Reel World

The Dark returns

Dark Matters Film Festival—Albuquerque’s annual celebration of horror, sci-fi, dark fantasy and black comedy—returns this weekend. The event kicks off at 8pm on Friday, Sept. 11, at Witch’s Brew (1517 Girard NE) with a launch party. Celtic stoner rock band The Horned God will be performing and local art group Guerrilla Photo Group will curate a pop-up “dark” photography exhibit. The launch party is free and open to the public. The festival proper starts Saturday, Sept. 12, at 3pm at Guild Cinema (3405 Central NE) and continues through Sunday night with six features and 16 short films from around the world. Films from Argentina, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States cover a wide range of subjects. Highlights include Keil Troisi’s urban ghost story for the 99 percent Human Resources, the Argentinian pre-pubescent vampire flick Children of the Night and the “high school death metal band fights demons in suburban New Zealand” comedy Deathgasm. Among the short films is a brand new “Courage the Cowardly Dog” cartoon from animator/creator John Dilworth. It’s an incredible line-up, if I do say so myself—and I do, because I am the programming director who helped put it together! Individual tickets are $10 or $8 students/military. Four-film punch cards run $35 dollars, and full-festival passes are $50. For more info, including a full schedule of films, go to darkmattersfilmfest.com.

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Soviet cinema score

Avokado Artists and the National Hispanic Cultural Center will present a special, fundraising event for !Globalquerque!, Albuquerque’s annual celebration of world music. This Friday, Sept. 11, at 7:30pm, DakhaBrakha, Ukraine’s musical “Ambassadors of Ethnic Chaos,” will be performing a live score to Aleksandr Dovzhenko’s restored 1930 classic Earth (Zemlya). The silent film concerns the efforts of rural Kulak farmers to resist collectivism in post-revolution Russia. The movie/concert will take place at the Albuquerque Journal Theatre (1701 Fourth Street SW). Tickets are $22 and are available in advance through vendini.com.

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Oh, happy Day!

Cult actress and internet icon Felicia Day (star of “The Guild,” “Supernatural” and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) will be at the Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma) in Santa Fe this Sunday, Sept. 13. Starting at 6pm Day will sign copies of her new memoir, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). Admission to the event is $10 or free with hardcover book purchase ($25.99). To learn more about the event, go to jeancocteaucinema.com or feliciaday.com.

Q in the Q

Indie Q, the Albuquerque Film Office’s quarterly celebration of local filmmaking, returns to the KiMo Theatre (423 Central NW) on Wednesday, Sept. 16. From 7 to 9pm, the KiMo will screen a collection of New Mexico-made shorts, trailers and works-in-progress. Among this go-around’s offerings are selections from the recent 48 Hour Film Project. For more info go to indieq.ning.com.

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