Screenwriter-director Frank Pierson gets his day

“Ed Wood” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt” co-writer Larry Karaszewski will present an evening with Oscar-winning screenwriter-director Frank Pierson tonight at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre.

The program begins with the 1975 film classic “Dog Day Afternoon,” directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino, for which Pierson won the screenplay Oscar. Pierson will discuss it after the screening.

Rounding out the programming is a free showing of the 1992 HBO biopic “Citizen Cohn,” which Pierson directed.

Director “Savage” Steve Holland and actors Curtis Armstrong, Diane Franklin and E.G. Daily will offer live commentary Sunday at the Aero as Holland’s 1985 directorial debut, “Better Off Dead,” screens. The filmstars a young John Cusack.

The Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre pays homage to the late, great spaghetti western director Sergio Leone beginning tonight with a Clint Eastwood double bill of 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars” and 1965’s “A Few Dollars More.” Scheduled for Friday is a digitally restored presentation of his 1967 masterwork, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” with Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. Saturday’s offering is his seminal 1968 western epic, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” with a chilling Henry Fonda in one of his few bad-guy performances. And concluding the festival Sunday is Leone’s last film, 1984’s “Once Upon a Time in America.”www.americancinema theque.com.

Integration doc

The 2006 documentary “Dare Not Walk Alone,” a chronicle of the civil rights fight in 1964 to integrate a hotel swimming pool in St. Augustine, Fla., screens Tuesday at the Skirball Center. Filmmaker Jeremy Dean will then lead a post-program discussion of his work. www.skirball.org.

‘Up in the Air’ panel

Neil LaBute, John August and New York Times media correspondent Michael Cieply will moderate the 10th annual Film Independent Directors Close-Up Seminars. “Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman, his editor, Dana Glauberman, cinematographer Eric Steelberg and other members of the creative team explore the collaborative process Wednesday at the Landmark. www.film independent.org.

susan.king@latimes.com