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Having looked forward to The Catechism Cataclysm all weekend and choosing it over Cafeteria Man, maybe my expectations were too high. I loved it til the end, which just didn't work for me. It took a magical realism turn that didn't do justice to the great screenplay and acting up to that point. That said, I think this irreverent comedy is still worth your time. And maybe you'll love the end, too. Actor Steve Little, who plays crazed Naked Man on Reno 911, has just the right tone for the stubbornly naive and earnest Father Billy. Robert Longstreet, an indie movie veteran, plays it great as a man who is painfully aware that he hasn't measured up to his rock 'n' roll dreams.

Two of the teachers featured in The Learning are Grace Amper (far left) and Dorotea Godinez (far right), together with filmmaker Ramona Diaz (center left) and Cheryl Curtis, the teacher recruiter who appears in the documentary as she talks with the teachers in the Philippines.

Filmmaker Ramona Diaz and Jed Dietz, director of the film festival, introduce Diaz's film, which will air on the PBS show POV later this year.

After the film, a standing ovation greeted three of the four teachers who came to answer questions. (One could not make it). All four teachers in the film still teach in Baltimore public schools. From left, they are Dorotea Godinez, Grace Amper and Angel Alim-Flores. Filmmaker Ramona Diaz is at right.

I just saw The Learning. Not only is it among the best films at the festival thus year, I think it's one of the best documentaries I've seen, period. When I talked to the director, Ramona Diaz, afterward, she urged me to see another doc, Better This World, which shows next at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Diaz's film shows again at 11:30 am Sunday. You can't go wrong with hers, and if she admires Better This World, that's recommendation enough for me.

I can't see everything here, so I'm passing on some feedback from friends.
Christopher Llewellyn Reed, professor of film and video at Stevenson University, recommends the Modern Romance shorts. I hope to run into him later to see what else he's seen.

Every year at the film fest, I run into Mark Fleming, one of my former editors at The Baltimore Sun. Mark says, and I paraphrase:

The Narrative Shorts program was very good, as was If a Tree Falls, but the bad news is ... no more screenings of either.
He recommends Curling, but again — no more screenings. Maybe it will be released as a feature or on video. It's a French-Canadian father-daughter story, and part of a recent explosion of Quebecois filmmaking.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was somewhat strange and slow, and our other former colleague, the legendary re-write man David Michael Ettlin, walked out early, Mark reports. But this fantastically film could work for kids, and it shows again tomorrow — Sunday — at 2 p.m.

I may let my son go to that while I see The Sleeping Beauty — by Catherine Breillat, and therefore not for kids, BTW.

I'm about to watch The Learning, a documentary following four Baltimore city teachers from the Philippines. I just saw Grace Amper, who is in the film and who was my daughter's teacher at Poly. So you can see I have more than a casual interest in this film by Ramona Diaz. This screens again Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

I could end up at any of these three films, in this order:
Domaine, which is John Waters' pick. I have hardly ever missed his annual Md. Film Fest presentation. I always learn something, and usually I love the movie, too. Past faves: Head On, Fuego, Boom, Story of Women.

So I will have to forego The Catechism Cataclysm. I'll track it down somehow when it's released commercially.

Terri, which looks like an original film about a teen boy, and it does have John C. Reilly in it as an assistant principal and Creed Bratton (The Office and the Grass Roots — the band).

UPDATE: I saw Domaine, by Patric Chiha, which I had thought might be too much like Luna, but it was nothing like that film, or any other, for that matter. That's a good thing. It was great to stay for the Q&A with John Waters and Chiha.

And I made it, though late, to Terri to wrap up my night. As I had hoped from reading the description, this is one of those rare films that depicts teen characters with a lot of depth. Much of the credit goes to the main actor, Jacob Wysocki. Director Azazel Jacobs said he saw in Wysocki a kid who was comfortable with who he was. Jacobs tried his best not to get in the way of letting Wysocki just be Terri. The other teen characters/actors are OK, but Wysocki is the one to watch.

Terri is set for a July 1 commercial release in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities, though probably not Baltimore that soon.

Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival, says he invited the cast and crew of the HBO film Game Change to the festival. They were filming in Prince George's County yesterday, but he says they could come over the weekend.

The cast includes Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson, and the director is Jay Roach. I would recognize three of them, anyway. I'll let you know, and you do the same.

My best guess is that if they show up for anything, it will be Small Pond, showing at 7:30 pm Saturday and 11:30 am Sunday, since the director, Josh Slates, is a member of the Game Change crew.

But if the stars don't show up, Slates is a local guy and Small Pond looks like it's worth it on its own merits. Being from the Midwest myself, I'm intrigued by comments I've read about Slates' depiction of young adults living in a Missouri college town (Columbia).

Just a quick note to say I popped in to see On the Ice meaning to stay just a few moments to see what a village like Barrow really looks like, and couldn't leave. It's a riveting story about the classic conflict between self-preservation and conscience, courage and fear. I watched it play out against the stark white of snow (I think it must have been summer, but it looked like a Mid-Atlantic January), and I thought about how universal this conflict is.

Sadly, no more showings of this during the festival, but look for it some other way. I think it's good enough for commercial release.

If the mark of a good film is that the audience is left wanting more, Jessica Edwards' 7-minute Seltzer Works is a huge success. Not only were I and a few other members of the audience thirsting for some refreshingly painful bubbly, but several asked her why she didn't have more in the film. Such as a customer of the Brooklyn company that still delivers retro glass bottles of Seltzer to homes in the borough.

Edwards answered that the subject could be a great feature but its up to another filmmaker to find money to pursue it. She's moved on to a few other projects.

You can see Seltzer Works online at WWW.pbs.org/pov, for free.

Beware. This site could be habit-forming. I expect to go back to view a few more docs after the festival.