An affably rambling mockumentary about football—among other things—and some of its more peculiar and most ardent fans. It centers on a local guy called “The Chuck,” the living embodiment of that one person who somehow manages to show up at literally everything, and who expresses a degree of enthusiasm that frankly defies comprehension. A blend of faux-documentary, improvised dialogue and bizarre tangents, the film is also sometimes punctuated with outbursts of slapstick and even an ersatz TV commercial. 4th and Long was shot in Wilmington, N.C.

Screenwriter Sandra Bowes describes A Thousand Hills this way: “Awkward 13-year-old David tries to save his family’s farm from an ambitious land developer using the only thing he has—his voice—to make a CD and to win the heart of Kelly, the prettiest girl in school. Through many ups and downs he learns who he can trust and who he can’t as he grows from a boy into a young man.” A pleasantly pastoral, family film—with a dose of some melodrama as concerns the greedy land developers. Seemingly bathed in sunlight and shimmering green leaves, A Thousand Hills will appeal strongly to viewers in search of the traditionally uplifting.

The official notes for Brian Hecker’s coming-of-age comedy Bart Got a Room reads, “‘What other evening in your whole life is as big? Maybe your wedding. But odds are that will end in divorce anyway,’ says Danny’s sage-like friend, Craig, as the two nerdy pals lounge poolside in the Florida retirement community they call home. The night in question? Prom, of course, and high school senior/band member/student council vice president Danny Stein wants what any reasonable young man wants on prom night—to get a little lovin’ from a cute girl.” The film is both a little different and blessed with strong supporting performances from William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines—not to mention a funny cameo from Jennifer Tilly as a woman Macy’s character met in a chatroom. The pastel Miami settings with their tacky yard ornaments and endless streams of retirees make an interesting backdrop for this sweet—but never cloying—comedy.

Quirky is the word for this clever mockumentary from Michael Mongillo. Cult star Michael Madsen (Kill Bill Vol. 2, Sin City) plays an alternate-reality version of himself that trades on and parodies his tough-guy image. This particular Michael Madsen gets fed up with being plagued by an obnoxious paparazzo, Billy Dant (Jason Alan Smith), who not only won’t leave him alone but is also constantly upping the ante on the outrageousness of the stories he peddles to the tabloids about Madsen. To get back at Dant—who turns out to have a seedy, even sleazy past—Madsen hires a documentary crew to give Dant an increasingly unpleasant dose of his own medicine. But things get a little out of hand. Various Madsen-connected celebrities appear in the film as themselves—all of whom seem perfectly happy to dish a little dirt on their friend, colleague or, in the case of Virginia Madsen, relative.

The fates of a group of people become interconnected when a Marine comes home on furlough from Iraq. When the war-haunted soldier finds no one to meet him at the airport in the States, he heads for the Northwest coast. The journey intersects with his estranged father, his step-mother, another veteran and the sympathetic stewardess from his flight home. As the characters move further away from their everyday existences—and a body washes up on a beach—the five become bound together. A new sense of belonging is found, and with that comes the sense of something to lose. A character-driven variant on the road-movie format, Homeland is an often angry, even bitter film, but one that definitely has something on its mind and something to say that’s worth hearing.

Documentary filmmaker Art Ferguson (Jeff Huston) follows his friend, avant-gardist playwright Francis Enwright (Matt Kerr), through the production of Enwright’s most recent play, All the Wild Stallions. How avant-garde is this undertaking? Well, it takes six hours to perform (we’re assured of an intermission and access to partially functional restrooms) and is to be followed by an adult play that’s a variation on Oliver called Oliver Fist. In other words, welcome to the world of off off Broadway theater and the unique mind of Francis Enwright, a man out to deliver his message to the world, or at least that small portion of it willing to sit through All the Wild Stallions. Enwright’s goal is that an audience that comes “knowing something” will leave “knowing nothing.” Ferguson’s film is a comedic examination of the pretentious, yet somehow appealing (from a distance), realm of avant-garde theatre and the slightly screwy people who create it.

Promoted as “A Backwoods Comedy, Hon,” John Putch’s Route 30 consists of three surprisingly interconnected stories set in rural Pennsylvania. The first, “Deer Hunters’ Wives,” centers on Mandy (Nathalie Boltt), a Civil War tour guide obsessed with Jenny Wade, the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg. Her friend June (Christine Elise), on the other hand, has more practical concerns—trying to come up with an Internet porn scheme to make money, a concept that her husband Ned (Curtis Armstrong, aka “Booger” from the Revenge of the Nerds movies) is none to keen on (“Are you retarded?”). Part two, “What I B’lieve,” is the story of Mandy’s husband, Arden (Kevin Rahm), seeking the aid of a Christian Scientist (Wil Love) to help him deal with his back pain and hopefully get an explanation about his encounter with Big Foot. In part three, “Original Bill,” a writer (David DeLuise) buys a farmhouse in order to have a secluded place to write. Problem is, he has a surprisingly hedonistic Amish neighbor (Dana Delany) who keeps dropping in for TV and to smoke, drink and talk about her desire to see a live play in a theater.

Perhaps the most unique film in the festival is Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues. From the official notes: “Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by e-mail. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as ‘The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.’” The film marks cartoonist and short-film maker Paley’s debut feature, a work she animated and produced over the course of five years on a home computer. Done in a wide array of animation styles and boasting one of the most complex and eclectic musical programs you’re likely to hear, Sita is a wholly remarkable work of great charm, humor and creativity.

The Irish-made entry Speed Dating concerns James Van Der Bexton (Hugh O’Connor, Chocolat), a young man nursing a broken heart (from a two-year-old breakup) who is driven to take up Speed Dating—without much in the way of success. He turns his attention to the mysterious young woman who frequents the same pub he does. In trying to discover more about her, he tries his hand at detective work, an idea that leads him to being hospitalized and minus his memory. His amnesia makes him a suspect with the police when the woman of his “investigation” disappears. Thus, it becomes necessary to piece his memories back together, solve the crime and clear his name. There are upsides to this—he can get over his breakup (since he doesn’t remember anything about it) and he makes a new friend, Susan (Emma Choy), in the process of all this. Described by writer/director Tony Herbert as “primarily a romantic comedy,” it’s also true that some of the comedy is very dark indeed, but even that is not without its charm.

A self-described “beach party, rock-and-roll monster movie,” Stomp! Shout! Scream! is writer/director Jay Wade Edwards’ cockeyed homage to both 1960s beach movies and bottom-of-the-barrel drive-in schlock horror, like The Horror of Party Beach (which actually did combine something like rock and roll and monsters). Set in 1966, the film finds an all-girl band called the Violas on their way to a gig in Jacksonville when their car breaks down on tiny Merrivale Island. Unbeknownst to them—and if the sheriff has his way, just about everyone else—there’s something horribly wrong on the island. A smelly mass of debris (that looks like a nest) has washed up on the beach. A little girl has been traumatized into a near catatonic state. A deputy has been savagely murdered, and at least two people are missing. The biology professor from a nearby college thinks they might be dealing with a “skunk ape”: the Florida version of Bigfoot, or “an antediluvian simian creature with no scientific proof of its existence.” Marc Savlov in the Austin Chronicle wrote, “It’s nearly as much fun as an episode of Hullabaloo, snappy bouffants, earnest braniacs, hippy-hippy-shake, and all.”

Hollywood veterans Frank Langella and Elliott Gould star in this riveting, labyrinthian thriller from writer/director Richard Ledes, whose debut film, A Hole in One, ushered in a promising new force in filmmaking at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. In his new film, Langella plays Jimmy, an executive for an international energy company. Sickened by the company’s corrupt and even murderous practices for gaining contracts and leverage in “so-called developing countries,” Jimmy blows the whistle on his partners—an act that he knows full well means his death. But Jimmy wants to go about dying his own way and bargains for a two-week stay of execution, during which he hires a private detective (Gould) to trail him by way of a kind of insurance policy—and something more that doesn’t become clear until late in the film. What the detective is unaware of is that the man who hired him and the man he’s following are the same person.

A new kid in town, Kyle (Reiley McClendon), saves Jason (Jesse James) from a gang of bullies. The pair become fast friends, spending their time at Jason’s uncle’s airplane hangar. It’s a pleasant, safe arrangement till the two find themselves involved in the plans of a gangster (Stephen Baldwin), which leads to numerous adventures, including the kids having to land a plane. The film is something of a departure from the normal kids’ movie, though, because it blends a Disney-style narrative with genuine gangster menace and even outbursts of dark comedy. Adam Mast in The Hollywood News says the movie is “novel and creative, and is sure to surprise you.”

Described as “a drama about the struggle between cynicism and idealism among today’s twenty-somethings. [The Unidentified] follows Estlin, an ambitious idealist who swoons at any mention of the 1960s. But life in the present is difficult. His job at a local Brooklyn newspaper is not a forum for social change, and Brooke, his best friend and political partner in crime, is leaving for Ohio. Alone and confused, he is swept off his feet by Sophie, a beautiful artist he knew in his childhood. Estlin and Sophie’s relationship is completely different from the ones he’s accustomed to—she’s whimsical and optimistic; the real world doesn’t seem to affect her. But as Estlin and Sophie enjoy life in their protective bubble, he realizes her fanciful exterior protects a deep and severe wound that she keeps tightly guarded.” Essentially, the film is a drama with elements of comedy and romance. It reflects a deep-seated sense of loss among the generation currently in their 20s, a generation that has come to idealize the social commitment and revolutionary spirit of the 1960s, while taking a dim view of the perceived apathy of their own generation. The film snagged a “Best New Director” award at this year’s Brooklyn International Film Festival.

Conceptually similar to Paris, Je T’Aime, Twelve consists of 12 short films by Boston filmmakers, each shot during a different month of the year. A press release notes the films’ focus “on love, friendship, despair, addiction and violence using elements of comedy, romance, song and documentary,” and that “together, the 12 films are linked by a tree that changes appearance as the months of the year unfold in each successive short film.”