’12 SLIFF BUZZ – What You Might Have Missed

The St. Louis International Film Festival is rounding up; as always an amazing round-up of jewels from all around the world… I wish I could have found the time to write individual longer reviews this year.
Below, based on what I was able to watch, my own highlights…

FICTION:

Soog/Mourning (Iran) – Unfortunately not everyone’s taste but for those who are somewhat adventurous, a unique exploration in sound and picture. Besides a journey to Iran, you get to enter the subculture of deaf people and to appreciate what one takes for granted (and is deadened to). Just the right level of precarious balance…  A+

Shun Li and the Poet/La Petite Venise (Italy/France) – Be a foreigner, be a poet, be exploited, and confront common prejudice… What else could fray one’s connection to life? An unstable balance is established in all of its fragility, and as delicate as it is, that reality is caught on film. A+

Guilty/Présumé Coupable (France) – Unfortunately nightmares do take place in real life. Based on actual events taking us into a man’s lonely descent into hell, following some “reasonable arguments” made by the authorities and the voice of justice. There is nothing to digest in this film, except to tremble at what can and does take place. May remind you to check out once more the Innocence Project (which just exonerated someone in Missouri after 30 years in jail). A+

War Witch/Rebelle (Canada) – Such a vivid sense of being in the midst of a fourteen year old African girl’s nightmare, one would assume one is watching a documentary. The acting and the camera work is beyond words. It corresponds (like “Guilty”) to the whirlwind surrounding one’s loss of control of one’s life. An edifying homage to all child soldiers everywhere. A+

DOCUMENTARIES:

Stories From an Undeclared War (US) – The true story behind the Freedom Writers Hollywood film… A gutsy teacher, Erin Grunwell, does not take neglect and despair for granted when she starts teaching in a Long Beach, California, high-school. By sticking by her students for four years, together they produce the best selling book, The Freedom Writers Diary. Practically alone in her vision, and against all odds, she gives her students the hope to make entering college a reality. Her successful efforts ultimately turn into the Freedom Writers Foundation, which has helped, and continues to help, thousands of students and teachers.  A+

The Invisible Men (Israel) – The face of courage… each man risks his life by being featured in this documentary about Palestinian homosexuals who enter illegally into Israel to escape a near death in Palestine. The scars are all too visible, the urgency of the problem is clear: it is life or death, and  something needs to be done now. The film’s website.  A+

Worth your time too:
Fiction – The Rabbi’s Cat, Apartment in Athens, Le Havre,

Documentaries – Pelotero (mentioned elsewhere), Defiant Requiem, Second Execution of Romell Broom, Going Up the Stairs, Oma & Bella, We Women Warriors.