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Event
How to Smell a Rose & In Transit @ SLIFF
How to Smell a Rose
Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht, U.S./France, 2014, 64 min.
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m., Webster U./Moore, $15 for double bill with "In Transit"
In this summit meeting between a pair of documentary's most important figures, Les Blank ("Always for Pleasure," "Burden of Dreams") and Richard Leacock ("Primary," "A Stravinsky Portrait") meet at Leacock's farm in Normandy, France, for lively, illuminating talks about life, work, and cooking. A delightful raconteur, Leacock recalls key moments in his 70 years as a filmmaker, exploring the mysteries of creativity, his apprenticeship with documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and the innovations of the Direct Cinema movement he helped birth with D.A. Pennebaker, Albert and David Maysles, and Robert Drew. With the deaths of Blank (a former SLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award honoree) in 2013 and Leacock in 2011, "How to Smell a Rose" serves as a moving valedictory to two of the seminal figures in the history of documentary film. Slant Magazine writes: "A loving appreciation of a striking creative force in the midst of his twilight years, 'How to Smell a Rose' is a characteristic Les Blank production, marked by its passionate handling of well-selected ingredients and fixated on the joys of food, conversation, and art."
In Transit
Albert Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker & Ben Wu, U.S., 2015, 76 min.
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 8:15 p.m., Webster U./Moore, $15 for double bill with "How to Smell a Rose"
The final film of documentary legend Albert Maysles -- a former SLIFF Lifetime Achievement honoree -- "In Transit" journeys into the hearts and minds of everyday passengers aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder, the busiest long-distance train route in America. In the tradition of Direct Cinema, the film unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes, ranging from overheard conversations to moments of deep intimacy, in which passengers share their fears, hopes, and dreams. In the space between stations, where "real life" is suspended, a fleeting community forms, one that transcends normal barriers and that conjures a peculiar atmosphere of contemplation. To some passengers, the train is flight and salvation; to others, it is reckoning and loss. But for all, it is a place for personal reflection and connecting with others they may otherwise never know. The film's directorial team includes SLIFF alums Lynn True and Nelson Walker ("Summer Pasture"). Describing "In Transit" as "a lovely last film," Variety writes: "Sampling snippets and snatches of lives and conversations, Maysles and his fellow filmmakers undertake a folk odyssey through northern landscapes that proves a fitting farewell to an American ethnographer." With co-director Walker.
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LocationWebster University/Moore Auditorium (View)
470 East Lockwood Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63119
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 21 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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