This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 18, 2011 - NOV. 19
Andrew Bird: Fever Year
Directed by Xan Aranda
80 minutes | U.S.
8:30 p.m. Nov. 19, Moore Auditorium, Webster University
The 30-something musician Andrew Bird, composer, singer, violinist, guitarist and whistler - he does lots of whistling, surprisingly in tune - is frequently (and aptly) compared to David Byrne, although his music is more rooted in the folk-rock tradition. Bird's other influences range from early jazz - he has recorded with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band - to Bela Bartok, and one thing that makes his music interesting is that you can never be sure where a song is going next. But the predominant mood is one of melancholy.
"Andrew Bird: Fever Year" is a well-assembled collage of about a year of touring during which the musician, prone to chills and fever, performed with a small group in 155 venues, including the Pageant in St. Louis. The music is unusually rich in texture, in part because of Bird's use of electronic looping to provide counterpoint to the live vocal and instrumental performances.
- Reviewed by Harper Barnes | special to the Beacon
Bob And The Monster
Directed by Keirda Bahruth
85 minutes | U.S.
9 p.m. at Tivoli
Bob Forrest was the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based indy punk band, Thelonious Monster from the mid-1980s until the band split apart in the early '90s. Although Forrest and the group gained considerable critical acclaim for their wildly uninhibited and alcohol and drug-fueled performances, the group eventually disintegrated because of Forrest's heroin addition.
Forrest finally was able to kick his drug addiction and has since become focused on his commitment as a dedicated counselor focused on helping other musicians overcome addition. Bayruth's documentary - filmed over a six-year time frame, follows Forrest's current work as a counselor. But the director also incorporates archival film of Thelonious Monster's performances as well as live concert footage by other LA bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Fishbone and other bands from the '80s LA scene.
Bayruth also incorporates animated sequences depicting Forrest's heroin use, as well as interviews with musicians such as Courtney Love, Chile Pepper's members Flea, Anthony Kiedus and John Frusciante, as well as many other musicians from Thelonious Monster, Fishbone and other LA bands. The result is more than a portrait of Forrest's evolution from drug addict to drug counselor. Much of the film becomes an inside look at a particularly creative and exhilarating era in LA music.
For alt rock fans, the performance footage and comments by various musicians will be worth the price of admission. But the remarkable transformation of Bob Forrest from a junkie at the edge of death into a life-affirming, positive role model for other addicted musicians is compelling told - and deeply inspiring.
- Review by Terry Perkings | Special to the Beacon
Find Sunday previews under the Saturday schedule
Tivoli
Poco's Rusty Young & Jack Sundrud 10 a.m.
My Comic Shop Documentary 1:15 p.m.
Carol Channing 1 p.m.
Shorts 9: Animated 2 3:30 p.m.
Karaoke Man 4 p.m.
Happy 6 p.m.
Butter 6:30 p.m.
Turbine 8 p.m.
Bob and the Monster 9 p.m.
The Man in the Maze 10:30 p.m.
Plaza Frontenac
Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy 1 p.m.
Happy New Year 1:15 p.m.
The White Meadows 3 p.m.
Film Socialisme 3:30 p.m.
The Woman in the Fifth 5 p.m.
The Fairy 6 p.m.
The Salt of Life 7 p.m.
Sacrifice 8:15 p.m.
Shorts 10: Animated 3 9 p.m.
Washington University
Quest for Zhu noon
Weston Woods Animation Sampler 2 p.m.
Circus Dreams 4:30 p.m.
Snowmen 7 p.m.
Webster University
CinemaSpoke: Marksman of Death 1 p.m.
The Man Nobody Knew 3 p.m.
Kevin 6 p.m.
Andrew Bird: Fever Year 8:30 p.m.
NOV. 20
These Amazing Shadows
Directed by Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton
88 minutes | U.S.
1 p.m., Moore Auditorium Webster University
The National Film Registry, established in the 1980s in response to the "colorization" of black and white films as well as the rapid deterioration of film stock, was charged by Congress with preserving films that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." The commendably broad mission has resulted in the preservation of films as different as "Citizen Kane" and "Gus Visser and His Singing Duck," a 1925 test of sound techniques.
"These Amazing Shadows" shows clips from dozens of the preserved films, many familiar, some obscure. Filmmakers, archivists and critics tell us why the movies were selected for preservation.
Extra treats for film buffs include a fascinating reconstruction of erotically charged scenes cut out of the 1933 Barbara Stanwyck movie "Baby Face." The documentary is informative and highly entertaining. I have one complaint. Some of the images in the 1956 John Ford Western "The Searchers" can be seen as racist towards native Americans, as the documentary states, but the complex movie can also be viewed as a repudiation of the racial stereotypes common in earlier Ford Westerns.
-- Reviewed by Harper Barnes | Special to the Beacon
Brick By Chance And Fortune: A St. Louis Story
Directed by Bill Streeter
70 minutes | U.S.
4 p.m. at Plaza Frontenac
It doesn't take long for visitors to St. Louis, particularly those from cities west of here, to notice that an inordinate amount of the city is made of brick. The explanation I have always heard was that wealthy local brick moguls in the 19th century pressured (and bribed) politicians into passing fire-prevention laws that made it almost obligatory to build with brick.
According to the historians and architects who speak in Bill Streeter's well-wrought "Brick by Chance and Fortune," such laws did exist, but the original reason so much of St. Louis was made of brick was that the city was blessed with extensive deposits of clay. At first, the clay came from pits scattered through the city, and the bricks were hand-made near the building site. Later, the clay came from quarries, at least one of which was still operating in the latter half of the 20th century, and the bricks were manufactured by such nationally prominent firms as the Hydraulic Press-Brick Co. at Manchester and Kingshighway.
"Brick by Chance and Fortune" tells the story well, illustrating changes in structure and design over the decades by showing us hundreds of buildings - and details of buildings - throughout the city. There is also an interesting and sad segment on the masonry thieves who are hauling much of our heritage away, brick by brick.
- Reviewed by Harper Barnes | Special to the Beacon
Holy Wars
Directed by Stephen Marshall
82 minutes/U.S.
5 p.m. at Moore Auditorium Webster University
For his documentary, "Holy Wars." Filmmaker Stephen Marshall spent four years following the paths of two religious fundamentalists - a Christian missionary from a small town in eastern Missouri and an Irish-born Muslim convert who lives in London. In the beginning, both men seem to believe that the holy scripture of their religions make a holy war inevitable. Both call people of the other religion "terrorists."
The men travel to Muslim countries, one looking for converts, the other for a spiritual homeland. And finally Marshall brings them together. They argue passionately for their own points of view. Neither loses his evangelical zeal, but one is changed by the argument. The movie is suspenseful, emotionally and intellectually complex and deeply humanistic.
- Reviewed by Harper Barnes | Special to the Beacon
Shorts Program 13: Animation 4: Absurd
109 minutes
8 p.m. Nov. 20 | Moore Auditorium, Webster University
My favorite of this year's many animation-shorts programs. Oddly, all 12 of these movies are funny, which some of the other animation programs are not. I can't even pick a favorite because all these are just good fun. Well, one ("Heavy Heads") is maybe obscene, but you'll really have to watch pretty carefully to notice what no child would understand anyway.
These films range from goofy cool to utterly baffling and include parables about war, sex, industry, tears and rain, shopping, art, the Loch Ness monster and (apparently) an update on the myth of Sisyphus. Plus one about tongues ("The Tongueling") that is just weeeird.
-- Reviewed by Nick Otten | special to the Beacon
Shorts Program 12: Sci-fi
118 minutes*
9 p.m. Nov. 20 | Tivoli
The sweetest surprise of the festival. I doubt I will ever see a better set of science fiction shorts -- not a bad one in the whole program. A few are even cute, which is a word I seldom use to describe a movie in a positive sense.
Every serious science fiction fan knows that the abbreviation of choice is 'sf' and not 'sci-fi' -- so the title of this program did not automatically seem promising. But if you love science fiction, I'd say, Do not skip this program.
You may be one of the happy few in the audience, too, because the program is scheduled for one hour after the closing awards ceremony for the festival. Too bad, because this set of sf movies is a winner.
* "Time Freak" was left out of the set I previewed, though listed in the festival schedule.
-- Reviewed by Nick Otten | special to the Beacon
Free children's films
Weston Woods Animation Sampler
2 p.m. Nov. 19, Washington U. | Brown, 90 minutes
The quietest and simplest of the Children's Showcase programs is this assortment of ten cartoon shorts, which tend to be easy-going versions of children's books, including "Where the Wild Things Are" and "The Man who Walked Between the Tower," with the original pictures slowly animated and the original texts narrated. The kid-cartoon equivalent of easy-listening music.
Circus Dreams
(Signe Taylor, 2011, 80 minutes)
4:30 p.m. Nov. 19 | Brown, Washington University
This movie is surely the most inspiring children's movie of the festival. But beware -- if your children already want to run away to the circus, this movie will intensify their desire.
If you've ever been to or worked at a summer camp that is such intense, happy fun that everybody cries on the last day, think about this: A summer circus of teenagers that goes for 10 weeks and tours all over New England with 27 troupers, 45 adults and 22 vehicles, to put on 70 shows.
In the first three weeks of rehearsals and training, they learn tumbling, juggling, aerial routines and clowning. They put up with problems ranging from a case of accidental food poisoning to some days of 100-degree heat. They are trained by professional circus aerialists, Olympic coaches, champion gymnasts and world champion jugglers.
If you can watch this documentary story of a real traveling circus without finally realizing that teenagers and their abilities are often grotesquely underestimated, then I recommend you stay away from kids altogether. And just remember, the kids in the audience will want to join up themselves.
Eleanor's Secret
(Dominique Monfery, France, 2009, 80 minutes)
1:30 p.m. Nov. 20, Washington U. / Brown
First, you'll be glad to know the movie is in English, so neither the kids nor the adults need to read subtitles. The charming story of a little brother and sister teaches the important lesson that books are full of life, and riches are hidden in unlikely places -- if only we know to look.
The story describes two children at their late Aunt Eleanor's empty home by the seashore. She has left them an entire library of old books (that all turn out to be originals) and a single doll (that happens to hold actual riches). The children's adventures take them in and out of books, transformations,and all the usual cartoon surprises. Viewers will also recognize dozens of their favorite book characters going in and out of the books in the story.
Schedule
Tivoli
Our Newspaper noon
The Ugly Duckling noon
Passione 1:30 p.m.
Stranger Things 2:15 p.m.
>El Bulli 3:30 p.m.
Lord Byron 4 p.m.
The Descendants 6 p.m.
Shuffle 6:30 p.m.
House on Haunted Hill 8:30 p.m.
Shorts 12: Sci-Fi 9 p.m.
Plaza Frontenac
Quill 1 p.m.
Song of the Lodz Ghetto 1:30 p.m.
Gainsbourg 3:30 p.m.
Brick by Chance and Fortune 4 p.m.
The Athlete 6:15 p.m.
The Salt of Life 6:30 p.m.
Shorts 11: Absurd 8:15 p.m.
Film Socialisme 8:30 p.m.
Washington University
A Cat in Paris noon
Eleanor's Secret 1:30
Aurelie LaFlamme's Diary 3:30 p.m.
Tomorrow Will be Better 6 p.m.
Webster University
These Amazing Shadows 1 p.m.
Hell and Back Again 3 p.m.
Holy Wars 5 p.m.
Shorts 13: Animated 4 8 p.m.