Sean Lennon

Tis the season to be a Lennonist. The U.S. vs. John Lennon is set to open later this fall, and on Sept. 26, Sean Lennon's newest Capitol release, Friendly Fire, will hit the stores. Friendly Fire is also the title of a 45-minute film that accompanies the album, and it contains self-directed short films for each of his album's tracks. OK, we used to call them music videos, but never mind.

Friendly Fire is the main event of the film component of Spark Con, Raleigh's celebration of its creative class that will take place all weekend long in venues all over town. N.C. State film scholars Marsha and Devin Orgeron have programmed a Thursday night outdoor screening in Moore Square in which Lennon's film will be preceded by top-notch work from area filmmakers.

The program includes new work by Triangle mainstays, including Flicker diva Nicole Triche's experimental study of the human hand entitled Metacarpus, Jason Middleton's portrait of the Durham band Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan called In the Nick (Everything is Timing), and animator Francesca Talenti's Memories, her latest addition to her ongoing Dream of Liquid Memories. The program is filled out with older hits from area film artists Jim Haverkamp, Joyce Ventimiglia, Neal Hutcheson and Brett Ingram. A/V Geeks impresario Skip Elsheimer will be on hand to present a claymation gem from 1977 called Malakapalakadoo Skip Two. It's said to involve kids who become beanbags, and there might be a lesson about drugs, as well.

FilmSpark gets one final opportunity to start fires on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Kings, when the new Pixies documentary, loudQUIETloud, gets its first screening outside of SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Thursday night's screening begins at 8:30 at a 20-foot screen set up outside in Moore Square in downtown Raleigh. The rain location is the Longview Center. For more information, visit www.sparkcon.com/filmspark.htm. Both events are free.