Indie Flicks, Cool Town: Nevada City Film Festival

One of California's funkiest flick confabs revs up for an early September start.

THE SIGH AT THE END OF SUMMER: Whether you're into very serious and very hard to find independent films, or the kind of boom-boom-crash theater-shakers that start to take over multiplexes around April, you can find yourself breathing a sigh at the end of summer. Nope, your sigh doesn't have much relief to it, and you're not giving thanks for something being done. You're at the end of a season, the summer season, when cinema, both wide and handcrafted, changes its look, like so many fall leaves. But the big film festivals haven't quite started yet -- Toronto is on the horizon -- meaning the funkier mountain low-key conventions can boot-up, don the denim, and make for higher elevation cinemas.

FOR EXAMPLE... Telluride makes the headlines in the "mountain movie merriment" categories come late August and early September, but there's a lovely and laidback entry from California: The Nevada City Film Festival. For sure, plenty of Golden Staters make for Colorado come the end of summer, but planning a jaunt to the north part of Gold Country for indie goodness and a small, Old-West-y town is on a number of movie lovers' bills.

THE 2014 PARTY: It unspools from Thursday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 7. A documentary about the co-founder of The Byrds, the George Takei-narrated fairytale "The Missing Scarf," the car-cool classic "Bullitt," and a night of live comedy with Marc Maron are on the roster. For sure, there is something to look forward to come the close of summer, in the quiet dip between blockbusters and award-y events. And while Telluride is indeed terrific, Nevada City is a great mountain town in love with cinema, and it is right here, in California. We can do that indie-fresh-air-big-tree movie thing, too.

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