Binge-Stream the Film Treasures Now! (SLIFF BUZZ 2020)

In spite of Covide-19, the St. Louis International Film Festival is still keeping its promise of excellence and allowing St. Louisans – and now for some films even the rest of the world – for the first time ever, to stream its cornucopia of international films (this year: 371 films from 63 countries)!

“The-window-to-the-world” festival, at a time when most of us have been for far too long confined to our homes, comes as a vital way to breathe in some of the complexity and richness that is still very much present; most films are at most a year old and so these are the freshest news.

Like most years I attempt the impossible task to preview/view them all… and nominate those that stand out as my “SLIFF BUZZ.”

Since most are viewable within the November 5-22 time-frame, this is a list in no particular order (except for the first two which are viewable anywhere in the world and are free!).

The films’ overview is viewable here.

• A Place to Breathe (refugees from Congo/Cambodia/Guatemala) – sponsored by the St. Louis International Institute – FREE.
• Opeka (Argentinian “soccer-playing” Jesuit priest “changes world” in Madagascar) – FREE
• Transhood (teenagers grappling with gender issues) – not viewable outside MO (but it is an HBO film)
• Here We Are by Nir Bergman (the relationship between an autistic son and his father – that rare film that goes beyond words to embody some of Lévinas’ central ethical statements: As soon as the face of the other appears, I am obligated. – If one could possess, grasp, and know the other, it would not be other. – Only the one who recognizes the other’s face can impose a severe rule onto his own nature. – The relation to another is asymmetrical: I cannot expect any reciprocity. – Alterity and duality do not disappear in a love relationship. – The future is the other). Clearly for me the highlight of this festival.
  
• 9 to 5: The History of a Movement  by Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar, the Oscar winners’ new film about the movement that inspired Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton’s Hollywood film 9 to 5.
• The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts “The Tonight Show” by Yoruba Richen – A treasure trove and most timely document with Martin Luther King (joking!), Robert Kennedy, Petula Clark,Whoopi Goldberg and others! FREE – later available in the US through PeacockTV, its producer.
• There Is No Evil/Sheytan vojud nadarad by Mohammad Rasoulof (“the banality of evil”)
• The Crossing/Flukten over grensen by Johanne Helgeland (part of the Holocaust/Shoah in Norway as told, touchingly, for children).
• Asia by Ruthy Pribar, with an outstanding (but difficult) first film with Alena Yiv and Shira Haas of Unorthodox & Shtisel fame.
• Aggie by Catherine Gund (about the art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund behind Studio in a  School, Art for Justice Foundation, Criminal Justice Fund – “Without empathy there is no justice” — Darren Walker, President, Ford foundation).
• Wake Up by Nate Townsend (if it prevents even just one suicide!) – FREE
• Mayor by David Osit (the mayor of Ramallah in Palestine is unable to do much under the occupation).
• And I Was There by Eran Paz (extremely upsetting and disturbing) – FREE.

Unseen at this time but worthwhile gambles?: Aleksi by Barbara Vekari?, Buoyancy by Rodd Rathjen, City So Real by Oscar-nominated Steve James of Hoop Dreams fame (FREE), The Lesson by Elena Horn, Lost Lives by Michael Hewitt & Dermot Lavery,  Madre by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, MLK/FBI by Sam Pollard, The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi,  Nina Wu Directed by Midi Zhttps://cinemastlouis.org/sliff/nina-wu The Other by Charlotte Dauphin, Tall Tales by Attila Szász (of Eternal Winter fame),  The Taste of Pho by Mariko Bobrik, Thou Shalt Not Hate by Mauro Mancini with Vittorio Gassman’s son, Alessandro Gassman, Tommaso by Abel Ferrara with Willem Dafoe – and as always, many others could be fantastic like The Place That Makes Us, Unapologetic, Women in Blue, Xrossing, Zappa… (don’t forget the great many shorts!).