The locally made flicks at the Tacoma Film Festival – which screened yesterday, and are on again at 1:45 p.m. today – are always rather hit-or-miss. This year two out of four were definitely worth the watch, with the other two less thrilling.

One of the better two was  Mick Flaaen’s “Paint,” a hyper-local documentary showing how the City of Tacoma’s imaginative policy on graffiti murals has shaped the town both aesthetically and internally. In between interviews with everyone from artists to City administrator Amy McBride, to whom goes the credit for much of the moving and shaking, are …

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On the surface, a film about a preacher and a film about soccer would seem to have little in common. But they’re two documentaries in the Tacoma Film Festival that make the same salient point through gripping footage and interviews – the choice every person has between extreme good and extreme evil, and whether to forgive.

“The Redemption of General Butt Naked,” which screened last night and will screen again at 2:55 p.m. tomorrow at The Grand Cinema, is as startling as its title. First, a caveat – yes, you will see plenty of butt-naked men, but seeing as …

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Rainier Arts Festival in Ashford

The fifth annual Rainier Arts Festival is on again in Ashford, with live music, art, food and activities for all ages at the foot of Mt. Rainier. Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Free. Whittaker’s Basecamp, 30027 SR 706 E., Ashford. www.rainierarts.com

24-Hour Comics Day

Locals join cartoon artists all over the world in 24-Hour Comics Day, a challenge to create 24 pages of comics in 24 hours. Drop in and see them scribble – or do it yourself. From 10 a.m. Oct. 1. Free. Comic Book Ink, 2510 S. 24^th Suites 15A-B, Lakewood. 253-761-4651, …

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The Tacoma Film Festival announced its category winners at an awards brunch Sunday morning. They are:

Best Feature: “Earthwork” (directed by Chris Ordal)

Best Documentary: “Back to the Garden” (directed by Kevin Tomlinson)

Best Animated Film: “A Complex Villainelle” (directed by Howard Cook, Nathan Billington, Bart Ovaitt, Rebecca Forth and Ryan Porter)

Best Short Film: “Ana’s Playground” (directed by Eric D. Howell), which plays again 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Grand Cinema

Best Regional Film: “Shuffle” (directed by Garrett Bennett), which plays again 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Grand

The festival runs through Thursday, and audience members can vote for …

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Today I headed downtown to catch the Tacoma Film Festival’s Grit City Flicks – six Tacoma-made shorts at the Washington State History Museum – and the Comedy shorts at SOTA, most of which screen again tomorrow at 4:15 p.m. at the Grand. The verdict? Painful boredom for the local flicks except for one silent movie, and some quirky takes on romantic comedy.

First, the Grit City Flicks:

“Valuable” (Scott Perry) tells a tiresome tale of a man who wakes up in Point Defiance shrubbery handcuffed to a briefcase and confronting a crazy militiaman. The backwards-looping structure is irritating, the audio distorted and way too loud, the camerawork jerky and the plot nonexistent. Read more »

Later Saturday night at the Grand’s Tacoma Film Festival came two paired documentaries, both of which are definitely worth seeing again.

“The Fence” is a funny, Michael Moore-inspired look at the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico, and pulls no punches regarding the ineptitude of construction and the financial and human cost. Segueing neatly from fast-paced data through cross-border interviews to action shots, filmmaker Rory Kennedy makes his case compellingly. We see paranoid Minutemen patrolling the border with ammo and revenge, hard-bitten coyotes scanning the horizon and desperate Mexican men who’ll try anything (rebar ladders, gas bombs, trailer-trucks) …

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Shorts are usually a mixed bunch, and the Family Shorts today at the Tacoma Film Festival were exactly that. They also got mixed reactions from the mostly-full audience – going by the noises, the films that engaged the kids weren’t always that cool for the grown-ups. Some are rescreening during the Animated Shorts at 4:15 p.m. tomorrow at School of the Arts. In a nutshell, here goes:

“Lost and Found”: This animated tale of a serious boy and a determined penguin, based on the book by Oliver Jeffers, thoroughly deserves its 2009 BAFTA award. Painted in gorgeous ‘50s-era hues …

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About 150 people gathered last night to watch nothing much happen during the Tacoma Film Festival’s opening film, “Cold Weather.” After a low-key gala with snacks and chamber music, festival-goers filed down the Annie Wright driveway to the plush Kemper Theater for the Portland-made detective mystery. The real mystery, however, was why it took filmmaker Aaron Katz nearly an hour to get the plot going.

After a protracted opening of disjointed scenes, mundane dialogue and bothersome, blurry camerawork, the characters finally solidified. Doug (Cris Lankenau) is a slow, gentle, naïve wanna-be detective; he lives rather pathetically with his …

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