Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine
Marion Cajori & Amei Wallach, U.S., 2008, 99 min.
Sunday, Nov. 23, noon, SLAM

“Louise Bourgeois” journeys inside the life and imagination of an icon of modern art. As a screen presence, Bourgeois is magnetic, mercurial and emotionally raw. There is no separation between her life as an artist and the memories and emotions that affect her every day. As an artist, Bourgeois has for six decades been at the forefront of successive new developments, but always on her own powerfully inventive and disquieting terms. At the age of 71, in 1982, she became the first woman to be honored with a major retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and in the decades since, she has created her most powerful and persuasive work. With co-director and art critic Wallach. Co-presented by the Saint Louis Art Museum

Martino Unstrung
Ian Knox, U.K., 2007, 82 min.
Sunday, Nov. 16, 9:30 p.m., Tivoli 3

Neuropsychologist and author Paul Broks travels America in search of the soul of legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino, who was brutally silenced by memory-stripping brain surgery to remove a tumor. Through the remarkable story of Martino’s difficult ascent from the depths of amnesia to the peak of artistry, Broks explores the nature of memory, self, creativity and the brain systems underlying personal identity, making some ground-breaking discoveries on the way. Filmed in the U.S. through 2006-07, the film features Les Paul, Carlos Santana, Pete Townshend, Joe Pesci, John Pattitucci, Delmar Brown and Red Holloway.

My Mother’s Garden
Cynthia Lester, U.S., 2008, 70 min.
Saturday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m., Webster

“My Mother’s Garden” follows the tortured path taken by 61-year-old Eugenia Lester, whose hoarding disorder has entered a dangerous and life-threatening stage. Although she lives on a quiet tree-lined street in Granada Hills, Calif., the only access to the house is through a window covered in ivy and cobwebs. Inside, every inch of the floor is covered by stacks of newspapers, piles of debris, clothing and toys – a living, rotting mass of waste that has literally pushed Lester out of the house and into her garden. Directed by her daughter, this moving personal documentary shows Lester’s children coming together – with a mix of humor, anger and skepticism – to cope with their mother’s disorder and to rebuild a lost sense of family. With director Lester.

Shown with
Severing the Soul (Barbara Klutinis, U.S., 2008, 18 min.), a disquieting film that examines frontal lobotomies, focusing on the infamous case involving Rosemary Kennedy, sister of JFK. With director Klutinis.

Number One With a Bullet
James Dziura, U.S., 2008, 90 min.
Sunday, Nov. 16, 4:30 p.m., Tivoli 1

This harrowing film explores the interrelationships between guns, poverty, drugs, hip-hop culture and cultural violence, a confluence of factors that have contributed significantly to the decimation of urban neighborhoods and a rising sense of nihilism throughout urban culture. Through fascinating interviews with record-company insiders, gun-shop owners, drug dealers, doctors, urban-community members and rap stars – including Ice Cube, KRS-One, 50 Cent, Mos Def, Prodigy and Young Buck – the film demonstrates how the music industry has been glorifying urban decay and violence for profit, while also contributing to an environment that has put many of rap’s best talents at risk. With director Dziura and producer Joshua Krause.

Of Time and the City
Terence Davies, U.K., 2008, 74 min.
Saturday, Nov. 15, 12:30 p.m., Tivoli 3

SLIFF alum Davies – widely regarded as one of Britain’s (and the world’s) greatest filmmakers – provides a love song and eulogy to his birthplace, Liverpool. The New York Sun describes “Of Time and the City” – which debuted to general acclaim at Cannes – as “an impeccably assembled scrapbook of archival footage, radio broadcasts, and pop and classical ditties, all served up with Mr. Davies’s intimate and impassioned narration.” As in his gorgeous and heart-rending memory films “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes,” Davies ruminates, with a deft mix of wit and melancholy, on growing up gay and Catholic in Liverpool, where movies and music (though not the rock made by fellow Liverpudlians the Beatles) provided imaginative escape from his repressive reality.

One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story
Thomas G. Miller, U.S., 2008, 80 min.
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 7:15 p.m., Tivoli 3

“One Bad Cat” creates a complex portrait of the Rev. Albert Wagner, an African-American outsider artist. A former sinner and womanizer who found God when he began painting at age 50, Wagner used art to explore his experiences growing up as an African-American in the racially divided South, his perception of the problems of black culture, and his own inner demons. Working from his home in an impoverished Cleveland neighborhood, Wagner achieved fame, but his controversial artwork sometimes railed against the lifestyles of members of the African-American community. Through interviews with the 82-year-old Wagner, family members, patrons and art critics, “One Bad Cat” explores why, during Wagner’s pursuit of salvation through his art, he created as many detractors as champions.

1000 Journals
Andrea Kreuzhage, U.S., 2007, 88 min.
Friday, Nov. 21, 9 p.m., Webster

“1000 Journals” follows a San Francisco artist, known only as Someguy, as he distributes 1,000 blank journals, leaving them on park benches, in shopping carts and any other place an unsuspecting person might discover one. Someguy hoped to have each journal filled out by people from all walks of life in any way they saw fit, with each journal to be mailed back to him once completed. As the journals pass from hand to hand, they are filled with art and writings from all 50 states and 35 countries, creating a cultural conversation between strangers that proves to be variously difficult, cathartic and inspiring.

Shown with
Push Button House (Ryan Silbert & Robert Profusek, U.S., 2008, 11 min.), a portrait of the pioneering Adam Kalkin, whose work attempts to strike a delicate balance between art and architecture; and Questions of Art (Zach Jankovic, U.S., 2008, 12 min.), a look at three sculptors that examines the artists’ differing thought processes and methods of creation.

Pageant
Ron Davis & Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut, U.S., 2008, 95 min.
Monday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m., Tivoli 1

Pageant takes the audience behind the scenes at the 34th Miss Gay America contest, in which 52 men compete for the crown as the premier female impersonator in the country. The movie – which Variety describes as “packed with glitter and backstage drama” – follows five of the contest’s most talented and beautiful female impersonators, and features stunning musical numbers and revealing interviews with the men, their family members and their lovers. With Miss Gay America 2009 Victoria DePaula.
Sponsored by QFest.

The Power of the Game
Michael Apted, U.S., 2007, 103 min., English, Farsi, French & Spanish
Sunday, Nov. 23, 3 p.m., Tivoli 1

“The Power of the Game” illuminates the conflicts and opportunities that face us as we transition toward a global community by showing how soccer knits the world together. Renowned filmmaker Apted – director of the epic documentary series “Seven Up!” and multiple Oscar nominees “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Gorillas in the Mist” – examines the social impact of soccer in the shadow of the 2006 World Cup. The film adroitly blends six separate storylines from teams and individuals in the U.S., Iran, Argentina, England, Senegal and South Africa, where the Cup will be hosted in 2010. Apted crafts a thought-provoking portrait of one of the world’s most popular sports. With director Apted, a Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.

A Powerful Noise
Tom Capello, U.S., 2008, 90 min., Bambara, French, Serbo-Croatian & Vietnamese

The three astonishing women featured in “A Powerful Noise” – an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam, a survivor of the Bosnian war and a community leader in the slums of Bamako, Mali – live in vastly different worlds, but they share something in common: power. These ordinary women overcome seemingly insurmountable gender barriers to rise up and claim a voice in their societies. Through their own empowerment, they empower others and spark unprecedented changes: fighting AIDS, educating girls, rebuilding communities. “Powerful Noise” takes the audience inside the lives of these women to witness their daily challenges and their significant victories over poverty and oppression. With director Capello.