Sunscreen Film Festival
April 30-May 3, multiple locations around downtown St. Petersburg.
sunscreenfilmfestival.com
Celebrating a decade this year, the Sunscreen Film Festival returns with a new director, award-nominated selections and an impressive showcase of documentaries and Spanish-speaking films.
Expect independent features, shorts, workshops, talks by filmmakers and gatherings at venues throughout downtown St. Pete. The majority of the films will be shown at the Sundial Muvico with some screenings at non-cinema venues like the Dalì Museum, American Stage and Green Bench Brewing. Many of the selections have a local-centric bent, either about or made by current or past Tampa Bay residents.
New festival director Dwight Cenac (not to be confused with Wyatt Cenac of Daily Show fame) has hit the ground running, says fest founder Tony Armer. “I’ve been working closely with him over the past year, teaching him the ropes,” Armer adds.
A kickoff red-carpet walk at 6:30 p.m. precedes the premiere of Next Goal Wins at Muvico Sundial. The rousing underdog tale follows the world’s one-time worst soccer team in American Samoa and stars Tampa Bay Rowdies Head Coach Thomas Rongen. In attendance will be Rongen, Jason Matthew Smith (Star Trek: Into Darkness), Natalie Burn (Awaken, Expendables 3) and several other actors and filmmakers, who will also be participating in workshops throughout the weekend.
Another local sports-figure film, Unsullied, comes to us from former Tampa Bay Bucs defensive end Simeon Rice, who will be returning to the area to promote his first film, which he wrote and directed (5:30 p.m., Friday, Muvico Sundial).
Gibbs grad William Stribling, who attended the school’s magnet program, the Pinellas County Center for the Arts, returns to St. Pete to support his new short film, Down in Flames, about Tony “Volcano” Valenci, who attempted to set the world record for swallowing flames then spitting them out while skydiving (Saturday screenings: 12:45 p.m., Muvico Sundial; 10:15 p.m., Green Bench; Sunday: 3:15, American Stage).
Armer, now the St. Petersburg-Clearwater film commissioner, is still heavily involved with Sunscreen and sits on the fest’s non-voting board. Though he was loath to pick a favorite, Armer expressed enthusiasm for the documentary The Man Who Saved the World — about a Soviet military commander who prevented a nuclear assault — and closing-night comedy, Teacher of the Year.
Lovers of foreign film will appreciate the efforts of Sunscreen’s Latin film subcommittee. Composed of Hispanic and non-Hispanic local attorneys, artists, and other professionals — including Linda Ramirez, Vanessa Vazquez, Luz Lono, Jim DeMauro, Ama Appiah, Mildred Mattos and Karla Gonzalez — the group has landed critically lauded and award-nominated Latin films, and through a sponsorship from Copa Airlines, they were able to fly in Salvadoran director Sergio Sibrian (The Tiger and the Deer).
The Spanish-speaking films offer touching and socially relevant subject matter, and, yes, an uplifting moment or two. Selections include The Liberator, an historical drama about revolutionary Simón Bolívar and official Venezuelan submission for the Best Foreign Film category in the 2014 Academy Awards. Sibrian’s Tiger and the Deer is a sweetly wrenching doc about a 103-year-old survivor of the 1932 massacre in El Salvador — and keeper of a folk-music tradition.
The Spanish-speaking film that may be the most buzzed-about: La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Dream; literal translation: Cage of Gold), an intense road movie about teenage Guatemalan immigrants and their journey to the U.S. Spanish director Diego Quemada-Díez worked on the project for several years, and his film — described by board member Ramirez as a feat of “heart, patience and skill” — garnered Cannes’ prix un certain regard, which recognizes unique films with an international reach. Following the screening on Friday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m.: a Q&A with immigration attorneys Kathlyn M. Mackjovak and Adriana Dinis, Immigration Law Group of Florida, P.A.
“La Jaula de Oro visually tells the stories of three Central American teenagers trying to come to the United States,” explains Ramirez. “It’s a beautiful film based on Quemada’s personal research at the border.”
Overall, Sunscreen’s community-driven selections with local-centric subject matter and personalities, and professional workshops, should all make the decade-running fest a truly worthwhile communal movie-lovers’ experience. If anything, you may just see a familiar face on the big screen.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2015.