AFI Fest, A to Y

LIFE AFTER TOMORROW (USA) A look at the not-so-hard-knock life of child stage actors who starred in the 1970s Broadway musical smash Annie. Co-director Julie Stevens — herself an ex-Annie cast member — interviews countless women who once played orphans and belted out “Tomorrow.” The result is a comprehensive, well-edited feature documentary about a subject that merits, at most, a segment on Entertainment Tonight. Some fans will no doubt enjoy hearing Sarah Jessica Parker talk about going to Studio 54 after taking off her red wig each night, but does anyone really want to know what the production’s dog trainer thinks about the effects of show business on little girls? (Sat., Nov. 11, 6:45 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 12, 3:30 p.m.) (JCT)

LUXURY CAR (China/France) In writer-director Wang Chao’s understated, internalized drama, a provincial schoolteacher (stage actor Wu Youcai, whose deadpan, peasant face belies a canny intelligence) travels to the bustling city of Wuhan to enlist the help of his daughter (Tian Yuan) in the search for her missing brother. Despite her evident respectability, the daughter is revealed to moonlight as a paid escort, while her supposed fiancé (Huang He) turns out to be just one of her johns. More disquieting revelations follow, though rather than tilting into melodrama, the movie retains its cool, tranquil surface, becoming a beautifully acted, precisely observed meditation on the gap between appearances and realities in modern China. (Sat., Nov. 11, 7 p.m.) (SF)

MEMORIES OF TOMORROW (Japan) Give or take a smattering of dream sequences and frequent, overly symbolic shots of clouds, this drama from director Yukihiko Tsutsumi about a high-powered advertising executive felled by Alzheimer’s disease is no more than conventional. A strenuous subtext about the notorious workaholism and after-hours whoring of Japanese businessmen feels grafted on. Still, Memories of Tomorrow is distinguished by Ken Watanabe’s affecting performance as a man facing up to the loss of everything that mattered to him, including his neglected wife (an excellent Kenji Sakaguchi). This heartfelt tale of disintegration and acceptance, seasoned with family devotion, will both raise and soothe the anxieties of those of us who regularly ask ourselves why we came into the kitchen two minutes ago. (Thurs., Nov. 2, 6:45 p.m.; Fri., Nov. 3, 3:30 p.m.) (Ella Taylor)

MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD (Mexico) The notion of an overworked single mom and her uncontainable kid has been played to death in Hollywood women’s movies, most of them starring Michelle Pfeiffer. For their variation on the situation, co-writer-directors Andres Leon Becker and Javier Solar situate their mom and daughter in a cramped and traffic-choked Mexico City and an apartment adjacent to a dying man. The growing distance between parent and child, who sees a monster under every bed and believes that the ill neighbor is a vampire, provides the film with a strong sense of psychological pressure, deflated only by a Hallmark-card ending. (Fri., Nov. 10, 9:45 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 11, 4:15 p.m.) (RK)MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN (USA) The title has a dual meaning — director Sedika Mojadidi documents her family’s return to their home country, post-9/11, to offer medical assistance, but it also refers to the large number of mothers in Afghanistan who get substandard pre- and postnatal care, leading to an infant-mortality rate of 18 percent. Sedika’s doctor father travels back to Afghanistan the first time under the auspices of the U.S. government, but gets so frustrated that he later returns independently. Graphic footage — premature babies, urinary surgery, raw sewage — ensures that you won’t remain unmoved. (Fri., Nov. 3, 7:15 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 4, 1:30 p.m.) (Luke Y. Thompson)

NEXT: A PRIMER ON URBAN PAINTING (Canada/France) Documentary filmmaker Pablo Aravena wants to demonstrate how graffiti painting, which blossomed in New York in the 1970s, ignited a worldwide artistic revolution that’s still vibrant today. But while his film circles the globe to prove the point — setting down in London, Sao Paulo and several other cities — Next squeezes too many artists into its short running time, resulting in a superficial overview rather than a comprehensive look at either the art form or its practitioners. (Fri., Nov. 3, 9:30 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 4, 4 p.m.) (TG)

NO SWEAT (USA) Is it possible to be a profitable, competitive business in this country without exploiting, even abusing, workers? That question forms the core of No Sweat, which takes garment-industry upstarts American Apparel and SweatX as its case studies. Both companies profess to be progressive, proworker outfits, but when the dust clears and only one is left standing, it’s not the one that truly strove to embody its claims. In a packed, informative 54 minutes, this documentary bleakly explains why. (Tue., Nov. 7, 9:45 p.m.; Wed., Nov. 8, 5:30 p.m.) (EH)

OFFSIDE The Iranian filmmaker most adept at bending the national cinema’s formalist rigors into crowd-pleasing shapes, Jafar Panahi here combines the real-time soccer-match structure of The Mirror (1997) with the roundelay feminism of The Circle (2000). Offside darts among a group of teenage girls who have donned male drag to infiltrate a World Cup qualifying match, only to end up in a holding pen while the game unfolds, out of view. Deceptive in its lightness, Panahi’s expertly choreographed allegory is at once blunt and complex, a meditation on the acts of seeing and being seen in a society where appearances are often everything. (Wed., Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.; Thurs., Nov. 9, 4:45 p.m.) (DL)