A Guide to the Season's Competitors

The Children of Chabannes The raw material here is reminiscent of Schindler's List: In Vichy France, a school director provides refuge for nearly 400 Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany. June 2

American Pimp Albert and Allen Hughes, the wunderkind twins behind Menace II Society, pioneer a new genre—the blaxploitation documentary—with their real-life look at mack daddies and their employees in several U.S. cities. June 9

Bookwars The city's sidewalk book vendors are the focus of Jason Rosette's doc, a prizewinner at the recent New York Under-ground Film Festival. June 9

Benjamin Smoke Jem Cohen, best-known for his Fugazi doc, Instrument, codirects this portrait of a transvestite Atlanta musician. July

The Eyes of Tammy Faye Televangelism's raccoon-eyed dowager gets a frothy makeover. The tone is at once blindly sympathetic and dutifully ironic. July 28

The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack Peripatetic folksinger Jack Elliott was Woody Guthrie's last traveling companion, and Woody's son Arlo as well as Pete Seeger and Kris Kristofferson show up in Aiyana Elliott's documentary. August 16

I'm the One That I Want Margaret Cho films her well-received stage show chronicling the fallout from her disastrous season in sitcom hell. August 4

Darks Days First-timer Marc Singer records the time he spent living with homeless people camped out beneath subway tunnels; the result made him an unlikely Sundance darling. August 30

Rereleases: L'AtalanteJune 16; The Trial (Orson Welles) June 23; Blood Simple July 7; RanAugust; Gimme ShelterAugust 11

Festivals and Retros

Sapph-O-Rama Lesbian cult movies at Film Forum. May 26?June 15

Docfest At the DGA Theater (opening night at BAM). May 31, June 2?6

African Film Festival At the Walter Reade. May 19?June 1

Lesbian and Gay Festival At the NYU Cantor Film Center and the New School. June 1?11

The Sopranos The first two seasons at AMMI. June 3?25

The Village Voice: Best of the '90s Sixteen top films from the Voice's critics' poll at BAMcinématek. June 10?July 30

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival A collection of documentaries, including the premiere of Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO, at the Walter Reade. June 14?29