SFIFF59 Spotlights #6: Mountain / Under the Sun / Little Men / Afternoon with Aardman Animations

PersistenceOfVision_Award_Aardman_Wallace_SectionDetail_476x268

Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, which continues through this Thursday, May 5th. You still have plenty of time to get in a few screenings! More information and tickets are available here.

Here we spotlight another three features and the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision award!

Mountain
(Israel/Denmark, 2015, 83 min, GGA: New Directors)

A scene from Yaelle Kayam's MOUNTAIN will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.
A scene from Yaelle Kayam’s MOUNTAIN will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 – May 5,2016.

Mountain is a touching yet ultimately unsettling character study of an Orthodox Jewish woman living with her husband and four children on the Mount of Olives, an ancient Jewish cemetery and religious locale for Judeo-Christian faiths. Shani Klein gives a powerfully restrained performance as Zvia, a woman caught between family, tradition, and desire and the ramifications of choosing one over the others. The Mt. of Olives plays a crucial role as well, steeped in Jewish tradition and history, yet it serves as a constant reminder of loss and becomes a discrete location for nighttime prostitution. Director Yaelle Kayam patiently studies the effects of this symbolic location on its inhabitants, and utilizing a focus on Zvia manages to convey the deepest internal struggles of Orthodoxy in an ever-changing world.

There are no more screenings of Mountain.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #6: Mountain / Under the Sun / Little Men / Afternoon with Aardman Animations

Film Feature: 2016 Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #2

Sundance 2016-2

Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, which ended last Saturday, Jan. 30th with its evening awards presentation (all the winners can be found here).

We’re highlighting 18 of the nearly 200 films shown at the Fest, so you can know what to look for in the coming year – and what to avoid – as many of these titles are purchased and widely distributed.

As a reminder, we are using our patented Viewing Priority Level (VPL) Guide to advise you accordingly:

Continue reading “Film Feature: 2016 Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #2”