San Antonio Weekend Film Fest Round-Up

It was a good week for film in San Antonio, especially for those interested in world cinema. No less than three festivals graced silver screens across the city, from the multiplex to the museum to the converted chapel.

The short subject is enjoying a welcome revival as of late, thanks to plunging camera prices and soaring download speeds, as well as theater owners who cater to this oft-overlooked fare like San Antonio’s John Santikos. And this week, all ten Academy-Award nominated short subjects (5 animated, 5 live action) are playing in 35 cities across the country. So, if you want to impress your friends with your cultivation at the neighborhood Oscar-viewing party, pay a visit to the Embassy theater before Sunday. Not to be missed are Pixar’s Lifted, about a space alien’s comic attempts to master the subtle art of Earthling abduction, the UNICEF-produced Binta y La Gran Idea, about a villager in Senagal who has an idea to change the world, and West Bank Story, a musical about the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Speaking of Israel, you might have been among the fortunate who caught the 6th Annual Jewish Film Fest, which screened this week at the San Antonio Museum of Art. It delivered a varied and intellectually-stimulating lineup, with highlights including Live and Become, about a black refugee child who must pretend he’s Jewish to flee Sudan, and What A Wonderful Place, a multi-threaded narrative set in Israel’s criminal world which movingly reveals its humanity.

And, being the well-informed cinemagoer you are, you surely dropped in on the Palestinian-themed “Uprooted Film Series” at the Esperanza Center to get both sides of the story. Championing the plight of all displaced peoples in the world, it sported no shortage of provocative and hard-to-find selections such as Reel Bad Arabs, a documentary arguing against racial stereotyping in Hollywood. Far from presenting a solely ethnocentric perspective, the programming choices reflected a mature level of self-criticality with films like The Olive Harvest, which beautifully casts the ongoing unrest over the disputed lands there as a tumultuous affair between brothers both in love with the same woman.

Rounding out the culturally-diverse motion picture experience across town at Sunset Station was the “Commerce of Culture” festival on Saturday at the Spire (formerly the Old St. Paul Church). In celebration of local Africa-American filmmakers, the main attraction was Spencer Williams’ Go Down Death. The 1944 classic was shot in San Antonio and co-produced and -directed by its star, Myra Davis Hemmings, a former Phyllis Wheatley High School teacher and charter member of Delta Sigma Theta’s local Alumnae Chapter, a public service sorority advancing women’s causes within the community. Also featured was Hope’s War, directed by San Antonio native Ya’ke Smith. The award-winning short, which also played the Cannes Film Festival, depicts a shell-shocked black serviceman’s struggle to assimilate back into society.

“If [kids] can be negatively influenced by the media, they can be positively influenced by the media,” stated Smith.

As Hollywood gears up to congratulate itself for another great year, it’s refreshing to be reminded of the effect that filmmakers who place their celluloid message over commerce can have on the open-minded San Antonian.
-Andy Gately