Discuss “The cerebral moviegoing experience”

Carnegie Mellon offers a dollar movie four or five times a week, but only once a year does the city of Pittsburgh host the annual Three Rivers Film Festival, a celebration of film new and old. The festival, now in its 25th year, showcases films more closely linked to works of art than mainstream blockbusters, which thus require a bit more attentiveness to appreciate their ingenuity and avant-garde quality. This year’s films are no exception.

The two-week festival, held November 2–16, features over 40 films. Movies made in Pittsburgh by local filmmakers, shorts, independent films, documentaries, and international works will be played in various theaters around the city. The films range from current hot topics — such as the documentary...