Super Hiro

In case getting to see fine movies isn’t enough of an incentive in itself, here’s another good reason to check out the sixth annual Mesa Community College International Film Festival: Someday, say 20 or 30 years from now, this year’s featured filmmaker, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, might just be accepting a Lifetime Achievement honor on some TV award show. Then you can boast that you met the guy decades ago, long before your friends and family were into him.

Each evening at 7, one of the director/producer/screenwriter’s acclaimed films will be shown. Nobody Knows (Dare m o Shiranai; 2004), an account, based on true events, of abandoned children living on their own, plays tonight. Hana (2006), a Samurai-era period tale about a reluctant revenger, plays Friday. Saturday’s selection is the dysfunctional-family-reunion drama Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo; 2008). A Q&A with Kore-eda follows each screening.

Need one more reason? All screenings are free.