Now in it second year, the Sunscreen Film Festival has beefed up its screening schedule and the three-day event — presented by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Society — now showcases more than 50 feature, documentary and short films. Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life is a documentary that follows a wheelchair-bound 16-year-old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy as he experiences life outside his hometown for the first time during a cross-country adventure with his friends. Another documentary, The Last Western, offers a look at Pioneertown, Calif., formerly a movie set constructed on the edge of the Mojave Desert for Hollywood's b-westerns and television serials, and currently home to a community of citizens described by filmmaker Chris Deaux as "nonconformist, escapist, very colorful and very passionate about their sense of freedom and the 'American West.'" The 30-minute Oscar nominee for Best Live Action Short Film, Binta and the Great Idea, is about a little girl from Senegal, her village and her father's great idea to make the world a better place. And Animated Soviet Propaganda includes highlights from propaganda films created by the Soviet Union from World War II through the Cold War. For a complete schedule of screenings, visit sunscreenfilmfestival.com. Through April 8, Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club, 501 Fifth Ave. N.E., St. Petersburg, $7 per film/$50 three-day pass (films-only)/$80 all-inclusive pass, 727-894-1000.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.