SBIFF’s Second Week

There are just three days left in SBIFF 35, and with all of the tribute evenings being front-loaded at this year’s festival, no more stars walking the red carpet. Unless you are an advocate of the auteur theory, that is, in which case there’s one more big event on the SBIFF slate in the annual Outstanding Directors of the Year Award on Thursday, January 23. The helmers’ names for 2020 still hadn’t been announced at press time, but the last two years featured every one of the five nominated filmmakers, so it’s a good bet we’ll at least have a few of them.

Meanwhile, several intriguing films were still to have their world premiere screenings at SBIFF as this issue hit newsstands, including the feature documentary, The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses, which visits places few people have seen or even know about, federal lands where more than 80,000 wild horses roam, including 50,000 in government holding facilities. The doc shows Thursday, January 23 at 6 pm with a second screening set for 11:40 am on Saturday…

Tell My Story, a doc about a grieving father seeking answers after his 14-year-old son kills himself that uncovers painful truths about the lives of teens, the impact of technology, and the rising incidence of depression among America’s youth, premieres on Friday at 10 am and screens again Saturday at 2 pm. Jay Reid, the father featured in the film and Marieangela Abeo, a suicide survivor whose photography project “Faces of Fortitude” features photographs of survivors/family members join director David Freid for Q&As…

Martin Scorsese narrates The Oratorio, a doc about a single performance in 1826 that introduced Italian opera to New York City. The watershed event was lost to history for almost 200 years, but was recently rediscovered and re-staged by an Italian opera company at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, which happens to be Scorsese’s childhood church. The film screens at the Lobero on Thursday and Friday, with Q&A sessions.

Finally, Parasite, the South Korean dark comedy thriller and newly-minted Oscar favorite following its ensemble acting victory at the SAG Awards last weekend, has a free screening at 4:30 pm on Thursday, followed by a Q&A with writer-director Bong Joon-ho, who also enjoys a career retrospective at SBIFF.