Valentine's Day is upon us once again (like a biblical plague, the lovelorn might suggest). To celebrate this holiest of Hallmark holidays, I heartily recommend you spend tomorrow evening (7:00 p.m. - ?) snuggled up with your sugarpie at Cinemapolis watching a movie about sectarian hatred and slaughter.

No, not the film version of my ex-wife's diary -- last I heard that was still in post-production.

The flick in question is Ari Folman's surrealist documentary Waltz with Bashir, an account of his time in the Israeli army during the Lebanon war in the early eighties (historical spoiler: it was bloodier than a Cosa Nostra dinner theater production of MacBeth). Reunited with images of a horror he had tried to forget, Folman animates his tale -- one assumes because the stark reality is a little too, well, real.

Does it work? Hell if I know, I'm just the guy with the blog. I do know it's up for an Oscar, and the distributor is sufficiently psyched that they're allowing FLEFF just the one sneak peak before hustling off to butter up the Academy (or whatever it is distributors do -- they're so mysterious).

Until Oscar night this is a one-off, so go check it out for yourself. Get there early -- the place will be nuts -- and stick around after for the panel discussion. Just a guess, but I reckon you'll be able to roast marshmallows on the opinions in that room. So play nice and, to paraphrase Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, everybody be cool.

Oh, and be on the lookout for the FLEFF staff. They'll be blogging about this event and all things Finger Lakes, environmental, film, and festival related right up through the big event itself (March 30-April 5, if you're booking ahead). They'll also embrace Twitter like the forward-thinking brilliant minds of the new generation that they are. Ain't it tweet? (Oy.)