Tamra Davis

Veteran Canadian documentarian Harry Rasky's "Prophecy" (Sunset 5, Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m.) is a kind of peripatetic diary-film, rich in ideas but also decidedly rambling, in which he moves away from the usual apocalyptic connotations of prophecy to discover many of the world's religions linked by a common message of hope. He spends a great deal of time in Jerusalem, sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, yet does not delve into how these three religions might find harmony.

ENTERTAINMENT Producers' Picks: The Producers Guild of America weighed in with its choices for the year's best movies on Wednesday, nominating the producers of "Almost Famous," "Billy Elliot," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Erin Brockovich" and "Gladiator" for its top honor.

Successful alumni of Los Angeles City College's Theatre Arts program came back to campus last week, sharing their showbiz wisdom with film students as part of the program's 65th anniversary. In a forum titled, "Is There Life After Film School?" five directors and editors fielded questions from aspiring filmmakers who wanted to know how they got their big break. The speakers included 22-year-old Albert Hughes, who directed the critically acclaimed "Menace II Society" with his twin brother, Allen.

At the Grammy parties, which lasted into the wee hours Thursday, Eminem played the part that a skimpy Versace dress did last year: He was on everyone's lips. From the EMI party at the Hotel Figueroa across from Staples Center to the BMG bash next to the Conga Room on Wilshire Boulevard--and everywhere in between--the topic of conversation at the rock 'n' roll water cooler (the bar) was the controversial rapper.

While women have made great strides in several areas of filmmaking, including producing and directing, cinematography stands out as one of the last male creative bastions in motion pictures. Now that barrier seems to be slowly breaking down too.

THE American Cinematheque's Focus on Female Directors program offers early short work by filmmakers who have gone on to success in features as well as recent notable shorts by up-and-comers. Sofia Coppola's 1998 short "Lick the Star" presages her assured feature debut the following year with "The Virgin Suicides." "Star" focuses on a spiteful clique of junior high girls with a fairly diabolical plan that's inspired by a V.C. Andrews novel.

Baby, it's cold outside, but it's warm and cozy in the theater, especially with two romantic comedies, "Before Sunrise," with Gen X stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and "Miami Rhapsody," with Sarah Jessica Parker and Antonio Banderas. We'll also finally get to see Sharon Stone as a gunslinger in her long-delayed "Quick and the Dead." Smile when you say that. Bad Company.

In spite of the intense air of deja vu it generates, there is a lot to like about "Love Monkey" (perhaps not including its title), yet another comic tale of Urban Singlehood, which begins a midseason run tonight on CBS. There's scarcely a moment, group dynamic or character relationship you haven't encountered somewhere before -- indeed, CBS' own "How I Met Your Mother" is much the same show, as is ABC's "Jake in Progress."

Nicolo Donato's bleak yet compelling "Brotherhood," an unsparing neo-noir with the structure and inevitability of classic drama, opens in the dark of night with a man entrapping a young, inexperienced gay man into a bashing and then cuts to a young blond soldier being told by his commanding officer he cannot be promoted because he's been accused of making passes at fellow soldiers. The soldier, Lars (Thure Lindhardt), is vulnerable when by chance he falls into a group of neo- Nazis and is recruited by its leader, the bearded, paunchy but implacably forceful Michael (Nicolas Bro)