gets caught up in multi-quadrant shenanigans or onscreen sloganeering, that's forgivable in light of some of the amazing stuff the movie shows. We'll never get as unfiltered and chatty a Courtney Love telling her own story as we do here, so you know it's going to dish good dirt. JASON SHAWHAN

Friday, April 20

★BROOKLYN CASTLE (noon; also 8 p.m. April 25)

The feature-length directorial debut of filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore centers on I.S. 318, a Brooklyn junior high where more than 60 percent of students come from homes with incomes below the poverty line. But it's practically ground zero for rising chess stars, with a history of 26 national titles and counting. In the vein of the 2002 spelling-bee doc Spellbound, Brooklyn Castle focuses on individual kids who are natural charmers — Pobo, the charismatic scene stealer; Rochelle, the ambitious female player; Patrick, the ADHD kid who's not great at chess but eager to learn; and Justus, the precocious sixth grader with a rank that's almost as high as his coach's. The documentary succeeds in being heartwarming but not maudlin, inspiring but not overblown. It's also galvanizing — the excellent program is under threat of budgetary cuts, and it's hard not to want to Western Union a chunk of your salary to the cause after the credits roll. LAURA HUTSON

BURROS (12:15 p.m.; also 5:45 p.m. April 25)

Set in the heady days of 1940s Mexican land reform, this coming-of-age drama follows 11-year-old Lautaro as he's shuffled from mother to aunt to friend-of-the-family after witnessing his father's murder by a wealthy land baron's assassins. The movie carries echoes of a classic, Victor Erice's Spirit of the Beehive, which also views the world through the eyes of a child, with magic and spiritualism masking hardship and tedium. But the stylistic affectations (including cloying musical cues and hand-drawn chapter titles) prove highly distracting from the otherwise interesting story. Where Spirit comes alive, Burros falls flat, and I wonder if first-time director Odin Salazar Flores needs more time to germinate. In Spanish with subtitles. TONY YOUNGBLOOD

★ADALBERT'S DREAM (12:30 p.m.; also 5:30 p.m. April 25)

This biting Romanian satire opens with the final moments of the 1986 European Cup, when Steaua Bucharest goalie Helmuth Duckadam miraculously blocked all four of Barcelona's overtime spot-kicks. The next day, it's all safety engineer Iulica and his factory co-workers can talk about, back-handedly praising Helmuth by wondering, "What's wrong with him?" A fitting metaphor for life in Communist Romania where beneath the surface, the real economy bubbles — Iulica sells tickets to private screenings on his contraband VCR, a lathe operator makes extra utensils on the sly, another smuggles eggs in her hair buns. While the workers attend the premiere of Iulica's two new "work safety" films, another accident occurs, perhaps inevitable in a culture where survival means keeping up appearances while looking the other way. In Romanian with subtitles. TONY YOUNGBLOOD

★SARABAH (2:30 p.m.; also 5:30 p.m. April 24)

Sarabah is the name of the mythical place this documentary's subject, Sengalese rapper/singer/activist Sister Fa, says she often imagined visiting as a child, a spot where the sad and unhappy can find refuge. After hearing her harrowing story, you can hardly blame her for wanting to skip off to Never Never Land. As a young girl, she was the victim of FGC, or female genital cutting, prompting her to devote her life and career to speaking out against genital mutilation and telling people why this hideous, scarring tradition must be stopped. This 60-minute doc will certainly have viewers male or female feeling compassion for Fa as she travels back to her homeland, seeking to get people both young and old in her corner while battling those who dismiss her as a clueless rapper. In Wolof, Dyula, French and German with subtitles. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN (3 p.m.; also 5:45 p.m. April 25)

Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky's look at the sale of the Atlantic Yards to Forest City Ratner is gripping and well timed. It follows Daniel Goldstein, a reluctant activist whose residence is under threat of destruction under eminent-domain law. The story begins in 2005, turns a corner after the (spoiler alert!) financial crisis of 2008, and sees the project through to its completion, which may come as a surprise to those who don't follow Brooklyn's regional news. The documentary has the obstacle of filming a historical event as it unfolds, but luckily Goldstein provides the story with the narrative structure it needs — he breaks up with his fiancé, meets someone new and has a child with her, all with cameras rolling. LAURA HUTSON

★ABSENT (3:15 p.m.; also 7:45 p.m. April 23)

In this Argentinian meditation on power and guilt, Javier De Pietro plays Martín, a teenage swim student who fakes an eye injury to get closer to his swim teacher, Sebastián. As the lies compound, Sebastián's job security is thrown increasingly into question as Martín presses toward "something" happening between the two. Absent approaches this less like a love story, however, and more like a stomach-churning psychological thriller. But don't expect some insane Single White Female twist: Absent plays out as a tensely realistic slow boil, edging toward the lurid but never crossing into the absurd. The film toys with the concept of victimhood, flipping the script hard in the final scenes of the movie to question just exactly who was playing whom. In Spanish with subtitles. LANCE CONZETT

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★BESTIAIRE (5:15 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. April 25)

Canadian director Denis Côté is one of the most exciting young talents on the current festival scene. Each of his last two films — the isolationist character study Carcasses and the homicidal black comedy Curling — looked as if it would be his breakthrough. Maybe three's the charm with this exquisite observational documentary about animals in captivity. Beginning with art students drawing a stuffed deer, and settling in for its extended middle third at a Quebec zoo, Bestiaire is a sly meditation on a complex conundrum: Humans need animals in order to truly see ourselves. MICHAEL SICINSKI

BRICK AND MORTAR AND LOVE (5:15 p.m.; also screening 4:30 p.m. April 21 at Grimey's for Record Store Day)

Billed as a tribute to the country's small independent record stores and their vinyl-hoarding fans, Brick and Mortar and Love laboriously documents and defends the struggles of beloved Louisville record store ear X-tacy. It's a mildly interesting case study, initially seeming like a microcosm of the fragile music business at large. But the drama becomes tiring as you start to wonder exactly why such a successful store had such a hard time keeping its doors open — on my last visit to Louisville, my usual stop to ear X-tacy found a vacant location and an out-of-business sign on the door — while other stores like our own Grimey's seem to be thriving. Locals will enjoy seeing Grimey, Doyle and some other local regulars pop up on the big screen here, but may spend the remaining time wishing this slightly amateurish doc (which credits "Queens of the Stoned Age" at one point) had come up with a more thorough tribute to indie record stores. SAM SMITH

SIRONIA (5:30 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. April 21)

Singer-songwriter Wes Cunningham and director Brandon Dickerson wrote this screenplay about a frustrated rock musician (Cunningham) who ditches Los Angeles for a small Texas town after refusing to compromise his art for commerce. Nashvillians may remember Cunningham from his days here in the late '90s, playing the clubs and recording 12 Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking for Warner Bros. Lyrics from his songs inspired the storyline, and it's reasonable to assume his own experiences in the major-label meat grinder factored into the script. At times the film seems like a showcase for the music, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Regardless, Cunningham pouts and mopes credibly (and looks remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis) in the lead role, and Amy Acker does well as his increasingly frustrated wife. Also featuring Law & Order's Jeremy Sisto as Cunningham's agent. JACK SILVERMAN

★ONE NIGHT STAND (5:45 p.m.; also 4:30 p.m. April 25)

Anyone who has ever derived any sort of pleasure from musical theater needs to see this look at the second annual 24 Hour Musicals, a fundraiser that pairs composers and librettists with a bunch of intriguing performers (including Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 30 Rock's Rachel Dratch, Broadway treasure Cheyenne Jackson, A Serious Man's Richard Kind, and David Lynch/Cybill Shepherd collaborator Alicia Witt). In one 24-hour stretch, four groups will compose and perform a 15-minute piece with two new songs in it, and the end results are thrilling: think the 48 Hour Film Festival, but with more integrity and less evil. The creative process is always fascinating and, thanks to directors Trish Dalton and Elizabeth Sperling, breezy. Frothy fun with some of the stage's finest. JASON SHAWHAN

★QWERTY (5:45 p.m.; also 11:15 a.m. April 21)

One of the hoariest clichés of movies is the quirky romance. Qwerty, which even sounds like "quirky," seems to know this and embrace the genre anyway. Zoe (Dana Pupkin) is a lovely, lonely "word nerd" who works for the motor-vehicles department in Chicago, deciphering filthy language in vanity-plate applications. Zoe sees things others can't, including the sweet soul inside Marty (Eric Hailey), a surly mall guard who gets fired for exhorting customers not to waste money on designer underthings. Zoe rescues Marty from his squalid apartment and gets him a new job (ironically, his foul mouth and ill temper fit right in at the customer service desk at the DMV). A relationship that would probably set off warning bells in real life works out beautifully for Zoe, especially when Marty's presence gives her the strength to compete in televised Scrabble championships. It's not the funniest or deepest rom-com ever, but Qwerty (that's a real Scrabble word — memorize it) has a triple-word-score worth of charm. DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

WUTHERING HEIGHTS (7:15 p.m.)

From its opening title font ('70s disco curvature) to its expressionistic handheld cinematography, this latest iteration of Emily Brontë's classic high school reading-lister works overtime to shed any vestiges of Masterpiece Theatre stodginess. But this doesn't necessarily make for great new Heights. Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank) strives not only for a combination of painterly sweep and muddy British factualism; she literalizes Brontë's subtext of Otherness by casting a young black Briton (James Howson) as Heathcliff. Arnold has abjured political intent, and the limitations placed on Howson's characterization do the film no favors. Any intervention beyond the surface is imperceptible. MICHAEL SICINSKI

I AM NOT A HIPSTER (7:45 p.m.; also 3:00 p.m. April 21)

Make no mistake: Brook (Dominic Bogart), the singer/songwriter protagonist of Destin Daniel Cretton's comedy-drama, is a tremendous asshole. Still reeling from the death of his mother and his subsequent escape from rural Ohio into San Diego's indie rock scene, Brook has backslid into a tortured cliché, sabotaging his career and relationships with directionless anger and self-inflicted misery. Cretton doesn't make any excuses for his characters, though, which makes Brook's redemption at the hands of his visiting sisters so arresting. Brook's cretinism makes I Am Not a Hipster hard to watch at times, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with a genuinely touching denouement. Bogart and Cretton will attend. LANCE CONZETT

SASSY PANTS (8 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. April 22)

A very much grown Haley Joel Osment turns up as a frisky boy-toy, shirtless and disconcertingly beefy: that's pretty much the first and last surprise in writer-director Coley Sohn's alternately twee and morose coming-of-age comedy-drama, which follows a socially stunted teen's well-trod path away from her dysfunctional family and toward her dream of attending fashion school. Anna Gunn, so startling as Bryan Cranston's slowly corrupting wife on Breaking Bad, bears the brunt of a monster-mom character pitched somewhere between Running with Scissors and Carrie: it's the kind of movie where as soon as the heroine starts stashing her college savings (labeled to provide extra pathos for the pity-impaired), you can count down the minutes to the inevitable betrayal. What keeps it from settling into a kind of Plexiglass Menagerie is the captivating lead performance by Ashley Rickards, framed by Sohn with fierce empathy. Sohn will attend. JIM RIDLEY

★ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR (9:45 p.m.; also screening 2:45 p.m. April 21 at Grimey's as part of Record Store Day)

The Nashville Film Festival's music-related offerings are an obvious staple of the fest's annual lineup and organizers will not break that trust with docs like this one. Following singer-songwriter on his 165-date tour, over the course of a quite literal fever year, Xan Aranda's work is part concert film, part tour documentary. And the fact that Bird asked that the film not be released in theaters, agreeing to allow showings at festivals, will only make it more attractive to documentary fans and Bird fans alike. Throughout, Aranda skillfully documents the artist in a free-form manner that fits his art, a treat for fans and a good introduction for newcomers. STEVEN HALE

Saturday, April 21

HIP HOP MAESTRO (10:15 a.m.; also 6 p.m. April 23)

Somewhere buried deep within Hip Hop Maestro, there's a fascinating documentary. Starting with his humble beginnings in Los Angeles nightclubs, the film chronicles composer Geoff "Double G" Gallegos bringing his daKAH Hip-Hop Orchestra from the underground to a sold-out Walt Disney Concert Hall. Gallegos is a compelling figure and his band is unique, but the film races toward its destination without stopping to breathe. You never get a sense of how daKAH fits into the L.A. hip-hop scene, who these people are, or even Gallegos's relationship with hip-hop. Instead, the film wraps itself up in just 40 minutes, leaving you wanting much, much more. LANCE CONZETT

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★LAST CALL AT THE OASIS (1 p.m.; also screening 7 p.m. April 20 in Lipscomb University's Ward Hall)

The latest in the parade of sound-the-alarm docs, acclaimed filmmaker Jessica Yu's slick, beautifully photographed wake-up call surveys the global water shortage — a crisis that isn't just over the horizon but already under our feet. Focusing on the U.S. as the world's biggest water wasters, Yu follows the flow from Las Vegas to picture-book farmland soon to be pipelined (wonderfully visualized by a drinking straw visible from space), and convincingly shows us the devastating effects of unsustainable expansion. Erin Brockovich herself is back too, still on the case after a topical movie 12 years ago bearing her name failed to raise much awareness. But water's running out, and working this doc into your festival schedule is literally the least you can do about it. SAM SMITH

★HELL AND BACK AGAIN (2 p.m.)

An Oscar nominee and winner of Sundance's 2011 Grand Jury Prize, Danfung Dennis' searing documentary is the latest in a string of remarkable dispatches from the frontlines of the war on terror. What makes Dennis' film uniquely devastating is that, like the horrors of war, it follows its subject home. Having suffered a gunshot wound to the hip, Sgt. Nathan Harris has come home from deployment deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. He is increasingly dependent on his loving wife Ashley, while his now-fragile body is matched by a fragile psyche — even something as mundane as car passengers talking can send him, and us, right back to the war zone. For those of us unfamiliar with the battlefield and its aftermath, Hell and Back Again may be as close as we'll come to understanding without actually taking a bullet. And for all the starpower lined up for this year's fest, Nathan and Ashley Harris (who'll participate in a post-film Q&A with journalist Willy Stern) may be the NaFF's most distinguished guests. STEVEN HALE

★LOVE FREE OR DIE (3:15 p.m.; also 5:45 p.m. April 22)

All-out bigots will probably be spared, but it's hard to imagine any other viewer — regardless of sexual or theological orientation — leaving this screening without a dull pain in their stomach. The Special Jury Prize winner from this year's Sundance chronicles the trials and tribulations of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. But while Macky Alston's doc does well at exposing the more repulsive attitudes vying for oxygen within the church, as well as some genuinely thoughtful individuals on either side of the issue, one wishes the director would have further investigated some of the rabbit holes he merely points out along the way. Alston will attend. STEVEN HALE

WELCOME TO PINE HILL (5:45 p.m.; also 2:45 p.m. April 24)

The Best Feature winner at this year's Slamdance, Welcome to Pine Hill is an imperfect film that requires patience and empathy on the part of its viewer. This patience is duly rewarded. It's the story of an insurance adjuster / part-time bouncer (Shannon Harper, a gentle but commanding screen presence). He learns that he is very ill, news that prompts a series of small but dramatic decisions. Miller's direction is rough, not least in the prologue. Plus the bland-ass title has got to go. But Harper is that most unusual of characters, the "focused drifter." The 80 minutes spent in his company are never less than edifying. MICHAEL SICINSKI

★AFFAIR OF THE HEART (6 p.m.; also 3:30 p.m. April 23)

To call this documentary about Rick Springfield's small but wildly passionate fanbase the feel-good movie of the fest might be a stretch, but not by much — Sylvia Caminer's film is surprisingly touching, even as it pokes fun at the almost co-dependent relationship between the '80s pop idol and his devoted disciples. Caminer follows a variety of Springfield fanatics, including a teen son and his dad, a couple whose courtship centered around their fandom, even a 55-year-old Unitarian minister. The most compelling thread features two suburban New Jersey housewives whose 24/7 obsession with the Aussie heartthrob creates palpable family tension. Throughout it all, Springfield comes off as candid, vulnerable and downright endearing, and you get the impression he's as crazy about his fans as they are about him. Recommended viewing, even if you cringe at "Jessie's Girl." JACK SILVERMAN

BRINGING UP BOBBY (7 p.m.; also noon April 22)

This comedy-drama co-written and directed by the estimable Famke Janssen (who'll attend the Saturday-night premiere) wasn't available for pre-screening. But this yarn about a European con artist and her kid finding a shot at normal life with a kindly Oklahoman stars Milla Jovovich and Bill Pullman, two of the most watchable and underrated leading actors working. (That label that fits Janssen herself, who had a terrific starring role in an unjustly little-seen indie called Turn the River directed by recent NaFF visitor Chris Eigeman.) Get tickets early. JIM RIDLEY

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID (7:45 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. April 22)

The success of Bridesmaids has given female-oriented gross-out humor some traction, though actor-turned-director Carrie Preston's rollicking indie was probably planned long before the concepts of diarrhea and bridal fittings were irrevocably linked. There are no weddings in this film, just an impending Hot Date for the irrepressibly sunny Bebe (Marcia DeBonis) — who is the warmhearted yin to the brittle yang of her best friend DeeDee (Anne Heche). Bebe's girl-power day of pre-date pampering in Manhattan spirals out of control, as polymorphously perverse friend Clementine (Ali Shawkat, Arrested Development's Maeby) gets busted for accidental assault with a dildo. This is one of those movies that portrays New York as a benign roller coaster, where a pro-bono gay-rights attorney shows up just as you're hauled to the pokey. The real-world future for this feature is unclear; it's probably too rude for the mainstream but way too sentimental for hardcore cineastes. On the other hand, That's What She Said may hit festival audiences' sweet spot. Preston will attend. DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

HOLLYWOOD TO DOLLYWOOD (8:30 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. April 23)

Gary and Larry Lane, identical twins from a conservative Christian family in North Carolina, moved to Los Angeles a few years ago to make their fortune, acting and winning $50,000 on Fear Factor. For the Lanes, Dolly Parton's music gives them the strength to embrace their Southern roots while basking in a sense of love and acceptance in her songs. The Lanes' Hollywood friends include comic actor Leslie Jordan, who's from Dolly country in East Tennessee and talks on camera about the unique appeal Dolly has for the gay community. For their self-made documentary, the twins load up an RV to drive from L.A. to Pigeon Forge, where they hope to hand Dolly a script they've written for her. The trip's most surreal moment comes in Nashville, where they show up just after the 2010 flood. I won't give much away about the journey except to say it's a pleasant and diverting ride, with Dolly's actual songs playing counterpoint in the soundtrack. DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

★UNDER AFRICAN SKIES (9:15 p.m.; also 9:45 p.m. April 24)

So much more than your stock rock doc, director Joe Berlinger's Under African Skies chronicles the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon's explosive album Graceland, recorded amid the political turmoil of apartheid, and Simon's recent reunion with the artists who played on the record and subsequent tour. Because Simon broke the African National Congress' cultural boycott in order to collaborate with South African outfits like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Stimela, many critics at the time of Graceland's release felt he was landing on the wrong side of history. But Under African Skies suggests — via interviews with Paul McCartney, Harry Belafonte, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass and Artists Against Apartheid founder Dali Tambo — that Simon's synthesis of African and Western styles transcended the maelstrom of debate and did more to bring black South Africans' plight into the international spotlight than perhaps any other album. Also, yes, there is some absolutely choice performance footage, and you can't do much better than the eloquent Belafonte for a Greek chorus. D. PATRICK RODGERS

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Sunday, April 22

THE INTOUCHABLES (6:45 p.m.; also 11:45 a.m. April 26)

Literally voted the cultural event of last year in France — speak up, eh, The Artist? — where its crowd-pleasing multiculturalism incensed neo-fascists, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache's overseas blockbuster has grossed more than $310 million even before its U.S. release. The documentary-inspired story concerns the friendship between a wealthy quadriplegic (Francois Cluzet) and the Senegalese delinquent (Cesar Best Actor winner Omar Sy) who comes to care for him. We haven't seen it, but The Weinstein Company is hoping it will please the stateside audiences who turned out for The Iron Lady and The King's Speech: gauge your interest accordingly. JIM RIDLEY

PINK RIBBONS, INC. (7 p.m.; also 4:45 p.m. April 23)

Timing is everything, and earlier this year, when the whole Susan Komen/Planned Parenthood kerfuffle went down, it seemed like everyone concerned with reproductive freedom and women's access to medical care was paying close attention. Now filmmaker Léa Pool digs down deep into the selling of breast cancer awareness and activism in this new documentary, which draws an intense response wherever it plays. Though the film wasn't provided for previewing, it's hard to think of a more timely piece: As with the recent Kony 2012 campaign or the documentary Bully, it's become all too easy to promote activism as something that can be effortless. A purchase of a branded object, a visit to a website — there's an entire industry predicated on making people believe that such simple actions can move mountains. Expect shocking revelations and heated post-screening discussions. JASON SHAWHAN

★CHARLIE LOUVIN: STILL RATTLIN' THE DEVIL'S CAGE (3:30 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. April 23)

The often harrowing and amazing story of country music icon Charlie Louvin is told in Louvin's own words, rare performance clips, home movies and interviews with the usual suspects (big-name Louvin lovers like George Jones, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Cake lead man John McCrea). The main focus of the film is Charlie's story, not necessarily that of The Louvin Brothers, and by not tying themselves to a strict chronological telling, directors Blake Judd and Keith Neltner deliver a film that feels more like front-porch conversation about Louvin's life and career than a by-the-numbers biography. Music journalist and singer-songwriter Peter Cooper leads a post-film panel. RANDY FOX

Monday, April 23

HEADSHOT (9:30 p.m.; also 2 p.m. April 24)

The latest effort from Thailand's Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is the sort of shoddy affair that gives foreign art cinema a bad name. Confusing and emotionally detached not so much by design as by incompetence, Headshot is a would-be genre scramble that finds hitman Tul (Nopporn Chaiyanam) shot in the head and, upon awakening, afflicted with grainy, upside-down vision. (A metaphor for a misspent life?) Extended flashbacks show us his life as a cop, his dark temptations, and his fatal lack of charisma. Perhaps Headshot is trying to combine extremity with contemplation, two Asian-identified filmic modes. Alas, Pen-Ek came up only with graceless claptrap. In Thai with subtitles. MICHAEL SICINSKI

Tuesday, April 24

ARTIFICIAL PARADISES (5:45 p.m.; also noon April 25)

The debut narrative feature from the director of the NaFF 2009 Best Documentary Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies evokes the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Carlos Reygadas as well as the 2011 NaFF standout Le Quattro Volte ... at least in its first 15 minutes. But what begins wordless, lush and dreamy (think wind-blown rainforests, cows roaming deserted Mexican beaches) quickly descends into a fairly conventional (if sparse) narrative about two lost souls connecting through addiction. For 63-year-old fisherman Salomón (Salamón Hernandez), marijuana makes the world tolerable. For young drifter Luisa (Luisa Pardo), heroin helps her escape it. The tale is told without cloying moralism, and the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous; yet I can't quite shake the feeling of potential unfulfilled. Still, 29-year-old director Yulene Olaizola is a talent to watch. In Spanish with subtitles. TONY YOUNGBLOOD

★GIRL MODEL (9:30 p.m.; also 2:45 p.m. April 25)

A must-see. An intriguing subject — the corrupt, creepy process that procures Siberian teenage models for Japanese fashion spreads — leads to this award-worthy piece of documentary journalism. Filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon follow Nadya, a 13-year-old girl picked out of her picturesque homeland to model for Japanese audiences under uncomfortably shady conditions. The title refers also to former model turned scout Ashley Arbaugh, who selects Nadya and then keeps tabs on her — making for a fascinating study of a complex and ambivalent psychology seemingly shaped by trauma. When a SXSW screening audience delivered the knee-jerk criticism that the filmmakers didn't intervene in the queasy situations they document, they fired back with a sobering reality check: By making this film at all, the filmmakers put their lives on the line. By film's end, you'll understand why. SAM SMITH

Wednesday, April 25

PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE (11:45 a.m.; also 7:15 p.m. April 26)

In the 1970s, Paul Williams was more than just the songwriter responsible for hits such as the Oscar-winning "The Rainbow Connection." He was a celebrity, a star personality, and the perfect hero for Stephen Kessler, a lonesome teenager who found in Williams the geeky rock-star idol who inspired him to make this documentary. Much of this film deals with Kessler's pursuit of Williams, first in discovering that he is in fact still alive after recovering from years of alcohol and drug abuse, then as Kessler tags along on Williams' scattered speaking and singing appearances. Kessler's persistence is painfully awkward at times; in a way this is more a portrait of obsessed fandom than of a legendary entertainer. Nevertheless, Williams (still alive!) will attend on closing night — though regrettably, he'll miss the retrospective screening of Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (see below). SAM SMITH

HANK COCHRAN: LIVIN' FOR A SONG (7 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. April 26)

A straight-forward, no-cinematic-frills documentary on the incredible life and talent of master songwriter Hank Cochran. Shot in the months leading up to his death in 2010, Wes Pryor's film features a seemingly never-ending line-up of singers, songwriters and friends of the late Cochran, from Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard to Elvis Costello and Jamey Johnson, all paying tribute in interview clips, performances and encounters with the great man himself. Especially interesting is the focus on Cochran's skill and tenacity as a song-plugger and the way he was able to draw from the ups and downs of his personal life to produce classic and timeless music. RANDY FOX

★SUPPORTING CHARACTERS (7:45 p.m.; also noon April 26)

After a group of film students savage an indie film at a disastrous test screening, co-editors and best friends Nick (Alex Karpovsky) and Darryl (Tarik Lowe) are tasked with editing the mess into a coherent film – or at least something a bit better than "this movie blows." Though the editors are saddled with obstacles like an uncompromising director (Kevin Corrigan) and a disinterested crew of post-production engineers (including legitimate indie darling Lena Dunham, writer/director of Tiny Furniture), Karpovsky and Lowe's chemistry takes Supporting Characters out of the realm of "movie about making movies" and into "charming indie buddy picture." LANCE CONZETT

★OSLO, AUGUST 31 (9:30 p.m.; also 2:15 p.m. April 26)

The latest from up-and-coming Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier (Reprise) zeroes in on one pivotal day for Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a 30-something drug addict finishing up rehab and taking an outpatient day to apply for a job. We follow Anders on the interview, but also as he visits his best friend, tries to meet up with his sister, and takes stock of his options after cleaning up. Anchored by Trier's rich, literary sensibility and a steely, pitiless performance by Danielsen Lie, Oslo eviscerates the pat inspirational tales Hollywood loves to spin about its own 12-stepping pals. This ain't 28 Days. In Norwegian with subtitles. MICHAEL SICINSKI

★PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (10 p.m.)

Paul Williams, elfin actor-songwriter, meet Brian De Palma, leering gargoyle of '70s Hollywood. If you know this movie, you've already got tickets — it's among the biggest cult rediscoveries of recent years (especially in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where it's celebrated like heat). If you don't, oh my God. Williams, who wrote the soundtrack of so-off-they're-awesome pop pastiches, plays the demonic record mogul who literally smashes composer William Finley in his music-biz machinery; the disfigured Finley dons a cape and metal mask to terrorize Williams' glam-rock palace and moon over delectable ingénue Jessica Harper. (The screening will serve as a sad epitaph for Finley, who died Tuesday after an association with De Palma that dated back 50 years to his earliest shorts.) In some ways, this garish cartoon horror-rock musical is the quintessential De Palma movie: operatic in style, sarcastic in sensibility, yet oddly chivalrous in its wounded-romantic fashion. It was a life-changing experience when I saw it at Murfreesboro's Cinema One in 1974 in third grade. Will it change yours? JIM RIDLEY