A Refreshing Dip in ‘Tuvalu’ at Slamdance Fest Recap

American Cinematheque’s “The Best of Slamdance 2000” continues tonight at 7:15 at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theater at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., with Veit Helmer’s enchanting “Tuvalu.” The nearly wordless fairy tale has an intricate sound design and imagery that recall the jaunty, absurdist works of Eastern European animation that suggest the universe is an antique machine in the process of falling apart. The setting is a glorious but crumbling Beaux-Arts bathhouse, resembling nothing so much as a grand ‘20s movie palace, in an unspecified city. Its ancient proprietor is blind, and his son Anton (Denis Levant, of “The Lovers of Pont-Neuf”) is dedicated to preserving the illusion that all is well while in truth the baths’ only customers are the homeless and the destitute, who pay for admission in buttons. Much of Anton’s efforts are expended in keeping the baths’ steam engine, a glorious Rube Goldberg contraption, functioning. (Angelenos of a certain age may be reminded of the long-gone Bimini Baths, near 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue, where several generations of youngsters learned to swim.)

Into this rotting paradise enters the lovely 18-year-old Eva (Chulpan Hamatova), who is smitten with Anton (Lavant holds the patent these days on wistful clowns), and they dream of sailing off on a tugboat to Tuvalu, the island of their dreams. But what of Anton’s poor father? Or of Anton’s crazed, terrible brother Gregor (Terrence Gillespie), who will stop at nothing to bulldoze the baths to pave the way for a vast new development? In any event, “Tuvalu” is a whimsical, poignant delight, which Helmer filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria’s vast Central Baths and at a graveyard for ships in Varna, on the Black Sea. Slamdance--Park City, Utah’s indie-fringe alternative to the Sundance festival--bestowed its best cinematography award to Emil Christov for his venturesome, richly textured work.

Screening at 9:30 p.m. is the winner of the Slamdance editing and documentary prizes, Christopher Wilcha’s provocative “The Target Shoots First.” Wilcha, a philosophy major in college, was hired by Columbia House, the mail-order giant jointly owned by Sony and Time Warner. He was made an assistant product manager of music marketing because of his knowledge of alternative rock at a time when Nirvana’s “Nevermind” came out of nowhere to become a huge seller. Back in 1993, he started a video-camera diary from Day 1 of his new job, which quickly escalated when his immediate superior resigned. “The Target Shoots First” becomes an inside look at the contemporary corporate world, replete with power plays and fears of ageism, with Wilcha discovering tensions between the marketing executives on the 19th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper and the creative team on the 17th.

Charged with coming up with a new sales catalog designed to appeal to fans of alternative music, Wilcha and his youthful associates broke down walls and created a new magazine that was proving to be phenomenally successful when they received word of Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Having been hesitant from the start about committing himself wholly to a career he essentially had fallen into, Wilcha questions the value of being able to turn fans into consumers. “The Target Shoots First” has a shoot-from-the-hip immediacy that comes from recording events as they unfold. Wilcha manages to be blunt and critical without being heavy-handedly judgmental yet is clearly a young man capable of reflection and concerned about values. He’s also a witty, amused observer of the human condition; music marketing’s loss is the documentary’s gain. However, when last heard from, Wilcha was back at Columbia House, working in its Web marketing division to pay off the costs of attending California Institute of the Arts, where he earned his graduate degree. (323) 466-FILM.

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David Schisgall’s “The Lifestyle: Group Sex in the Suburbs,” which opens a regular run Friday at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, and the Colorado, 2588 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, was--as the title suggests--one of the farther-out offerings in last year’s Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. It is a candid--and then some--documentary about swingers, mainly middle-aged and older and otherwise conventional, even conservative, couples who spice up their lives by swapping sex partners. The couples may score points for their courage and honesty in a forthright pursuit of pleasure, which they insist strengthens their marriages and helps make life worth living. Be warned, however, they are not a pretty sight. (323) 848-3500.

Chris Morrissey’s “Superstar Female Serial Killer” is more amusing than you would suspect, a wobbly travesty of the “Scream” movies and media sensationalism that finds an ambitious San Fernando Valley film student, Denver Shaw (singer Vickie Velvet), deciding to make a documentary about Hollywood prostitutes, only to wind up killing her first interviewee, an overweight crazed blond. When another prostitute is found murdered, Denver tells herself that a serial killer is on the loose and announces to the world that she will be making a movie on the “Vice Stalker,” which of course makes her a target of the real killer. All this is presented with a steadfast punk silliness that recalls New York underground movies of yore. The stiletto-thin Velvet has a nervy presence, and the electronic music of her band, Space Babies, provides the soundtrack. Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays at the Sunset 5. (323) 848-3500.

Caesar Cavaricci’s “Civility” is an OK but overly familiar tale of a young man (Liam Waite) who returns to a small Arizona town, Civility, for his drunken, abusive father’s funeral only to discover the guy had become a bookie with a $3-million stash. There’s good work from Tom Arnold, William Forsythe and Clarence Williams III as the dead man’s cohorts, who suggest that there may be honor among thieves after all, and also from Ed Lauter, Taylor Negron and others. Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays at the Sunset 5.

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The 16th annual Israel Film Festival commences Wednesday at 7 p.m. with a gala premiere of Arik Kaplun’s “Yana’s Friends” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. “Yana’s Friends” swept the 1999 Israeli Academy Awards. It’s an amiable, rambling romantic comedy that takes a ruefully humorous look at life’s woes. It’s 1990 and Yana (Evelyn Kaplun, the director’s wife) and her husband, Fimka (Israel Damidov), are among the flood of Russians emigrating to Israel at that time. They land in an old Tel Aviv building sharing an apartment with the rangy, easygoing playboy Eli (Nir Levi), who says he’s soon off to America to go to film school but in the meantime scrapes together a living by videotaping weddings and the like--and is not above taping his many girlfriends cavorting in the nude.

No sooner has the Russian couple settled in but Fimka heads back to Moscow with borrowed money, with which to set up a business. In short, he’s ditched the lovely--and pregnant--Yana. In his nonchalant way, Eli is likable and not unattractive. He is also kind and helpful, and Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles, marking the beginning of the Gulf War, propel the two into each other’s arms--never mind that they’re wearing gas masks, a wry touch that typifies Kaplun’s take on life in a crazy world. Subplots involving Yana and Eli’s neighbors tend to be digressive, but there is a warmth and affection in the film’s humor that bring it apt comparisons with Eastern European comedies of the ‘60s. “Yana’s Friends” is far from a masterpiece, but you can appreciate Kaplun’s resilient survivor’s sense of humor. The festival runs through April 13, the rest of it taking place at the Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. Information: (877) 966-5566; Monica 4-Plex: (310) 394-9741.

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The Villa Aurora Foundation for European-American Relations and the Export Union of German Cinema present Friday at 7:30 p.m. Christian Frosch’s “Total Therapy.” The bleak, nihilistic comedy is set in a remote institution where a dubious guru (Blixa Bargeld, longtime guitarist with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), promising an adventure into the inner self, administers one of those brutal therapy programs intended to separate patients from their defense mechanisms. Frosch wonders what might happen if a savage murder should suddenly occur in their midst. It’s a provocative question, but Frosch explores it ponderously and at too great a length (125 minutes). Still, he makes his point: You strip away the veneer of civilization at your own peril. Frosch will be on hand for the screening at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., and a reception will follow. Admission is free. Reservations: (310) 454-4231.

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Among the films screening in the Midnight Special Bookstore’s “Documental,” composed of two different programs of shorts screening Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m., is Thierry Paul Benizeau’s “Carla’s Opera,” a captivating 52-minute documentary that offers glimpses of Carla Bley’s free-form “chronotransduction”--her surreal jazz/rock/Kurt Weill-ish “Elevator Over the Hill” inspired by the writing of Paul Haines--during its recording in New York nearly 30 years ago and its public world premiere two years ago at the Jazz in Vienna Festival. The words and sounds, performed by legends of jazz, rock, pop and opera, are tantalizing, and Bley and her colleagues, past and present, are remarkable individuals, artists of tremendous creativity and reflection--e.g., Jack Bruce of Cream. Linda Ronstadt sang in the recording session, with Syd Straw taking her place in Vienna. This is the kind of documentary that truly whets the appetite of the uninitiated. “Carla’s Opera” is the final offering in the second program. 1318 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, (310) 393-2923. Free admission.

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Notes: The Laemmle Theaters will screen “Surviving Mankind: Doc Shorts” on Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m., at the Sunset 5, (323) 848-3500, and at 11 a.m. April 1 and 2 at the Monica 4-Plex, (310) 394-9741.

LACMA’s “Berlin Between the Wars” concludes in a flourish of classics: Fritz Lang’s “M” and Leontine Sagan’s “Madchen in Uniform” on Friday at 7:30 p.m.; and Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympiad I & II” on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 857-6010.