Category: STL Film Fest

Watch BELFAST, KING RICHARD And JOCKEY This Weekend At 30th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival

Cinema St. Louis is delighted to again offer in-person screenings during the 30th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), held Nov. 4-21, 2021.

Because the effects of the pandemic continue, this year’s fest will be a hybrid — with a significant number of virtual screenings also available — but in-person screenings will be held on all three screens of the Tivoli Theatre from Nov. 4-14 and Nov. 18-21. 

Other in-person screenings will take place at Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium (on the weekends of Nov. 5-6, 12-14, and 19-21) and Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium (on the evenings of Nov. 5-14). 

In addition, the St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library Auditorium will serve as the in-person venue for six Golden Anniversaries screenings of films from 1971. Those screenings will be held on the afternoons of Nov. 6-7, 13-14, and 20-21. 

Finally, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis will partner with SLIFF on two in-person screenings on the evenings of Nov. 4 and 11.

For those who prefer to view from home, many (though not all) of the films that receive in-person screenings will be available virtually through our partner Eventive from Nov. 4-21. SLIFF will also feature a substantial number of films, shorts programs, and livestreams that can only be accessed virtually. 

To protect the safety and health of patrons, SLIFF will require masks and proof of vaccination at in-person screenings. No concessions will be available at any of the venues, including the Tivoli, to ensure audience members remain masked throughout films. Full information on the festival’s Covid-19 policies appear below.

Program Overview

The 30th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival, a presentation of the nonprofit Cinema St. Louis (CSL), continues to provide the opportunity for St. Louis filmgoers to view the finest in world cinema — international films, documentaries, American indies, and shorts that can only be seen at the festival.

This year, after an all-virtual festival in 2020, SLIFF is pleased to offer a large selection of in-person events, including at all three screens of the Tivoli Theatre, which has been shuttered since the onset of the pandemic. For those who prefer to watch at home, we’ll still provide plenty of options, with nearly 100 virtual programs and livestreams.

SLIFF begins on Nov. 4 with a powerful new Missouri-based documentary, “Procession,” which is directed by Robert Greene, the filmmaker-in-chief at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri. In the film, six men from Kansas City, Mo. — all survivors of childhood sexual assault at the hands of Catholic priests and clergy — come together to direct a drama-therapy-inspired experiment designed to collectively work through their trauma. Greene, who will receive SLIFF’s Contemporary Cinema Award, and many of the film’s subjects will attend the screening to participate in a compelling post-film Q&A.

On the festival’s final day, SLIFF offers a Tribute to Mary Strauss, which includes a screening of Mary’s favorite film, “Sunset Boulevard.” Mary has played an absolutely essential role in Cinema St. Louis’ evolution, and we’re delighted to honor her with a Lifetime Achievement Award during our 30th edition.

We’ll also honor two other filmmakers: Documentarian and native St. Louis Nina Gilden Seavey, who will present a free special-event program called “My Fugitive” at the fest, will receive the Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award; and documentarian Deborah Riley Draper, whose film “Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority” screens at SLIFF, will receive the Women in Film Award.

The festival will screen more than 400 shorts and features, and the 2021 SLIFF offers an especially impressive array of the year’s most heralded films, including selections from such destination fests as Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and New York. 

(L to R) Jamie Dornan as “Pa”, Ciarán Hinds as “Pop”, Jude Hill as “Buddy”, and Judi Dench as “Granny” in director Kenneth Branagh’s BELFAST, a Focus Features release. Credit : Rob Youngson / Focus Features

Among the most enticing English-language studio films are Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” (winner of the People’s Choice Award at Toronto), Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” (with Joaquin Phoenix), Michael Pearce’s “Encounter” (with Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer), Stephen Karam’s “The Humans” (with Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen Yeun, and Amy Schumer), Clint Bentley’s “Jockey” (with Clifton Collins and Molly Parker), Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard” (with Will Smith), and Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday” (with Colin Firth and Olivia Colman). 

Jockey

Major international titles include “A Chiara” from Jonas Carpignano, “Ahed’s Knee” from Nadav Lapid, “France” from Bruno Dumont (“Slack Bay”), “A Hero” from Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”), “Hit the Road” from Panah Panahi, “Memoria” from Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Tropical Malady”), “One Second” from Zhang Yimou (“House of Flying Daggers”), “Paris, 13th District” from Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet”), “Petite Maman” from Céline Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (“Happy Hour”), and “The Worst Person in the World” from Joachim Trier (“Oslo, August 31st”). SLIFF also offers a pair of films from Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” and “Uppercase Print”) and a trio of works by Hong Sangsoo (“In Front of Your Face,” “Introduction,” and “The Woman Who Ran”).

Significant documentaries include Joshua Altman & Bing Liu’s “All These Sons,” John Maggio’s “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks,” Rex Miller & Sam Pollard’s “Citizen Ashe,” Andrea Arnold’s “Cow,” Mobolaji Olambiwonnu’s “Ferguson Rises,” Brandon Kramer’s “The First Step,” Matthew Heineman’s “The First Wave,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee,” Julie Cohen and Betty West’s “Julia,” Peggy Callahan & Louie Psihoyos’ “Mission: Joy,” Max Lowe’s “Torn,” Debbie Lum’s “Try Harder!,” and Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.”

And that’s just scratching the surface of the 2021 lineup, which includes nearly 20 American indies, 29 shorts programs, and eight free archival selections. Below are some of the other highlights of this year’s SLIFF:

(L-r) Director REINALDO MARCUS GREEN, DEMI SINGLETON, SANIYYA SIDNEY and WILL SMITH on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ inspiring drama “KING RICHARD,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
COPYRIGHT: © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Divided City 

SLIFF’s The Divided City program focuses on the racial divide in St. Louis and other U.S. cities. The films are supported by The Divided City: An Urban Humanities Initiative, a program of Washington U.’s Center for the Humanities that addresses one of the most persistent and vexing issues in urban studies: segregation. 

Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Washington University

Free and Discounted Programs

SLIFF continues our tradition of offering a large selection of free and discounted events to maximize the fest’s outreach into the community and to make the event affordable to all. In addition, for the 18th year, we present the Georgia Frontiere Cinema for Students Program, which provides free screenings to St. Louis-area schools. This year features 31 free in-person programs, including all screenings at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis Public Library, and Washington University. We’re also offering a pair of free screenings at the Tivoli, a free in-person master class, and six free livestreams. And the fest features 31 virtual programs at the special price of $5. 

Georgia Frontiere Cinema for Students Program

SLIFF offers free daytime screenings for children and teens from participating St. Louis-area schools. This year’s selections include shorts, documentary features, narrative features, and shorts programs. See the Cinema for Students section of the SLIFF website for full information.

Sponsored by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rosenbloom (in honor of Georgia Frontiere) and the Hawkins Foundation, with support from the Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation 

Human Rights Spotlight

This selection of documentaries focuses on human-rights issues in the U.S. and the world. 

Sponsored by Sigma Iota Rho Honor Society for International and Area Studies at Washington University and the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute

Master Classes and Seminars

SLIFF provides four free master classes — one in-person event and three livestreams — and a seminar. See the Special Events section of the SLIFF website for full information.

Sponsored by the Chellappa-Vedavalli Foundation

New Filmmakers Forum

The New Filmmakers Forum (NFF), a juried competition of works by first-time feature filmmakers, is an annual highlight of SLIFF. The featured films this year are “Delicate State,” “Papaw Land,” “Shellfish,” “Walk with Me,” and “We Burn Like This,” and the filmmakers will participate in a free roundtable discussion. The screenings and roundtable are hosted by the Missouri Film Office’s Andrea Sporcic Klund. The NFF Emerging Filmmaker Award — nicknamed the Bobbie in honor of the late Bobbie Lautenschlager, NFF’s longtime curator — is presented at SLIFF’s Closing-Night Awards Presentation. 

Sponsored by Barry & Jackie Albrecht and Pat Scallet

Race in America: The Black Experience

Because the events in Ferguson continue to resonate in St. Louis and the country, SLIFF again offers a large number of programs organized under the title Race in America: The Black Experience.  To maximize accessibility and promote dialogue, 12 of the 26 programs in Race in America are free. 

Sponsored by William A. Kerr Foundation 

Show-Me Cinema

Films made in St. Louis and Missouri or by current and former St. Louisans and Missourians are an annual focus of SLIFF. This year’s lineup of Show-Me Cinema is typically strong, featuring 18 feature films, three shorts programs, and four special events.

Sponsored by the Missouri Division of Tourism and Missouri Film Office

SLIFF/Kids Family Films                                                         

Cinema St. Louis presents a selection of eight family programs, including two documentaries and two free collections of shorts. Because patrons younger than 12 are not able to attend in-person screenings this year, all SLIFF/Kids programs are offered virtually.

COVID-19 POLICIES FOR SLIFF IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE

The safety of our patrons, filmmakers, and volunteers is Cinema St. Louis’ top priority. To ensure everyone is protected, SLIFF has instituted a number of policies for the duration of the festival. 

These policies will be strictly enforced for the protection of everyone. 

Guests must follow the instructions of SLIFF staff members and volunteers. SLIFF reserves the right to deny admission or dismiss any customer for noncompliance. 

The following policies will apply during SLIFF:

  • Proof of full vaccination (at least two weeks after the final dose) of any FDA-approved vaccine is required for all staff members, volunteers, audience members, and filmmakers at each in-person screening and event.
  • Methods of confirming proof of full vaccination are:
    • CDC Vaccine Card and valid photo ID.
    • A photo of a CDC Vaccine Card and valid photo ID.
  • Guests should arrive no earlier than 30 minutes before the scheduled screening time. Any guests arriving earlier will be asked to wait outside in line until the theaters are prepared for seating.
  • Only guests age 12 or older will be permitted to attend.
  • Masks are required for everyone at all times in indoor spaces, and the face coverings must be consistent with the current CDC guidelines.
    • Paper masks, scarves, neck gaiters, shirts pulled up, masks with holes/filters/breathing valves, and makeshift masks are not acceptable.
    • New disposable surgical masks are available to all audience members.
    • Masks must completely cover the mouth and nose and must be replaced if wet or soiled.
    • PPE may be inspected for compliance or issued as needed.
  • No concessions will be available at any venue, and no eating or drinking will be permitted in the theaters. Outside food or drink will also not be permitted.
  • Guests should stay home if not feeling well or exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 in the past 10 days.
  • Guests who have tested positive for Covid-19 within the past 10 days must stay home.
  • Guests are asked to wash hands as often as possible, use hand-sanitizing stations, and cover nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing.

TICKET AND PASS INFORMATION

TICKET PRICES

Individual tickets, for either in-person or virtual screenings, are $15 for general admission, $11 for Cinema St. Louis members and students with valid and current photo IDs. Prices are all-inclusive; no additional fees will be added.

The Tribute to Mary Strauss (held on Nov. 21) is $25 and includes a screening of “Sunset Boulevard,” which follows the event.

SLIFF also offers 31 free in-person screenings, six free livestreams, and 31 virtual programs for a special $5 price. Complete information can be found in the Free Events and Discounted Events sections of the festival website.

Free in-person screenings do not require a ticket.

PASS PRICES

Passes can be used for either in-person or virtual screenings and can be used to purchase multiple tickets for an in-person event. Three forms of passes are available:

SLIFF 2019 Review – LOCUSTS

LOCUSTS will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) Thursday, Nov 14 at 9:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.. Ticket information can be found HERE

In “Locusts,” a dark thriller set in Australia’s Outback, estranged tech entrepreneur Ryan Black returns to his desert hometown — the ironically named Serenity Crossing — for his father’s funeral. Ryan is reluctantly reunited with his ex-con brother, and the pair soon becomes the target of an extortion scam at the hands of desperate criminal associates of their reprobate dad. The Aussie movie site FilmInk writes: “Boasting a tight and twisting script and stunning imagery, ‘Locusts’ is the kind of film that we don’t see nearly enough of in Australia: a classy crime B-movie in the style of John Dahl or (early) James Foley. It’s elevated even further, however, by the stellar performances. Ben Geurens is totally empathetic as the harried hero, while Alan Dukes, Steve Le Marquand, Justin Rosniak, Ryan Morgan and Damian Hill (in his final screen performance) are absolutely stunning as the bad guys, bringing a wonderfully wild eyed brand of menace and madness to their characters.”

Review by Michael Haffner

If the biblical symbolism of the title wasn’t enough to signal a bad omen, religious billboards on the side of the road serve as an ominous warning of the turmoil ahead for the lead character in LOCUSTS. The Australian landscape is laid out like a hostile barren landscape, resembling a nuclear wasteland home to only cockroaches. Dead animals and rotten people plague the surrounding town, and cinematographer Chris Bland captures every gritty detail while balancing it all out with lush sunsets and dusty open roads.

The story, centered on wayward brothers in over their heads, bears a slight resemblance to the recent crime masterpiece HELL OR HIGH WATER. Both films show the economic disparity between the country and the big city where our lead has grown accustomed to, now heading back to his rural hometown to bury his father. Ryan Black (Ben Geurens) may come across as a slick city kid on first impression, but by the end of his turmoil-filled trip, he bears the same rough and ragged scars and appearance of the town he was born into.

Soaking in the Outback sun during the day and the neon stripclub lights at night, director Heath Davis finds comfort in exploring unsavory characters and playing in the pulp sandbox. Kidnapping, extortion, secrets, the prodigal son returning, all add up to a crime thriller that leans heavily into its genre label. Complete with expected dialogue like, “Whatever issues you had with my dad, died with him,” LOCUSTS is not quite the riveting page-turner like the stories it’s inspired by, but fits comfortably in the entertaining Liam Neeson revenge category.

What the film lacks in originality it makes up for in a quiet, moody bravado. Like a long, atmospheric drive through the desert at night, you know what the road looks like ahead, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the ride. Directed with confidence and supported by strong, unnerving performances, LOCUSTS will satisfy those hungry for a gritty crime-thriller, even if it’s simply a quick fix while passing through to the next town.

SLIFF 2019 – THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY? Golden Anniversary Screening at The St. Louis Public Library November 17th

” I may not know a winner when I see one, but I sure as hell can spot a loser. “

THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’t THEY? will be screening at the St. Louis Public Library (1301 Olive Street St. Louis) on November 17th at 1:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’t THEY? is part of Cinema St. Louis’ Golden Anniversary of films made in 1969. This is a FREE event. With an intro and post-film discussion by We Are Movie Geeks’ own Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite can b found HERE

In Depression-era America, desperation spawned a bizarre fad: the dance marathon. Couples competed to stay on their feet for thousands of hours, and audiences flocked to watch. But Gloria (Jane Fonda, two-time Oscar winner for “Klute” and “Coming Home”) doesn’t think of herself as a spectacle. She is a fierce, unforgiving contestant in a battle she’s determined to win. At stake is much more than the $1,500 prize: The marathon is her only hope for dignity, accomplishment, and salvation. Based on a novel by hardboiled writer Horace McCoy, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Gig Young, who plays the marathon’s emcee, and was nominated for eight additional Academy Awards, including Best Director (Sydney Pollack), Best Actress (Fonda), and Best Supporting Actress (Susannah York). The remarkable cast also includes Michael Sarrazin (as Gloria’s dance partner), Red Buttons, Bruce Dern, and Bonnie Bedelia.

SLIFF 2019 Review – THE WILD GOOSE LAKE

THE WILD GOOSE LAKE will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) Saturday, Nov 9 at 9:45pm and Monday, Nov 11 at 9:25pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

Fleeing from the law and seeking redemption, gangster Zenong Zhou (Ge Hu) crosses paths with innocent-looking Aiai Liu (Lun-Mei Kwei), a girl with a secret who is risking everything to gain her freedom. As they are hunted on the shores of the Wild Goose Lake, Zhou must decide what he is willing to sacrifice both for this stranger and for the family he left behind. When the film debuted at Cannes this year, even Quentin Tarantineo queued up. The LA Times writes: “It’s not often that you see a Cannes auteur checking out the competition. But Tarantino was clearly as eager as anyone to see ‘The Wild Goose Lake,’ an ultra-moody, hyper-violent gangland thriller from a rising talent named Diao Yinan, who won the top prize at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival for his wintry noir ‘Black Coal, Thin Ice.’ The plot, artfully kinked with flashbacks, is often a fast-moving (and slow-moving) blur. There are brawls and decapitations, shootouts and impalings, plus one sad, fugitive moment of intimacy in a world where human relations are almost entirely transactional.”

Review by Stephen Tronicek

There’s a shot near the beginning of Diao Yi’nan’s The Wild Goose Lake that floats with Aiai Liu (Lun-Mei Kwei) as she approaches the other protagonist Zenong Zhao (Ge Hu). It’s a beautiful shot but there’s something that seems off about it. The slow movement almost feels grating. The rhythm of it is uncomfortable, like it wants to go on long enough to become exasperating. This is how much of The Wild Goose Lake feels. As it’s oppressive story plays out, a weight holds on your shoulders. Something about the rhythm is off. We’re lost in the center of this story begging to be hypnotic but isn’t. IT’S PERFECT. 

    The film feels like getting dragged through the muddy underbelly of beachside organized crime. Taking place in the Goose Lake District, the film follows Zenong Zhao as he attempts to escape the authorities. He’s accidentally shot a police officer and now they’re cleaning house. He approaches Aiai Liu, a prostitute looking for her way out. Liu knows his wife and starts to assist Zhao in his escape. This puts them in contention with gang members, friends, and the cops. 

    All of this makes The Wild Goose Lake feel like a neo-noir  with all the grunge put back in. Whereas many neo-noirs have now leaned on stylization, The Wild Goose Lake leans on realism. The result is a movie where all the violence, the suffering, becomes shockingly clear. Everybody is put through the wringer to the point that even the “fun” violence (a head decapitation, murder by umbrella) hits with a poignancy a more flippant project would lose. It’s a great balance of tone.     Hopefully, all of this doesn’t dissuade you from seeing The Wild Goose Lake. As difficult as it is to experience, it is an experience worth taking.

SLIFF 2018 – And the Winners Are…….

The 27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival Awards were presented Nov. 11 and We Are Movie Geeks was there!

SLIFF presented seven major filmmaking awards during the course of the 2018 festival:

Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Awards to Jim Finn, Jane Gilooly, and Karyn Kusama; Women in Film Award to Melanie Mayron; Lifetime Achievement Award to Joe Edwards and John Goodman; and the Contemporary Cinema Award to Jason Reitman.

Shorts Awards

Juries choose the winners of seven awards from among the shorts in competition. The SLIFF shorts competition is officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, making the winners in the Best of Fest, Best Animated, Best Live Action, and Best Documentary categories eligible to submit for Oscar® consideration. The 2018 winners:

Best Documentary Short: “Koka, The Butcher” directed by Bence Máté

Best Local Short: “The Buck: Midwest Gully” directed by Jun Bae

Best Short Short: “The Puppy Trials” directed by Becky Nicol & Thomas Nicol

Best International Short: “Death, Father & Son” directed by Waltgenwitz Denis & Paronnaud Vincent

Best Animated Short: “Le Mans 1955” directed by Quentin Baillieux

Best Live-Action Short: “Rainbow Ruthie” directed by Ruthie Marantz

Best of Fest: “Souls of Totality” directed by Richard Raymond

Interfaith Awards

Juries gives Interfaith Awards to both a documentary and a narrative, choosing from among 10 competition films (five in each category), which were selected for their artistic merit; contribution to the understanding of the human condition; and recognition of ethical, social, and spiritual values. The 2018 winners:

Best Documentary Feature: “Intelligent Lives” directed by Dan Habib

Best Narrative Feature: “Eternal Winter” directed by Attila Szasz

St. Louis Film Critics Association Joe Pollack and Joe Williams Awards

In conjunction with the St. Louis Film Critics organization, SLIFF holds juried competitions for documentary and narrative features. The awards are named in honor of the late St. Louis Post-Dispatch critics Joe Pollack (narrative) and Joe Williams (documentary). The winners are picked by two juries composed of St. Louis film critics. SLIFF chose eight films to compete in each category. The 2018 winners:

Best Documentary Feature: “Letter from Masanjia” directed by Leon Lee

Best Narrative Feature: “The Captain” directed by Robert Schwentke

Midrash Award

Midrash St. Louis engages myriad aspects of American culture — hot topics, deep subjects, music, arts, and film — and seeks to give and receive commentary on the subjects and issues that matter to people in St. Louis and that form and shape our views and lives. The Midrash St. Louis Film Award celebrates St. Louis-related films of honesty and artistry that portray the need or the hope for reconciliation or redemption. These are among the most powerful and worthy themes that films should explore. Eligible work for the Midrash St. Louis Film Award includes feature and short films largely shot in St. Louis or directed by filmmakers with strong local ties. The award comes with a cash prize of $500. The 2018 winner:

“The Man Behind the Merferds” directed by Josh Herum

New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Director Award (The Bobbie)

The New Filmmakers Forum (NFF) annually presents the Emerging Director Award. Since its inception, NFF was co-curated by Bobbie Lautenschlager. Bobbie died in the summer of 2012, and SLIFF honors her memory by nicknaming the NFF Emerging Director Award as the Bobbie. Five works by first-time feature filmmakers competed for the prize, which includes a $500 cash award. The 2018 winner:

Emerging Director Award (“The Bobbie”): “Farmer of the Year” directed by Vince O’Connell & Kathy Swanson

Spotlight on Inspiration Documentary Award

This year, SLIFF inaugurates this juried competition, which awards a $5,000 prize to a feature documentary that focuses on people working to make the world a better place and that inspires audience members and leaves them with a sense of hope for the futur. The 2018 winner:

“The Providers” directed by Laura Green & Anna Moot-Levin

Best of Fest Audience Choice Awards

Audience voting determines the winner of three awards from among the films in competition.

The 2018 winners:

Leon Award for Best Documentary Film: “The Push” directed by Grant Korgan & Brian Niles

TV5MONDE Award for Best International Film: “Capernaum” directed by Nadine Labaki

Best Film: “Green Book” directed by Peter Farrelly

SLIFF 2018 Review – THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT

THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT screens Saturday Nov. 10th at 9pm and again Sunday Nov. 11th at 3:15 as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at The Tivoli Theater. Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

The Rainbow Experiment is a brutal exploration of the different anxieties surrounding the aftermath of a terrible accident that takes place in a high school. There’s a sense of urgency over the entirety of the production that spawns out of naturalistic performances and nerve-shredding cinematography but on top of that, the film partakes in addicting melodrama that highlights the dichotomy of the professional and emotional worlds at the center of the school.

During a chemistry class gone wrong, Matty (Connor Seimer) bursts into flames, leaving his fellow classmates traumatized and the administration reeling in the fallout. It is into this fray that we are presented with our ensemble of characters, each offering a unique perspective to the story.

What makes The Rainbow Experiment work so well is that way that it captures the anxiety ridden hallways of a high school. There’s a particular prison like quality to the facilities that is perfect for the type of adult drama that The Rainbow Experiment provides. The whole production feels like a suspense drama ratcheting up further and further as new information is revealed about each character. On top of this, the film perfectly captures the emotional disconnect between the adults and the children in a high school environment. The students are complex human beings that are only able to perceive the world through their own emotional prisms and the teachers are encouraged to keep at a distance from them. This works further towards the theme of generational disconnect that allows for an accident like this to happen. By following the professional rules of the school, the two sides can only fail to reach into what really causes this: humanity.

In order for all of this to land correctly, the film has to be perfectly balanced. A lack of subtlety would lead to the film feeling heavy handed, too subtle and the film wouldn’t be exciting to watch. Writer/director Christina Kallas, along with the performances and expressive cinematography hit just the right mark. The performances walk the line between melodramatic and realistic, with the actors clearly having a mastery of the language that they are performing. Every word lands like an exponential, compounding piece of drama that becomes incredibly exciting. The camerawork lands similarly to the work of Paul Greengrass or Damien Chazelle, where the documentary style accommodates the intensity rather than dispelling it. This mainly comes down to the fact that it feels intense and urgent, while not sacrificing the spatial geography of a given scene. It really is fantastic stuff.

The Rainbow Experiment is a revelation, a continually impressive ensemble piece allows all its given voices to inform on the theme in a way that seems nuanced, while never sacrificing the fire (no pun intended) at the center of the story. The fact that it holds its ground and becomes a wonderful, well, experiment makes it one of the unmissable films of the festival.

 

SLIFF 2018 – THE HALF BREED (1916) w/ Live Music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra Nov. 10th at Webster University


THE HALF BREED (1916) with live music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra will screen after the new documentary I, DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS Saturday at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The prgram starts at 7pm. Ticket information can be found HERE 


There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music! The Rats and People is a treasure and St. Louis is lucky to have them here. I’ve seen them perform with silent films several times, often at The St. Louis International Film Festival, and usually at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium and it’s always a stunning good time at the movies. You’ll have the chance to see them perform their magic this Saturday, November 10th when they premiere their new score for THE HALF BREED (1916)


During the peak of the silent era, the dashing Douglas Fairbanks was the first “King of Hollywood,” ruling the box office in a series of epic adventures — swashbuckling in “The Mark of Zorro,” dueling in “Robin Hood,” and soaring in “The Thief of Bagdad.” Using first-person narration — with the actor voiced by Peter Facinelli — “I, Douglas Fairbanks” deftly combines film clips and newsreel footage to tell the fascinating story of both Fairbanks and early Hollywood. French producer Martine Melloul participates in a Q&A. The documentary screens with the newly restored silent “The Half Breed.” The smiling swashbuckler Fairbanks starred in this Western melodrama written by Anita Loos and directed with flair by Allan Dwan. St. Louis’ Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra returns to SLIFF with an original score and live accompaniment.

From Roger Carpenter’s We Are Movie Geeks review of the Kino release of THE HALF BREED:

“As so often has happened over the years, silent films have been lost to time, or survive only in very poor or often incomplete prints.  Because these films weren’t thought of as “art” many were scrapped due to high storage costs, recycled for their silver content, or were destroyed by fire due to their high combustibility.  Others were resold to budget distribution companies, recut and retitled, and released as totally different films.  Thus was the fate of many Douglas Fairbanks movies from his time at Triangle Pictures.  The Half-Breed is a classic case in point.

Based upon a short story and rewritten for the screen by its author in collaboration with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes novelist and pioneering screenwriter Anita Loos, The Half-Breed tells the story of a baby abandoned by his white father and Native American mother and raised by an elderly man who lives deep in the woods.  The baby, named Lo (Douglas Fairbanks), comes to town when racist white men kick him out of his home because “Indians can’t own property in this county!”  At first he seems to experience kindness when a preacher invites him into church as an example of tolerance, but soon enough even the preacher exposes his own racist tendencies when Lo shows an interest in the preacher’s daughter.  Nellie (Jewel Carmen), is the pretty daughter with lots of suitors, including the local sheriff (Sam De Grasse) and an aristocratic young man called Jack Brace (George Beranger).  Things get testy as Nellie seems to choose the half-breed.

The Half-Breed is part western and part romantic drama. It’s interesting in that it seems to address racism head-on, as in the scene when the preacher uses Lo as a “stage prop” for his sermonizing on intolerance.  There is some irony as well, as in a scene where the sheriff remarks to Lo that, “Not all white men are the same,” to which Lo smiles, shakes his head, and walks away laughing, as if thinking to himself, “You’ve got that right, buster.”  Perhaps inevitably, though, the film exposes itself towards the end when Nellie chooses the white aristocrat and Lo engages with a Mexican girl, herself a half-breed.  Birds of a feather, and all that….

Perhaps as entertaining as the film itself is the story behind its restoration.  The film premiered in 1916 and flopped.  It was quickly sold off to another distribution company who recut the film and substituted dialogue cards, shortening it down to a two-reeler along the way.  The film was long known to exist in three different forms:  one in a 16 MM version at Lobster Films; one as a recut version in the Cinemateque Francais; and a terribly damaged and partial but seemingly original print in the Library of Congress, which was re-discovered in the 1970’s in an excavated swimming pool in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Painstakingly restored to as close to its original runtime and storyline, The Half-Breed premiered in 2013 at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

The film is not only important as an early example of a full-length Douglas Fairbanks movie, but many other important filmmakers worked alongside Fairbanks on this outing.  Aside from the aforementioned Anita Loos, The Half-Breed was produced by D.W. Griffith and directed by journeyman Allan Dwan, who has an astounding 407 directing credits to his name (easily half were one- or two-reelers in the early days of cinema).  Victor Fleming, of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz fame, shot the film, and there is even a brief appearance by Elmo Lincoln who would go on to fame and glory as the silver screen’s very first Tarzan.”

SLIFF 2018 Review – TRANSIT

TRANSIT screens at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival Thursday, Nov. 8 at 2:15pm and again Sunday, Nov. 11 at 3:00pm. Both screenings are at the Plaza Frontenac. Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

There’s a moment in the second act of Christian Petzold’s new film Transit that summarizes the strength of Petzold’s cinematic form. Georg (Frank Regowski), an immigrant who has fled to a new country, an impending occupation following him helps a young boy fix a radio. Once the radio is fixed a simple, yet longing, tune springs from it. Georg freezes and upon being asked by the little boy what the song is he recalls that it is one his mother sang him to sleep with.

There are many great, deeply personal things about Transit. The performances are beautiful and the rich colors of the frame create a world that is tangible to our touch. But on top of that, Petzold is working with metatextual tools that match our experience of the work with the characters. To put it simply, much like in Petzold’s masterpiece Pheonix, the theme is revealed through a song that means much more than just a song.

Said theme has to do with the things that must be sacrificed in order to survive: whether or not be love, our conceptions of love, or more straightforwardly the past that we thought was ours. Georg can only experience the song through the lens of the past, and we, as an audience can only experience the song/the moment through the lens of the films we’ve seen. Petzold smartly has the song sound like the famous, “The Little Organ Book: Ich Ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ – BWV 639,” by Johann Sabastian Bach, a song most famously used in Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterful Solaris. That film lent itself to the emotional quality of existential malaise, a world caught in a slow-motion grinding forward and Bach’s piece held a quality that played into the theme of the work: when it was used, it was famously juxtaposed against Pier Brugal’s “The Hunters in the Snow,” a tableau of hunters returning home after a long winter. In Solaris, the juxtaposition of imagery was used to accentuate the sadness in the inability to return to a previous time or place. In Transit the illusion is used, similarly, to accentuate not only Georg’s ultimate goal of simply finding peace, but also to accentuate the deep suffering that is found when you must leave home, never to return.

It is that kind of detail that makes Transit such an exciting experience as it plays out in front of you. What is, on the surface, the story of a young man attempting to escape the horrors of a regime becomes deeply personal once the details are deconstructed before you. That should be more than enough reason to want to see it.

SLIFF 2018 Review – ZAMA

ZAMA screens Tuesday November 6th at 9m and again Friday November 9th at 9:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at the Plaza Frontenac Theater. Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

Lucrecia Martel’s Zama is the type of comedy that is found in the details. There’s a particular one, that always got me every single time I saw it. As Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a powerful yet pitiful member of a Spanish colonial government, goes into every house he must, he must brush the poop off his shoes that he picked up while walking there. Not only is the movement within the frame objectively funny, there is a whipping motion to it that comes off of like a child who won’t get his candy back, it’s a joke baked into the very theme of the movie. No matter how dignified these men think that they are, they still will be knee deep in poop…and there’s more where that came from.

Zama plays like somebody made an intentionally funny version of Aguirre: The Wrath of God by way of A Serious Man. Zama is a Spanish officer hoping to escape the land that he has conquered but in the process of this wait, continues to meet one bad thing after the other, whether it be an increasing illness or…well you’ll have to see.

The best comedy knows that the gags themselves must actually be meaningful in the face of the theme of the movie, this one’s being that colonialism is ultimately a self-defeating prophecy. What’s so funny about Zama is just how subtle its sight jokes are but how much they actually mean to the work as a whole. As described before, Zama and his compatriots can never get their feet out of the poop, which on one hand creates a hilarious contrast with their “civil” personalities, but on the other hand, informs on the character. Even as Zama and the others keep hold of the colonialist province they are in, they aren’t rewarded for it but are rather presented with a hot, sickening, lifestyle. It makes one wonder even if Zama escaped his current province whether or not he’d really be greeted by anything more than poop.

Martel and her production designers have baked this idea into every single frame of the movie. There are so many one-off sight gags that the film can’t help but be amusing, but then there are the continuing gags that only build in their hilarity over time, such as the continuous squeak of the ever-present fans that must be pushed to fan off the Spanish officer.

On top of this, Daniel Giménez Cacho is absolutely hysterical as Zama. Cacho’s one-note throughout the entire film boils down to looking at the camera or the other characters with a face of stoicism, which either reads as him taking the biggest piss take in the world or just him trying to hold in tears. Both options highlight just how pathetic he actually is.

Zama may turn out being the funniest movie that I’ve seen all year and it is something you should see on the big screen if you get the chance. In any case, the film is available to rent on Video on Demand and on Blu-ray and it is more than worth checking out at home too.

SLIFF 2018 Review – MAPPLETHORPE

MAPPLETHORPE screens Monday Nov 5th at 8:15pm at the Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

While Ondi Timonir’s Mapplethorpe fails among many, many, facets including depicting the lifestyle that Robert Mapplethorpe lead as some type of problem to be solved, chalking up a relationship straight out of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul or Get Out as something to be valued, or even so not providing an overall thesis on the man’s life itself, the film does manage to capture a certain excitement when it comes to the living of his life. There’s a sense of openness, of freedom, to stand in his shoes and think the way that he thought. A certain surface veneer to looking at a beautiful photograph of raw cathartic energy and luxuriating in it.

A film following the life of Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer of excess that made his name on genitals and flowers, was always going to be excessive and it is in the excessive depiction of excessive creation that the film is at its strongest. Photography is a brutal, grinding, sweaty process of setting up lights and losing your mind in order to create a perfect image. An image that will move people…or not. Of course, some would just say that Mapplethorpe’s work is that of a masculine id, a display of genitals and flowers that can only bolster the surface level excitement that is spurred on from the meer image of beauty. That is what it often feels like to watch Mapplethorpe: a chance to wallow in surface level excitement.

The performances here are functional, if not necessarily comfortable. Matt Smith seems obviously exasperated by a role that’s all about excess and everyone around him gives off that vibe, except Marriane Réndon, who seems snug and comfortable in her role as Patti Smith. The stability shown in that performance may speak to the film’s biggest problem, but it’s a great performance all the same.

Mapplethorpe may not be the best film you see at this year’s festival, but there are still reasons for it to be explored. The energy of the piece is infectious and the way the performances support that energy is fantastic and on top of all that you also get to look at Mapplethorpe’s incredible photography.