We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
29
SATURDAY
I’ll consider it a forgivable offense if Peter Craig hasn’t heard that, in 2K5, Cthulhu is the new ninja. After all, had Craig’s short, The Climactic Death of Dark Ninja—about a group of kids shooting the final scene of their backyard martial-arts masterpiece—featured Lovecraft’s high priest of the Great Old Ones rising from the ancient underwater city of R’lyeh to spread tentacled, unspeakable evil, it would have almost certainly ended up with a budget too large for Guerrilla Film Fest 5. Screening as part of a series of shorts including Florian and Sebastian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Der Templer, in which a wounded crusader returns to his homeland, and Natural Selection, Scott Leberecht’s futuristic tale of environmental protection, Dark Ninja is followed by the GFF’s featured full-length: David Hickson’s Beat the Drum, which traces the journey of a young Zulu boy who leaves his remote African village in search of a long-lost uncle. Pray the great Cthulhu isn’t in attendance when the festival begins at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Institution, 16th and P Streets NW. $12–$15. (202) 234-2889. (Matthew Borlik)