It seems the Hemingway clan has produced another leggy blond model-turned-actress now appearing in “Starlet” the story of the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane (Dree Hemingway), and 85-year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson) whose worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times liked it;

The bright sun that blasts through “Starlet,” a thrillingly, unexpectedly good American movie about love and a moral awakening, bathes everything in a radiant light, even the small houses with thirsty lawns and dusty cars.

Then again, this is the same movie critic who alone in the universe gave “Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2: Electric Boogaloo” a thumbs up.

Runs through Thursday, run time 103 minutes, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

(12.23) Santa lives in a Moorish powder-room that may or may not be heaven (so, he’s . . . dead?) where third world moppets manufacture toys of dubious value. But there is a snake in the garden, Pitch, a demon who swans about annoying anxious, hollow-eyed children.

Head downtown Sunday night for a screening of the 1959 classic “Santa Claus” directed by René Cardona and starring Jose Luis Aguirre as El Diablo. Poorly received when first released, this cinematic tour de force is finding a new audience among disaffected Millennials who find the Manichean themes of good and evil resonating in their own lives. Film historians now regard it as a masterpiece of thwarted blocking and sallow lighting.

11:45pm, Sunday, December 23, 95 Empire Box, 95 Empire Street

According to today’s ProJo an indie Mafia crime drama starring Leighton Meester and Ben Barnes is filming around the Olneyville and Federal Hill neighborhoods. (If only the Mafiosi ever looked like this. Or cops. Or men.)

The production of “God Only Knows” directed by James Modern has also been taking advantage of the Bucket’s rich architectural inventory. The Times of Pawtucket reports that about a third of filming will be in Providence and the rest in Pawtucket.

On Friday morning, film crews had set up at the corner of Dexter Street and Exchange Street, where they were filming scenes in the large brick building that houses apartments on one side and the Theresa Landry Dance Studio and other businesses on the other. Walsh said for one particular scene, the residential portion of the building would be subbing as a Boston area college dormitory, where actor Ben Barnes was to be shown waking up after having spent the night there with a young woman. Other scenes are to be filmed in the Cala Fruit building, located across the road on Dexter Street, and in the city’s municipal parking garage. “We’re shooting a scene later this afternoon where there is a mob hit on a lawyer in the garage,” said Walsh.

If all goes smoothly the movie should be released in late spring or early summer.

(Rebranding idea: These aren’t vacant buildings — we live in a movie set!)

The Rhode Island Film Collaborative will be holding its annual Black & White Party Saturday, December 8, at Hope Artiste Village — this year with a “Magical Fantasy” theme. You are encouraged to wear black and/or white in any style of dress. Or come as your favorite magical character. Or come just as you are.

Local giant puppet performers Big Nazo will bring their other-worldly magic, dancing with the crowd. In keeping with the magical fantasy theme, local prestidigitator Jared DuBois, Magician Marvelous Marvin, and renowned RI mentalist Rory Raven will dazzle eyes and minds with their skills. The highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the Anthony Quinn Spirit Award by Kathy Quinn of the Anthony Quinn Foundation.

As in past years, the Black & White Party will include food and a cash bar, dancing to the tunes of DJs from WRIK, games, and prizes. A magical wardrobe of prizes will be available for participants to try to open, and magical gift bags will circulate. There will be some fantasy-movie related trivia too.

The Rhode Island Film Collaborative helps independent filmmakers make films.

Tickets $12, 6:30pm to 1am, Saturday, December 8, Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket

Need to get away from your loved ones for roughly 115 minutes? Try “Holy Motors” at the Cable Car Cinema; it looks quite strange. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wants you to see it.

. . . a man reunited with a former amour (Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue) in a deserted department store that becomes the setting for a musical interlude of surpassing loveliness . . . Don’t be afraid to leap into the wild blue of Carax’s untamable imagination. “Holy Motors,” fueled by pure feeling is a dream of a movie you want to get lost in. It’s a thing of beauty.

Kylie Minogue? Running time 115 minutes. More about director Leos Carax at the New York Times. Through November 29.

Shows tonight 6:45pm, 9pm, Wednesday, November 21, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street

(11.5) One night only at the Cable Car Cinema.

The Found Footage Festival, a showcase of odd and hilarious found videos, will make its triumphant return to Providence with a brand-new show at the Cable Car. The Found Footage Festival features VHS tapes discovered at thrift shops and garage sales throughout North America.  Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show with David Letterman) host the screening in-person and provide their unique observations and commentary on these found video obscurities. From the curiously-produced industrial training video to the forsaken home movie left on the street, the Found Footage Festival resurrects these forgotten treasures and serves them up in a lively celebration of all things found.

Seen here : “Jazzercise!”

7:30pm, Monday, November 5, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 401.272.3970

There are screenings all weekend around the state — complete schedule of weekend events, go here — we will highlight some of the local sites in town Friday. These are short films, some very. Event planners add;

Please Note: Our films are intended for mature audiences. Children under 14 will not be admitted without an adult. Parental discretion is advised.

Providence Public Library: 1pm/Overflowed and Twisted. 3:30pm/Gray Matter, The Soul Never Sleeps, The Heart Still Beats, Wonderland, a True Story (an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and through the Looking-Glass” set in Kuwait).

URI Paff Theater at 80 Washington Street: 4pm/Attack of the Brain Sucker/Cadaver/A Little Bit Zombie 6:15pm/Plush/247°. 8:30pm/Fallout/ Exhumed.

Bell Street Chapel: 6:30pm/Lifeless #beingkindasortadeadsucks/Up There. 8:45pm/Dark Fantasy Shorts.

General admission to each group of films is $10.

I kind of can’t believe that this film company is right here in Providence creating programming that I would watch anyway and they don’t even know me. I watched “Building the Great Cathedrals” probably three times.

The latest production from Providence Pictures — “Forensics on Trial” for NOVA — should probably be shown to juries everywhere as part of their orientation. Trial lawyers and judges have made note of the “CSI Effect” wherein juries have elevated expectations of what science can accomplish.

There is a startling gap between the glamorous television world of “CSI” and the gritty reality of the forensic crime lab. With few established scientific standards, no central oversight, and poor regulation of examiners, forensics in the U.S. is in a state of crisis. In “Forensics on Trial”, NOVA investigates how modern forensics, including the analysis of fingerprints, bite marks, ballistics, hair, and tool marks, can send innocent men and women to prison—and sometimes even to death row. Shockingly, of more than 250 inmates exonerated by DNA testing over the last decade, more than 50 percent of the wrongful convictions stemmed from invalid or improperly handled forensic science. With the help of vivid recreations of actual trials and cases, NOVA will investigate today’s shaky state of crime science as well as cutting-edge solutions that could help investigators put the real criminals behind bars.

Providence Pictures has co-produced with NOVA on several projects. Their work has also aired on the History Channel and Discovery.

Premiere airdate, Forensics on Trial, NOVA, 9pm, Wednesday, October 17

(10.14) From the Providence Athenaeum,

David Dvorchak of AS220, hosts this afternoon of horror with us, featuring a full length film and short films inspired by our favorite author of mystery and horror Edgar Allen Poe. What better place to get in touch with your inner Poe than the alcoves of the Athenaeum. This program is presented by the Children’s Library and is intended for a YA audience and adults. Due to licensing restrictions, we cannot list the films being shown.

Mr. Dvorchak adds,

Yes, we’re all Lovecraft-crazy here in Providence, but let us not overlook the fact that one of H.P.’s biggest influences, American literary heavyweight and all-around creep guy, Edgar Allan Poe frequented our fair city and spent time at the fourth-oldest library in the country! It was here that Poe met and courted local poet Sarah Helen Whitman (it didn’t work out).

More about the ill-fated love story after the jump.

Free and open to the public, Poe Film Fest, 1pm, Sunday, October 14, Providence Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

more »

(10.14) Join host Carlos Gonzalez in the concert hall at AS220 for an evening of MACABRE, FR3AK, H0RR0R, and W3IRD0 short films. Filmmakers include: Alee Peoples, AT, Caitlin Doughty, Cordey Lopez, Cybele Collins, Jaime Mohr, Matt Underwood, Mike Stoltz, Xander Morro, and more.

(Poster by Emily Salvatierra)

Free, 9pm to 11:45pm, movies start 9:30pm, Sunday, October 14, AS220, 115 Empire Street

This is one of those improbable stories that could never happen today, but back in the seventies the world was not so connected. The subject of this new documentary, singer/songwriter Rodriguez, a Mexican-American living in Detroit, recorded a few albums decades ago that immediately fell right off the radar. . . here in the States.

Despite good reviews, ‘Cold Fact’ was a commercial disaster and marked the end of Rodriguez’s recording career before it had even started. Rodriguez sank back into obscurity. All that trailed him were stories of his escalating depression, and eventually . . . it was rumored he had committed suicide. Of all the stories that circulated about his death, the most sensational — and the most widely accepted — was that Rodriguez had set himself ablaze on stage having delivered these final lyrics: “But thanks for your time, then you can thank me for mine and after that’s said, forget it.” The album’s sales never revived, the label folded and Rodriguez’s music seemed destined for oblivion.

Then he was discovered by white South Africans living under Apartheid where his music was widely shared and served as the soundtrack to a revolution. Rodriguez however was oblivious to all this. It is no spoiler to give away the happy news that Mr. Rodriguez is alive and performing again — he has appeared recently on Letterman and ‘60 Minutes.’ The movie was chosen as a New York Times Critics’ Pick.

Using a well-balanced mix of talking-head interviews, archival imagery and some dreamy animated sequences, [Swedish director Malik] Bendjelloul builds a narrative that simultaneously moves in two seemingly opposite if complementary directions. Interview by interview, location by location, he tries to go into the mystery of a single man even as he heads out into a world that initially rejected Rodriguez and then embraced him. Each interview adds another piece to the puzzle.

Starts Friday, October 12, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970, running time 86 minutes

Coming to the Cable Car in November “The House I Live In” may be the film that will finally get this topic traction with the general public. Directed and written by Eugene Jarecki, and winner of the Grand Jury documentary prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, this film takes on the failed war on drugs. (Disclosure: I am a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) an organization of former law enforcement officers, judges, sheriffs, DEA agents, and others, who believe that drug abuse is bad, but the war on drugs is worse.)

The movie is being widely praised, from Forbes “The Most Important Drug War film You’ll Ever See,” to the New York Times where Manohla Dargis calls it “urgently persuasive” adding,

Mr. Jarecki smoothly folds these images in with dizzying statistics and a cavalcade of talking-head interviews with a range of sympathetic experts, including Michelle Alexander, the author of “The New Jim Crow.” He also checks in with a psychologist, as well as with historians, legal professionals, prisoner advocates and inmates. Among the most important collaborators he taps for explanatory duties is the journalist turned pop-culture god David Simon, the creator of “The Wire.” Receiving what seems to be more screen time than any interviewee, Mr. Simon makes at once a fine, friendly narrative guide; a restrained voice of moral outrage; and, as the movie builds to its sweeping conclusions, a conspicuous stand-in for Mr. Jarecki.

LEAP executive director Neill Franklin and board chair Jack Cole had the opportunity to attend advance screenings of the film, and both believe it to be an extraordinary exposé on the damage done by drug prohibition and urge everyone to see it. (And yes, that is a Providence Police car in the trailer, so apparently we are in this.)

Rock & Reel co-producers Mike Ryan and Emily Olson have announced that the project has been rescheduled for spring.

The response we received from musicians was overwhelming; however, filmmakers told us that to make this project one that they can more readily engage in, we should adjust both the timing of the launch and the project’s shooting schedule. We take their feedback seriously and as a result, decided to re-launch the project in the spring with an improved shooting schedule.

So, we’ve moved the Rock & Reel event to the Spring, and it will take place over three days instead of more than a week. We’re hoping this will make the event bigger and more exciting!

For more info go to Rock & Reel.

(9.27) Starting Thursday at 7pm with a Tax Credit Panel discussion followed by the short film “Uproar in Pawtucket: the Story of Fanny the Elephant.” Panelists include Gary Glassman, Anthony Ambrosino, Bert Crenca, Steve Feinberg, Andrew Lund, Edward Mazze, and Kimberly Wyman.

Now in its 13th year with the Pawtucket Arts Festival, The three day Pawtucket Film Festival will continue to celebrate the artists behind the films it shows and offers music, movies, and more at every event. Patrons are provided with a unique festival T-Shirt, courtesy of Mirror Image Inc., an array of food from local sponsors such as Iggy’s Bread, and beverages, which regularly includes beer donations from Sam Adams.

Friday starts at 7pm with a performance by the Silks followed by short films. Saturday and Sunday start at noon. Full schedule here.

Thursday through Sunday, September 27 thru 30, Visitors’ Center, 175 Main Street, Pawtucket

Rhode Island Film Collaborative founder and former producer of the 48 Hour Film Project, Mike Ryan, has come up with a new scheme; this time pairing independent filmmakers with local bands and musicians. The challenge — make a narrative music video in just nine days. Here are the details.

Filmmakers gather teams, locations, actors, props, etc. Musicians pick appropriate tracks of music. On October 4th they get randomly matched, and the filmmakers are off to make narrative shorts inspired by the music.

At the end, all completed work is shown on the big screen at CinemaWorld, in Lincoln, where audience members and a panel of judges vote on their favorites. The winning pairs will have a special screening of their video before the winning bands perform live in a “Best of” concert at The Met Café in Pawtucket.

“The project is all about narrative video — so each short will tell a story of some kind,” says co-Producer Emily Olson. “Don’t imagine a typical “concert footage” video — think more like ‘Thriller’ (but with a lower budget)”.

The proceeds go to help the non-profit Rhode Island Film Collaborative, which helps independent filmmakers make independent films.

This will be Rock and Reel’s inaugural year. Says Co-Producer Mike Ryan, “As the project grows, we’re excited to spread to other cities and help artists support and promote each other through the contest.” All kinds of music are welcome. Go to rockandreel.org for more information and to sign up.

(9.18) Which is more remarkable: that as recently as the 1960s interracial marriage was still illegal in parts of the United States, or that the married couple fighting to strike down these laws just happened to be named Loving? “The Loving Story” tells the story of Loving v. Virginia, the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage. About the film;

Married in Washington, D.C. on June 2, 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter returned home to Virginia where their marriage was declared illegal—he was white, and she was black and Native American. At the time, anti-miscegenation laws were upheld in 16 states. The Lovings refused to leave one another and, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, took their case to the courts.

Hope Ryden’s luminous, newly discovered 16mm footage of the Lovings and their young ACLU lawyers, Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop, as well as first-person testimony by their daughter Peggy Loving and rare documentary photographs by LIFE Magazine photographer Grey Villet, recounts the little-known story of the Loving family.

This special screening comes courtesy of the Rhode Island ACLU and is free and open to the public.

Free, 7pm, Tuesday, September 18, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970