Spangenberg Theatre Spangenberg Theatre (July 16, 2004)

The Spangenberg Theatre is located on the Gunn High School campus, 780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto. Screenings are for Friday through Sunday only. For more information visit www.spangenbergtheatre.com or call (650) 354-8220.

My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003) Director Nathaniel Kahn searches to understand his father, noted architect Louis Kahn, who died bankrupt and alone in 1974. Sat. at 2 p.m.

The Twilight Samurai (2004) (See review). Sat. at 6 p.m.; Sun. at 7:30 p.m.

Word Wars (2004) (See review). Fri. at 4:30 p.m.; Sat. at 12:30, 3 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun. at 4:15 & 7 p.m.

The Story of the Weeping Camel (2004) Real-life Mongolian desert herders are at the heart of this sweet gem of a film, inspired by the early work of Robert J. Flaherty. The Gobi desert dwellers enact a delightful tale of a white baby camel, whose mother has turned on him after a difficult birth. Without mother's milk, the newborn calf will not survive. The Ikhbayar family cherishes its animals with a fierce nomadic pride and digs deep into the family bag of tricks to coax the mother into nursing her young one. A musician is summoned from a distant village to weave his musical spell on the mother, in the hopes that she will bond with her baby and "weep" with the pleasure of rekindling the connection. "Camel" meanders a bit, relying on its emotionally charged atmosphere to do the talking. Winds of up to 150 kilometers an hour, broken camera equipment and plummeting desert temperatures stood in the way of this labor of love. The filmmakers persevered and we're the better for it. Rated: PG for subtle desert melodrama. In Mongolian with English subtitles. 1 hour, 30 minutes. -- J.A. (Reviewed June 18, 2004) Sat. at 4:05 p.m.; Sun. at 3:15 p.m.

The Return (2004) In the remote Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father -- a man they only know through a single photograph -- resurfaces. Fri. at 6 p.m.; Sat. at 8:30 p.m.; Sun. at 5:15 p.m.

The Godfather (1972) The Academy-Award winning film from director Francis Ford Coppola. A Mafia boss' innocent son gets involved in the bloody family business when his father is critically wounded in a mob hit. Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and James Caan. Fri. at 8 p.m.

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