Derek Jarman, Lee Atwater at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2008

Los Angeles Film Festival 2008: Friday, June 27

Stefan Forbes' documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (The Landmark 3, 1:45pm) focuses on the unscrupulous man behind the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Sarah Friedland's Thing with No Name (Italian Cultural Institute, 4:30 pm) offers a portrait of the human faces — in this case, two Zulu women — behind the statistics for the ravages of AIDS in South Africa, home to nearly two-thirds of the world's HIV-infected population.

PJ Raval and Jay Hodges' Trinidad (Italian Cultural Institute, 7 pm) is set in a former coal-mining and ranching town that is currently known in some quarters as the "Sex Change Capital of America." Trinidad follows Dr. Marci Bowers, a former sex-change patient, and two of her own patients at different stages of their sexual transformation from male to female.

Nahid Persson's Four Wives – One Man (The Landmark 8, 7:30 pm) depicts the messy polygamous marriage(s) of a man and four women (with a fifth on the way) in rural Iran.

Directed by John Crowley and written by Mark O'Rowe (from Jonathan Trigell's novel), Boy A (Majestic Crest, 9:45 pm) chronicles the struggles of a young man (Andrew Garfield) who, following some time away (initially, it's not clear where he's been), tries to readjust himself to life in society.

Isaac Julien's Derek (The Landmark 8, 9:45 pm) presents the life of British filmmaker and gay-rights activist Derek Jarman, who died of complications from AIDS at the age of 52 in 1994. Written by this year's best supporting actress Oscar winner Tilda Swinton.

Los Angeles Film Festival site