Lights, cameras and action: Our top picks for DWIFF

The Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, June 25-28, is growing. Not in size or scope, necessarily, but in significance. Michigan sidled up to the celluloid roundtable last year and its stock in the industry is also on the rise. This year’s DWIFF, presented by Wayne County and hosted by Wayne State University, College for Creative Studies and the University of Windsor, among others, will feature 12 full-length features, nine documentaries, more than 25 short films, a children’s festival and film workshop, a tech fair and “Movies Under the Stars.”

With all of the screenings occurring in three days and in two countries, you may need some help. So, here’s our list of flicks to catch at this year’s DWIFF.

Film: “Street Boss”

When: 9 p.m., Thursday, June 25; and 7 p.m., Saturday, June 27.

Where: Wayne State University Law School, 471 West Palmer St., Detroit.

Based on a true story from former G-man Phil Kerby’s “With Honor and Purpose,” “Street Boss” is set in a Detroit where mobsters run amok, police and city officials are corrupt, and the Feds are cracking down. Sound familiar?

Starring Vincent Pastore of “The Sopranos,” and Nicholas Turturro of “NYPD Blue,” “Street Boss” has all of the quintessential mobster-movie truisms — violence, greed and thugs named Tony, Frankie and Jimmy. I’m guessing there’s no poisoned cannoli, but I’d bet the Corleone fortune that there’s plenty of death and betrayal.

The film is directed by Dearborn-based Lance Kawas and produced by Mark Bierlein of Midland-based Bierlein Entertainment L.L.C.

Film: “The Rain”

When: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., Saturday, June 27.

Where: DeRoy Auditorium at Wayne State, 5203 Cass Ave., Detroit.

This epic-sized (running at 111 minutes) horror flick is devised into three acts — and three generations — of terror in the fictional farming community of Perseverance. In the first act, the droughts are upon the town in 1866, and the only way to appease the rain gods is through child sacrifice. Skip ahead to the 1950s, where an exhumed rain god relic is in need of repentance for the town’s past sins. Again, kids gotta die. More of the same in the third act, now set in modern times. A young girl must choose between her life and her sisters’ life.

“The Rain” was filmed at local spots, including Spicer’s Orchard in Fenton, farmland in Oakland Township, the Troy Museum and Historic Village, and a home in Detroit’s Palmer Woods.

The film stars recently deceased actor David Carradine of “Kill Bill” and “Kung Fu” fame. It was produced and co-written by Kurt Mayry of The Motion Picture Institute in Troy.

Film: “Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis!”

When: 9 p.m., Friday, June 26.

Where: Wayne State Law School, 471 West Palmer St., Detroit

Writer, actor, singer — and contortionist if you’re a “Scrubs” aficionado — Mercy Malick has brought her award-winning one-woman stage play to the silver screen. “Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis!” is the story of a girl raised on confession and communion in Sin City.

The offbeat comedy has already garnered six indie film award nominations, and Malick won the Best Actress award at the Hoboken International Film Festival, earlier this month.

Based, loosely, on Malick’s life as a schoolgirl in Las Vegas, “Tales” features vignettes of absurdity and hilarity. The cast of characters include God (played by adult film star Ron Jeremy), Jesus, showgirls, a peeping-Tom nun and a double amputee. And you thought “The DaVinci Code” was controversial.

Film: “Nerdcore Rising”

When: Saturday, June 27 at 8 p.m.

Where: Wayne State General Lecture Hall, 42 West W. Ave., Detroit

Nerds are everywhere — or nowhere. They live online in the realms of World of Warcraft and Second Life. They suffer from headset hair — the near-permanent crease in their ’do from PC or Xbox 360 microphone headsets. Nerd has become a subculture and, now, a subgenre of hip hop — nerdcore.

The documentary follows nerdcore pioneer MC Frontalotthrough his first national tour from South Carolina to Washington. Huarache-clad fans — gamers, hackers and bloggers alike — dance, albeit poorly, to Frontalot’s lyrics like, “I crack the whip, you play the game. You’re not going to get the final boss tamed.” If anything, “Nerdcore Rising,” besides highlighting an interesting culture on the underbelly, shows us why it’s so cool to be shamelessly uncool.

MC Frontalot is scheduled to perform a free concert following the screening. Nerds unite.

For more information on DWIFF and a full schedule, go to dwiff.org.