CRITIC’S PICK

I haven’t seen all the films in the American Cinematheque’s “Focus on Female Directors: Five to Watch” program of documentary, dramatic and animated shorts screening tonight at 7:30 at the Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, but if the ones I haven’t seen are as good as the two I have, this should be a heck of an evening. Photographer Lauren Greenfield’s “Kids & Money” is a piercing examination of the relationship between the two in the wealthier parts of L.A., while Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega’s Oscar-nominated “La Corona” takes a devastating look at a beauty contest inside a Colombian prison. Other films include Kate Hudson’s “Cutlass,” Michelle Hung’s “Chinese Dumplings” and Nicole Mitchell’s Student Academy Award-winning “Zoologic.” Except for Hudson, all the directors will be present tonight.