Festival Jammed With Directors

A few filmmakers have dropped out, but this weekend is still shaping up as a major traffic jam of visiting directors at the Seattle International Film Festival.

In town to present their films tonight are Rob Weiss, the 26-year-old writer-director of the intense Long Island crime drama, "Amongst Friends;" Dan Curtis, who made the entertaining UFO documentary, "In Advance of the Landing," and Pasquale Pozzessere, director of the 1992 Italian movie, "Verso Sud."

Taylor Hackford, who produced "La Bamba" and directed "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "White Nights," will fly in for interviews tomorrow and Saturday. At 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Harvard Exit, he will present and discuss "Bound by Honor," his three-hour epic about Chicano half-brothers living in East L.A.

Other directors coming for the weekend: Udayan Prasad, who made the hilarious British sleeper, "Running Late;" Stefan Schwartz ("Soft Top, Hard Shoulder"); John O'Brien ("Vermont Is For Lovers"); Chris Gallagher ("Where Is Memory"); Scott Rosenfelt ("Family Prayers"); Susan Todd ("Children of Fate"); Paris Porier ("Last Call at Maud's"); Jeff Reiner ("Trouble Bound"); Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick ("Manufacturing Consent"), and Keva Rosenfeld, who will be here tomorrow through Tuesday night when his movie, "Twenty Bucks," starring Seattle's Brendan Fraser, makes its festival debut at the Broadway Market Cinemas.

Panelists for this weekend's screen-writing seminar include

Thomas Lee Wright, who co-wrote "New Jack City" and directed "Eight-Tray Gangster;" Leslie Bohem, whose credits include "Twenty Bucks" and the last Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, "Nowhere to Run"; Pasquale Pozzessere ("Verso Sud"); Steven Ginsberg ("Family Prayers"); and Stewart Stern, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Rachel, Rachel." It takes place at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Broadway Performance Hall.

Festival updates: The first movie to drop out of the schedule entirely is the Spanish entry, "The Red Squirrel," which will be replaced at 7:15 tonight at the Egyptian by a repeat of "Le Zebre" and at 9:30 p.m. Monday at the Neptune by the U.S. premiere of "The Forbidden Quest," a Dutch film about a secret journey to the South Pole in 1905.

John Schlesinger's "Billy Liar," which failed to show up last weekend, will be added to the free 12:30 p.m. Saturday show at the Neptune. Also on that double bill will be Schlesinger's 70-minute BBC production, "An Englishman Abroad."

Here's a roundup of Seattle International Film Festival events today and tomorrow. The festival hotline is 325-2485.

TODAY

HARVARD EXIT

5 p.m. - "Off Season." Repeat of a Swiss-German-French co-production about growing up in a Swiss hotel.

7:15 p.m. - "In Advance of the Landing." Dan Curtis directed this curious Canadian documentary about UFO-obsessed people, including a Jungian psychologist from Arizona and a couple of men who have realized their dreams by building earthbound spaceships. Film clips include the usual 1950s science-fiction epics, plus a loopy 1980 movie, "The Arrival," produced by the Unarius Education Foundation and starring its 90-year-old co-founder, who could have played Queen Carlotta in John Waters' "Desperate Living."

9:30 p.m. - "Careful." Canadian cult-movie director Guy Maddin's latest film, about a village threatened by avalanches.

EGYPTIAN

7:15 p.m. - "Le Zebre." A third screening of this handsome, wide-screen French marital comedy replaces the Spanish film, "The Red Squirrel," which has been cancelled.

9:30 p.m. - "Verso Sud." Italian drama about an affair between an alcoholic and an ex-convict.

NEPTUNE

5 p.m. - "Shirtless Soul." Repeat of Northwest filmmaker Kyle Bergersen's plodding, plotless movie about a man who claims to be immortal.

7:15 p.m. - "Amongst Friends." Grimly effective American drama about three Long Island boys who grow up to become criminals and killers. Steve Parlavecchio, Patrick McGaw and Joseph Lindsey head the cast of talented unknowns; they're not likely to remain that way.

9:30 p.m. - "Twist." Canadian documentary about Chubby Checker, Hank Ballard and the silliest dance craze of the early 1960s, including cameos by The Fly, the Mashed Potato and other spinoffs. The best moments belong to Marshall McLuhan, Frankie Avalon and a collection of American Bandstand dancers who tell interesting tales about Dick Clark's implicit and explicit rules.

TOMORROW

BROADWAY MARKET CINEMAS

5 p.m. - "The White Badge." Repeat of a South Korean film about the impact of the Vietnam War.

7:15 p.m. - "Vermont Is For Lovers." American comedy about a nervous couple who are about to be married.

9:30 p.m. - "Acla." Unique Italian drama about a rebellious, resilient 11-year-old boy whose family sells him to the Sicilian sulfur mines, where beatings, homosexual rape and humiliation are business as usual. It's been compared to Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows," yet Truffaut's bleak ending is used here as this boy's fantasy of escape! Sketchy and not always easy to watch, but very well-made and fascinating for much of its 80-minute length.

HARVARD EXIT

5 p.m. - "Where Is Memory?" Canadian docudrama about the Third Reich.

7:15 p.m. - "The Peach Blossom Land." Taiwan-produced comedy about a scheduling conflict between two theatrical troupes.

9:30 p.m. - "Betty." French drama about an enigmatic young woman's confessions. Claude Chabrol's first film since "Madame Bovary" reunites him with Stephane Audran.

EGYPTIAN

5 p.m. - "Baraka." A 70mm presentation of the latest eye-filling, globe-trotting documentary from Ron Fricke, who photographed "Koyaanisqatsi" and directed the IMAX classic, "Chronos."

7:15 p.m. - "Running Late." Sleeper alert! This hilarious 75-minute British comedy, starring Peter Bowles as a pompous talk-show host who's having a really bad day, is a tour-de-force for Bowles, screenwriter Simon Gray ("Butley") and Roshan Seth, who turns up late in the film as a philosophical bank manager who may have a higher calling.

9:30 p.m. - "Trouble Bound." American black comedy with Michael Madsen, Seymour Cassel and Patricia Arquette.

Midnight - "Stepping Razor - Red X." Compelling documentary about the life and death of reggae star Peter Tosh.

NEPTUNE

5 p.m. - "On My Own." Engrossing if somewhat unfocussed Canadian coming-of-age drama, with Judy Davis playing the divorced, schizophrenic mother of a 15-year-old boarding-school student (Matthew Ferguson). Vivid as Davis is, her role is essentially supporting; the script deals more with the boy's coming to terms with the extreme difficulties of their relationship.

7:15 p.m. - "House of Cards" (aka "Before I Wake"). Long-delayed release of an American drama starring Kathleen Turner as the mother of an autistic 6-year-old. Last month, it won prizes at the Houston Film Festival for best picture and actress.

9:30 p.m. - "Soft Top, Hard Shoulder." Peter Capaldi, who starred in Bill Forsyth's "Local Hero," wrote this charm-deficient British road movie in which he plays a struggling artist. Simon Callow provides brief but welcome comic relief.