Jimmy Tsai is hilarious in Ping Pong Playa, SDAFF's opening night film (IFC Films)

The San Diego Asian Film Festival kicks off its 9th year tonight with the opening night feature Ping Pong Playa by Jessica Yu. The film boasts a hilarious performance by Jimmy Tsai as a young Asian man obsessed with being a basketball player and taking on the name of C-Dub. The film taps into a similar vibe as the Filipino comedy The Flip Side that screened back in 2001. But since opening night films are often sold out, I have two alternate recommendations: Assembly from Mainland China and Public Enemy Returns from South Korea. Although the festival is strongly committed to showcasing Asian American films, I have always been more satisfied by the international titles where the emphasis is less on exploring identity and delivering a message, and more on pushing the envelope in creativity and storytelling.

The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio

The second festival of the week, the San Diego Italian Film Festival, kicks off tonight at The Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla and then runs through October 19 at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The opening night film is Agostino Ferrente's The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio, a feel-good doc about two Italians who put together an orchestra of thirty foreign musicians living in Rome. The San Diego Italian Film Festival, now in its second year, "invites you to celebrate life in the social piazza of cinema with recent films that depict life in Italy." Plus the films are free. Although the festival will be screening their opening night attraction at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, all the rest of the subsequent two-dozen films will screen at the Museum of Photographic Arts.

Rachel Getting Married is the opening night feature for this year's San Diego Women's Film Festival (Sony Pictures Classics)

There's something of a festival bunch up this weekend as the San Diego Women's Film Festival and the San Diego Italian Film Festival (more on this later) compete for audiences this weekend. The San Diego Women's Film Festival kicks off its sixth season today with two youth outreach programs at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. Then the festival goes into full swing tomorrow at the Reading Gaslamp Theaters downtown with the San Diego premiere of Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway and written by Sidney Lumet's daughter Jenny. The festival is Southern California's longest running women film festival and this year plays host to fifty films including five features. The goal of the Festival is to empower young women through positive film media and promote women filmmakers and their films. This year the festival also boasts a new curator, Citizen Video's Holly Jones. You can also listen to this morning's These Days discussion of this year's festival with Holly Jones and I.

The Lucky Ones kicks off the 7th Annual San Diego Film Festival (Roadside Attractions)

Maybe it's the fact that we're an election year but whatever the reason, this year's 7th Annual San Diego Film Festival (September 25 through 28 at the Reading Gaslamp Theaters) seems to have taken on a more overtly political tone than in years past. The competitive four-day festival kicks off at noon today and showcases The Lucky Ones this evening as its opening night film. The Lucky Ones, from The Illusionist director Neil Burger, focuses on three U.S. soldiers that find themselves on an unplanned road trip across America. This narrative feature is joined by documentaries about gay rights (Pursuit of Equality), Uganda (Go! By Invisible Children), and voting irregularities (the very timely and chilling Uncounted) among others to give this year's event a social consciousness that may inspire filmgoers to get out and vote. But the festival is not focused exclusively on politics - just look at the feel good doc Morning Light from Walt Disney about a group of freshly scrubbed youngsters sailing in the Trans Pacific race. The festival also plays host to comedy, drama, local filmmakers, and of course parties.

Baghdad Days screens as part of the Imperial Beach Film Festival

The Sixth Annual Imperial Beach Film Festival kicks off Friday September 19th and runs through September 21 (most events are at Dempsey Holder Center, 950 Ocean Lane Imperial Beach). Festival director Steve Futterman is excited about the range of films and activities at this year's event. Here are some highlights.

Phillip Van's Come Wander with Me is one of the short works playing at this year's alt.pictureshows (Phillip Van)

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Muse Chasers present the sixth annual alt.pictureshows. A diverse collection of short films curated by Neil Kendricks will play at Sherwood Auditorium and at locations throughout the MCASD's galleries. Kendricks has designed the event as a definitive experiment in "physical channel surfing." Short films screen on a loop throughout the Museum during the one-night event, with works from filmmakers such as David Lynch, Nash Edgerton, Ari Gold, Ken Wardrop, Rob Meyer, Mads Matthieson, Justin Nowell, David Michod, Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega, and others. You'll be able to find dark comedy, twisted romance, offbeat dramas as well as personal and experimental documentaries. Kendricks, who's a local filmmaker and artist, has a knack for finding wonderful films and always invests the event with a sense of discovery. I did not have an opportunity to preview any of the new films for this year's event but I can heartily recommend Lynch Mob, a trio of films from David Lynch (Six Men Getting Sick, The Alphabet, The Grandmother). I can attest to the fact that in the past there have always been gems to delight and challenge. I hope you'll come out for this unique experience. 

Please note some films contain adult and mature subject matter. Tickets are $5 general admission and free to MCASD Members.

The 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

Prepare for a breathtaking view of a submerged world with the 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition. The Exhibition will be held at Qualcomm Hall's big screen auditorium in San Diego on Friday and Saturday evenings, August 22 and 23. The venue boasts state of the art digital projection (what else would you expect from Qualcomm) for its showcase of digital video, including many in high definition. There will be a different program of fifteen short films each night beginning at 7:00 PM. Each work clocks in at no longer than five minutes with subjects ranging from sharks to shipwrecks to colorful marine creatures, and each shot in exotic underwater locales across the globe and in our own backyard. The films celebrate the incredible beauty and visual splendor of life in the ocean. But the films also make us aware of how fragile this world is and how important it is to protect it. The clips made available in advance of the festival didn't identify the filmmakers or titles of the works, but one involving a playful seal and another involving a mesmerizing squid were particularly impressive.

Tickets are $15 per evening and are available online at sdufex.com, and at various San Diego dive shops, dive clubs and organizations.

Bartholomew's Song, from Destin Cretton and Lowell Frank, screens as part of the Best of BestFest (Flagpop)

The 10th Annual BestFest Festival arrives August 16-17 at the Jewish Community Center's Garfield Theater. But as a lead in to this year's event you can sample some of the Best of BestFest Thursday August 7 beginning at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center. BestFest America will host a reception and screen five award-winning films. The reception begins in the UltraLounge and will feature food from Roppongi's, Sammy's Woodfired Pizza and Mosaic Catering. The screening begins at 7:30 om and will include: 2001's Killing Time by SDSU's Ron Najor and Tyler Spangler; 2005's I'm Afraid of Americans by Grossmont College's De Veau Dunn; 2006's Bartholomew's Song by SDSU's Destin Cretton and Lowell Frank; 2007's Bananamation by La Jolla High's Daniel Jaffe; and, 2007's Flattest by Torrey Pines High's Michael Gallagher, Matt Rosen, Chris Hanke, Mark Wessling, Jana Winternitz, Peter Dominguez, and Ariel Adler. The filmmakers will be on hand to introduce the films and take questions from teh audience. I have screened both Killing Time and Bartholomew's Song as part of the Film School Confidential student showcase that I run so I can attest to the high quality of those two films. My advice: check out these young filmmakers now so you can say you saw them back when...

Tickets are available at the UltraStar Mission Valley Theaters box office or online. Tickets are $10 for the reception and screening; $5 for the screening alone.

The Black Historical Society recently opened its new offices downtown (BHSSD)

Earlier this year I met Karen Huff-Willis, the director of the San Diego Black Film Festival. I came down to the recently opened but still in-progress offices of the Black Historical Society and Huff-Willis gave me a tour of the facility, filling me in on what the finished facility would look like. Well the work is now done and Huff-Willis is thrilled to announce the historic opening of the first museum in San Diego dedicated to the city's African American History. 

"We're very excited about the opening of the Black Historical Society of San Diego and Museum of San Diego African American History facility. This effort has been 10 years in the making and it's nice to finally see an African American Cultural Center in downtown San Diego," said Karen Huff-Willis, Chairman.

Downtown San Diego has a rich history in African American culture, including jazz, blues and art, which date back to the 1920s. On Wednesday, the museum had its dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony. The  2500 square foot facility officially opens to the public on Saturday June 28 at 11am. The African American cultural center is located at 740 Market Street and includes the Black Historical Society of San Diego's archives, research and genealogy room, gift shop, and exhibition gallery. The museum will feature a permanent exhibit on the history of African Americans in San Diego, in addition to traveling exhibitions several months out of the year. The museum hours are daily from 10am-6pm.

For additional information visit www.blackhistoricalsociety.org or call (619) 232-1480. You can also find information about the annual San Diego Black Film Festival on their website. Congratulations to the BHSSD on their new digs and the exciting opportunities it will afford San Diegans.

OMG! Look how young Clint is in the 1964 spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars (United Artists)

If you missed The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at last month's United Artists Film Festival, don't despair. You will have another chance to see not only that Sergio Leone spaghetti western classic, but his entire Man with No Name Trillogy courtesy of the San Diego Italian Film Festival. The free summer mini-series kicks off on Thursday June 5 at 7:00 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts with the 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars, featuring Clint Eastwood as the now iconic Man with No Name. For a Few Dollars More follows on July 3, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly closes the mini-series on August 7.

Here in teh U.S. we refer to these films as "Spaghetti Westerns," but in Italy they are called "Westerns all'Italiana." All three films are the collaboration of filmmaker Sergio Leone, star Clint Eastwood, and composer Ennion Morricone. According to film lore, an obscure director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a load of leftover film stock in the early 1960s and told to make a western. Leone turned to Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo, for inspiration and to American TV actor Clint Eastwood as his star. The rest, as they say, is history. The film introduced Eastwood as the laconic, cynical, anti-heroic gunslinger known only as the Man with No Name. Leone's trilogy of films came to define a genre and Morricone's epic, playful scores are equally memorable. These are films, with their stunning visual composition, are glorious on the big screen. Put these films down on your calendar now and don't miss them.

This mini-series is a warm up for the real event in October when the San Diego Italian Film Festival once again partners MoPA to screen 20 Italian movies for free. The films are shown through a collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles. For more information email the festival at .