Filmforum Fall Season Closes

Filmforum concludes its fall season at 8 tonight at LACE with a potluck party and a program of highlights from the 1991 Ann Arbor Film Festival, a 30-year-old annual showcase for 16 millimeter films of every kind.

There are four standouts among the eight offerings, and two--Karen Kennedy’s seven-minute “Recovering Silver” and Barbara Hammer’s “Sanctus”--are imaginative experiments that celebrate the beauty and wonder of the human body. The first employs shimmering black-and-white solarized images; the second, in color, uses X-ray cameras to reveal the amazing inner workings of our bodies (and would have more impact if it was shortened).

John Starr and Roger Teich’s 10-minute “Stealing Altitude” is a stylish and unsettling documentary on a so-called “base jumper,” a man compelled to parachute from tall buildings, a risky activity which on the one hand seems therapeutic but which he also admits is addictive.

There’s also Bob Arnold’s 15-minute “Travelogue,” a cross-country tour of the U.S. via vintage postcards, accompanied by a soundtrack featuring natural sounds. Among the less-impressive items in the 108-minute program are a couple that suggest that there ought to be a moratorium on reprocessing found footage. Filmforum resumes in January. Information: (213) 663-9568.