News and links

The most important news - for me, at least - is that the Queens World Film Festival returns next week, and once again I'll be there to cover it. It's a long one this year, March 5-10, but I'll do my best to cover as much of it as I can. I was not prepared for the level of hospitality and generosity I received from festival heads Don and Katha Cato last year, which included being invited to Don's birthday party last summer, which I totally did not expect. Therefore, I'm fondly looking forward to returning to the fest, seeing some friends again, and hopefully getting to write about some awesome movies. If you're in the NYC area, tickets are available at the website.

Another bit of news: the next film distributed by AFFRM, Better Mus' Come, has a release date of March 15. As with the other AFFRM films, all I know about it is what little I've read. Jamaica isn't exactly known for its film industry, but this one is supposed to be a winner - plus, it's nice to see AFFRM expanding into international waters this time. Expect a post from me on the film later this month.

The Lady Eve writes about what sounds like an amazing old movie about Coney Island freakshow life called Nightmare Alley.

Ryan talks about the way we watch TV now.

Jess watched a bunch of Oscar-nominated films in February and learned a thing or two.

Alex attended, once again, the Boston Sci-Fi Marathon, which looks like it had a pretty awesome lineup (except for John Carter).

I just started reading a blog called The Sanity Clause. In this post, writer Brian shuts up the Argo-haters.

Did you hear about how Forest Whitaker was wrongly accused of shoplifting? The man was actually frisked.

I would not shed a tear over the Sunnyside movie theater closing down, but that part of Queens really could use it.