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While we may have written about this film festival a little earlier, we can’t emphasize enough how large the Filmgate Int’l Student Film Festival looms on our film-geek calendar.  Featuring films from around the world and in our own backyard, this 2nd annual film festival shows the best in student film work available, probably for the first and last time you’ll ever be able to see the films.  Our friends from the Webster Film & Video Society will be on hand to organize this start of the fall season in the Webster Film Series.

It all goes down this Friday-Sunday, August 17-19, with each 2+hour film programs starting at 8pm (except Sunday, which starts at 2pm).  Each film will be screened in the Winifred Moore Auditorium at Webster University, with tickets selling for only $4 (and cheaper rates for multi-day passes).  You can start exploring the films program schedule on the festival’s website, to help sort out which films you’re interested in seeing.  And after you view the films, you’ll be able to rate and review the films you watched and share them with your friends.

I am keenly aware that more than a couple readers might hear “student film” and run away.  But to be sure there would be films people actually want to see, I participated in a selection panel for the narrative film category (although there will be documentary and animation/experimental films as well).  Here’s a few mostly incoherent notes I managed to write about these films selected, for you to use/decipher (after the bump):

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Probably one of the greatest inside jokes between music and film fans ever is “The Rutles“, a 1978 mockumentary film about the biggest band from Liverpool.  It’s played in the Webster Film Series’ as part of Strange Brew, and now it’s available online (sort of).   We mention this because we hear a DVD copy is nearly an impossible find.

And sure this film has it’s fans and detractors, but those unfamiliar with the film at all might enjoy this review of the film’s last local screening (mentioned above).  Of course that review fails to mention the collaborative efforts of Eric Idle, the original SNL cast, and more than a couple musicians, all exhibited prominently through links within this video’s timeline.  Seriously, it’s worth a look, or else “get up and go, back home”

Just because the Webster Film Series is on break until August 17th, when it will host the Filmgate Int’l Student Film Festival, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on great films this weekend.  And speaking of taking a breaks, I’ll have to leave you to do a little research yourself this week since I am taking a holiday weekend.

Reel Late @ The Tivoli

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas @ midnight Friday & Saturday August 3-4th, and 10pm Sunday Audust 5th

Saint Louis Art Museum

• Utamaro and His Five Women @ 7 pm in the Auditorium on Friday, August 3rd

Unity Spiritual Movies

• Cool Hand Luke @ 7pm in Unity Christ Church on Friday August 3rd

Frontyard Features (40 Films/40 nights)

• U2 Concert(?) @ dusk in Soulard Market Park on Friday, August 3rd

Because you still crack a smirk, ash your mock cigar, and say “…that’s what she said”, the Webster Film Series’ Strange Brew presents Animal Crackers @ 8 pm in the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Strange Brew series here’s a short introduction I wrote about this series of cult films.  As for those of you unfamiliar with Animal Crackers, the WFS describes it thusly:

Captain Spaulding (Groucho Marx), the noted explorer, returns from Africa and attends a gala party held by Mrs. Rittenhouse (Margaret Dumont). A painting displayed at the party is stolen, and the Marx Brothers help recover it. Well, maybe ‘help’ isn’t quite the way to describe it… Typical Marx Brothers zaniness follows, including Groucho’s African lecture about shooting an elephant in his pajamas, a madcap card game between Harpo, Chico and great musical numbers like Hooray for Capt. Spaulding – which became Groucho’s theme song.

And don’t forget to check out Labyrinth @ the Tivoli, which closes Thursday night (check the Tivoli website for times).  My friend Dave insists that seeing the young Jennifer Connelly is worth the price of admission itself, but I’d put my money on David Bowie as the goblin king. Given Bowie’s history of terrible acting and the surrealistic muppet monsters, this film should leave you “screaming like a baby”.

Full confession: I cannot always attend every screening I recommend each week in this blog.  This is especially the case this week, as I am out of town on vacation (ie, I’ll settle for a 3rd generation of “Hairspray“).  But please don’t let that diminish my recommendations, which whole-heartedly reflect my interest as a collegiate educated film student.

Webster Film Series

• The Draughtman’s Contract @ 8PM Friday-Sunday July 20-22nd in the Winifred Moore Auditorium ($4-6)
  
  This story about a couple who split up on vacation intrigues me, not because I’m a jealous husband but because the wife uses the artist’s picture to try to solve the crime of her newly deceased husband. Of course these portraits were commissioned by the wife, who had to trade her womanly gifts as payment to the artist. Sounds like a James Joyce romance/mystery novel to me.

2007 St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase

• This is Lo-Fi Saint Louis @ 7-9 PM Saturday July 21st at the the Centene Center in St. Louis, MO ($8)
  
  Besides the fact that you should have already read about Cinema St. Louis’ local showcase, you really have no excuse not to check out LoFiSTL.com on the big screen. You already know the great work that the friendly Bill Streeter does in an altruistic sense for our local scene, but now you can ask him how - without ping lag for comments! But seriously, this is my last chance to suggest that you simply must check out these films, which will play throughout next week until Thursday July the 26th (check the schedule here)

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After yesterday’s post deatailing several upcoming Film Festivals in St. Louis, you’d think I’d have run out of film recomendations and just revel in Bastille Day’s glorious revolutionary zeal.  Au Contraire!  Indeed, I learned last week that forgetting to include a film might get someone beheaded.  With that in mind, please feel free to talk about the films you plan to see this weekend in the comments, so other readers might know about as many films they can put on their plate in the buffet line we call weekend box-office.

Webster Film Series

• Ghosts of Cité Soleil @ 8PM and 10PM on Friday, July 13th and 8PM Saturday+Sunday July 14-15th in the Winifred Moore Auditorium

  When WFS adds an extra showtime to film, you know it has to be something special. This documentary takes place in the namesake’s Haitian slum, which was then identified by the UN as the most dangerous place on earth, and only a few months before a coup took place there in 2004. Because the film follows two brothers who lead rival gangs, you can expect a tense film that offers a unique insight into a truly foreign culture of personal destruction and violence.

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They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but with apologies to Gabe, I can’t find any reason to post about the Iphone.  Instead since I assume everyone who wants one is busy watching the Transformers trailer on their’s, I’ll just have to resume posting a weekly compilation of films worth seeing this weekend.

Reel Late @ the Tivoli

• Back to the Future @ midnight Friday and Saturday July 6-7th, and 10pm of Sunday

The Reel Late midnight film series returns with the ultimate prequel to debut the season.  I could give you 88 reasons to bring a friend to this chilling docu-drama of a suburban dystopia in which terrorists trading suitcase nukes are narrowly evaded through the “Power of Love” (and time travel).  Go see this visionary film, some 22 years ahead of its time, before it begins to fade from the picture.

Special Exhibition Screening

• Napoleon (1927) @ 1 pm in the Saint Louis Art Museum Auditorium on Saturday, July 7th

Thanks to our friends at 52nd City for the tip, this special screening of this epic silent film is being shown as part of the ongoing exhibition “Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815“.  The film is a marathon tour de force of silent film at it’s most communicative visuals, and by marathon I mean the film is about 3 hours long.  So if you want to check out the exhibit (before the museum closes for the day, that is), try to make time before the film this Saturday.

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This is the weekend that Die Hard 4 comes out.  Oh I’m sorry, the film is called “Live Free or Die Hard“.  I believe it was General John Stark who originally coined the phrase “Death Is Not The Worst Of Evils…Now I know what a TV dinner feels like.”  But when I was talking to Hwy61’s own award-winning co-writer of “Franz Kafka: The Happiest Man in Happytown” Mr. Gabriel Bullard, he informed me that, “i have to see any cheesy action movie if the word “legacy” is used in more than one review”. Guess that means we won’t be waiting in line this weekend
Right then, so here are some film going recommendations you won’t see in the movie listings section of your newspaper this weekend.

Webster Film Series

• “Absolute Wilson” @ 8 pm in the Winifred Moore Auditorium Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, June 29-July 1st

According to the film series calendar, this documentary of experimental theater artists Robert Wilson is “More than a biography, the film becomes an exhilarating exploration of the transformative power of creativity itself”.  But if that doesn’t wet your appetite for documentary film, consider his fans Phillip Glass, David Byrne, and the late Susan Sontag who appear in the film as worth the price of admission itself. (more…)

We know readers of Highway 61 are a relatively media savvy bunch, but sometimes even our staff misses out on the local media scoop.  Case in point - the Gateway Media Literacy Partners, whose Media Literacy Education Week is well underway this week.  In fact even with the coinciding National Media Education Conference wrapping up this evening, we’ve been given a chance to catch up with the conference online.  Already podcasts of the NMEC keynote speakers have been made available, and you can catch many of the events and speeches for the rest of the week via a streaming video feed on their website.  Of course you’ll probably want to check their schedule of events to at least tune in on time if not actually attend.

Of course if you’d rather spend your evening offline, GMLP is sponsoring a FREE screening of “Network” in the Webster Film Series.  Starting this Tuesday June 26th @ 7 pm, you can catch this previously unscheduled screening of the prophetic 1976 film which envisions a future full sensationalistic television news, followed by a panel-led discussion.  Did we mention you can watch “Network” for free?  We know you like free things,  “So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs….” for the Howard Beale in all of us.

Meet El Topo, he roams the countryside on horseback, fighting bandits with his trusty six-shooter and naked child. Then, he roams the desert on horseback with his ex-nun girlfriend, dueling with gunslingers that have Godlike powers. Then, he shaves and becomes a street performer to help lead inbred cave-dwellers to a town of money and misdeeds.

That’s El Topo in a nutshell. I saw it Saturday at the Webster Film Series and still have no idea what it was about. All I can say is that if you haven’t seen it, add it to your Netflix queue this instant. Even if you don’t know what anything in the film means, it’s a trip to watch and you’ll soon know why John Lennon and Yoko Ono cited it as their favorite movie.

Also, there’s a bit of homo-eroticism and lesbian tension, so send the kids to bed early with their copy of Plastic Ono Band.