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This is one for all those lucky enough enjoy unmetered broadband: free public domain movie downloads from the Movies section of the Internet Archive, including some films which you might actually want to see.

Credit for this should really go to Wired, who provided a handy list of ten films worth seeing for free on their website. Included are blueprint for horror Night of the Living Dead, Buster Keaton's The General, and the stuff of drug folklore that is Reefer Madness.

The other 99.99% of films in the public domain are, according to Wired, "just too lousy to make renewing copyright worthwhile" - but don't let that stop you browsing!

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We have brought you plenty of chances to go to see films in London, but how about going to see some films about London in London. Not for the easily confused, perhaps.

If you can get your head around that concept, then head down to one of the This is London short film evenings organised by short film impressarios Futureshorts. Not to be confused with the Evening Standard / London Lite website This Is London, the This Is London celebration of short films about London forms part of the Time Out London on Screen season.

Combining London-based music videos and short films alike, The This is London screenings run next week from Monday through to Thursday in each of the capital's four corners: Shepherds Bush's Ginglik (September 25th); Shoreditch's Cargo (26th); Greenwich's Picturehouse (27th); Brixton's Ritzy (28th). At least there is no chance of forgetting where you are...

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A series of dates for all the popcorn heads' diaries: the capital is set to be taken over by all things cinematic between October 18th and November 2nd with the BFI's 50th London Film Festival.

Over a two week period, the festival will feature special screenings of films rarely seen in the UK, schedules centred around British, French (which is apparently no longer part of Europe), European and World cinema, the obligatory celebration of the short film, and a series of classics hauled from the archives and restored to the big screen.

Such a celluloid extravaganza of course brings a whole host of pros to town, some hosting their own talks and masterclasses, including undeniable darlings Richard Linklater and Tim Burton (both on October 29th), and independent music mainstays Yo La Tengo on October 31st, who will be discussing their own flirtations with film, in the form of both guest appearances and film scores.

BFI members get priority booking for all films and events from next week before they open things up to the rest of us from September 29th. Although if there is something that you really don't want to miss out on you can still skip the queue by signing up with the BFI for £35, or else make sure you don't forget about it by downloading the festival calendar to your ipod. Puke.

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Outdoor film screenings are something of a summertime norm in the big cities of the continent (like Hamburg), but it has taken continental beer boys Stella Artois to bring the first outdoor film festival to the UK. Presumably this is an event which has only become possible in recent years thanks to the notoriously unpredictable Great British Summer settling down into a more predictable pattern of progressively hotter and more humid days followed by an all too welcome downpour just when you think you can't take any more.

But unluckily for the UK's first outdoor film festival foray this weekend, the imminent downpour we are all waiting for currently has the rather unfortunate timing to threaten to land this Saturday. Which means that Saturday's showing of Kill Bill in London's Greenwich Park could prove to be a bit of a wash out, although the forecast for Sunday's Ferris Bueller's Day Off screening hedges back on the bright side.

But with the Filthy Dukes, the Eat Your Own Ears DJs and the National Symphony Orchestra playing film scores also on the bill, as well as an oppurtunity to bottle off Prince of smug guest compere Alex Zane, perhaps your £13.50 for a ticket and running the risk of a drenching are worth the gamble.

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Sunday is a funny one. On those rare occasions when you do get through Saturday night without writing off your Sunday to the usual hangover blur, there then arises the dilemma of how on earth you are going to fill the day when nothing happens.

If more sedate festivities are on offer for you this Saturday, then we could have a solution for you on how to fill the Sunday 14th void. The cinema is always a good bet, so head to the Curzon Soho at 4pm for a screening of filmmaker Robert Greenwald's latest documentary 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'.

The film aims to expose the unsavoury practices of American supermarket giant Wal-Mart by talking to everyday American families and communities at the sharp end. But of course since Wal-Mart are also the proud owners of the UK's own Asda chain, this is not one of those 'only in America' tales, as the accompanying discussion panel surrounding this screening will demonstrate.

During the course of his documentary, Greenwald also pops across the Atlantic to pick up on Newham Council's planned sale of London's 105-year-old Queens Road Market to Wal-Mart's UK arm for redevelopment centred around a new Asda superstore, so naturally John Peasnall from Friends of Queens Market will be sitting on the panel to discuss this drama on our doorstep. Also in attendance this Sunday to examine the dominance of the UK's own 'big four' - Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco - will be the Evening Standard's Andrew Gilligan, the Observer's ethicist Lucy Siegel and War on Want's Matthew McGregor.

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DVDs have come down in price so much recently that there is little point in renting them when you can own your own copy for about the same price as a rental. In the Tesco Extra sale, DVDs start at the astonishingly low price of £1.47 for 3 A.M., The African Queen or The Sorcerers.

To be fair, a lot of them are pretty crappy (Britney's legendary Crossroads appearance, anyone?), but there are a few must-sees in amongst there for under a fiver: The Exorcist (Director's Cut), Silence of the Lambs, Charlize Theron's Monster, Educating Rita.

So how do they work out so cheap? Many of the films can be ordered from VAT-free from Tesco Jersey, which often works out cheaper than buying from the normal Tesco Extra shop.

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Based in that hotbed of political activism that is Canada, the CitizenShift website houses a bulging archive of streaming film clips that really pushes the possibilities of the internet as a space for alternative media voices to make themselves heard. Now officially bored of my new digital TV, it is a good job I have finally found something I want to watch on the web. read more...

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London's champions of independent cinema, the Curzon Cinema in Soho, offer further support to the capital's fledgling short film makers with their first four day Short Film Summer School this July.

A series of workshops, panel sessions and screenings, real fanatics can buy a four day pass for £40 (£30 concessions), or else pick and choose the sessions which interest you, individually priced from free to £6.

The summer school covers everything from copyright, budgeting and distribution advice to special music video workshops for the under 18s and a daily free marketplace in the cinema's bar area offering course and funding information. But for us the real highlight has to be a special Script Factory masterclass with 'Festen' director Thomas Vinterberg on Saturday 9th. Nicht schlecht.

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In March 1995, Danish film director Lars von Trier took to the stage at a Paris symposium and first expounded the ten rules of film-making that compose his Dogme 95 manifesto. A fitting ten years and ten (Danish) Dogme films later, the Curzon Soho in conjunction with the Danish Embassy are holding a Ten Years of Danish Dogme film festival to celebrate.

Featuring Q&A sessions, workshops and 'making of' documentaries, the London wannabe filmmaker massive are sure to be out in force. But if you don't personally cultivate the "been up all night writing my screenplay" look, don't let the theory put you off. Dogme films are designed to be watched, not just analysed, and the Curzon festival offers plenty of scope for the former.

The must-sees for Dogme newbies are The Idiots (April 3) and Festen (April 1), with a chance to quiz 'Festen' director Thomas Vinterberg also drawing in the screenies. The festival also features rare UK screenings of other works from the Danish Dogme cannon, including Italian for Beginners (April 10) and Mifune (April 17), as well as a special preview of the tenth (and final!) Danish Dogme film In Your Hands (April 28).

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Not to be confused with the Australian film of the same name, this 'Head-On' hails from Germany, and is how the filmmakers have chosen to translate 'Gegen die Wand' (literally - "against the wall"). read more...