This festival of films and videotapes from more than 25 countries continues at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, through Sunday, October 23. Single tickets are $2.50 for adults and children; a pass good for five films is $10. For more information call 929-5437.
Saturday, October 22
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TOMMY TRICKER AND THE STAMP TRAVELLER The best of the children’s films that I’ve previewed for this festival, Michael Rubbo’s delightful Canadian fantasy-adventure about stamp-collecting excels in several departments. The acting is first-rate, and the script and direction are unusually good. The fantasy elements occur some distance into the film, but are well worth waiting for. A magic formula permits two young stamp-collecting rivals to become miniaturized and to travel on stamps to the other side of the world in search of a precious stamp album hidden there by a young collector more than half a century ago. One of the rivals gets sent accidentally to Hong Kong, and both of them eventually converge in the Australian outback. It’s a film that’s clever enough to give us several subjective shots from the viewpoint of postage stamps, and the characters are admirably fleshed out for a film of this genre. Director Rubbo will be present at this screening. (noon)
MORE ABOUT THE CHILDREN OF BULLERBY VILLAGE This sequel to Lasse Hallstrom’s The Children of Bullerby Village continues the story from autumn through spring. On the same program, a Swedish animated short, Black Night Movie. (2:00)
TOMMY TRICKER AND THE STAMP TRAVELLER See Saturday listing. (10:00 am)
BOOKS ALIVE! 4 Patricia Fitzgerald’s Portrait of Mary used the animating talents of 150 Scottish schoolchildren. Carmen Coustaut’s American Extra Change is about an underweight girl who learns about self-acceptance. Randy Bradshaw’s Canadian Ramona: Siblingitis and Ramona: Mystery Meal are both adapted from books by Beverly Cleary. All four shorts are videos. (2:00)
