Tag: st. louis

2026 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival Runs March 15 – 26

The annual St. Louis Jewish Film Festival returns, Mar. 15-26, 2026, bursting with moving documentaries, gripping historical, thriller or romantic dramas, dramedies and comedies from around the globe, all with Jewish themes. This year’s film fest includes major releases such as NUREMBERG, ELEANOR THE GREAT, the new historical thriller VINDICTA, and documentary ELIE WIESEL: SOUL ON FIRE , a new, more personal look at Elie Wiesel, the famous author of the bestselling “Night” about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp and Nobel Peace Prize-winning tireless human rights advocate who fought for the idea that the world should “never forget” the Holocaust.

John Wilson, the Director of Cultural Arts at the Jewish Community Center of St. Louis, which puts on the festival, described it as “a fantastic tapestry of documentaries, dramas and comedies.” As always, this is an international film festival and not just for the Jewish community but all audiences, non-Jewish and Jewish. “[The festival selection committee] watches nearly 80 films a year, so when we get to the final 12, our committee truly feels like we’re offering our community 6 full days of stellar cinema,” Wilson said.

Many of the selections fit in well with an aim of cultural outreach as well as offering top-notch films for the Jewish community. One example is ELEANOR THE GREAT (Mar. 26, 7pm), the drama starring June Squibb that is the directorial debut of Scarlet Johansson, and is about gray areas of identity and representation. Another example is THE PIANIST’S CHOICE (Mar. 22, 3pm), a gripping epic, romantic French drama that spans the 1920s to the post-war 1940s, told through the experiences of a non-Jewish musician in love with a Jewish woman.

Yet another example is the Opening Night film at the SLJFF, which is NUREMBERG (Mar. 15, 7pm), which stars Russell Crowe as Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels and Rami Malek as a Nuremberg war crimes trial-assigned psychiatrist, who is charged with keeping the Nazi prisoner fit for trial but who becomes embroiled in a tense game of cat-and-mouse with Goebbels. This fascinating historical drama also stars Michael Shannon as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice turned war crimes prosecutor.

The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival begins Mar. 15, with two film programs and an opening day buffet provided to ticket-holders for either film, NUREMBERG at 7pm, or FOR THE LIVING at 3pm, a documentary about a group of cyclists retracing a Holocaust survivor’s journey after being liberated from Auschwitz to his hometown of Krakow, Poland.

All films are shown at the B&B Theatre West Olive in Creve Coeur, MO, with one film making its St. Louis debut, VINDICTA, getting an additional preview screening at the St. Louis’ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema City Foundry, in midtown St. Louis. VINDICTA is an American-made thriller-like historical drama, inspired by several true stories, about a young Jewish woman who witnesses the murder of her parents by a Nazi officer, but escapes and assumes a new identity, where she embarks on a campaign of vengeance.

The festival runs Mar. 15-26 but not every night, so check their schedule online at www.stljewishfilmfestival.org for screening dates, showtimes and films, as well as ticket information. Several of the films come with guest speakers or Q&A post-film discussions to spark meaningful conversation and deepen connections with the film’s topics. Many of the films are in English but those in other languages are all subtitled in English. The films are paired together with themes, such as “Memory and Moral Reckoning” or “Faith, Family and Finding Yourself.”

A few more festival highlights include the very funny biographical dramedy ONCE UPON MY MOTHER, about a man born with a club foot who is raised by his Moroccan Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents in Paris, focusing especially on his unpredictable, fiercely-supportive, offbeat mother. Documentary highlights include ELIE WIESEL: SOUL ON FIRE, a more personal documentary about the world-famous man who worked tirelessly to ensure what happened in the Holocaust would never be forgotten, a documentary that goes beyond his work to examine the man himself. ETHAN BLOOM is a light, farcical coming-of-age comedy about a Jewish boy in the cusp of turning 13 who is supposed to be preparing for his bat mitzvah but is also secretly exploring Christian beliefs at a local church.

More information about the 2026 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, with all the films as well as showtimes and ticket information, can be found at their website www.stljewishfilmfestival.org.

June Squibb in Scarlet Johansson’s ELEANOR THE GREAT. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION Documentary – Review

Many St. Louisans who know a bit of Civil Rights history, Percy Green is known as the man who climbed the Arch, when it was partly built, to protest the lack of minority hiring by the company that was building it. As the 60th anniversary of the St. Louis Arch approaches, it is the perfect time for PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION, the documentary the local legend by Joseph Puleo, which airs on PBS Nine on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 at 7pm.

But there is much more to this Civil Rights activist – icon, actually – than that one spectacular protest, as you will learn in this insightful, engrossing documentary. Now 90 years old, Percy Green is still committed to Civil Rights, and worked with documentary filmmaker Joseph Puleo in the making of this first-rate, inspiring documentary. PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION delves into Green’s life and work, and the Civil Rights movement generally, offering insights and information through archival stills, footage and interviews, as well as some excellent animated sequences.

For one, Percy Green participated in one of the earliest Civil Rights actions in the country, the groundbreaking Jefferson Bank protest in 1963, where protesters didn’t just march but laid in the street to block trucks as part of their non-violent resistance. Green is truly a man of action, which is what he named the Civil Rights organization he founded, ACTION.

Joseph Puleo’s film PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION is skillfully-made, both informative and enjoyable, spotlighting a local hero of the Civil Rights whose name and actions should be known by all. Puleo’s previous documentaries include 2020’s AMERICA’S LAST LITTLE ITALY: THE HILL, about St. Louis’ Hill neighborhood, 2022’s A NEW HOME, about the Bosnian War refugees who settled in St. Louis and transformed the area around Bevo Mill, and the filmmakers has won awards for this work, including a Mid-America Emmy for Best Documentary – Cultural for the latter one. He is currently working on another documentary, BROTHERS IN BLOOD: BALCK IN VIETNAM.

The other big action Percy Green was famous for was the “unveiling” of the Veiled Prophet, an invented pseudo-Middle-Eastern figure, created by an old restricted, whites-only social organization of wealthy and powerful St. Louis “old family” elites, a club that dated back to at least the 19th century. The role of the Veiled Prophet was played by a top-ranking member of this segregated club, whose identity was kept secret, and in that role, presided over a parade and then a debutantes ball. Green didn’t do the un-veiling but he organized that action, which drew attention to this segregated organization.

The documentary personalizes the stories as it tells them, and recounts Civil Rights history, and Percy Green’s history, that should be much better known, not just in St. Louis. The documentary highlights the efforts of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover to attack Green and ACTION, and leaves us with a feeling of uplift and inspiration to see a good man who could not be kept down, and who gave so much to the Civil Rights movement and this country.

Do not must this stirring documentary about a local Civil Rights hero, but if you do, hopefully it will become available through PBS’s Passport streaming service.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

Percy Green in PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION

Superman Soars Above The St. Louis Arch In Celebration Of The 4th Of July In Spectacular Drone Display

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! All of St. Louis turned out downtown at The Arch to celebrate Independence Day with the Man of Steel.

From the Daily Planet to Krypto to the Fortress of Solitude, St Louis was treated to a dazzling drone display that was out of this world as fans cheered on Big Blue!

Check out the amazing show below.

Celebrate Saint Louis partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures to create the vibrant drone show, designed by Fantasy Drone Shows, with 400 drones and 11 images to promote the anticipated release of DC Studios’ hugely anticipated new film SUPERMAN set to release in theaters on July 11, 2025. The drone show took to the skies prior to the annual tradition of fireworks.

St. Louis fans were able to celebrate hometown hero, director James Gunn, and his highly anticipated SUPERMAN… leaving all of St. Louis saying… LOOK UP!

Written, directed and produced by St. Louis’ own James Gunn and starring David Corenswet in the titular role, the all-new epic action adventure film SUPERMAN will be releasing only in theaters and IMAX nationwide on July 11th. “Superman,” DC Studios’ first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.

“Celebrate Saint Louis has always been a hometown tradition—and this year, we’re proud to bring exciting new experiences to the riverfront,” said Tim Meers, Chair of Celebrate Saint Louis. “We’re especially looking forward to honoring St. Louis native and filmmaker James Gunn with a Superman-themed drone show just ahead of the launch of his new Superman movie.”