This year's annual OC Film Fiesta (OCFF) looks to be the best yet. It has punched up its amount of lost and overlooked classic and independent fare from abroad, from an Orson Welles double feature to commemorate his 100th birthday to an advance screening of a new Philip K. Dick adaptation. There's even more cinematic goodness spread throughout the festival, which aspires to celebrate the multicultural and artistic communities within Orange County. Here are some of the best features in the lineup to check out.
TOUCH OF EVIL AND THE THIRD MAN
As with the Newport Beach Film Festival earlier this year, OCFF will celebrate Welles' centennial with a back-to-back screening of two of Welles' finest film noirs. Touch of Evil follows the tension between American police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles) and a Mexican drug-enforcement agent (Charlton Heston in brown face—sigh) after a car bomb explodes on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Third Man is Welles' 1949 classic about a pulp novelist traveling to Vienna to uncover the mysterious death of his friend, screened for the fest in a pristine 4K restoration.
EL GRAN CALAVERA AND NOSOTROS LOS NOBLES
Nosotros Los Nobles is the contemporary remake of Luis Buñuel's lost classic El Gran Calavera. The original involves a rich widower named Ramiro whose lazy offspring live wealthily at his expense, until his older brother Gregorio convinces them Ramiro has lost his fortune, forcing the young'uns to fend for themselves. This madcap comedy rings a little familiar to Arrested Development, doesn't it? Nosotros Los Nobles carries on with the same plot in modern-day Mexico.
RAMONA
A lost Dolores Del Rio silent film from 1927 (based on the most influential California novel you've never read), Ramona was discovered as a nitrate print in Prague, restored in the Library of Congress and translated from Czech, then screened at the Billy Wilder Theater in UCLA. You've come a long way, baby.
THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
This year's Philip K. Dick pick—er, screening—is a sneak preview of an as-yet-unreleased Amazon studios show (yes, that Amazon) based on his 1962 story about an alternate United States under the rule of the Axis Powers, who won World War II. Will there be some sort of Elvis Presley analog, or will music exist in general? Will Life feature a celebratory profile on Tokyo Rose? Will androids dream of electric jeeps? Watch The Man In the High Castle and find out.
DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL
This documentary can't seem to attract the audience it deserves, despite its amazing subject matter: the lost history of Cambodia's rock music scene from the '60s and '70s, when the Khmer Rouge began to tear apart the nation. Don't Think I've Forgotten features extensive footage and music that melded the sounds of Western psychedelia, Latin and Cuban rhythms, and other influences.
EL AMERICANO: THE MOVIE
Edward James Olmos produces and stars in this animated feature about a family of parrots fighting to keep their circus intact from a group of “angry birds” (I had to) who want to take it over. The family's son, Cuco, enlists TV superhero El Americano. This is the first feature made by Mexico's answer to Pixar, Animex, and this screening predates its wide release. If you can't get enough animation, there's also a block of imported shorts from Mexico's IMCINE institute.
THE HAND THAT FEEDS
Ready for a good underdog story? Mahoma Lopez is one of many undocumented workers serving under hellish conditions for below-minimum wage at the 24-hour Hot N Crusty Bagel Cafe in New York's Upper East Side. In 2012, he and his co-workers begin to organize for a union, leading to lengthy protests and finding allies in the Occupy Wall Street movement. “Immigrants make this city run,” Lopez says in The Hand That Feeds. “When you arrive and settle here, you see the reality of how dollars are earned.” Suck it, Trump!
EISENSTEIN IN GUANAJUATO
Cinephiles recall that Soviet Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein of Battleship Potemkin fame trekked to Mexico in 1931 after a failed contract with Paramount Pictures in the States, leading to the ambitious-but-abandoned Que Viva México! film series. Eisenstein In Guanajuato, directed by Peter Greenaway, tracks the director in this period, during which he experiences an artistic—and, um, sexual—awakening when he falls in with the Mexican artist crowd and a certain male cabbie. This screening is co-presented by Santa Ana's LGBT Center on la Cuatro.
Aimee Murillo is calendar editor and frequently covers film and previously contributed to the OCW’s long-running fashion column, Trendzilla. Don’t ask her what her favorite movie is unless you want to hear her lengthy defense of Showgirls.
I recently tried CBD gummies from this website https://www.cornbreadhemp.com/collections/cbd-cream for the blue ribbon leisure and was pleasantly surprised next to the results. Initially skeptical, I found that it significantly helped with my appetite and sleep issues without any remarkable side effects. The lubricator was effortless to utter, with nitid dosage instructions. It had a kindly, lusty leaning that was not unpleasant. Within a week, I noticed a signal increase in my blanket well-being, ardour more blas‚ and rested. I cognizant the regular approach to wellness CBD offers and representation to go on using it.