The Legendary Outsider Is Less Reclusive in ‘Bowles’

Catherine Warnow and Regina Weinrich’s sprightly, 57-minute “Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider” (opening Friday, with a premiere benefiting the Homestead Hospice and Shelter at the Nuart, where it will play one week) offers a tantalizing sketch of the legendary expatriate writer-composer who, at the suggestion of his mentor Gertrude Stein, moved to Tangier decades ago.

Many would agree with Allen Ginsberg’s assessment that Bowles, probably best known for the film version of his novel “The Sheltering Sky,” is one of the century’s great writers. Sharp and dapper in his 80s, Bowles is a witty interviewee; his firm loner’s stance is clearly his way of maintaining a certain mystique about himself.

Also screening is P. David Ebersole’s sensual 30-minute “Death in Venice, CA,” an impeccably acted contemporary variation on the Thomas Mann novella in which a handsome youth (Rob Keith) is caught between his possessive stepmother (Shirley Knight) and a visiting relative (Nick Rafter), a ravaged, repressed homosexual.

Information: (310) 478-6379.

Docu Series: The American Cinematheque’s “Studio D: The Women’s Studio of the National Film Board of Canada” launches its “Documentary Saturdays in March” series this Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Chaplin Theater, Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., with four stimulating, consciousness-raising documentaries.

Donna Read’s “The Burning Times” (1 p.m.) takes a scholarly revisionist look at the fate of women all over Europe accused of witchcraft through the centuries, suggesting that these women were revered healers in ancient matriarchal religions labeled devil worshipers by the Christian church for its own aggrandizement.

Roushell Goldstein and Francine Zuckerman’s “Half the Kingdom” (3:15 p.m.) introduces us to a group of highly articulate women dedicated to prove that “Jewish feminist” is not an oxymoron as they attack the tenets of male dominance and superiority that are embedded in many major religions besides Judaism.

Bonnie Klein’s much-discussed 1989 “Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography” (5:30 p.m.) makes a brave but decidedly incomplete attempt to tackle a highly charged subject. Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s warm and informative “Forbidden Love” (8 p.m.) introduces us to nine Canadian women who dared to fulfill their lives as lesbians in the repressive, widely homophobic ‘50s and ‘60s. The filmmakers’ point of departure is the lurid lesbian-themed paperbacks of the era, which were the women’s first connection with lesbian lifestyles. Each documentary is shown with a short.

Information: (213) 466-FILM.