The DocuWest Documentary Film Festival, a Westword Best of Denver recipient, will continue to champion nonfictional film when the tight little fest returns to the Foothills Art Center and other satellite locations tonight. Nearly forty films of varying lengths, many of them Colorado premieres, will be shown over a five-day span -- and we dare you to be bored for even one minute during that time.

See also: - Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry - Best Film Festival -- 2010 - Documenting Documentaries

The fest's kickoff film, Trash Dance, the work of director Andrew Garrison, details the story of a choreographer who rounds up a troupe of trash collectors and garbage trucks to perform a pointed ballet of the 99 percent; it screens at 7 p.m. tonight at Foothills.

Another sure standout is the designated featured documentary, Colorado filmmaker Jeff Orlowski's Chasing Ice, which follows Colorado-based nature photographer James Balog to the Arctic for his Extreme Ice Survey, a strenuous journey to document the effects of global warming on glaciers, using time-lapse cameras over a period of years. Chasing Ice screens at 7 p.m. Saturday, September 8 at the American Mountaineering Center.

And artists won't want to miss the powerful doc Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, the work of first-time director Alison Kalyman that documents the artist and political dissident's ongoing battle with the Chinese government.

To plan your course, visit DocuWest online for a complete schedule; tickets are $6 to $10 per screening, $25 for a five-film package or $50 for an all-access pass. Call 303-279-3922.

Find information on hundreds of other arts and entertainment events in our online Calendar.

To keep up with the Froyd's eye-view of arts and culture in Denver, "like" my fan page on Facebook.

• Arts and Culture
• Film and TV
• Things to Do