arisia as film festival

I've just gotten a look at the film program for Arisia. I'll be putting it up on the web along with the other schedule information once I've gotten it into a suitable format. But I couldn't wait to tell all of you how much it's going to rock. We're doing 35mm for the second year (most other cons do 16mm if they do film at all) and have an expanded schedule compared to last year. There will be recent blockbusters, yes, including one or two that really look a lot better in Cinemascope than they do on DVD. But then there's the silent film (with live organist) that's been locked up in rights disputes for 50 years (the film, not the organist :), and the two films that are so hard to find that we're showing the director's personal prints (including one with an introduction and Q/A from the director in question), and the archive prints of historical material, and the short films that we bought when the distributor went under so they wouldn't disappear.

I quote from the material the films czar sent me:

The Rook

This murder mystery, starring Martin Donovan and directed by Eran
Palatnik is one of the finest steampunk movies we have seen. It is not
just a film about an alternate Edwardian world, but a dark and brooding
story that just happens to take place there. It's well done enough that
the elaborate world seems entirely natural. This film was made in 1994,
released in Europe but really received no distribution at all in this
country and we have had to borrow the director's personal print of it. Your
chance of ever seeing it elsewhere is almost nil so we brought it here.
(85 minutes, 35mm Scope)

You'll notice that IMDB has zero information on this movie besides the title. Be the first one to fill it in!

This stuff would make a fabulous standalone film festival, and I almost wish there weren't so much else going on at Arisia so I could get a chance to see it.