This evening of film and music celebrates the sounds — and sundry other attractions — of Springfield, Mo. Dave Hoekstra’s documentary “The Center of Nowhere” is not just about music but about a sense of place: how atmosphere, environment, history, and even... Read more
Music Spotlight
Sponsored by Nancy & Ken Kranzberg
Adam Maness Trio Performance with Blue Note Records
Sunday, November 11 at 6:00pm
SLIFF offers a film-and-music combo with a screening of “Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes” and a jazz performance by St. Louis’ Adam Maness Trio. The documentary explores the vision behind the iconic American jazz label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been... Read more
Bathtubs Over Broadway
Friday, November 2 at 7:30pm
When he started as a comedy writer for the “Late Show with David Letterman,” Steve Young had few interests outside of his day job. But while gathering material for a segment on the show, Steve stumbled onto a few vintage record albums that would change his life... Read more
The Best of Us: 100 Seasons of Muny Magic
Saturday, November 3 at 5:30pm
The Municipal Theatre of St. Louis, affectionately known as The Muny, has been a part of St. Louis life for generations. This summer marked the 100th season that The Muny has presented top-notch musical theater outdoors in St. Louis’ Forest Park, and “The Best of... Read more
Bisbee '17
Wednesday, November 7 at 7:30pm
“Bisbee ’17” — by Sundance award-winning director Robert Greene, who teaches documentary at the University of Missouri — is set in Bisbee, Ariz., an eccentric old mining town just miles away from both Tombstone and the Mexican border. Radically combining... Read more
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes
Sunday, November 11 at 6:00pm
“Blue Note Records” explores the vision behind the iconic American jazz label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been encouraged to push creative boundaries in search of uncompromising expressions. Through current recording sessions, rare archival footage, and... Read more
The Blues Doctors Performance with Satan & Adam
Friday, November 9 at 7:30pm
“Satan & Adam” is a celebration of the transformative power of music and the bonds that develop when worlds collide and artists collaborate. One day in 1986, Adam Gussow, a white, Ivy League-educated harmonica player, found himself nursing a broken heart and... Read more
Boom
Friday, November 2 at 7:30pm
“Boom” tells the untold story of one of rock ’n’ roll’s wildest and most influential bands, the Sonics. For the first time ever, all five original members of the band tell the true story of how it all went down, beginning to end. “Boom” takes a deep dive,... Read more
Branwell Brontë's Role-Playing Game with The Drunkard's Lament
Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30pm
Experimental filmmaker Jim Finn — a native St. Louisan who receives the Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award — returns to SLIFF (which screened his “Interkosmos” and “The Juche Idea” in 2008) with “The Drunkard’s Lament,” a strange, epistolary musical... Read more
The Center of Nowhere: The Spirit and Sounds of Springfield, Mo.
Sunday, November 4 at 6:30pm
“The Center of Nowhere” is not just about music but about a sense of place: how atmosphere, environment, history, and even foodways inform the artistic muse around Springfield, Mo. At the heart of the film is the late performer and producer Lou Whitney, whose... Read more
Cold War
Sunday, November 4 at 7:00pm
Sunday, November 11 at 1:05pm
“Cold War” — from the director of “Ida,” winner of the Oscar® for Best Foreign-Language Film — is a passionate love story between jazz pianist Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and singer-dancer Zula (Joanna Kulig), two people of different backgrounds and temperaments who are... Read more
Double Bill: I, Douglas Fairbanks and The Half Breed
Saturday, November 10 at 7:00pm
During the peak of the silent era, the dashing Douglas Fairbanks was the first “King of Hollywood,” ruling the box office in a series of epic adventures — swashbuckling in “The Mark of Zorro,” dueling in “Robin Hood,” and soaring in “The Thief of Bagdad.” Using... Read more
The Drunkard's Lament
Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30pm
Native St. Louisan Jim Finn’s “The Drunkard’s Lament” offers a strange, epistolary musical adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” as written by the consumptive brother Branwell Brontë. When Branwell — the ne’er-do-well, tubercular brother of the Brontë sisters —... Read more
Fatherhood
Saturday, November 3 at 4:30pm
A marvelously raw and heartfelt film about absent fathers and at-risk kids, “Fatherhood” is part music-video anthology, part confessional anthropology, part urgent social-issues documentary. Director Ben Gregor showcases four groups of young composers, lyricists,... Read more
Fiddlin'
Saturday, November 3 at 7:30pm
If you’re a fan of Appalachia’s “good old-timey music” featured in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Fiddlin’” will exert a strong appeal. Largely focused on the 2015 Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax, Va. — which is billed as the “world’s oldest and largest” and... Read more
Gateway Sound
Saturday, November 3 at 2:00pm
Commercial studios have been the mainstay of recorded music for decades. But what happens when the very foundations of the music business are shaken to the core? How are studios surviving in the face of streaming music, slumping sales, and cheaper, easily... Read more
Green Book
Sunday, November 11 at 6:15pm
Academy Award® nominee Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) and Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight,” “Hidden Figures”) star in Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures’ “Green Book.” In his foray into powerfully... Read more
The Half Breed
Saturday, November 10 at 7:00pm
St. Louis’ Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra returns to SLIFF with an original score and live accompaniment for “The Half Breed,” a newly restored silent featuring Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks. In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the... Read more
Heavy Trip
Friday, November 9 at 9:30pm
In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single... Read more
The Jazz Ambassadors
Saturday, November 3 at 4:00pm
In 1956, America announced a new Cold War weapon to combat the U.S.S.R.: Jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dave Brubeck, along with their racially integrated bands, would cross the globe to counter negative Soviet... Read more
Mr. Soul!
Friday, November 9 at 7:30pm
On the heels of the civil-rights movement, one fearless black pioneer — Ellis Haizlip — reconceived a Harlem Renaissance for a new era, ushering giants and rising stars of black American culture onto the national television stage. Haizlip contained Whitman-esque... Read more
Narrative Shorts: Music & Musicals
Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30pm
Music plays an integral part in this collection of note-perfect shorts. 
One Toke Over the Line and Still Smokin'
Saturday, November 3 at 8:00pm
“One Toke Over the Line and Still Smokin’” by St. Louis filmmaker Kathy Corley celebrates the folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, whose Top 10 song “One Toke Over the Line” was a constant presence on the radio in the 1970s. The pair’s other hits include “Tarkio... Read more
Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury
Friday, November 9 at 7:30pm
“Parallel Love” relates the unusual story of the band Luxury, which begins much like the story of many bands, with hopes of success and stardom. “Parallel Love” takes an unexpected turn when it is revealed that Luxury were involved in a frightening touring... Read more
Presley Barker Performance with Fiddlin'
Saturday, November 3 at 7:30pm
If you’re a fan of Appalachia’s “good old-timey music” featured in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Fiddlin’” will exert a strong appeal. Largely focused on the 2015 Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax, Va. — which is billed as the “world’s oldest and largest” and... Read more
The Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra with The Half Breed
Saturday, November 10 at 7:00pm
St. Louis’ Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra returns to SLIFF with an original score and live accompaniment for “The Half Breed,” a newly restored silent featuring Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks. In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the... Read more
Satan & Adam
Friday, November 9 at 7:30pm
One day in 1986, Adam Gussow, a white, Ivy League-educated harmonica player, found himself nursing a broken heart and walking down the street in Harlem, a block from the Apollo Theater. There, he came on a one-man band: Sterling Magee. Better known as Satan, Magee... Read more
Stay Human
Sunday, November 11 at 6:00pm
In a quest to find a path to stay human in an increasingly crazy world, musician Michael Franti (Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Spearhead) goes on an experiential journey, traveling the globe to tell the stories of people who have chosen to overcome cynicism... Read more
Vox Lux
Saturday, November 10 at 8:15pm
“Vox Lux” follows the rise of Celeste from the ashes of a major national tragedy to pop superstardom. In 1999, teenaged Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent tragedy and, after singing at a memorial service, transforms into a burgeoning pop star with the... Read more