AFI FILM FEST: WEEK 2

L istings and commentary for Week 2 of the American Film Institute Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs through March 26:

WEDNESDAY

“Hart Crane” and “Langston Hughes” (U.S.A., both 1986, 6 p.m., Barnsdall Gallery Theater, free). These two literary portraits--directed by Lawrence Pitkethly (Crane) and St. Clair Bourne (Hughes)--have occasional flaws of overreaching or clumsiness; probably no one but Ken Russell can get away with pantomimed depictions of an artist’s life inserted into a documentary. But they’re notable because the makers delve more deeply than usual into the craft of poetry, and because their subjects are fascinating: Crane, the suicidal and gay candy manufacturer’s son, with his passionate Whitmanesque-Elizabethan lyrics; and Hughes, the gentle Harlem crusader and towering black literary lion. Recommended.