APRIL 28, 2009 --

Some belated paragraphs on this season's NYIIFVF (Stuart Also founder and executive director; Abel Ferrara, president) that had its opening night at BLVD, with screening of 160 films from 20 countries March 20 through 26.

The entries included very short films, feature length films and many films in-between. Of the short films, LPR was impressed with a 13 minute entry from Ireland, "We Are Munster," a film about Munster, Europe's rugby champions.

"Jocasta," directed by Elise Kermani and filmed in a few days at a Shaker ruin in upstate New York, offered an experimental version of the Oedipus tale, and, in addition to the fine acting and beautiful cinematography, included novel special effects.

'Invasion to Prcevo," a Montenegrin entry, directed by Drasko Dragutin Djurovic was a delightful spoof of NATO and the political situation in the Balkans.

Gael Breton

Other notable entries included Gael Breton's "Acuerdate" -- a man seeking the location of a photo of him, as a child with his mother; " Death, Taxes... Chocolate," a film about some seniors, that includes criticism of the medical profession, with a neat twist at the end, and Benjamin-Joseph Stewart's "Kymatica" -- a documentary on man, consciousness and this planet.

Part of the NYIIFVF crowd, one festival evening.

Two documentaries from the Netherland, directed by Ingeborg Jansen are noteworthy. The first, "In the Shadow of a Mosque," shows how people in South Rotterdam reacted to the construction of a mosque near a popular soccer stadium. Jansen's other documentary, "Chicago Block 'Stories from the Elevator', " provides a glimpse of life in Antwerp in what in the US was once called "projects."

LPR obviously was unable to see most of the festival entries. Of the films it regrets it missed, the 85- minute "Love in the Age of Dion, " directed by Philip Cioffari, is at the top of the list. (How could someone from the Bronx in "the age of Dion" not want to see a film with this title")

For more information on the festival, please click www.nyfilmvideo.com

Ben Stewart