Philmadelphia

Philadelphia has a film festival and a gay and lesbian film festival, a Jewish film festival and a Black Lily film festival, a First Glance film festival and a terror film festival.

This year, the small indie film will get its due, too.

The Philadelphia Independent Film Festival (PIFF) will run today through Sunday with screenings of 151 films from 20 countries, including Nicaragua, Bulgaria and Afghanistan, bolstered by intimate Q&A sessions and lectures by 50 filmmakers.

And yet another will debut in the fall, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Oct. 24-30.

Bookended by the city's premiere film event - the 17th annual Philadelphia Film Festival, which was held in April - and the 14th annual Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, which starts July 10, PIFF fills a gap left open by those events, festival director Benjamin Barnett says.

"We found Philly to have such a growing film community, we felt there was room for" another festival, Barnett said. "Especially one which highlights independent films."

Ray Murray, artistic director of the Philadelphia Film Festival, concurs.

"I welcome it, and I'll definitely be attending," he said. "We could use even more [festivals]. Compared to other cities, Philly really only has a few."

Murray said the independent film program nicely complements the larger festival.

"They have more cutting edge, alternative American films than we can offer," he said. "We only skim the surface." He also applauded PIFF's inclusion of experimental, nonnarrative films.

One of the unique aspects of PIFF is its dogged devotion to locale: All screenings will take place in Northern Liberties, where Barnett founded his multimedia production studio, Media Bureau, in 1997. "I wanted to honor the neighborhood," Barnett said.

He said restaurants, cafes, shops and art studios will host special events.

Barnett said he had been bowled over by the "overwhelming response from filmmakers around the globe and America," and was pleased by the even breakdown between features (47 films) and shorts (56 films).

One of his favorite features, he said, is Mind Flesh by British director Robert Pratten. Billed as a "Buddhist horror" movie, it follows a cab driver who keeps seeing a phantom woman. A meditation on the pitfalls of desire, the picture begins with a poetic tone only to descend into pure terror.

Another Barnett favorite, The Dueling Accountant, is a black comedy about a lonely CPA who finds himself in a world of intrigue and adventure when he's challenged to a fencing duel.

"It's an outrageous, hysterical comedy," Barnett said.

A documentary filmmaker himself, Barnett said he was especially proud of the fest's 35 documentaries.

He recommended Orange Chronicle, a remarkable film by Damian Kolody that documents Ukraine's Orange Revolution, a massive, nonviolent protest that exposed a government plot to steal the 2004 presidential elections. (The plot included the poisoning of the main opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.)

"Talk about a pure documentary: This is a guy in Ukraine who owns a camera who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a revolution," Barnett said.

Another documentary is expected to be one of the festival's biggest draws: a fascinating, stimulating and somewhat randy one at that.

Xaviera Hollander, the Happy Hooker: Portrait of a Sexual Revolutionary, by Robert Dunlap, is a fast-paced biography about Hollander, the former call girl and madam who in 1971 published the infamous, best-selling memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story.

Dunlap, who has worked on the 68-minute film for more than six years, amassing almost 400 minutes of footage, said Hollander was one of our era's most significant sexual icons.

He said he found it fascinating that her book, which has sold 20 million copies to date, is still being picked up today.

"Young people tell me they find it in their grandparents' house," he said. Dunlap, who holds a doctorate in human sexuality, said he believed Hollander was instrumental to the women's liberation movement.

"No other person around at that time displayed this type of sexual freedom and boldness," he said. "And she really was the one who opened up the whole issue of sexuality for a lot of people."

Other documentaries of interest include Bally Master, a short about Scott Baker, who is best known for his sideshow act at Coney Island. Baker, who'll perform his act live at the screening, does scary, odd things to his body - including hammering nails up his nose.

Daniel Lamoureux's delightful Nerdcore for Life is another must-see. Billed as a "documentary about nerds, geeks, dorks and the hip-hop they make," it follows a whole new trend in hip-hop: rhymes laid down by people who are anything but hip.

When it comes to features, Philly is ably represented at the festival by the dark satire Public Interest, which was shot primarily in the city and features local actors. Written, produced and directed by Neshaminy High grad Brad Robinson, it's a faux documentary about a reality show that pits eight housemates against one another for an $8 million prize. It examines why the reality show ended in disaster and tragedy.

Robinson, 30, who said he made the film for just $60,000, said "the subject matter could not be more timely."

"Hey, I love watching reality shows," he admitted. "At the same time, the whole genre has just gotten crazy over the years."

He said the making of Public Interest, over eight years, has been an education unto itself. Now, all he needs is a distributor - a dream he shares with the vast majority of his fellow filmmakers at the festival.

.