When it comes to things to do on warm spring nights, Tucson can’t
compete with a metropolis like New York City. And if we’re talking cool
independent movies, Tucson’s got nothing on Los Angeles. But for the
next 10 days, Tucson’s got both of those cities beat.

For the next 10 days, no movie fans should complain there is nothing
to do in Tucson.

For the next 10 days, calendars should be full from morning to
night.

For the next 10 days, your eyes should be so destroyed and your butt
so sore from the movie marathon that blood from your swollen sockets
drips onto the sidewalk as your limp legs carry you home from one of
the 10 venues hosting the 18th annual Arizona International Film
Festival.

OK, maybe that last one went a little too far. But this event is a
big deal, and not just for indie-movie junkies, according to festival
director Giulio Scalinger.

“There’s always a hard-core group that will come—they
basically take their vacation time, you know, because we see them every
day at every screening—and they see all the films,” Scalinger
says. “But most people just cherry-pick movies they want to see.”

Tucsonans should have no problem finding a film tailored to their
interests, considering the festival includes more than 100 films from
more than 30 countries,

You like bicycles? Ride over to the free opening-night “bike-in
movie” at La Placita Village and check out bicycle films: BICAS
Works, a short by Tucson’s own Rhys Stover, followed by
Veer, documenting Portland’s crazy naked-jousting bicycle
scene.

Too old for that stuff? Enjoy the wisdom in Natsu no Utage
(Summer Trip), a film about two retired friends hitting the road
for one last hurrah through the misty Japanese landscapes of their
youth, on Sunday, April 19.

Think you’re too busy practicing telepathy to watch movies? You
guessed it—there’s something for you. Something Unknown Is
Doing We Don’t Know What, showing on Saturday, April 25, is a
mystical documentary from South Africa. Inspired by a series of
unexplainable events, the filmmaker interviews everyone from scientists
and doctors to her daughter to get to the heart of psychic
connections.

And those are just a few of the films.

“We always say there’s at least one film in the festival for
everyone, if they look,” says Scalinger.

The festival has many constituencies, according to Scalinger. The
most obvious is Arizona’s independent filmmakers, and the festival will
showcase 15 of them—12 from Tucson, because the Old Pueblo has a
creative and active film community, he says.

After watching nearly 1,000 films in preparation for the festival,
Scalinger says the quality from Tucson’s film community can compete
with the best in the world. Phoenix, he says, has a “very
commercial-oriented” film community by comparison.

Another constituency is the Latino population, who are underserved
in most film festivals, according to Scalinger. To combat this, the
festival is hosting a Cine Chicano program and featuring Spanish films
reflective of the community.

Young people also make up a constituency, and the Indie Youth
program will show films by young people, for young people.

Organizers even thought of people who just aren’t that into film. As
the reels finish rolling at night, the music gets started with the
Music Café, featuring indie musicians playing at venues around
town.

While the specific themes target specific audiences, the festival’s
program theme is “bridging cultures.” By allowing the audience a chance
to view and think about cultures in a different way, and offering
film-goers a chance to converse with filmmakers from the far corners of
the Earth, the festival goes beyond “bridging cultures” as a theme;
it’s what Scalinger hopes the festival itself accomplishes.

“The importance of the festival is to give the community an event
that allows them to see films that they don’t normally get to
see—these aren’t the types of films you get to see on the
commercial screens—and also to learn about different cultures. We
feel very strongly that film is a wonderful bridge for cultures. … We
feel Arizona audiences, Tucson audiences, can learn a lot (about
different cultures) coming to see all these different films.”

This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.