American Cinematheque Tunes In to British TV

The American Cinematheque’s “You Can’t Get This at Home: What’s New From Britain’s Channel 4 Television” commences Friday at Raleigh Studios with Gilles Mackinnon’s “Trojan Eddie” (at 7 and 9:30 p.m.). It’s a wry Irish comedy-drama in which Stephen Rea, in the title role as a struggling salesman, gets entangled in affluent Richard Harris’ all-consuming love for a beauty (Aislin McGuckin) who is young enough to be his granddaughter. The Irish accents may verge on the impenetrable, but Mackinnon and writer Billy Roche draw us into lives that are at once marginal and impassioned. (213) 466-FILM.

Short Films: The Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, continues its “Documental” series Saturday with two programs of short films and videos at 7 and 9 p.m. Among the films screening at 7 is Beth Dewey’s deft “Outcall,” in which she manages to capture a dominatrix’s unhappiness with how she earns a living as her driver takes her to an assignation with a man she describes as “some perverted scumbag.”

The way the driver (Dick Ghozinia) persists in connecting with this woman and the way Jacqueline Jaramillo, as the woman, responds to him is thoroughly persuasive and leaves us wanting to see more work from writer-director Dewey and her actors.

Also at the 7 p.m. screening is Stephen D. Grossman’s ingratiating one-hour “Browsing Through Birke’s,” which at first seems to ramble all over the place in telling the story of Lowell, Mass., clothing store proprietor Nathan Birke and his wife, Sally. Polish-born Jews, the Birkes fled their homeland for Russia at the outbreak of World War II and finally made their way to the United States, where they started their business in 1947.

In time, however, the film engages the viewer with its captivating people. You have the feeling that Grossman is rummaging through the Birkes’ lives the way you might poke through their large downtown no-frills store. That is, if Nathan would let you.

You also have the feeling that were Nathan still alive--he apparently died fairly recently--he might not have permitted this film to be made. His widow, daughter and customers attest with affectionate humor as to how contrary Nathan could be, and Grossman skillfully connects his crusty demeanor to his feelings about the Holocaust.

As the film unfolds, we discover that he was a good and even generous man. As for the gregarious, handsome Sally, her daughter describes her as “a miracle”--and that she seems. She has survived the loss of her first two children in Russia, unspeakable wartime hardships and losses, and marriage to a difficult man she respected more than loved to emerge as a radiant presence, full of wit, humor, love and wisdom.

One of the films screening in the 9 p.m. program is Mort Butcher’s “Open Seat,” a wry 26-minute account of the most expensive Los Angeles City Council election ever--$1.6 million spent by four candidates. Self-described reformer Mike Feuer defeated Barbara Yaroslavsky, running for her husband Zev’s former seat, in a 1995 election in which only 9% of residents in the district voted. In this mordant comment on voter apathy, Butcher calculates that about $25 was spent on each vote. (310) 393-2923.

Redemptive Quality: Clement Virgo’s boldly original “Rude” screens Sunday at 2 p.m. as part of the UCLA Film Archive’s “Borderlines: New Canadian Cinema.” Jamaican-born Virgo interweaves three vignettes of sin and redemption that unfold over an Easter weekend as a woman, Rude (Sharon M. Lewis), raps over a pirate radio station, providing what Virgo calls the black community’s “collective unconscious” as she blends Rasta and Christian beliefs in her challenging monologue.

One segment deals with an ex-con (Maurice Dean Wint) faced with extreme pressure to return to drug-dealing; another with a young boxer (Richard Chevolleau), who is confronted with his homosexuality in a profoundly homophobic atmosphere; and a third with a young woman (Rachael Crawford) dealing by herself with the aftermath of an abortion and the breakup of her relationship.

Although a bit forgivably heavy on the symbolism, “Rude” reveals in Virgo a distinctive, poetic sensibility. (310) 206-FILM.