Take the SLIFF Challenge

How many movies do you think it's possible to see in eleven days? If you guessed "more than 200," you, gentle reader, are a dad-burn cinema fanatic. The St. Louis International Film Festival offers you the opportunity to see a double-century of movies of all genres and from all countries between Thursday, November 13, and Sunday, November 23. Whether you embrace that challenge is up to your stamina and your current financial situation. Single tickets are $8 to $10, but there are several multishow ticket options. You could, for instance, buy a Punch Pass good for either 10, 20 or 30 tickets ($90 to $250), or you can go balls-deep and purchase the Festival All-Access Pass (which is good for two admissions to every SLIFF screening) for a tidy $350. Yes, that's a sizable chunk of change — but if you're a movie junkie, could you really live with the knowledge that someone in town saw all the movies and you didn't? Yeah, your hands are shaking already, aren't they? All films screen at one of four locations: the Saint Louis Art Museum, Webster University, Plaza Frontenac and the Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Boulevard, University City). The Tivoli is the site of the festival-opening film, Humboldt County, at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 13. Directed by St. Louis expats Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs, Humboldt County (a still from which is pictured) tells the story of med student Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong), who hooks up briefly with itinerant singer Bogart (Fairuza Balk) and is then abandoned to the strange and tender graces of the eccentric marijuana farmers who people the laid-back community. If you want to start the festival with a bang, buy the $35 ticket for this one; it grants access to the 5:30 p.m. preshow reception (snacks and drinks included) and gets you into the after-party at Mandarin (44 Maryland Plaza) as well. Quite an auspicious beginning for your cinematic marathon. Visit www.cinemastlouis.org for a full schedule of all films.
Nov. 13-23, 2008