Volunteering at the 2018 SLIFF

This past week, I did four volunteer shifts at the 27th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) (https://www.cinemastlouis.org/about-festival), which ends tonight. The first of those shifts was one week ago today (4 November) at Brown Hall on the Washington University (https://wustl.edu/) campus. I helped to hand out festival program, fan ballots, and festival patron surveys. The latter two items were collected after the film. That day, I saw two documentary features. First was "Letter from Masanjia," about an Oregon woman's discovery in some Chinese-made decorations she bought of a letter from a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp. This story soon went viral and China soon closed its labor camps. The film interviewed the prisoner who wrote the letter and follows his quest for freedom. Leon Lee, the director of "Letter from Masanjia," was present and spoke to the audience before and after the film.

Then, the documentary "Time for Ilhan" was screened. It told the story of Minneapolis, Minnesota resident Ilhan Omar's successful 2016 campaign for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. She became the first Somali-American and Muslim-American woman elected to office. (Last Tuesday, Omar was elected to the US House of Representatives.) Norah Shapiro, director of this film, spoke before and after it was screened.

Wednesday night (7 November), after my off day from work, I headed to .ZACK (http://www.kranzbergartsfoundation.org/zack/) in the Grant Center Arts District (http://www.grandcenter.org) of Midtown St. Louis for my second shift. That night--after helping hand out ballots and surveys--I saw the narrative short film "Ashlock," which employed dance to help tell the true story of a troubled marriage in Missouri's Old Lead Belt. Then, it was the documentary feature "Bisbee '17." This told of how residents of Bisbee, Arizona--a small old mining town near the Mexican border--reinacted the Bisbee Deportation of 1917, in which 1200 immigrant miners were forcibly removed from town by a deputized force. The miners were put on cattle cars, sent to the New Mexico desert, and left to die. It was unusual for a documentary, in that there was no historic film of the Deportation used. The story was mainly told by the reinactors, several of whom were descendants of both the deported and the deporting force. Rather interesting. The film's director, Robert Greene, was present and spoke before and after the film.

After work on Friday night (9 November), I arrived at Plaza Frontenac Cinema (https://www.landmarktheatres.com/st-louis/plaza-frontenac-cinema) for my next shift. Myself and other volunteers were stationed outside the two auditoriums of the six-screen facility where SLIFF films were playing. After passing out ballots and surveys, I went inside one auditorium to see the Hungarian film "Eternal Winter" ("Orok tel"). This was based on the true story of Hungarian women of German origin who were seized by Soviet troops late in World War II and sent to labor camps in the Soviet Union and working in coal mines. A depressing tale for sure, but fascinating in seeing how one woman seeks to stay alive in the camp and mine with the help of a fellow internee.

Late this morning, I drove to The Stage at KDHX (http://kdhx.org/articles/16-inside-kdhx/964-the-stage-at-kdhx) in the Grand Center Arts District for my final volunteer shift of this year's SLIFF. The venue hosted a conversation with six directors making their first feature films. This event was part of the festival's New Filmmakers Forum (NFF), which includes five feature films (one co-directed by two people). Panelists and guests enjoyed free coffee and pastries before the filmmakers discussed their films and filmmaking in general. It was quite an interesting discussion, I thought.

After my shift ended, I treated myself to a light lunch of soup and ice cream at The Fountain on Locust (http://www.fountainonlocust.com/) before going home. SLIFF concludes tonight with the awards ceremony.

Later