November 13, 2007
SLIFF DAY 6
Day 6 brings another batch of fine films, including one that is highly recommened by the SLIFF staff, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
After a hiatus of over 25 years France's #1 spy is back. This time it's a total farce. Apparantly the OSS film series was huge in France back in the day. After a week of heady drama and angst galore a mindless cinematic escapade is in order. Plaza Frontenace 7 p.m.
Fans of Japanese film have two choices this evening.
"Rainbow Song" is a tale of lost love. "Big Dreams Little Tokyo" is an off kilter American-Japanese comedy that touches on tehmes of global identity and cross cultural relations.
Rainbow Song
The death of a close friend has devastating effects on the meek Tomoya. This stirring film about friendship, love and loss features some of Japan's biggest up and coming actors. "Rainbow Song" was honored with a Hochi (the Japanese Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress in 2006. 9:30pm, Plaza Frontenac.
Big Dreams Little Tokyo
The plot of this film reminds me of an Adrian Tomine "Optic Nerve" comic.
"Big Dreams Little Tokyo" is the story of two roommates, Boyd and Jerome who are both dealing with aspects of Japanese culture in their daily lives. Boyd wants to make an impact in Japanese business world while Jerome, a Japanese American, struggles with his identity. A wannabee sumo, Jerome feels he doesn't identify strongly with either culture. Co-star Jayson Watabe will be on hand to talk about the film and field questions.
SHORTS!
Fans of short films are jumping for joy with three great programs today. First is "Global Lens Shorts" at 2:15pm at Frontenac featuring shorts from all over the world. At 5pm there is the "St. Louis Filmmaker Shorts" presentation featuring the best shorts from STL's own filmmakers. Then there is the "Shorts Program 4" which unleashes the festival's first batch of animated shorts at 9:30pm at the Tivoli
Seeing the shorts is really a fun thing! I enjoy them because you really get a feel for the rawness of filmmaking. It also is an extremely creative medium to watch onscreen.
Each year SLIFF goes out of its way to offer a great collection of short films. For 2007 they have upped the anti with great results adding more shorts programming.
Shorts are perfect films to take someone to who may not know a lot about film or who someone who may not want to see something foreign or a documentary.
Shorts curator Mark Bielik worked long and hard to get the best shorts he could find from around the world and from this years STL Filmmakers Showcase. It really is an impressive program.
If you have not ventured to a film yet make an effort to do so. There's a lot of cool stuff happening! Plus the Festival is getting less stuffy and much more younger and cooler with each year.
But no matter what you like in film please come out and support the hard working film actors, filmmakers and crews in town who struggle to make their artform each day. There are several local films and shorts offered this year so get out and give the love to your comrades in the trenches who are making interesting movies!