Weekend Highlights of the Sonoma Film Festival

Here it is the weekend already, with only two days remaining in this year’s Sonoma International Film Festival. That’s still plenty of time to catch several great movies and fun events in and around town.

Flicker (Flimmer) is a twisted Swedish comedy about something lurking on the outskirts of town. It has something to do with a telecommunications conspiracy – sounds like it would play well in Sebastopol. 11:15 at the Vintage House.

At the 12:15, you can learn about Living on One Dollar, a low-budget but high-aspiring documentary about four U.S. collect students who go to rural Guatemala for 56 days, and try to survive on $56. Now that’s reality.

Ever work in a restaurant? We thought so. Spinning Plates is  a documentary feature on three very different restaurants and what makes them tick – er, spin. Winner of Audience Choice Award in Santa Barbara’s film festival; it’s at 3:00 pm at MacArthur Place.

We’re Not Broke puts to the test the argument that we all heard in 2008-09, when economic collapse threatened the country, millions lost their savings, public sector workers were laid off -  and the bankers made out like bandits. Be prepared to get mad. Starts at 4:00 p.m. at Murphy’s Pub.

Forget Stonewall: the real gay revolution was fought on the dance floor. That at least is the not-so-far fetched concept behind the speculative and satiric The Secret Disco Revolution, which includes interviews with Kool and the Gang, the Village People and other cultural radicals. It starts at 5:15 in Burlingame Hall (First Congregational).

Ever work in a winery? We thought so.  Here’s the North American premiere of You Will Be My Son, a French film set in Saint-Émilion about a prestigious family winery and its patriarch’s search for a successor. Culture and class clash of course. Second screening of the festival is tonight, 6 p.m. at the Sebastiani Theatre.

Tonight’s double-bill feature in at the Vintage House: Village Music, about Marin county’s last record store, shows at 5:45, followed at 9 pm by Cover Story, about the art and impact of record album covers. If you are skeptical about the value of records, you owe it to yourself (and your parents) to check out this one.

There are many more films on the SIFF Schedule, so find your own favorite. But one event highlight is film-free – the Sonoma Spotlight Award at 6 p.m., honoring Mary-Louise Parker and Demián Birchir at Sonoma Veterans Hall, 6 p.m. It’s followed at the same location by the tribute dinner, catered by the Girl and the Fig, and finally the Festival Gala from 9 to midnight. On stage: Unforgettable Fire, the U2 tribute band featured in a Festival documentary.

Sunday

There’s still time to see some of the films you missed the first time around, on this the last day of the Sonoma Valley Independent Film Festival.

You may have easily overlooked In Montauk, an American independent feature that has picked up a couple prestigious awards at other film festivals. Get up early and see it at the Woman’s Club, 9 a.m.

If you’re wondering what all the hoopla in San Francisco Bay is about, you owe it to yourself to see America’s Cup, an hour-long documentary about the early years of the international yacht race. Lipton, Vanderbilt, Turner, Ellison: These guys are rich sailors who have helped drive the technology – and the speed - of the sailing machines that push the limits. Screens at 11:15 a.m. at the Woman’s Club.

At Vintage House, starting at noon on Sunday, the historical documentary Lo Zucco shows, about the little-known story of a rich French duke who was exited to Sicily, there to become a philosophical farmer and discover “the long-lost secret of le vin de Zucco.”

It’s your last chance to see Project Censored on Sunday at 3 – until it gets a wider release, which might just be possible – at 3 p.m. at Burlingame Hall. Two local realtors became filmmakers to tell the story of SSU’s journalism project that every year names to top stores that are under-covered by the media, but which have great impact on our daily lives.

Terms and Conditions gets a 6:30 p.m. screening at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, with its message of “read what you sign.” It exposes the downright scary things that happen to our personal info when you click “Agree” on those online sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

The official closing night film is A Monkey on My Shoulder (Á Coeur ouvert), playing the Sebastiani Theatre at 6:30. A French feature about professional life, relationships, pregnancy, alcoholism and martial collapse, with Juliette Binoche and Venezuela’s Édgar Ramirez.

The Awards Ceremony for the SIFF’s winning films will take place at the Backlot Tent, from 8:30 to 10 p.m. There are three audience awards, one for Best Documentary, Best American Independent Feature, and Best World Feature, based on the surveys you filled out when you say the films.

Juried awards are given in most of the official categories, including “best of” status  for American Independent Feature, World Feature, Documentary Feature, Narrative Short and Documentary Short.

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