SEPT. 29–OCT. 2

The road movie started as an American genre, its comic side exemplified by such films as The Road to Morocco and The Road to Bali, in which Bob Hope and Bing Crosby romped through the oddity of the non-American world. Hollywood still has a penchant for such cultural myopia, as Jacqueline Salloum’s witty Planet of the Arabs reveals. This collage of threatening Arabs and avenging Westerners, which draws heavily on such bombastic culture-clash dramas as 2000’s Rules of Engagement, is featured in “Women Hold Up Half the Sky: Focus on Women Filmmakers” (at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1), one of two programs of shorts in this year’s All Roads Film Festival. Mostly, though, rather than offer the world as a series of exotic backdrops for Hollywood stars, the fest presents native perspectives on life, from Tibet to Kazakhstan to the American Southwest. (Michael Bennet’s Kerosene Creek, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, is pictured.) Lu Chuan’s Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30) observes Tibetan volunteers trying to save the Chiru antelope from poachers; Serik Aprymov’s The Hunter (at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1) is the tale of a young villager who becomes friendly with a hunter he’s wronged; and Blackhorse Lowe’s 5th World (at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1) follows the conversation of two Navajo students as it progresses from kid stuff to shared heritage. Also included is a program of world-music videos (at 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30), followed by a live performance of Latin/ragga music by Colombian-British band Sidestepper. The fest opens Thursday, Sept. 29, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 2, at the National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium, 1600 M St. NW. $10. (202) 857-7700. (Mark Jenkins)