United Nations Association Film Festival

Oct. 19-23, Stanford University

THE UNITED STATES may already be pretty well out of the United Nations as far as both parties are concerned – at least until 2008 – but the UN is staking out a few US theaters, at least, with the eighth United Nations Association Film Festival. This edition is subtitled "A Statement of Hope and Courage," though "Chronicles of Horror and Abuse" would work too. Opening night is a self-explanatory doubleheader of Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan and Aristide and the Endless Revolution, which respectively highlight two themes running throughout this year's program: women's rights (or the lack thereof) and government-of-and-for-the-people (or the lack thereof). Thursday focuses exclusively on women's issues and activism, including screenings of the acclaimed Education of Shelby Knox (about one American teenager's battle for realistic public-school sex ed) and Sex and the Holy City, which weighs into the wacky world of the Vatican's influence on reproductive rights around the globe. Friday's features, themed "War and Peace," are led off by The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror, which pretty much says it all, yes? Saturday's spotlight on environmental and children's issues encompasses a stellar trilogy of Jed Wolfington's Recyclers (about those shopping-cart-driving bottle-and-can collectors here in SF); the intense sexual-abuse-victim-vs.-Catholic-church chronicle Twist of Faith; and the contrast between Havana-based and expat-Cuban artists and athletes Boxers and Ballerinas. Finally, four documentaries on Sunday sprawl from economically challenged stories close to home (Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story and the excellent Omar and Pete) – to death in Iraq (En Route to Baghdad). Go to www.unaff.org for a full schedule. (Dennis Harvey)