Four film festivals coming to the Philly area this fall

The annual Philadelphia Film Festival wrapped up at the end of October, but area cineastes will still have plenty of options to see new and rare films, thanks to four local film festivals taking place in November.

Some highlights:

“Essentially, we’re just a film festival that looks to kind of highlight creativity in Delco and beyond Delco, and bring creatives together and celebrate good, creative work,” Chris Pierdomenico, the festival’s founder and host, said of the film festival that started in 2016.

The lineup runs for two days, on Nov. 8 and 9. On the first day, a Shorts Showcase at 7 p.m. will highlight six short films that Pierdomenico calls “family-friendly,” followed by a Delco Late Night program at 9 p.m., featuring five “more risque” shorts.

One short in the Late Night program, VIATICUM, is the story of a priest performing last rites who is challenged by a hospice nurse who believes her patient should not be absolved of a deadly sin. That’s “the most Delco film on here,” Pierdomenico said. “A dark comedy with a Catholicism theme, to me, is as Delco as you can get.”

The festival continues Nov. 9 with two features, starting at 6 p.m.: Bill Helman — The WoofDriver and Princess. Bill Helman is the story of a Pennsylvania man and his dogs. Pierdomenico described the latter film as “a narrative feature film … that really spoke to our judges.” The Delco festival doesn’t always show features, but they found two worthy of inclusion this time.

Pierdomenico, a Chester native and Sun Valley High School grad who has lived in various parts of the county, is also the director of Delco: The Movie, the independent film of much local interest. While it won’t be showing at the Delco Film Festival this year, Delco: The Movie has a premiere set for January.

Delco Film Festival, Nov. 8-9, the Foundry Church, 25 Cedar Road, Wallingford, eventbrite.com/o/delco-film-festival-96348913113

Taking place for the 17th year, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival will run over 10 days in November.

“Every year we have an official theme that informs our curation. This year it’s ‘Reflections,’” said Arzhang Zafar, festival and programming director. “The concept was apparent in several of the films we were looking at for the festival — not just in terms of reflecting upon things, but also the idea of things being reflected back … the idea of parallel worlds, parallel spaces.”

This year’s festival opens Nov. 7 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, with All That We Love, the latest film from director Yen Tan, which stars comedian Margaret Cho as a woman coping with the death of her dog, and seeking greater human connection. It will be followed by a talkback with the director and the opening night gala.

“It has a sort of melancholy reflective vibe,” Zafar said of the film. “What I appreciate also is that it focuses on folks who are a little bit older, who are sort of in middle age, who are reflecting on their lives, and how they are moving forward.”

The festival’s closing night film, on Nov. 17 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is Carefully Taught, a documentary from director Cynthia Kao, about “the ways in which Asian people have been depicted in Western, and more specifically U.S. media, historically, and also currently,” Zafar said.

Kao will appear for a panel discussion, along with Nathan Ramos-Park and Rosalind Chou, two of the participants in the film. It will be followed by a closing night reception.

Beyond the festival, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival is making a push into doing more year-round programming under new executive director Nani Shin.

Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Nov. 7-17; various venues, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Vox Populi. paaff.org

Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media’s fall film festival has run for 44 years, under various names and formats. This year’s festival will be for 10 days, longer than it has been for most of the last few years, and feature a combination of old and new films.

“We’re getting so many more stories presented to us from across the globe that relate to the Jewish experience, whether they be fictional or nonfictional; everyone has something to say, and they’re all so unique and so different,” said Matthew Bussy, Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media’s program director.

The opening night film on Nov. 14 at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is The Blond Boy From the Casbah, a French film from Alexandre Arcady, about a filmmaker revisiting Algeria in the mid-20th century, with a framing device set in the present day.

Bussy calls it “a very sweet coming-of-age story … about a little boy who loves movies, and he’s just trying to find himself and try to survive.”

On Nov. 16, also at the Weitzman is the centerpiece film Bad Shabbos, from director Daniel Robbins, which Bussy calls “a New York City dark comedy,” involving an awkward Sabbath dinner in a family headed by parents David Paymer and Kyra Sedgwick.

“So many people hear ‘Jewish movies,’ and they unfortunately immediately think that they’re gonna be sad, that they’re going to be Holocaust-related, and it’s great to see a movie with Jewish characters that’s having so much fun with itself,” Bussy said. Bad Shabbos won an audience award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Among the “Flashback Friday” showings are Out in the Dark, Michael Mayer’s 2012 film about a queer relationship between an Israeli lawyer and a Palestinian student, which screens Nov. 15, and Barry Levinson’s 1999 family drama Liberty Heights, which will screen at Kaiserman JCC on Nov. 22.

PJFM Fall Fest, Nov. 14-24, Various venues, including Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, Ambler Theater, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, and Gratz College. phillyjfm.org

The Noir City program has been held in various cities, and it comes to Phoenixville’s Colonial Theatre in mid-November for the second year in a row.

Hosted by Turner Classic Movies’ Noir Alley host Eddie Muller, who is also the president of the Film Noir Foundation, the festival is a celebration of the film noir genre, featuring 10 films over three days from several countries.

The festival begins Nov. 15 with a double feature of the 1972 Argentine film Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) and 1942’s American film Street of Chance. It ends Nov. 17 with another double feature, 1958’s Murder by Contract and 1962’s Smog.

Noir City: Philadelphia, Nov. 15-17, the Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville, thecolonialtheatre.com/films/classic-films/noir-city-philadelphia/