A big bunch of shorts dealing with surreal, dreamy subjects, including Santa's Little Helper, about a young woman who goes on a date with one of Santa's elves. Will our heroine find love with a folkloric creature? Will he bring her his sack of goodies? Will he come down her chimney? Will he take her for a sleigh ride? Will she taste his candy cane? Okay, I'll stop now. (Edwards Island Cinemas, 2 p.m.)
Don't Tempt Me
Spain, 2001
Drama
It's a smackdown between the agents of heaven and hell, as both sides send out comely operatives to win the soul of a boxer and thereby shift the balance of power. (Edwards Island Cinemas, 3:30 p.m.)
The Nazi Officer's Wife
United States, 2002
Docudrama
The bizarrely eventful life of Holocaust survivor Edith Hahn Beer gets the docudrama treatment. We follow Beer as she goes from being a starry-eyed, young, Jewish law student to a prisoner of war and slave laborer to an undercover German housewife married to a Nazi officer to a judge in postwar Germany. When the war finally ended, Edith was able to reclaim her life as a lawyer and a judge, but she was also forced to deal with the compromises she'd made in order to survive. (Orange County Museum of Art, 3:30 p.m.)
Want
United States, 2002
Southern California Premiere
Drama
It's the waning years of the 20th century, and the Internet is a-booming when Trey Segal decides to set up his own business on the teeming banks of the information superhighway. His company is a success . . . but it comes at the cost of his family ties--and possibly even his very life. (Lido Theater, 4 p.m.)
Life Is Shorts
A selection of shorts ranging from the comedy of Swat! (a man's war with a fly) to When the Kids Are Away (a musical extravaganza about what housewives get up to when nobody else is around). (Edwards Island Cinemas, 4:30 p.m.)
Quest for the Grail
United States, 2002
West Coast Premiere
Documentary
"Join our dynamic trio of poet, storyteller and theologian as they unearth the essence of the Western spiritual journey as expressed in Wolfram Van Eschebach's Parzifal, one of the most told and retold stories in western culture and part of the fabled Grail legends." Well, it's not exactly Excalibur or even Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but for grail buffs, it oughta be a kick. And there's something irresistible about the notion of a "dynamic trio" of a poet, a storyteller and a theologian. They sound like they should join forces to fight crime. (Orange County Museum of Art, 5 p.m.)
Truth and Dare
United States, 2003
Comedy/Drama
In one last, doomed effort to be cool, a group of friends throw a party on their graduation night; their beer is stolen and some of them end up locked in the trunk of a car, but one of them makes time with a cute girl who previously ignored him. And no, the cute girl is not played by Molly Ringwald or Jennifer Love Hewitt. (Edwards Island Cinemas, 5:30 p.m.)
Daughter From Danang
United States, 2002
Documentary
A look at the extraordinary reunion between Heidi, an apparently "all-American girl" from Pulaski, Tennessee . . . and the Vietnamese mother who was forced to give up Heidi (born Mai Thi Hiep) at the war's end. (Lido Theater, 6 p.m.)
Cold War Love
Canada, 2002
Drama
Yvette is a young black woman living in East Germany who dreams of winning Olympic Gold for her motherland; but this dream is jeopardized when she falls for Mark, a Canadian athlete, and runs afoul of the East German secret police on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Orange County Museum of Art, 6:30 p.m.)
Life After War
United States, 2003
World Premiere
Documentary
Former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes abandons her career and travels to Afghanistan as a humanitarian; here, she attempts to rebuild the nation after 23 years of Soviet invasion and the brutal regime of the Taliban. It is a process she compares to "cleaning up a nuclear disaster with a toothbrush." (Edwards Island Cinemas, 7 p.m.)
Water Boys
Japan, 2001
Comedy
Japan's Tadano High School swim team is in dire straits when a winsome new coach shows up with the bold
