Music meets the Mob in this biographical documentary, narrated by the E Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt, about the life and career of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bert Berns, the most important ’60s songwriter and record producer whose name you’ve never... Read more
Music Spotlight
Sponsored by Nancy & Ken Kranzberg
Contemporary Color
Saturday, November 5 at 8:30pm
In “Contemporary Color,” 10 of the country’s elite color-guard teams — the flag-flipping, sequin-studded crème de la crème of the “sport of the arts” — sync-step with musical luminaries for a bacchanalia of beats, sabre-spinning, and glitter cannons. The organizer... Read more
Davi's Way
Sunday, November 6 at 4:00pm
Legendary character actor Robert Davi has appeared in more than 130 films, including beloved cult classic “The Goonies” — as the opera-singing villain — and Bond film “License to Kill.” Almost inevitably typecast as the bad guy because of his rugged looks, Davi... Read more
Destiny
Saturday, November 5 at 8:00pm
This new restoration of Fritz Lang’s “Destiny (Der müde Tod)” is a dizzying blend of German Romanticism, Orientalism, and Expressionism. The film marked a bold step for Lang, away from conventional melodrama and into the kind of high-concept filmmaking that would... Read more
Dream Factory
Saturday, November 5 at 6:30pm
Sunday, November 6 at 4:15pm
An all too common phenomenon in India, power outages constitute a nationwide crisis. Although only a village-school dropout, Ezhil (Arun Chidambaram) is determined to find a solution to the persistent electricity problem. His efforts take a dramatic turn when he... Read more
Feral Love
Friday, November 11 at 7:30pm
World-class violist Dorian Rence, who has performed with the New York Philharmonic for 40 years, has devoted her life to playing music, but she’s just as passionately committed to caring for a small colony of feral cats in the railroad tunnels of New York City.... Read more
Gary Numan: Android in La La Land
Friday, November 11 at 9:00pm
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, Gary Numan, the godfather of electronic pop music, took the sound of early electronica and fused it with an white-faced, black-eyed “android” alter ego, creating a unique sound and inspiring a legion of admiring Numanoids. Topping... Read more
Gypsy: Rock & Roll Nomads
Saturday, November 5 at 2:00pm
One of the bedrock bands on which KSHE built its foundation as a progressive-rock powerhouse, Gypsy has a long and deep relationship with St. Louis. Although the band never quite achieved widespread fame on the national level, the band became a KSHE favorite and... Read more
I Am the Blues
Friday, November 4 at 7:30pm
“I Am the Blues” celebrates the elder statesmen (and women) who continue to make music down in the Delta, from impromptu jams in living rooms to performances in grand concert halls. Embarking on a musical journey through the swamps of the Louisiana bayou, the juke... Read more
It's a Rockabilly World
Saturday, November 12 at 9:00pm
SLIFF alum Brent Huff (“Cat City”) — a native of Springfield, Mo., and a Mizzou grad — returns to the fest with a lively documentary on rockabilly, both the music and the burgeoning subculture that’s grown up around it. Performers such as relative newcomer Drake... Read more
Robert Shaw: Man of Many Voices
Wednesday, November 9 at 7:30pm
Largely self-taught, with only scant formal musical training, the remarkable Robert Shaw defied expectations by emerging from the world of pop music to achieve near-godlike status as a maker of choral music and to establish himself as a major conductor with the... Read more
Sonita
Sunday, November 13 at 1:00pm
Two-time Sundance Film Festival award winner “Sonita” tells the inspiring story of Sonita Alizadeh, an 18-year-old Afghan refugee in Iran, who thinks of Michael Jackson and Rihanna as her spiritual parents and dreams of becoming a big-name rapper. For the time... Read more
The Star of Algiers
Wednesday, November 9 at 9:15pm
“The Star of Algiers,” a sexy, smoky, jazz-filled film feast, is the latest from Algerian director Rachid Benhadj. Moussa is a musician who dreams of becoming the Michael Jackson of Algiers. Displaying equal measures of talent and energy, Moussa pursues this... Read more
These C*cksucking Tears: A Night with Lavender Country
Saturday, November 12 at 8:30pm
Reprising the “Lavender Country” event that packed the house at Off Broadway in July, SLIFF offers a film-and-concert combo featuring country singer Patrick Haggerty backed by a band of local musicians. In 1973, Haggerty released the first and only gay-themed... Read more
Two Trains Runnin’
Sunday, November 13 at 6:00pm
“Two Trains Runnin’ — featuring the music of Gary Clark Jr. — both pays tribute to a pioneering generation of musicians and cuts to the heart of our present moment, offering a crucial vantage from which to view the evolving dynamics of race in America. In June of... Read more
Waiting for B.
Friday, November 11 at 7:00pm
The charming “Waiting for B.” explores the outer reaches of fandom, profiling a hyper-devoted group of Beyoncé worshipers. Lacking the money to buy primo seats to a stadium concert in Sao Paulo, these Queen B. super-fans camp out for two months to edge as close as... Read more
Who Is Lydia Loveless?
Sunday, November 13 at 6:00pm
Gorman Bechard’s entertaining documentary profile “Who Is Lydia Loveless?” thoroughly explores the titular question. Is she a singer/songwriter, an alt-country queen, a cow punk, or a hard rocker? The second coming of Hank Williams or Patti Smith? Or just a... Read more
Within Our Gates
Saturday, November 12 at 7:30pm
As part of our 25th-anniversary celebration, SLIFF reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer/director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on... Read more