There's a whole world of great movies out there that we'll probably never see, not even in a cinema-savvy town like Boston, unless we have the means to go to, say, the Locarno Film Festival or the Istanbul International Independent Film Festival. French director Valérie Massadian won top prizes at both of those events for her debut film Nana (2011), and thanks to ArtsEmerson's "Festival Focus" series you can see why.

It seems like only yesterday that film fans first got a look at both The Princess Bride (1987; Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 pm, Friday, May 25 at 5:30 + 9:30 pm), the now beloved meta-fairy tale directed by Rob Reiner and written by William Goldman; and Mel Brooks's now classic Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987 | Thursday, May 4 at 5:30 + 9:30 pm, Friday, May 25 at 7:30 pm).

The billions spent warehousing convicts in soul-destroying prisons don't seem to make much of an impact on recidivism or crime rates. Maybe the solution is as simple as the word "om"? Documentarians Andrew Kukura, Jenny Phillips, and Anne Marie Stein's The Dhamma Brothers (2008) takes a look at a program at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama, where the resident psychologist brought in teachers to instruct volunteers in Vipassana Buddhist meditation.

Porchfest

Buzz Bissinger | The Friday Night Lights author discusses his new book Father's Day: A Journey into the Mind and Heart of My Extraordinary Son at the Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, May 17 @ 7 pm | brooklinebooksmith.com

MWM and JURNE: Algorhythms | New exhibit featuring a series of canvas paintings juxtaposing abstract compositions with calligraphy, representative of conversations between Bay Area graffiti artist Jurne and Portland designer/illustrator Matt W.

Any list of top indie filmmakers would include Richard Linklater. But maybe because he has proven such a stylistic chameleon, shifting from the scruffy, seeming verité of his iconic "Slacker" (1991) the glitz and gloss of mainstream studio films like "School of Rock" (2003) and "Bad News Bears" (2005) he doesn't have the more recognizable profile of such more recognized auteurs as Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Soderbergh, etc.

The Oscar-winning success of The Artist reminded moviegoers that people were making films before, say, Titanic. And so Mark Cousins's marathon series The Story of Film: An Odyssey has come along at an auspicious time. The 15 hour-long episodes begin with the first cinema pioneers - like Georges Méliès, now familiar to fans of Martin Scorsese's Hugo - and progress to the present day and the oneiric complexities of David Lynch and Alexander Sokurov.

It seems obvious now, but it took the programming geniuses at the Brattle to pair these two movies for Mother's Day. Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock's scariest film, Psycho (1960; 7:15 pm) demonstrates the terrible things that can happen when Oedipal obsession, voyeurism, taxidermy, and motel management come together under one spooky roof.

Maybe I'm giving too much credit to Hollywood studios, but you've got to suspect that they are aware that there's a big-deal election happening in November and so they might be marketing and releasing films with that in mind. Maybe not so much to influence the outcome of the election as to exploit audiences' feelings about it.

As the recent film festival surge starts to settle down here in Boston, it picks up south of the border. In Newport, where newportFILM's May Mini Fest gets underway with Matthew Akers's Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012 ), a portrait of the artist as a brilliant, feminist provocateur. It screens on Friday, May 11 at 7 pm, preceded by a wine reception at 6 pm.

Still from Andrews' short film "The Haunted Camera"

Sometimes an artist can transform painful, debilitating experiences into something visionary. In 2005 Nancy Andrews suffered a near-fatal illness, and it inspired her to make films that probe the far reaches of consciousness. One such is Behind the Eyes are the Ears, a surreal exploration of reality, fantasy, and identity that combines eerie animation and live action footage.

Before there was Iron Man, there was Robert Downey Sr., the father of the actor and one of the iconic figures of '60s independent filmmaking. His Putney Swope (1969; screens Thursday, May 17 at 7:30 pm), a savage satire of American materialism, greed, and racial acrimony, is even more timely now than when it came out.

Has the popularity of silent movies brought on by the Oscar-winning The Artist since faded to black? Perhaps this screening of E.A. Dupont's lushly noirish Piccadilly (1929) will restore some of the magic. The stunning Anna May Wong plays an impoverished scullery maid whose sultry dancing proves a hit on the stage of a fancy London nightclub.

In case you've forgotten what democracy looks like, this screening of Phillip Montgomery's documentary ReGENERATION (2010) might serve as a reminder. Narrated by Ryan Gosling and featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, the late Howard Zinn, and Adbusters' Kalle Lasn, it investigates the then-reputed political apathy of young people, analyzing the culpability of an infantilizing media, and prefiguring the Occupy movement to come.

So, the ultimate cinema celebration of callow youth has itself entered late-middle age, marking its 45th anniversary. Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967) retains its youthful vulnerability and optimism, a spirit that embodied the nascent '60s culture from which it sprang. With Dustin Hoffman brilliantly cast against type as the title naïf about to confront all the now-familiar clichés about conformity, the middle class, generational conflict, and true love, it has dated well.