Screening Room: A week for the avant-garde

Discerning moviegoers will barely have time to catch their breath this week amid the eclectic and heady mix of film festivals, retrospectives, classic movies and other cinematic treats screening around town.

Those whose tastes run to the subversive likely will want to check out the Counter Culture, Counter Cinema: An Avant-Garde Film Festival, which begins Thursday evening and continues through Saturday at the Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater. Over three days, the festival will show avant-garde movies from the early 1960s to present day, all of which have been selected from the collection of the New American Cinema Group/New York’s Film-Makers’ Cooperative.

The opening program will feature Jack Smith’s “Flaming Creatures,” José Rodriguez-Soltero’s “Lupe” and Carolee Schneemann’s “Fuses.” Schneemann and Jonas Mekas, pioneers in the avant-garde, will participate in a panel discussion after the screening. Ken Jacobs, another veteran filmmaker, is also a guest at the festival. https://www.moca.org

“Even the Rain,” directed by Icíar Bollaín and starring Gael García Bernal and Luis Tosar, opens the Recent Spanish Cinema series Thursday at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre. A discussion with Tosar will follow the screening of the film, Spain’s official entry for the foreign-language Oscar. The festival, which continues through Sunday, includes several U.S. premieres, including “Lope” and “Paper Birds,” both screening Friday. https://www.americancinematheque.com

The sixth annual La Femme International Festival, which celebrates female artists, also kicks off Thursday at the Renberg Theatre in Los Angeles. The four-day event will showcase 100 titles, including indie features, shorts, music videos, commercials, special screenings and seminars. Actresses Angela Bassett, Virginia Madsen, Loretta Devine and Maggie Wheeler will be honored at a Sunday evening award ceremony. https://www.lafemme.org

The ongoing 20th anniversary celebration of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation moves from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Thursday for the unveiling of the Academy Film Archive’s restoration of Elia Kazan’s haunting Depression-era 1960 drama “Wild River,” starring Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet. Academy Film Archive director Michael Pogorzelski and archivist Schawn Belston of 20th Century Fox will introduce the film. Special guests include cinematographer Haskell Wexler and Bruce Dern, who made his film debut in the movie. https://www.oscars.org

On Friday, the Alex Theatre in Glendale will present a 30th anniversary screening of the Olivia Newton-John camp classic “Xanadu.” There will be a costume contest and special guests, but roller skates are optional. https://www.alextheatre.org

Saturday marks the eighth annual Home Movie Day, and the Echo Park Film Center is inviting anyone to share home movies from noon to 4 p.m. The film center can accommodate 8-millimeter, Super-8, 16-mm and 9.5-mm film. The event is free. https://www.homemovieday.com

susan.king@latimes.com