St. Louis International Film Festival presents you "Best-of-Fest"

Please join the SLIFF "Best-of-Fest", March 15, 16 & 17, 2002 at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. Ticket prices are $7.50 ($6.50 for "Friends of SLIFF" with valid ID card).  Call 314.454.0042 for more details or visit our website at www.sliff.org. This event is a co-presentation with the Webster University Film Series.

  
Friday, March 15, 7 p.m. 

SONG OF TIBET (Yixizhuoma) 
Mandarin and Tibetan with English subtitles

Winner of SLIFF 2001 Interfaith Award

Director: Fei Xie (China, 2000, 104 minutes)

A young Chinese woman returns to her native village to discover her 
grandfather on the verge of death. As she dutifully assists her grandmother 
in making the impending funerary arrangements, the old woman begins to 
share secrets from her own life and the three men she has loved during her long life. This gorgeous film is rich  with the beauty of the people and the complexity of the times.

 
Friday, March 15,  p.m. 

THE SPECIALS

SLIFF 2001 staff favorite written by former St. Louisan and prolific Hollywood screenwriter James Gunn, who also stars in the film

Director: Craig Mazin (USA, 2000, 82 min.) 

In this wild satire penned by St. Louis native James Gunn, the world is an alternative universe dominated by competing clans of superheroes. One of these groups, the Specials, rank so low in the pecking order of superhero teams that they get everyone else's lowest-level assignments. If they're not careful, the Specials could blow their lucrative, newly won deal to be turned into action figures.

Saturday, March 16, 8 p.m. 

The Tunnel (Der Tunnel) 

German with English subtitles

SLIFF 2001 double winner: Emerson Audience Choice Award for Best Feature and 
Landmark Theatres Audience Choice International Film Award

Director: Roland Suso Richter (Germany, 2001, 157 minutes)

Shortly after construction began on the Berlin Wall in August 1961, a group of friends unites to begin a dangerous, covert plan to dig a tunnel underneath the wall to save family members and other loved ones trapped in East Berlin. The team rents an abandoned factory near the wall and work in secret for more than nine long months. Oddly, the project was clandestinely funded by NBC News.
 
Sunday, March 17,  p.m. 

Acts of Worship

SLIFF 2001 STARZ! Superpak New Filmmakers Forum Award

Director: Rosemary Rodriguez (U.S.A, 2000, 94 minutes) 

This searing tale set on the mean streets of Manhattanıs Lower East Side deals with addiction, friendship, and the depths of suffering endured by the human psyche. The lives of two women  an up-and-coming black photographer and a desperate white junkie  seem to clearly define success and failure. They bond, and as layers of their personalities become exposed, so does the similarity of their private pain.
 
Sunday, March 17,  p.m. 

April is My Religion

SLIFF 2001 World Premiere, written and directed by St. Louisan Bill Boll

Director: Bill Boll (USA, year, 94 minutes) 

A coming-of-age story about a shy, nervous college freshman who believes himself to be devoid of free will. Coming from a sheltered suburban background, he is plunged into a hedonistic world of drugs and casual sex. When a crush rebuffs his advances, it 
accelerates his downward spiral and culminates in a desperate act that forces him to confront his own flaws, errors, and humanity.