SF360: "Radical Closure" at the PFA

Guts-and-glory war movies remain a perennial at the cineplex, but genuine cinematic responses to war are a different matter entirely. If the former have all the critical force of an army recruitment poster, the latter (as the broad range of approaches in the Radical Closure series make clear) open up serious possibilities for re-imagining the dehumanized landscape of violence even as physical options are closed down. This is the import of the film and video series curated by Lebanese video artist Akram Zaatari, originally presented as part of the 2006 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, which continues through December 12 at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive. Robert Avila reports.