From Sundance to Park Slope: Craig Macneill's Late Bloomer (Photo: BICS)

On the off-chance that you are not among the frothing masses planning to stalk tonight's King Kong premiere in Times Square, you can always head over to the inaugural installment of the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series at Park Slope's Barbes performance space. Sure, you will not get the overwhelming plaster-gorilla-on-Military-Island flava you have been dying for, but on the other hand, you ARE likely to get a few decent films.

New York filmmaker Joe Pacheco--who has touring film festivals with his documentary As Smart As They Are--is curating the monthly program, sort of an offshoot of Barbes's regular Traveling Cinema series. "I've been hearing about all these other great movies out there," Pacheco told The Reeler late last week. "I was talking to Olivier, who owns Barbes, about all the films I've been seeing on the circuit, and he asked me to curate a series with more contemporary indpeendent stuff. Basically, that's how it started. A lot of the films we're going to be programming are ones that I have been wanting to see on the circuit but haven't gotten a chance to. It's as much for me to see the films as everyone else in Brooklyn."

Well, hey--at least the guy is honest. David Dixon's documentary/narrative hybrid Unloosened and Root opens the series tonight, preceded by Craig Macneill's Sundance short Late Bloomer and Seth Lind's Barbara Leather. All three films' directors will be on hand for Q&A's follwing the screenings.

And best of all--the event is free to attend and free to submit to. And it's about half the length of King Kong. If I weren't petrified of leaving Manhattan, it would be the quintessential win-win situation. For the rest of you, however, the fun starts at 7 p.m.

Woody Allen, New Yorker (one night only!)) (Photo: FSLC)

I am not too sure if it has anything to do with the general chaos of the holiday season, but all hell is breaking loose with film events around town. For starters, Gothamist's Aaron Dobbs has a preview of tonight's Woody Allen screening and discussion at Lincoln Center--which would have been your first chance to catch his new Match Point had it not sold out, like, immediately a month or so ago. In any case, if you happen to be among the lucky few who paid anywhere from $30-$100 for tickets, the rest of us would really appreciate it if you avoided the company line tomorrow telling us how the sleek romantic thriller is Allen's "return to form." We have Peter Biskind for that, after all. Use your imagination!

Similarly, we have the Village Voice and Roger Friedman to gang-blow David Cronenberg, although Dobbs notes that tickets are still available for tomorrow's Lincoln Center/Cronenberg panty party--the second such event in a month. And as though that were not enough evidence that New York film die-hards really do love their perverts, indieWIRE notes that John Cameron Mitchell is going to drop by IFC Center for this weekend's midnight screenings of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Glam it up and win valuable prizes, theater reps say, while Mitchell also promises "some fun surprises" if you can stay awake.

Gasp! Are the first 10 minutes of Shortbus ready? Can we just download it on our iPods and save the $10? Think about it and get back to me. Or not.

Oh, and between now and then are the one and only Gotham Awards, set for Wednesday night at Chelsea Piers. I do not think IFP will let me make bets (or even attend, for that matter, but we shall see), but you cannot lose with the Keane crowd and Andrew Wagner. And I heard about some big, gay cowboy movie also in the running, but hey--this is New York. It can never hurt to go with the underdog.

So I get this e-mail from Scott Phillips, who was letting me know about tonight's screening of his documentary Simultaneously Coincidental at the Pioneer Theater: "Tired of sitting home and fucking the dog?"

Well, obviously no, but that is not to say his doc does not look somewhat... intriguing. His Web site features perhaps the most cryptic trailer since The Shining (the real one, not the Ryang Dance Remix), and the available log line--about a recovering addict and sufferer of brain trauma--goes something like this: "(The film) is a bizarre and hypnotic story of drugs, religion, romance, homicide, paranoia and friendship."

And paired with tonight's other Pioneer event, maybe you cannot go wrong: Aristide and the Endless Revolution continues its standing-room-only run, with different guests stopping by following every screening to discuss the documentary about the ousted Haitian leader. Tonight, Democracy Now! Radio's Amy Goodman joins activist Brian Concannon Jr.; tomorrow, Danny Glover will be in attendance with NYU's Margaret Satterthwaite; and the list goes on.

Haitians and mental illness, back-to-back? In the East Village? That is more than enough reason to forego any canine tryst, don't you think?

I had heard this was coming, but I did not believe it. And if you think The Reeler is bad now, wait until you get to hear the spiel live and in person on Dec. 16 when indieWIRE presents its "Meet the Film Bloggers" panel discussion at SoHo's Apple Store.

"A film blog panel?" you cry. "But why?" Well, why not, this hot-off-the-presses IW memo seems to ask:

indieWIRE is pleased to bring together some of its favorite film bloggers to discuss their corner of the blogosphere. As film blogs become more and more popular, meet the people behind these blogs that cover indie, foreign and Hollywood films. Bloggers confirmed so far include: Karina Longworth (Cinematical), Scott Macaulay (Filmmaker Magazine Blog), Alison Willmore (IFC News), Andrew Grant (Like Anna Karina's Sweater), Aaron Dobbs (Out of Focus), and S.T. VanAirsdale (The Reeler). The event will be moderated by indieWIRE Editor in Chief Eugene Hernandez.

Damn it! I like everybody on that list! Why couldn't we get someone to tangle with, like Kevin Smith or "Hollywood's first blogger," Army Archerd (who, incidentally, has blown the lid off some hot Angie Dickinson and Edie Wasserman scoops over the last few days)? Perhaps the IW organizers know something we do not--say, that every distributor in town will have guided missiles pointed at 103 Prince St. that night, or that Harvey Weinstein is going to show up with a paint gun.

Either way, I cannot tell you how pleased I will be to have the opportunity to get out of these pajamas and slippers and leave the house at last. Thanks, indieWIRE! And I will see you all on the 16th!

(Photo: Film Forum)

Just kind of a quick heads-up you may or may not have heard about: Film Forum sent along word of its planned Essential Hitchcock series beginning Dec. 9 with the Village voyeurism classic Rear Window. Everything you'd expect is pretty much here, including some rare silent reels from the British Film Institute and a five-minute trailer for Psycho.

There are lots of obvious must-sees (as in, "If you have never seen Notorious or Shadow of a Doubt in a theater, then you really must") in the program, but if you mark a single date out of 36 on your calendar, make it Dec. 30 or 31:

Dial M For Murder [will] be shown in its rarely-screened double-system 3-D version, which requires audience members to wear Polaroid glasses (not the inferior red-and-green kind) while two prints are run simultaneously for maximum depth and clarity. Film Forum has the only projection booth in New York City equipped with this system.

Show-offs! And thank God for that.

'Batali on Stipe': I heard about it, but could not believe it

You may have been spending all year waiting for the hot man-on-man action forthcoming in Brokeback Mountain, but if you need an all-male fix before then, do not miss tonight's premiere of the Sundance Channel's new series Iconoclasts. The Reeler addressed this a while back, but I think it deserves repeating, especially now that the reality has taken shape, the chats are in the can and we can visualize exactly what kind of celebrity fellatio we are dealing with here:

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe bears [sic] his soul to executive chef and restaurateur Mario Batali. Fashion designer Tom Ford shares his inspiration with artist Jeff Koons. Screen legend Samuel L. Jackson plays verbal one-on-one with sports legend Bill Russell. Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer holds forth with corporate CEO Sumner Redstone. And more.

For those of you into girls, Renee Zellweger digs on Christiane Amanpour next month, but tonight you get "Jackson on Russell" as captured by esteemed documentarian Joe Berlinger. From the previews, it looks as though the pair is having a fine time golfing on the money Russell probably banked while destroying my beloved Sacramento Kings in 1988; you have to assume Russell was a primary influence for Jackson's awe-inspiring sell-out turn in The Man, and I can only hope they can slum long enough to give indie-minded Sundance viewers their money's worth. Alas, my mother does not let me watch such vulgarity, so please let me know how it goes.

Exclusive photo from the closely guarded New Zealand set of King Kong

I was thumbing through Entertainment Weekly this morning when I came across kind of an interesting sidebar about how King Kong's visual effects crew went about digitally recreating 1930s New York. It still looks as fake as the gorilla, but as with anything in this life (if not $200 million motion pictures), it is the thought that counts.

Speaking of the fake-looking gorilla, it has been more than four months since I solicited suggestions as to which Kong you thought should be bungee-corded to the side of the Empire State Building or the Ziegfeld or wherever for next month's New York premiere. I have not heard much, so I guess I'll just have to ask again. As I noted before, this is a top-flight event with A-list talent (and Jack Black), so please, please choose carefully:

Kissed By Winter makes a Lincoln Center encore

The other day I mentioned Lincoln Center's Lumnious Century series of Norwegian films, mostly hyping Liv Ullmann's appearance but also noting Sara Johnsen's Kissed by Winter as one of the series' more acclaimed newer films. Now its currency appears to have bumped up a few degrees with yesterday's AFI Fest Grand Jury Prize, and lucky you--the series features an additional screening this Saurday, Nov. 19 at 7:10 p.m.

In other NYC-related AFI news, Jonathan Hock's Through the Fire--already an ESPN property--earned him a $5,000 documentary grant. Check Brian Brooks' indieWIRE recap for more winners, losers and all the other Los Angeles happenings I just cannot abide without an acute allergic reaction.