Hey. You! Yeah, you; reading this. Help me select the films I bring to my theater. It’s simple. In the next month I’ll be programming my Fall calendar film program. The process by which I choose the films for this prestigious art-house calendar schedule are easy – I ask myself three questions. 1) Is there an audience for this? 2) Should there be an audience for this? And, then comes the Film Programmers Prerogative which is: 3) Screw it, I love this damn thing and I don’t care if they come or not: I, personally, want to see it on the big screen.

But, here & now, YOU – the film-loving, blog-reader – gets to have a voice. If you happen to know anything about the films listed below, or simply want to support it based on the brief blurb given, go ahead; cast your vote. Think of it as Survivor – The Film Programmers Edition.

In a perfect world the three elements I already mentioned dovetail together. On my last Spring schedule they did, a few times, and notable highlights were the Swedish vamipire film Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) and the martial-arts craziness from Thailand that was Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew, 2008). Alas, many other titles were relegated to that third category – the one that garnered a small attendance, mainly comprised of people I could bully into a cinematic blind-date that (yes) some would rue but (again, yes!) some would love.

What follows here are submissions of films screened last week being considered for my coming Fall program, along with all other contenders. Due to the length of the list, I’m splitting this up and continuing it again next week. Please do chime in with your opinion and know that it will carry weight withme in deciding whether I bring the film to my theater (and, yes, please feel free to add titles not seen here). Here’s what I got so far, in alphabetical order:

Act of God (Jennifer Baichwai, 2009). This doc looks “at the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning.” It’s the latest from the director of Manufactured Landscapes (which followed photographer Edward Burtynsky, and which we screened at my film series).

Adoration (Atom Egoyan, 2008) Egoyan can sometimes really hit it out of the park (as he did with Exotica and then The Sweet Hereafter), but lately he seems to have fallen out of favor. Adoration picked up the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes, but was rabidly panned by some critics. But it also has its cheerleaders, such as Stephen Holden who says this is “a profound and provocative exploration of cultural inheritance, communications technology and the roots and morality of terrorism.

Afghan Star (Havana Marking, 2009): “After 30 years of Taliban and wartime rule, pop culture is creeping back into Afghanistan… An American Idol-type contest set in Afghanistan? What more intriguing inroad into a region usually represented in our news media by death and violence?”

Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973): This is a new 35mm print that Janus has been touring around recently. I will now string together some of the IMDb “ply keywords” listed for this film: “Sexually Aggressive Woman,” “Female Nudity,” “Breasts,” “Masturbation,” “Concubine,” “Nipples,” “Busty,” “Prostitute,” “Large Breasts,” “Breast Suckling,” “Buxom,” and “Benito Mussolini.” ‘Nuff said.

An American Opera (Tom McPhee, 2008): …a visceral, operatic vision of what happened to the pet owners of New Orleans who were forced to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina without their beloved pets and the volunteers who came from all over the world to help.”

Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet (Luc Schaedler, 2006).”Pic examines legacy of Gedrun Choephel, a Buddhist monk whose writings argued against the perceived fundamentalist stagnation of 1930s-’40s Tibetan culture. His works, lost or banned for decades, are finding new favor in a homeland where nationalism is creeping back in the wake of a slight relaxation of brute autocracy by Chinese authorities.” (Variety) Although it’s been three years since it played at Sundance, this doc is still not out on dvd and is still looking for exhibition dates.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi, 2008): This doc catches up with the once “demi-gods of Canadian metal” who are now in their fifties. Tear sheet quotes list it as “hilarious” and “a hymn to the human spirit.”

Araya (Margot Benacerraf, 1959): Milestone has restored and is re-releasing this “Venezuelan masterpiece” that chronicles the life of the “salineros” who worked at the Araya salt mine.

Big Man Japan (Hitoshi Matsumoto, 2007): “An eccentric man aged about 40 lives alone in a decrepit house in Tokyo. He periodically transforms into a giant, about 30 meters tall, and defends Japan by battling similarly sized monsters that turn up and destroy buildings.” Yeah!

Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2009): This hyper-stylized film is based on the violent life of Michael Peterson (aka: Charles Bronson) – a man who has spend most of his life locked up in solitary confinement. There’s more than just a dab of A Clockwork Orange in here, but that doesn’t mean Kubrick fans will rejoice.

Burma VJ (Anders Ostergaard, 2008): This documentary uses smuggled footage to tell the story behind the 2007 protests in Burma by thousands of monks.

The Class (Laurent Cantet, 2008): “Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.” A brilliant film that already got a limited release, the question here is whether I’ll be able to beat the dvd release date.

Cold Souls (Sophie Barthes, 2009): Paul Giamatti finds out what’s at stake when he lets a company take out his soul. A fun comedy that debuted at Sundance and which tries to capture the quirky market of something like Being John Malkovich, but which left some critics, well, cold.

Le combat dans l’ile (Alain Cavalier, 1962): “It’s that moment in a marriage that every woman dreads. You’re doing a spot of light housework and you find an anti-tank bazooka in your husband’s closet. For Anne (Romy Schneider) it’s the last straw. She walks out on her abusive husband Clément (Jean-Louis Trintignant), driving him further into the activities of a far-right paramilitary group. By the time they next meet, he is involved in political assassination…” (DVD Beaver). New print!

Courting Condi (Sebastian Doggart, 2009): “Courting Condi is the world’s first musical docu-tragi-comedy. Part Borat, part Fahrenheit 9/11, and part Mamma Mia. It follows a love-struck soul, Devin Ratray, a portly musician, former child actor (famed as Buzz in Home Alone) on a quest to woo Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.”

The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, 2009) This doc about dolphin slaughter in Japan was an Audience Award winner at Sundance and was shot by Boulder filmmaker Psihoyos with help from people I know, so it’s a shoe-in.

Dillinger is Dead (Marco Ferreri, 1969): A brilliant gem that was recently rediscovered at Telluride thanks to the efforts of guest programmer Edith Kramer, this new 35mm print will give folks a chance to see something that represents the best that repertory arthouse can offer.

Empty Nest (Daniel Burman, 2008): This Argentinean film about a married couple that starts to question its happiness played at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

The Escapist (Rupert Wyatt, 2008): If you like Brian Cox, and if you like anything in the vein of, say, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (to use the orthographically correct title), then you must see this movie.

Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone ( Hideaki Anno, 2009): “is the film sequel to the sci-fi animated series blockbuster Neon Genesis Evangelion (also written and directed by Hideaki Anno) which aired on Japanese television in the mid 1990′s.”

Examined Life (Astra Taylor, 2008): “Informative and not preachy, highly intellectual but never snobbish, Examined Life is exactly the kind of film that today’s art-house audience should check out—an episodic documentary featuring nine of the world’s leading philosophers delivering basic bullet points from their latest work. The overarching theme, though not necessarily spoken outright, is the role of moral responsibility.” (-Michael Lee)

Phew! Okay, that’s enough for now. Next week I’ll continue with titles starting with “F” and onward. Don’t forget to cast a vote (or write in your own).