See stars shine at Loft Fest

And hasn't it been that way since the Loft was called the New Loft and housed in an actual loft near Arizona Stadium? Didn't moviegoers climb that narrow staircase and devour an Alain Resnais movie one night, a John Sayles the next - and "Rocky Horror" the next?

So what makes the Loft's new film festival, a weeklong event that opens a week from tonight, such a big deal?

Movie stars in person, for one thing, including Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette on opening night next Thursday. They will take questions from the audience following "After Hours," the black comedy directed by Martin Scorsese that currently holds a 92 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Film festivals are all about people sharing the films in a crowded room with friends and strangers," says Peggy Johnson, executive director of the Loft, which is celebrating its eighth anniversary as a nonprofit theater this month.

The communal experience is deepened for the films that will feature a post-film conversation with directors, adds Johnson, who says she likes to think of the Loft Film Fest as a "boutique festival."

Alex Cox, who made "Repo Man" and "Sid and Nancy," is one of several notables who will be in the Old Pueblo for the festival. The director will be here with a new version of his 1986 cult classic "Straight to Hell."

And that's not the only cult classic from 1986 on tap for festivalgoers. "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," shot in the parking lot at a Judas Priest concert, turned into a mini-franchise for directors John Heyn and Jeff Krulik. They, too, will be at the Loft.

The Austin-based Zellner Brothers (David and Nathan), deadpan masters of Sundance shorts, will be here with their debut feature film, "Goliath." It's about a man who loses his job, his wife, his mind and, most tragically, his cat Goliath.

Chris Eyre, whose first film was the blissfully funny "Smoke Signals" in 1998, will be here with "Reel Injun," a 2009 documentary about Hollywood's depiction of Native Americans from the silent era to today.

Eyre, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, has made eight other feature films. Most recently, he directed the first three episodes of "We Shall Remain," the PBS miniseries that placed Indian history at the center of American history. He studied filmmaking at the University of Arizona.

Kirby Dick, a Tucson native who made the acclaimed documentaries "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" and "Outrage," will be at the Loft to introduce his favorite documentary of all time, "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On," about a Japanese veteran's astonishing effort to find, interrogate and perhaps beat up a few of his former commanders over the execution of two soldiers days after World War II ended.

"It's a film that documentary filmmakers love," says Johnson.

The Second World War is also the focus of Samuel Fuller's "The Big Red One," the centerpiece of the Loft Film Fest's closing-night tribute to Lee Marvin on Nov. 18.

The legendary star of "The Dirty Dozen" moved to Tucson with his wife, Pamela, in 1975. They lived in a Josias Joesler-designed home in the Catalina foothills, a place on 12 acres that was once the home of Mo Udall.

Pamela Marvin, whose husband died in Tucson in 1987 (he was 63 years old), will be front and center at the screening, along with actor Robert Carradine, who played one of the fresh-faced recruits fighting their way across Africa to Europe.

Lee Marvin won an Oscar for "Cat Ballou" in 1966, but his performance as the sergeant in 1980's "The Big Red One" is now widely considered his crowning achievement onscreen.

"This is another one that you probably won't get a chance to see on the big screen again," says Johnson, who shopped at the same Safeway as Marvin. "We felt that it was such a great idea to honor him."

The Loft will be showing what it calls a "gorgeous" 35mm print of the 2004 restored edition of the film, which includes 49 minutes of previously unreleased footage.

According to a review in The Los Angeles Times, "'The Reconstruction,' which clocks in at 2 hours, 43 minutes, with not a single extraneous frame, elevates the work from a robust genre film to a full-blown epic."

Johnson is also excited about the latest restoration of "Metropolis," the 1927 Expressionistic classic from German director Fritz Lang.

"It hasn't been seen in Tucson, and I can't wait to see it on the big screen," she says.

This version of "Metropolis," which opened earlier this year in New York and a few other cities, is 25 minutes longer than the previous restoration, from 2001.

"Its deepest concerns have hardly faded and indeed seem freshly urgent," critic A.O. Scott wrote last month in The New York Times.

"The problem at the core of 'Metropolis' is not the ravenous machinery of the industrial system, but the brutal inequality that makes the machine run. Down below, the workers toil in darkness, while up above, the children of privilege frolic and play, occasionally sparing a pitying thought for their exploited brethren."

The design of "Metropolis" may be beautiful to behold, he concluded, "but what it discloses is as ugly and as real as it was in 1927."

Finally, a few words about "Revolución," an anthology film inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.

The anniversary is celebrated on Nov. 20, which is when the movie will open in theaters across Mexico.

It will be shown at the Loft Film Fest on Nov. 13.

"These young filmmakers were asked to just sort of explore what the revolution means to young Mexicans today," says Johnson. "Each piece is really different. It's like a tasting menu. If you don't like one, you might the next."

One of the 10 directors is Carlos Reygadas.

"We're really excited to be bringing him in. He's a big deal to us and to a lot of other people in the community."

IF YOU GO

• What: Loft Film Fest, featuring 20 movies, a program of shorts and post-film Q & A's with filmmakers and stars.

• When: Nov. 11-18.

• Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

• Tickets: Individual screenings $10, or $8 for Loft members. Festival passes are $200, or $150 for members.

• Online: loftfilmfest.com