Trio of film series featuring old favorites, new releases

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January’s namesake, the Roman god Janus, has two faces — one looking forward, one looking back.

So it seems suitable that a trio of film series starting in January do exactly that.

The CineVegas film festival does both with two separate screening series.

First up: "CineVegas From the Vault," a new series highlighting movies featured during the festival’s 10-year history.

Free monthly screenings begin Thursday at the Clark County Library with "Happy Here and Now," which premiered at the 2002 festival. Set in the near future, the movie focuses on isolated souls searching for connection.

"From the Vault" series continues on the first Thursday of every month except June; upcoming titles include two 2004 selections, the Bobcat Goldthwait-directed cult comedy "Windy City Heat" and "Mitchellville," about a Wall Street lawyer trying to find the truth about his mysterious past.

CineVegas also resumes its Art House Screening Series at Galaxy Theatres’ downtown Neonopolis multiplex, spotlighting a variety of independent, underground, foreign and documentary features during weeklong runs.

Brian De Palma’s "Redacted," about American soldiers at a checkpoint in Iraq, leads off the Art House series at 7 p.m. Jan. 10; the screening, a Nevada Public Radio fundraiser, will be followed by a discussion moderated by NPR’s Dave Berns.

The fundraisers continue at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 with "Mr. Untouchable," a documentary about Harlem drug kingpin Nicky Barnes, which premiered at CineVegas in June. (Cuba Gooding Jr. played Barnes in this year’s drama "American Gangster.") The "Mr. Untouchable" screening, to take place at Galaxy’s 14-screen multiplex at the Cannery in North Las Vegas, will benefit KCEP-FM, 88.1.

Rounding out the screening-series trio: the Las Vegas Film Society, which launches a monthly series of silver-screen classics with the Oscar-winning 1961 musical "West Side Story" at 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at Regal Cinemas’ Red Rock multiplex.

The Las Vegas Film Society’s monthly screenings will alternate between the Red Rock and Regal’s Green Valley Ranch location, says founder David Wadley.

A Hollywood veteran with credits as sound editor, sound effects editor and writer-director of the 1998 video drama "Dark Angels," Wadley decided to start the film society to present "Classic Movies on the Big Screen — The Way They Should Be Seen," as the film society’s Web site attests.

The full schedule is not yet confirmed, but plans call for such classics as "Raging Bull," "Sunset Boulevard," "Easter Parade," "Some Like It Hot," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It’s a Wonderful Life." (A complete schedule is posted at www.lasvegasfilmsociety.com.

Wadley left Southern California for "a calmer life" in Las Vegas a few years ago, but "the movie bug never goes away," he admits.

So he decided to start the Las Vegas Film Society. Screenings are open to members only; single admission is $9.50 for adults, $8 for students. (Extended memberships are $27 for three months, $49 for six months and $99 for a year.)

Tickets are available at the Las Vegas Film Society Web site or by telephone at 979-9976; they will not be available at the theater box offices, according to Wadley.

Unlike the film society’s offerings, drawn from past favorites, CineVegas’ Art House Screening Series concentrates on new releases that otherwise wouldn’t find a home at Southern Nevada multiplexes, notes Mike Plante, CineVegas’ associate director of programming.

"There are plenty of independent, foreign films and documentaries that do come to town," he says. "Our goal is really to find unseen cinema."

Upcoming Art House attractions include "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten," about the late Clash frontman, Jan. 18-24; French director Jean-Luc Godard’s ultra-cool 1965 crime drama "Pierrot le Fou," Jan. 25-31; "Weirdsville," about hapless slackers mixed up in drug dealing, Feb. 1-7; the documentary portrait "Kurt Cobain: About a Son," which also played CineVegas this year, Feb. 8-14; a minifestival saluting director David Lynch, including a documentary and Lynch’s latest, "Inland Empire," Feb. 15-28; and the Washington, D.C., drama "The Walker," Feb. 29-March 6.

Tickets for Art House screenings are $8.75 for adults Sundays through Thursdays, $9 for adults Friday and Saturday nights, $6 for bargain matinees and for children, students, seniors and military. Tickets may be purchased at the Galaxy Neonopolis box office. More information is available by calling 992-7979 or online at www.cinevegas.com/screenings.

The free "CineVegas From the Vault" series, meanwhile, rescues even more obscure titles from virtual oblivion, Plante says.

"We believed in them enough to show them at the festival," he says of the selections, most of which never received any sort of theatrical release. "We still believe in them."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0272.