For Your Consideration: Opening Weekend at SIFF

Now that the opening gala has kicked off SIFF all proper-like, it's time to join the orgy of cinema for the next 25 days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $10/$8 (and matinees $7/$5), except for gala screenings, which are $25/$23, and the closing night film event, which is $40/$35.

If you really want to be prepared for this year's fest, check out Microsoft's Live Search Maps SIFF collection. Unlike most products from the Eastside behemoth, this set of resources is both free and useful, highlighting the festival's venue locations, the best spots to find parking, restaurants and bars, and a live traffic feature – so you can make it to your films on time, especially over the holiday.

Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend:

· Girls Rock! This doc takes a look at Portland's Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, which provides the opportunity for camp counselors (like Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Beth Ditto from The Gossip) to teach girls empowerment via the majesty of rawk. In honor of the film's U.S. debut, there's a party/concert at Chop Suey on Saturday afternoon (2pm) featuring some of the girls' bands from the film. Bring your kids and let them try out some instruments themselves. Tickets to the show are $10 (or more, it's a benefit), available here. There's only rush tickets left for tonight's screening, so get there early. (tonight, 7pm @ Harvard Exit; Sunday, 1pm @ SIFF Cinema)

· The Singer Gerard Depardieu sings. Nuff said. (tonight, 7pm @ the Neptune; tomorrow, 3:30pm @ the Neptune)

· Red Road This thriller by Scottish dogme director Andrea Arnold was one of the best films we saw at Sundance this year. Unflinching and sexually raw, Red Road is an ode to obsession, with a surveillance employee who becomes drawn to one man, with whom she shares a past. (tonight, 9:30pm @ Harvard Exit; tomorrow, 1:30pm @ Harvard Exit)

· Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox This documentary follows the story of Dr. Emanuel Bronner, who escaped from the Nazis and a Chicago insane asylum, hitchhiked to California, and began selling his all-natural, multi-purpose liquid soap from the back of a Los Angeles tenement hotel in 1948. On each bottle, he attached an ever-evolving manifesto he called “The Moral ABCs,” a 30,000-word collection of teachings culled from all the world’s religions. Bronner's son and grandsons continue to run the business today, which ain't just clean, it's green: the soap is certified organic, the bottles are 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, and the Bronners have all capped their salaries so that they make no more than five times that of the lowest paid fully-vested employee. Now that's how you run a business. (tomorrow, 4pm @ SIFF Cinema; Monday, 7pm @ SIFF Cinema)

· A Battle of Wits Saturday's gala screening is this Chinese historical epic, heavy on the action and the romance. (tomorrow, 6pm @ the Neptune; Monday, 3:30pm @ the Neptune)

· Paris je t'aime - A Collective Feature Film 18 short films from 18 different directors set in 18 different Paris locations, all about L'amour. The film offers something for everyone, considering it features contributions from Gus Van Sant, the Coen brothers, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuarón, Tom Tykwer, Wes Craven and Alexander Payne, and appearances from Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Nick Nolte, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, and Elijah Wood, amongst others. Only rush tickets are available for both screenings. (tomorrow, 6:30pm @ Harvard Exit; Monday, 11am @ Harvard Exit)

· Knocked Up A friend of ours claims that this pregnancy comedy from the writer/director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin is one of the funniest movies he's ever seen. If you don't catch it at its single SIFF screening, it'll be in theaters everywhere June 1st. (tomorrow, 7pm @ the Egyptian)

· Rescue Dawn Who's more intense: actor Christian Bale or director Wernor Herzog? Their obsessive forces combine Voltron-style in this POW camp drama. (tomorrow, 9pm @ the Neptune; Sunday, 4:30pm @ the Neptune)

· In the Shadow of the Moon This Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary explores space (the final frontier) via some breathtaking NASA footage of the Apollo missions that is truly out of this world. (Sunday, 1:45pm @ the Neptune; Wednesday May 30th, 7pm @ SIFF Cinema)

· King of Kong Like Rocky but with arcade games, this high-scoring doc follows the unlikely story of a Redmond schoolteacher determined to beat the the Florida hot sauce mogul and his long-standing Donkey Kong world record. (Sunday, 6:30pm @ the Egyptian; Monday, 1pm @ the Egyptian)

· Bamako In this high-minded Mauritanian drama, the African country puts the World Bank on trial. As if Wolfowitz wasn't in enough trouble already.... (Sunday, 6:30pm @ Pacific Place; Monday, 4pm @ Pacific Place)

· Once This heartfelt gem is about an Irish guy and a Czech girl and a bunch of pop songs. At a rather contentious Sundance, this was the one film that everyone could agree upon. There's just a few advance tix left, and after that, it's rush tickets only. (Sunday, 6:30pm @ SIFF Cinema)