Making “The Red Pill,” Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema opening-night film, was a difficult and extraordinarily personal journey for documentarian Cassie Jaye. When Jaye founded Jaye Bird Productions in 2008, her goal was to produce feature-length documentaries that would expand the mind and encourage critical thought on politically polarizing issues. But with “The Red Pill,”…

Idyllwild CinemaFest 2013 Chairman Phil Calderone announced festival selections on Dec. 17. A record 98 films — 22 features, 24 featurettes (lengths from 16 to 39 minutes), 29 shorts (up to 15 minutes), 17 documentary features, four documentary shorts (from 2 to 29 minutes) and two web series, including ICF 2013 Featured Filmmaker Ignatius Fischer’s “Freelancers” — will screen in four venues.

Idyllwild resident Kathy Harmon-Luber is exhibiting her photography “Venice: Whispers” at Artspresso Art Gallery from September through November. Artspresso is hosting a reception from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27. Of this new work, Kathy said, “Long before I ever visited Italy — in fact, from the time I was a young child of…