New England Film and Video Festival

For 22 years, the New England Film and Video Festival has provided an outlet for a diverse array of local independent filmmakers, from animators to 35mm specialists to students with camcorders. The 27 films that make up this year's fest offer an artistic vision that's both engaging and beautiful to look at. Ellie Lee's "Repetition Compulsion" is a bleak animated portrait of homeless women living in shelters and on the streets. The disturbingly shaky charcoal animation complements the solidity of the calm, honest interviews with abused women that provide the soundtrack. "Repetition Compulsion" captured the Best of Festival award, and rightly so -- at seven minutes it's an efficient and powerful statement.

On a lighter animated note, Phil Lord's "Man Bites Breakfast" finds a sullen protagonist defending himself against an insurrection mounted by his cereal. The point of view shifts from man to breakfast to impartial observer as Lord employs both flagrant and subtle humor -- the cereals are named Mamb-O's, AFL-CIO's, and Waiting for God-O's. Humor also figures prominently in Flora Cohen's offbeat "Lemonade in October," which silently and surreally follows four young American girls as they sell lemonade and cookies to help fund Israel's Yom Kippur War. It's touching, confusing, groundbreaking, and ridiculously entertaining all at once. At the Coolidge Corner, March 30 through April 4.

-- Dan Tobin

(For more about the festival see "Film Culture.")