The youngest filmmaker at FSC, Jonathan Jackson, with honoree Larry Zeiger (Tony Weidinger)

At last night's Film School Confidential showcase, former Point Loma High School teacher Larry Zeiger received the San Diego Film Critics Society's Kyle Counts Award. The award is given in recoginition of significant contribution to the film community in San Diego. Although Zeiger has retired from teaching he's still involved with students, and he helped me find one video this year from Jonathan Jackson, a senior at Point Loma High School. Jackson was the youngest filmmaker represented at this year's festival. In the audience were a number of Zeiger's former students. With looming budget cuts, arts are likely to be even more difficult to teach in public schools. But last night people saw that providing students with access to the arts can lead not only to fine works but also to careers.

Larry Zeiger receives his Kyle Counts Award. (Tony Weidinger)

Rodrigo Gudino's Demonology of Desire screens Sunday at MoPA. (Rue Morgue Cinema)

Dissent. Revolt. Liberate. It's Film School Confidential 2008! That's right, it's time again to celebrate the passion, dedication and fresh young talent found right here in San Diego and Tijuana. The festival takes place at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park on Sunday November 16 at 6:00 pm. Film School Confidential is an event sponsored by the Media Arts Center San Diego, the Museum of Photographic Arts, and the San Diego Film Critics Society. Film School Confidential is now in it's seventh year. Unlike other student festivals, FSC is a curated event. There are no calls for entries and filmmakers do not have to pay a fee to submit their films. Instead, the films are chosen based on recommendations by teachers, professors, and other filmmakers. This year the festival offers something of a descent into darkness. There are a few bright, even fanciful films early on but by evening's end the tone grow exceeding dark with a trio of Latin horror shorts. We will also be honoring retired Point Loma teacher Larry Zeiger with the Kyle Counts Award for his years of encouraging and showcasing young talent.

Here's the line up:

Model Charis Wilson in a photo by Edward Weston in Eloquent Nude (NW Socumentary)

Ian McCluskey's documentary Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson screens as part of “Behind the Lens: A Documentary Film Series” held at the Museum of Photographic Arts in conjunction with the exhibition Nancy Newhall: A Literacy of Images. The screening takes place Friday November 7 at 7:00pm in the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theater at MoPA.

Eloquent Nude offers a thoughtful exploration of the creative process, in particular the relationship between photographer Edward Weston and his muse and model Charis Wilson. Filmmaker McCluskey interviews the 90-year-old Wilson and gathers together remarkable archive footage and Super 8 re-enactments to chronicle the life and work of these two people. In addition, McCluskey seeks insights from scholars and friends about both Weston's work and the couple's relationship. Although there are a lot of talking heads in the film, McCluskey ultimately builds a fascinating portrait of the emotional and artistic relationship between Wilson and Weston. Through their collaboration we also see their impact on Modern Photography. MoPA provides the perfect venue for screening this film not only because its concerned with the art of photography but also because you can exit the film to look at photos in the museum with some newfound insights into the artisitic process of creating a photographic image. It also offers a showcase of Weston's work for anyone who might be unfamilair with it.

The screening is free to MoPA members; $6 for students, and $8 for general admission.

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.

Gina Pareño gives a strong central performance in Kubrador/The Bet Collector (Global Film Initiative)

As with the San Diego Latino Film Festival's Cinema en tu Idioma, the San Diego Asian Film Festival tries to keep films playing in the community year round. SDAFF's Philippine Cinema Showcase runs in the South Bay at the UltraStar Chula Vista Cinemas, and it brings new films to serve the Filipino community. This week you can catch the San Diego County premiere of the realistic drama Kubrador/The Bet Collector (opening September 26 at UltraStar Chula Vista for one week only), directed by Jeffrey Jeturian. The film has racked up a number of international awards including an armload of Philippine critics awards.

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.

The documentary My Architect screens as part of the San Diego Architectual Foundation Film Series (HBO Documentary)

The Oscar-nominated documentary My Architect screens as part of the San Diego Architectual Foundation's film series on Thursday September 25 at 7:30pm in the Luce Loft (1037 J Street, doors open at 6:30pm). The film is a personal journey by Nathanial Kahn who undertakes a five year, worldwide trek in an effort to understand his famous father and architect Louis I. Kahn. Louis Kahn died alone in 1974. He was considered by  architectural historians to have been one of the most important architects of the second half of the twentieth century. As Louis Kahn's illegitimate son, Nathaniel sets out to try and reconcile the life and work of the mysterious and contradictory man that was his father.

The film will be presented by multi-hyphenate Keith York who is KPBS TV's director of programming as well as a teacher and mid-century design and architecture historian with his own architecture site. York is excited about the opportunity to screen this unique documentary:

In dreaming up the film series, San Diego Architecture Foundation Executive Director Leslee Schaffer saw this unique cinema showcase as including many curators and many different ways film and architecture have reflected each other. For our third outing, the San Diego Architecture Foundation presents a favorite film (and not just architecture related films) of mine My Architect. The film, about a son's journey to discover the deceased father he never knew, while a bit overplayed in the documentary format seeing its way through the film nation's film festivals, has never before come so alive on screen as Nathaniel Kahn's search for the identity of world renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. While I have spent many an afternoon enjoying every acoustical and visual facet of Louis Kahn's Salk Institute in La Jolla, it is witnessing many first-time visitors' reactions to what some have said is the single most important building west of the Mississippi, that is arresting. Sitting in the Luis Ramiro Morfín Barragán designed courtyard with a sunset, ocean and paraglider at the horizon, there may be no more beautiful built environment in our region. But Kahn's place in San Diego history, and the Salk's role in our regional architectural inventory aside, I hope by ModernSanDiego.Com sponsoring the presentation of this film, and having the chance to introduce the film, I can in a small way extend Kahn's myth and majesty to a few more people. Before the film, I hope to share a few stories about how Kahn's visits to San Diego so impressed local architects that even then, 40-plus years ago, while still alive, this man was a legend.

So if you are interested in both architecture and good filmmaking, check out the screening of My Architect. The screening is free but a donation of $10 is suggested.

Companion viewing: The Sketches of Frank Gehry. Belly of the Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

A friendly little T-Rex wants to play in Jurassic Park (Universal)

The Stone Late Night Movies closes out its 2008 season with a T-Rex sized epic, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park on Wednesday September 24 at 8:00pm at the Stone World Bistro & Gardens located at 1999 Citracado Parkway in Escondido. But since watching this film outdoors and with beer readily available might lead to some rowdiness, art director Mike Palmer has decided to screen the film with the "rifftrax" or "commentary" by Mike Nelson (of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame) and Weird Al Yankovic! Since the dinosaurs were the main attraction for me, this sounds like a perfect way to watch the film.

The outdoor venue at Stone World Bistro.