FILM/SNEAK PEEK : WOMEN'S FILM FESTS RE-EMERGING, '90S STYLE.

Byline: - Bob McCarthy

Maybe someday down the line, the Los Angeles International Women's Film Festival will pick and match films by a singular theme. This first time out, however, the guiding principle was simple and direct.

Let's get something going.

``Women's film festivals petered out in the '70s and '80s. Yet, today we have women emerging in some unexpected places, such as the Moslem world and Asia,'' reveals Cornelia Emerson, publicist for this first-ever women's cinema event hosted by UCLA Film and Television Archive. ``So UCLA proposed it to the NEA, which issued a grant to carry the festival through the first year.''

While American cinema is seeing more and more female directors reach the big time, elsewhere in the world women are only now getting a chance to express their visions and voices.

``To international women, a festival such as ours is important. The art-house circuit in the U.S. isn't as strong as it was 20 years ago. Not that many venues show foreign films at all,'' Emerson said.

Only a few major cities - New York, Boston and Seattle - even host women's festivals anymore, though film festivals in general are stronger than ever. So, apparently, are women's desires to tell their stories.

Nadia Fares, whose submission titled ``Honey and Ashes'' will conclude the festival Sunday night, is one. This 35mm film in Arabic and French (with English subtitles) explores the oppression of Arab women and their life-affirming spirit, even in spite of their patriarchal culture's acceptance of violence and mistreatment of women.

``Honey and Ashes'' is the story of three Tunisian women. One must conceal from her father her love for a man. Another endures physical abuse from her professor/husband. Yet another is a successful doctor in a loveless, arranged marriage.

Two films per night will be shown through Sunday at UCLA. They are:

At 7 tonight, an Australian film, ``The Well,'' from director Samantha Lang makes its L.A. premiere. Two women's euphoria over their freedom is shattered when one of them hits someone or something on a deserted road and then must get rid of the body. `` `The Well' draws beauty and methaphor from the eerie isolation of the Australian Outback,'' the festival film guide says.

At 9:30 p.m., ``Eighteen Springs,'' by Hong Kong director Ann Hui, recasts the theme of suppressing personal desire for family obligation. In it, two young lovers share a romance fraught with obstacles.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, ``Gesche's Gift'' from Germany is a psychological portrait of Gesche Gottfried, a 19th-century serial killer whose weapon of choice was rat poison. At 9:30, falling asleep on a bus is a young woman's ticket into a surreal world of rave, where she spends an unforgettable night in a decadent warehouse populated by dancers and drugs in ``Clubbed to Death.'' This film is directed by Yolande Zauberman of France.

At 7 p.m. Sunday, classical musician Odette Springer's documentary ``Some Nudity Required'' details her years working with Roger Corman on his B-movie, erotic thrillers. She explores what led her to become music director on more than 50 Corman productions in the 1990s. ``Honey and Ashes'' will screen at 9:30 p.m.

All screenings take place in the James Bridges Theater, at Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue at the northeast corner of the UCLA campus. Tickets are $6 general admission, $4 for students and seniors. Box office opens an hour before show time.

For information, call [phone].

Men in black

In ``The Pigeon Egg Strategy,'' a group of dark-suited assassins wearing bowler hats chase a children's author who they believe has exposed their gang in her latest fairy tale.

The absurd comedy - which actually is a disguised commentary on language - plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Raleigh Studios' Charlie Chaplin Theater, part of ``The Alternative Screen'' program sponsored by American Cinematheque. Also, a seven-minute short, ``5 Dreams,'' by Luke Jaeger will be shown.

The theater is at 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. Tickets cost $7 general admission, $4 for American Cinematheque members. For tickets, call [phone], Ext. 3.

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Photo

Photo: Pamela Rabe and Paul Chubb star in ``The Well,'' an Australian film being screened at 7 tonight at UCLA as part of the Los Angeles Interational Women's Film Festival.