Do you like beer almost as much as self-righteous AA Bible-thumpers? Does the thought of 800 beers from 200 breweries make you weaker in the knees than a West 6th bartender? Is your name something other than "Chuck Galeti"? Then look no further than your back yard, fellow Clevelander. The International Beer Fest is coming to town.

Taking place May 13-14 at the IX Center, the Festival will feature the largest world beer competition in the Midwest. That's right, the whole Midwest. Suck it, Sioux Falls. What.

The 35th Cleveland International Film Festival will be coming to an end this weekend. However, there is still plenty of time to see a few films. If you are planning on attending the festival this weekend please donate to the challenge match. The CIFF is on target to reach their $35,000 goal.

I'm still thinking about the film I saw last night, "Meek's Cutoff". It seemed to be a popular choice as the theater filled up quickly with pass holders. The last few seats were taken right before the film started. There are some familiar faces in this film. Emily is played by Michelle Williams, Paul Dano plays Thomas Gately and Solomon Tetherow is played by Will Patton.

"Meek's Cutoff" is about three families taking a journey across the Oregon Trail in 1845. Stephen Meek is the man guiding these families across the trail to a promising land of better opportunities. The families have been traveling for much longer than originally planned and become suspicious about Meek and his intentions. It's easy to see that the group is now lost with no sense of direction.

In Afghanistan 40% of children die before the age of 5. That's a very sad statistic. Not only is the 35th Cleveland International Film Festival entertaining but it's extremely educational.

"Outside the Wire: The Forgotten Children of Afghanistan" is a documentary about the children living in the tribal areas of Afghanistan. During the film you see how U.S. troops are trying to help these children by building schools and reaching out to them. Relief agencies usually do not go to these areas of Afghanistan because of the danger that is involved.

Filmmaker Anthony Hornus ventures beyond the protected army bases with Colonel Victor Kuchar to show the story of these children. Kuchar runs Operation Care. Through his organization he distributes, clothes, blankets, supplies, food and water to orphans in poor villages and camps throughout Afghanistan.

Watching the footage of these children begging for handouts is heart wrenching. They're looking for necessity items such as shoes and hats. Troops are risking their lives in order to make the lives of these children a little better.

You can see "Outside the Wire" on Thursdsay, March 31st at 1:55 p.m.

The "Colors of the Mountain" showing at The 35th Cleveland International Film Festival
is a story about Columbia and how families are forced to leave their homes as guerrillas invade their village.

The film focuses on the children and their lives as they go to school and play in the village. Even though the subject of the film is far from happy, the 9 year old boy Manual will keep you laughing throughout the film. All the children in the village attend the same school which has one classroom. Teachers come to the village but then leave abruptly because of the guerrillas.

One day as Manual and his friends are playing they accidentally kick their ball into a grassy field that is known to have land mines. Manual tries to convince his friends to help him get the ball back that his father had given to him. As the children take steps towards the ball, you can only hope they do not step on a mine.

The Berea 2010 Rib Cook-Off is back for another fun filled year this Memorial Day. The festival features a lot of local bands and other attractions.

Friday night is Bike Night, so bring out your Harley, grab a cold one, and eat some of the finest ribs in the country while enjoying the music of Laredo, Stone Pony, and Lawless. If you're bringing a bike, you can pull right into the fairgrounds and park in our bike corral.

Saturday we'll be featuring Dashboard Lights, The Girls Band, and Breakfast Club.

Sunday, we have the Clayton Brothers, The Curve, and The Spazmatics, while on Sunday we're featuring The New Centuury Beatniks and Aftermath.

And remember, if you're looking to celebrate a great American holiday with some great ribs and music, the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds is the place to be in Cleveland Memorial Day weekend!

Here are all the details:

Last Friday night at the Cleveland International Film Festival I saw two emotional films. The first one was "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant".

In 2007 Prince William County Virginia adopted a law requiring police officers to question anyone they have "probably cause" to suspect is an undocumented immigrant. Annabel Park and Eric Byler produced an interactive documentary around the citizens and the local government of Manassas, Virginia titled 9500 Liberty.

The population of immigrants was growing rapidly in the town of Manassas and the residents began to fight for deportation of these immigrants. They targeted their local government in hopes of passing a law requiring police to check if a resident was an illegal alien. One local resident, Greg Letiecq started a blog called "Save Mannassas" which gained many followers. When the law passed others began to fight to reverse it.

Today at the Cleveland International Film Festival I felt lucky to be among the crowd watching "Bomber". The film was shown in two theaters at 2:20 pm and both theaters were at capacity. I personally knew people waiting in the stand by line, and unfortunately they were unable to get into the film.

Bomber is a comedy about love and family. Alistar, an 83 year old man plans a much-anticipated and meaningful trip with his wife. They don't get off to a very good start and they have an accident in the driveway which prevents them from leaving in their own car. Ross, their son had stopped over to wish them well on their adventures but now has volunteered to drive them to their destination. The trip turns out to be a nightmare full of arguments. During the entire trip Valerie, Alistar's wife, tries to keep the peace between the three of them. It was impossible not to laugh at the conversations they had during their journey.

"Will You Marry Us" is a love story between Rahel Hubli a civil registrar in a simple Swiss town and a pop star, Ben. Earlier in life Rahel and Ben were in a band together and Ben had always been the love of Rahel's life. Since that time Rahel married Thomas and had a son named Flo. Ben went on to become a very famous singer/songwriter.

One day Ben comes back to town and runs into Rahel. Ben has come back to town to marry his movie star girlfriend, Tinka. Eventually Ben and Tinka ask Rahel if she would marry the two of them. Rahel agrees andnduring this time she finds out her husband, Thomas is cheating on her and her marriage quickly falls apart.

Rahel helps Ben and Tinka plan every detail of their wedding but old feelings begin to reunite between Rahel and Ben. Ben eventually tells Rahel he has true feelings for her and is questioning his marriage to Tinka.

The marriage plans continue but at the time of the ceremony, something happens.... and I don't want to give away the ending!

You can see the film at the "Cleveland International Film Festival on Sunday March 21, at 9:30 p.m. Purchase your tickets today online.