May 30 at SIFF: 'Waste Land,' 'Winter's Bone,' Joan Rivers documentary are highlights

Movies listed without capsule descriptions did not screen in advance for critics.

Egyptian, 805 E. Pine St., Seattle

11 a.m. — "Secret Festival"

1:30 p.m. — "Winter's Bone": The supporting characters may be reminiscent of the goons in "Deliverance" or Harry Dean Stanton's viperous brood in "Big Love," but this mystery-driven Sundance prize winner is dominated by Jennifer Lawrence's luminous performance as a much-tested 17-year-old named Ree. If she can't find her father, who has disappeared into the drug-ridden Ozarks, the family home will be gone. Out of necessity, she and a reluctant uncle become a detective team. Director Debra Granik and Lawrence are scheduled to attend the screening. — John Hartl

4 p.m. — "The Actresses"

7 p.m. — "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls": Combine the words "yodeling lesbian twins" with "from New Zealand," and you may start thinking of satire on par with "Flight of the Conchords." But no, these gals are for real, irrepressible and, apparently, irresistible in their homeland, where they've had their own TV series. Their folky-twangy music, good as far as it goes, is eclipsed by their transformation of themselves into male and female characters who range from farmers to socialites. This heartening documentary shows how they pulled off their unlikely success. Producer Arani Cuthbert and subjects Lynda and Joos Topp are scheduled to attend the screening. — Michael Upchurch

9:30 p.m. — "Amer": This fancily edited experimental film set in the south of France is a near-abstraction of cheesy horror flicks, complete with creaking doors, looming shadows, gooey secretions and more. The best moments — a young girl's fears of what's behind closed doors, an adolescent's sexual awakening, a woman feeling trapped and vulnerable on a cab ride — are hallucination-intense in their wordless nightmare logic. When horror turns to slash-fest, though, "Amer" (translation: "bitter") just feels gratuitous. Directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are scheduled to attend the screening. — M.U.

Midnight — "Splice": Tailor-made for SIFF's Midnight Adrenaline series, this mildly cheesy science thriller (opening nationwide June 4) will have real scientists howling while the rest of us get giddy thrills from a genetically engineered Frankenstein update that does Mary Shelley proud. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are gamely cast as the "parents" of a gene-splicing experiment run amok, and with the help of outstanding makeup and CGI, Delphine Chanéac is mesmerizing as their rapidly developing hybrid "child." — Jeff Shannon

Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett

1 p.m. — "From Time to Time": From the Oscar-winning writer of "Gosford Park" comes this classy, intelligent family film (adapted from the British classic "The Chimneys of Green Knowe") about a young boy in post-WWII England who encounters the ghosts of his family's past while visiting his grandmother's estate. Leaping through time, he reveals family secrets with history-shaking repercussions. Featuring fine performances by Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Dominic West and especially young Alex Etel (from "Millions"), this is a literate, upscale alternative to Hollywood's latest kid-flicks. — J.S.

3:15 p.m. — "Waste Land": Lucy Walker's moving documentary, an audience favorite at Sundance, shows us nothing less than lives transformed, unexpectedly, by art. Brazilian photographer Vik Munoz traveled to Rio di Janeiro to enlist a number of "pickers" — the working poor, employed to sift through garbage at the city's vast landfill — to assist in creating large-scale portraits of themselves, using recyclable materials they collected. As the castaway items, once scorned, become something beautiful, the workers themselves realize their own worth. — Moira Macdonald

6 p.m. — "Leaving": Catherine Corsini's drama is a portrait of a modern Emma Bovary; a Frenchwoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) caught up in an adulterous affair. Though it's hard to sympathize with the character, the actress sweeps you into the film: This lovesick woman has been shot by a bolt from the blue, seeming powerless in its wake. Scott Thomas plays her as one thin, raw nerve, trembling in the force of her emotions. A bit melodramatic toward the end, but undeniably powerful. — M.M.

8:30 p.m. — "City of Life and Death": Comparable with "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," director Lu Chuan's harrowing war drama is the definitive film about the atrocious "Rape of Nanking" in 1937. It's an unflinching chronicle of death and survival as the Japanese Army invades Nanking to slaughter thousands of Chinese soldiers and innocent civilians. This film made news recently when the Chinese government pulled it from the schedule of the Palm Springs Film Festival. — J.S.

Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., Seattle

11 a.m. — "First of All, Felicia"

1:30 p.m. — "On the Waterfront": One of the few Academy Awards this 1954 drama did not collect on Oscar night was for Leonard Bernstein's passionate score, which was widely regarded as overheated by traditional Hollywood composers. But today it's impossible to imagine the intense love scenes between Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint, or Brando's much-quoted "I coulda been a contender" speech, without Bernstein's essential background music. Jamie Bernstein, daughter of Leonard Bernstein, is scheduled to attend the screening. — J.H.

4:15 p.m. — "Marwencol": Nearly beaten to death by five teenagers in 2000, Mark Hogancamp suffered such severe brain damage that he lost most of his memory. He coped by constructing a detailed backyard fantasy: a World War II Belgian village occupied by skinny-dipping Barbie dolls and five swastika-sporting S.S. officers. Jeff Maimberg's affecting documentary focuses on what happens when Hogancamp's creation goes on exhibit in Greenwich Village and becomes "everybody's therapy." Director Jeff Malmberg is scheduled to attend the screening. — J.H.

6:45 p.m. — "Gerrymandering": First-time filmmaker Jeff Reichert makes a fine debut with this concise, informative, and even entertaining primer on the maddening subject of gerrymandering — the devious tactic of redrawing the boundaries of voting districts to manipulate elections. It's evil but legal, and Reichert uses dynamic and ironically humorous graphics, personal testimonials and interviews with top-ranking politicians to illustrate the shocking reality that, in America today, gerrymandering guarantees that a lot of our votes simply don't count. Director Jeff Reichert is scheduled to attend the screening. — J.H.

9:15 p.m. — "Huacho"

Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., Seattle

11 a.m. — "The Eagle Hunter's Son"

1:30 p.m. — "Mediterranean Food"

4:30 p.m. — "Vortex"

8 p.m. — "The Dancer and the Thief"

Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., fourth floor, Seattle

11 a.m. — "Princess Lilifee"

1 p.m. — "Ahlaam": Director Mohamed Al-Daradji is scheduled to attend the screening.

4 p.m. — "Son of Babylon": A strong, well-constructed and original tale that moves, by degrees, from liveliness to despair, "Son of Babylon" is an almost otherworldly drama about a young boy and his grandmother seeking the latter's son (and the former's father) during the years between the first Gulf War era in Iraq and America's second invasion of the country in 2003. Bursts of childhood spunk and a second act suggesting redemption on the way are ultimately eclipsed by a sad futility. — Tom Keogh

6:45 p.m. — "Donkey"

9 p.m. — "Crayfish"

SIFF Cinema, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle

11 a.m. — "Rejoice and Shout"

1:30 p.m. — "Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould": Director Peter Maymont is scheduled to attend the screening.

4;30 p.m. — "A Spray of Plum Blossoms" with Donald Sosin

7:15 p.m. — "Turn it Loose"

9:30 p.m. — "Wheedle's Groove": Seattle filmmaker Jennifer Maas' documentary, five years in the making, is a fond tribute to a scene long gone: Seattle's once-vibrant soul and funk community in the '60s and '70s. Numerous local musicians (some still making music, some not) face the camera and remember headier days of Seattle success and — for a few — coming close to something bigger. Fame is fleeting, we're reminded (particularly when it's chased away by disco); but love of music endures. Maas is scheduled to attend the screening. — M.M.

Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle

1:30 p.m. — "Khargosh"

4 p.m. — "The Hedgehog": Mona Achache's lovely film version of Muriel Barbery's popular novel "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" has at its heart 11-year-old Paloma (Garance Le Guillemic, her glasses charmingly tangled in her curls) who's learning to tell a story with a camera. As she — and we — watch the building's gruff concierge (who's "rarely amiable but always polite") slowly forming a friendship with a new tenant, Paloma learns a few lessons about life, love and Tolstoy; it's whimsical (with some delightful animation) and quite touching. — M.M.

7 p.m. — "Cairo Time": If SIFF gave an award for Best Closeups as an Elevator Door Closes, Patricia Clarkson would win hands-down for this low-key drama: Twice, her character — a magazine editor in Cairo waiting for her diplomat husband — lets an elevator door close between herself and what she wants, and Clarkson makes each moment luminous with quiet longing. The film is almost too restrained for its own good — you wish we knew a little more about the characters — but Clarkson is a joy. Director Ruba Nadda is scheduled to attend the screening. — M.M.

9:30 p.m. — "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work": In this entertaining and revealing portrait of a year in the life of the 75-year-old comedian, Joan Rivers comes across as bitter, angry — and very funny. "If I didn't have the anger," she says in one of a number of insightful interviews, "I wouldn't be a comedian. Anger fuels comedy." Though she's got many reasons to be bitter, ultimately Rivers emerges here as a tough, likable and ever-talking survivor whose greatest fear is an empty calendar page. — M.M.