The only thing Bostonist likes more than a film festival is an unscheduled one. Two weeks after the Harvard Film Archive showed The Professionals, the Brattle is screening The Swimmer today as part of its "Disturbed Suburbs" series, giving Cambridge residents and Boston movie watchers something of an impromptu Burt Lancaster retrospective. It's hard to picture Lancaster as anything other than a symbol of youth. His love scene on the beach in 1953's From Here......

Lowell Film Festival April 4-5 Various locations in Lowell Free; RSVP to getinthefilm@lowellfilms.org Lowell's not necessarily the epicenter of film, but it's getting into the swing of things next weekend (April 4-5) with its first film festival. Focusing on globalization and immigration, the festival reflects how Lowell is growing and changing as rapidly now as it did in the city's 19th century heyday. The festival opens Friday, April 4 with headliner film Sacco & Vanzetti,......

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival Various Showings, January 16-20 Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Peabody Essex Museum It can be easy to get caught up in local and national news, especially when election coverage is hot and murderous Marines are being sought. But even in the face of exciting events, we shouldn't lose sight of larger, less glamorous issues like human rights. Human Rights Watch has been keeping an eye on international abuses......

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film continues its annual Top 100 List tradition with a list of the one hundred funniest films of all time. All members were asked to contribute 20 ideas, which were then compiled into the final list of mostly modern American films. According to the press release: Many filmmakers from various eras appear more than once on the list, including Tim Burton, Charles Chaplin, Christopher Guest, Albert Brooks, John Waters, Buster......