The 21st annual Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival, featuring narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental works by women, continues Friday through Sunday, March 22 through 24. Screenings are at Preston Bradley Center and WIDC Theater, both at 941 W. Lawrence, and Delilah’s, 2771 N. Lincoln. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $8, $6 for students, seniors with a valid ID, and members of Women in the Director’s Chair. Festival passes are also available; for more information call 773-907-0610. Films marked with an * are highly recommended.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 23

Stressful Food Stories

This essay film about contemporary Japan is the most visually pleasing work to date by writer Trinh T. Minh-ha, whose films often approach foreign cultures through a series of contrasting and layered perspectives. Trinh shot it herself in digital video, an exploration that may account for its distinct look, though her aphoristic narration fails to provide the degree of unity found in most of her films. (Its method recalls her 1991 documentary about China, Shoot for the Contents, more than her earlier African documentaries, Reassemblage and Naked Spaces–Living Is Round.) When she isn’t shooting landscapes from bullet trains and reflecting on what this mode of transport suggests about the country, a good deal of what she shows falls under the category of public spectacle. But like most of her work, this is provocative, intelligent, poetic, and certainly worth a look. 87 min. (JR) (WIDC Theater, 7:00)

A moving cri de coeur for Palestinian refugees trapped by cruel Israeli restrictions, Mai Masri’s video documentary Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001, 56 min.) focuses on two refugee camps, Dheisha in the West Bank and Shatila in Lebanon (where a 1982 massacre killed the heads of many families). Though the children in each camp describe it as a hopeless prison, they manage to meet and communicate with each other via videos and letters; in the documentary’s emotional centerpiece they meet near a fence that divides Israel from Lebanon, exchanging food and gifts while dancing and crying. But Masri’s presentation of the refugee issue is one-sided: she shows one child asking, “Why am I a refugee while someone else has his own country?” but makes no mention of the Arabs’ half century of violent attempts to deny Jews a homeland. (FC) On the same program, Anita Chang’s 29-minute video She Wants to Talk to You. Masri will lead a discussion after the screening. (Preston Bradley Center, 1:00)

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