First Brooklyn Jewish Film Festival at BAM; A Grateful Dead Documentary; A Park Slope Festival, and the Old Hippies are Stoked; Arlene Grocery Picture Show

Faith and Fortune, for example, narrates the rise and fall of the Reichmann family, a clan of Orthodox Jews who escaped the Nazis, amassed a worldwide real estate empire and lost it all in one of history's biggest development busts: the Canary Wharf project in London. Along the way, they gave a cool billion to ultra-Orthodox organizations, almost singlehandedly keeping that movement alive, and ran a Manhattan construction company that shut down on every single Orthodox holiday. That's balls. Faith and Fortune: The Reichmann Brothers Story screens on Friday at 6:30 p.m.; tickets to all shows are available at 777-FILM for nine dollars; [www.bam.org](http://www.bam.org) provides a complete schedule.

...Since we're on a movie kick, you should know: There's a five-year waiting period between a legend's death and the start of his/her film career. Jerry Garcia is playing exactly by the rules, as he debuts in The End of the Road at the Screening Room this Friday (54 Varick St. at Laight St., 334-2100). The documentary covers the final days of the Grateful Dead and its leader in July 1995, when drunk farm boys with rocks forced the cancellation of an Indiana concert?the band's first missed gig in 30 years. After the incident, elder hippies, proud of the safety and underlying order of Dead shows, pitted themselves against the "new heads" who did their drugs at high volume. A month later, Garcia was dead at a substance-abuse facility in California, and director/producer/photographer Brent Meeske got it all down:

"I found hope in the ability that Deadheads had and still have in turning the negative into the positive. And I'm talking about how they turned the [Indiana] riot into a positive event, and they ultimately turned Jerry's death into a positive event... This summer is supposed to be the greatest jam-band season ever, so I hope the film provides kids the kind of leadership that they never had within their own communities."

The End of the Road runs from Friday to next Thursday at 4, 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Additional shows are 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and midnight on Friday and Saturday nights; tickets are $9.

...Riding the wave of roaches, bare arms and special smells, New York artists begin to emerge from their domiciles this weekend. Warm weather makes them receptive to the praise and money of strangers, both of which will be expected at one of the season's first open-air art festivals in Park Slope. It's called Local Produce, and it's in its eighth year of cattle-calling old-school dykes and freaks to display their work, dance and chill at block parties.

There is a host of Local Produce events from Friday to Sunday, including the Red Hawk Indian Dancers shimmying on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and the mounted Black Cowboys Association of Brooklyn parading down 5th Ave. Sunday afternoon. The best draw, however, might be "Dance! Music! Theater!," going down Saturday at Old First Church (7th Ave. at Carroll St., 718-857-5158) from 7 to midnight. There are no drinks, but you'll see fine Brooklyn dancers like Angela Caponigro and learn the ballroom, swing and Latin steps you've been faking. Tickets for Saturday night are $15; all of the Local Produce open-air events are free but plead for donations.

...If you're a crack filmmaker?real crack, like you were kicked out of school?the Arlene Grocery Picture Show contest might be for you. The rock club is currently accepting entries for "just another crappy film festival," which will run through Memorial Day weekend (May 26-28).

Arlene is looking for movies that were rejected by other film festivals. The movies don't have to be any particular length or genre, and submitting them is straight-up free. You do have to have your movie in by Tuesday, hand-delivered to Arlene Grocery (95 Stanton St., betw. Orchard & Ludlow Sts., 358-1633) in VHS format. Winners of the Picture Show will receive a "Grocery" trophy, which looks suspiciously like a can of beans.

...Speaking of Arlene, vocal stunner L.P. is performing there on Sunday. She cut her teeth in Lionfish and as a Meow Mix bartender, sang with Cracker on their Gentleman's Blues album and is now working on a solo record produced by and featuring Cracker frontman David Lowery. Basically, she sings like a bastard, and Mr. Lowery might be in from Virginia to back her up. L.P. goes onstage at 8 p.m.; admission is free.

...You want to party with some crazy people? Well, May is National Mental Health Month, and to kick it off, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is hosting its 2001 Lifesavers Dinner this Tuesday. Before you write off a dinner of suicide experts as a bummer, take note: Larry King and Sen. Paul Wellstone are going to be there, and both of them always seem to be with beautiful women, right? The food of Cipriani 42nd Street (110 E. 42nd St., betw. Park & Lex. Aves., 499-0599) is another selling point.

Fun starts at 6:30 p.m. It will cost you $700 to get into the Lifesavers Dinner, with ticket info available at 363-3500 x18. By the way, most suicides occur in April, not during Christmas, as popular myth dictates. So congratulations on still being here.

...Mini-blurbs from a Thursday: Started out at P.J. Carney's (906 7th Ave., betw. 57th & 58th Sts., 664-0056) where I didn't intend to stay long, but a Mets game somehow deserved my undivided attention. As always, the bar was full of young businessmen. Two years ago some guy wanted to start an Internet company with me; this year some guy hot-boxed the bathroom.

Went down to Demerara (aka Planet 28, aka Demerara's, 215 W. 28th St., betw. 7th & 8th Aves., 643-1199), where an NYU party was going on. I got some free cigarettes, which are still sitting in my bag, but the drinks were poor and the girls looked like ones who couldn't make it onto TRL.

Finally, moved down to Fun (130 Madison St., betw. Market & Pike Sts., 964-0303) to catch Zappa-from-space act Star People, who were nice enough to send me a t-shirt. Great space: looks like a garage from outside, inside is full of hip freaks dressed up. Airy and promising for future events.