2020 Film Line-up: Foreign Films & American Indies

AMERICA'S UNTOLD STORY

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The first permanent European settlement in the United States was founded two generations before the Pilgrims arrived in 1565. America's Untold Story uncovers the story of America's past that never made it into textbooks. The film was shot in and around Saint Augustine.

 

• Part I (2 hours) will be shown on Thursday, January 16, 7pm, Lewis Auditorium

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• Part II (2 hours) will be shown Sunday, January 19, 6pm, Lewis Auditorium

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Both screenings a FREE to the Public. School age kids are encouraged to attend.

 

Executive Produced by Allen & Delores Lastinger and the Lastinger Family Foundation

BALLOON

Germany / 2018 / 125 min / German w/English subtitles / Historical Suspense Thriller

 

An incredible true story of resistance.

 

1979, East Germany during the height of the Cold War. Two ordinary families yearning for freedom secretly form a great escape plan to get across to the West: with courage and ingenuity, they build a hot air balloon with small pieces of cloth for their eight family-members to fly over the border. But an initial failure threatens their entire plan, setting off a dangerous race against time for a second attempt, with the State Police now hot on their heels… 

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Saturday, Jan 18, 6pm, Lewis Auditorium

CAMINO SKIES

New Zealand - Australia / 2019  / 80 min / Language: English

 

A story about life, love and loss on the Camino de Santiago, ‘Camino Skies’ is an uplifting film about learning to live with grief. Six adventurers from NZ and Australia embark on the historic 800 kilometer Spanish pilgrimage. In the face of overwhelming odds, the Camino forces the group to defy their age and physical ability as they each come to terms with recent loss. ‘Camino Skies’ is an uplifting story about everyday people doing the extraordinary.

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12:15 pm Saturday  – Corazon

4:15 pm Saturday  – Gamache

CHASING THE JET STREAM

Switzerland-UK / 2018 / 74 min / English / Documentary

 

CHASING THE JET STREAM follows the pioneering adventure of Marc Hauser, a Swiss entrepreneur and motivational speaker who wants to become the first skydiver in the world jumping into a hurricane force jet stream at 8,000 to 10,000 meters altitude. With this record, Marc wants to bring attention to the nascent technology of airborne wind energy systems, which can harness high-altitude wind power. This new technology has the potential to defuse the global energy crisis.

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3:45 pm Thursday  – Corazon

5:15 pm Saturday - Corazon

COLD FEET

Germany / 2018 / 97 min / German w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Through a curious mix-up, the petty criminal Denis suddenly finds himself in the position of a caretaker for the stroke patient Raimund. All he really wanted to do was break into Raimund’s house in order to finally pay off his debts to some disagreeable crooks. Instead, he now sits captive in the rich businessman’s house, who, since his seizure has been confined to a wheelchair. When Raimund’s granddaughter Charlotte shows up to check on him, it’s finally too much for Denis. But escape is not an option as a mighty snowstorm is raging in the region. And so he must continue to play the role of the caretaker – very much to Raimund’s dismay, who is doing everything he can to fend off the intruder. In contrast to Charlotte, Raimund has long since seen through Denis’ facade. A cat-and-mouse game begins, in which the handicapped senior and the clever young man put their resources to terrific use... 

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Saturday, Jan 18, 4:15pm, Lewis Auditorium

COLEWELL

USA / 2019 / 73 min / English / Drama

 

When the Colewell post office is slated for closure, Nora Pancowski (SAFF 2019 Lifetime honoree, Karen Allen) is faced with sudden retirement. As she weighs relocating, a young woman causes Nora to reflect on her youth and the choices that led her to Colewell.

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5pm Friday  – Corazon

DELFIN

Argentina / 2019 / 87 min / Spanish w/English subtitles / Bittersweet Comedy Road Movie

 

Life may not be easy. It certainly isn’t for Delfín, an 11-year-old boy who lives alone with his father in the barren, muddy outskirts of a Buenos Aires province small town. Over a week, Delfín wakes up early every morning to go to work, falls asleep in class, goes fishing frogs with friends, spies on a young teacher for whom he feels a fascination that he can hardly understand, and in the absence of his dad, faces again and again the collector who threatens an imminent eviction. 

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11:15 am Friday – Corazon

11:30 am Sunday – Corazon

DON’T STOP ME NOW

Italy / 2019 / 98 min / Italian w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Giovanna is a low-profile woman with a regular and boring life, split between her accounting job at the Ministry, her daughter Martina’s school commitments and the teases of her exuberant mother. But behind this dull façade, Giovanna is actually a secret agent, engaged in extremely dangerous and thrilling international missions. During a reunion with her former high school classmates, among memories and laughter, Giovanna listens to her friends’ stories realizing that all of them, just like her, is forced to suffer daily absurd vexations . She can’t stand it any longer! That’s decided: her next mission will be helping the people she loves and, among extravagant disguises and hilarious situations, overturn this situation to do justice to her friends!

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3:00 pm Thursday – Corazon

2:45 pm Saturday – Corazon

DRIVEN TO: ABSTRACTION 

USA / 2019 / 84 min / English / Documentary   

 

Driven to Abstraction unravels a mutating tale of self-delusion, greed, and fraud-- the $80 million forgery scandal that rocked the art world and brought down Knoedler, New York City’s oldest and most venerable gallery. Was the gallery’s esteemed director the victim of a con artist who showed up with an endless treasure trove of previously unseen abstract expressionist masterpieces? Or did she eventually suspect they were fakes, yet continue to sell them for millions of dollars for fifteen years? Whatever the truth, two women from very different worlds crossed paths in what would become the greatest hoax ever of Modern American Art.  

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1:00 pm Thursday - Corazon

2:15 pm Saturday - Corazon

THE DUCKPOND

Sweden / 2019 / 96 min / Swedish w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Fredrik’s peaceful life in an idyllic small town is turned upside down when his old childhood friend Patrik is released from prison. Together with Birger, the third member of their old trio, they manage to get lost in a spiral of chaos involving a vindictive policeman, a few grams of weed and a gang of Danish robbers.

The Duckpond is an elevated drama comedy about the unintentional change that is impossible to foresee and can change one’s life in the blink of an eye. The film is a hoot! 

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Winner of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival’s 2019 Best First Feature.

 

Saturday, Jan 18, 8:30pm, Lewis Auditorium

FRANCES FERGUSON 

Bob Byington USA / 2018 / 75 min / English / Comedy

 

FRANCES FERGUSON, the eponymously named character at the center of Bob Byington’s new film, is discontent. Like a lot of us, she does a bit of “acting out” and pays the price —an arrest, a trial, incarceration. And then a new identity, one that’s not terribly comfortable. Nick Offerman narrates this deviant comedy, based on actual events.

 

Kaley Wheless is spot-on with a deadpan, couldn’t be bothered less attitude that is a scream. Nick Offerman compliments it matter of factly, with even less enthusiasm than Tom Bodette doing a Motel 6 voice-over. One of the funniest films of SAFF2020!

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3:30 pm Thursday - Corazon

12:45 pm Saturday - Corazon

FROM THE VINE

Canada-Italy / 2019 / 95 min / English+Italian w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

From The Vine is the story of a downtrodden CEO experiencing a moral crisis that travels back to Italy to re-calibrate his moral compass. He discovers new life by reviving his Nonno's old vineyard, offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future and reconnecting with his family in the process. Combining magic realism and Italian neorealism, and set against the backdrop of wine country Italy, the film is about finding your roots in your family when you're at the bottom of the barrel.  

Winner of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival’s 2019 Best Co-Production.

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Friday, Jan. 17, 7:30pm, Lewis Auditorium

FUNNY YOU NEVER KNEW

USA / 2019 / 99 min / English /Documentary

 

Comedians Fred Willard and Kevin Pollak re-discover three remarkable TV comics from the 1950s: Imogene Coca, George Gobel and Martha Raye, whose groundbreaking work was broadcast live. Thanks to recently unearthed kinescopes a new audience can enjoy vital and hilarious performances that have languished unseen for 60 years.

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11:15 am Thursday - Corazon

5:15 pm Friday - Corazon

GAMBLE ROGERS: Down At The Terminal Tavern  

USA / 2019 / 80 min / English / Documentary

 

Gamble is a wry humorist & chronicler of the classic misadventures & country shenanigans of those backwoods scofflaws, loading ramp philosophers & truly sorry individuals who inhabit his fictional Oklawaha County. He is also an outstanding guitar player & accomplished songwriter. This documentary traces the life & career of this unique & talented artist.  

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FESTIVAL CLOSING FILM

 

Sunday, Jan 19, 4:15 pm, Lewis Auditorium

HAPPY ENDING

Denmark / 2018 / 100 min / Danish w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Helle has been waiting forever for her workaholic husband Peter to retire, so they can enjoy the autumn of their life together. She really wants to travel and explore the world with him - but when Peter comes home from his last day at work, life takes a surprisingly new turn, as he has a big surprise for her; he is pursuing a new career as a wine importer and has invested all their savings in an exclusive vineyard in Austria! Helle and Peter split up and they each set out on a blazing journey of discovery, filled with new opportunities, problems and dreams... But can you start over after 50 years of marriage? 

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11:00 am Thursday - Corazon

11:30 am Friday - Corazon

11:15 am Sunday - Corazon

INITIALS S.G.

Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia Argentina / 2019 / 98 min / Spanish w/English subtitles / Dark Comedy

 

Down on his luck, an aging Serge Gainsbourg wannabe struggles with an acting career he can't seem to get on track, an affair he doesn't want, and a crime he didn't mean to commit.

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5:30 pm Friday - Corazon

1:30 pm Sunday - Gamache

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L’AMORE A DOMICILIO

Emiliano Corapi Italy/ 2019 / 87 min / Italian w/English subtitles

 

Renato has always been fearful of sentiments, avoiding relationships that he really had to commit to. But when he finds out that the charming Anna, met by chance, is under house arrest, he decides for once to let himself go and experience the feelings he always feared. In that house, where he is the only male actor on the stage, he is convinced he can control the situation. In love, however, there are no safe routes and soon the situation becomes more complicated.

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3:30 pm Friday - Corazon

8:15 pm Saturday - Gamache

LOST BAYOU

Brian C. Miller Richard USA / 2019 / 87 min / English / Mystery

 

In this hauntingly evocative Southern Gothic mystery, a struggling addict ventures into the Louisiana swampland to reconnect with her faith healer father, only to discover he is hiding a troubling secret aboard his houseboat. After sold-out screenings earlier this year at The Tribeca Film Festival, the filmmakers bring to South Florida this hauntingly beautiful, Southern Gothic tale of family and loss with an entrancing supernatural thread. Co-Winner of The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival’s 2019 Best American Indie.

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5:00 pm Saturday - Corazon

6:00 pm Sunday - Gamache

LOVE IN SUSPENDERS

Jorge Weller Israel / 2019 / 102 min / Hebrew w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Tami is a widow in her 60s and Beno is a widower in his 70s. She is optimistic, always smiling, and still talking to her husband who has been dead for a few years already. Beno is tougher on the outside, but also still suffering from the loss of his wife. Tami and her husband were successful singers so now she lives comfortably in a beautiful retirement home. He, on the other hand, is finding it hard to pay the monthly rent. Notwithstanding their differences in lifestyle and personality, and their interfering offspring and neighbors, they eventually fall in love.

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10:00 am Sunday - Lewis

1:30 pm Sunday - Corazon

MARCHING FORWARD

Robert Cassanello, Oswmer Louis, Lisa Mills USA / 2019 / 60 minutes / English

 

Marching Forward is the history of two dedicated high school band directors—one black, one white—inspired by music to cross the color line in the Deep South and work together for the sake of their students. This courageous cooperation resulted in the experience of a lifetime for Orlando’s black and white students at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

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4:30 pm Thursday - Corazon

4:30 pm Saturday - Corazon

OUR HAPPY HOLIDAY

Patrick Cassir Bulgaria-France / 2018 / 100 min /English +French & Bulgarian w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Marion and Ben are both in their thirties and living in Paris. That and the Tinder app on their phones is pretty much all they have in common. But opposite attract, and two weeks after the first date, they are leaving together for their summer holidays... to Bulgaria. With no clear plan. And as they will soon discover, with very different ideas of what a dream holiday should look like.

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1:30 pm Friday - Corazon

3:45 pm Sunday - Gamache

RE LOCA (SUPER CRAZY)

Argentina / 2019 / 95 min / Spanish-Argentine w/English subtitles / Comedy

 

Winner of the Ft Lauderdale Intl Film Fest 2019 Best Comedy

 

What would happen if you could suddenly say everything you really think? After years of living a monotonous life, full of ridiculous pressures and demands, a casual but magical encounter will allow Pilar (Natalia Oreiro) to go “Super Crazy” and say and do everything that goes through her mind. Coworkers, friends, husbands and family; all shall suffer the wrath of this sudden transformation. Of course, losing your filter can also bring about some consequences… 

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2:00 pm Sunday - Lewis

4:00 pm Sunday - Corazon

SAINT FRANCES

Alex Thompson USA / 2019 / 101 min / English / Bittersweet Comedy

 

At the start of the summer, Bridget has an abortion just as she lands a much-needed job in an affluent Chicago suburb - nannying six-year old Frances (played by the scene-stealing Ramona Edith-Williams). With no time to recover, she clashes with the obstinate Frances and struggles to navigate a growing tension between Frances’ moms. As her personal relationships suffer, a reluctant friendship with Frances emerges, and Bridget contends with the inevitable joys and barnacles of becoming a part of someone else’s family.

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11:00 am Friday - Corazon

11:45 am Sunday - Gamache

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SEX, DRUGS & BICYCLES

Jonathan Blank The Netherlands & USA / 2019 / 86 min / English / Doc

 

‘Sex, Drugs & Bicycles’ takes a look at Dutch social democracy and answers the question: is having month-long double paid vacations, no fear of homelessness, and universal healthcare the nightmare we’ve been warned about. The answer may surprise you. Then again it may not. It really depends on a lot of factors outside our control.

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1:30 pm Thursday - Corazon

12:30 pm Saturday - Corazon

SWEETHEARTS

Karoline Herfurth Germany / 2019 / 105 min / Germany w/English subtitles / Action-Adventure Comedy

 

It's double trouble when fate and an ill-executed diamond robbery throw Mel and Lise together in a race and chase against time. Mel, a professional criminal and single mum looking to pull off her greatest coup, and her nerdy, easily panic-stricken hostage Lise are soon pursued by the relentless detective Ingrid, who always gets her man, or women, at any price. On the run, the mismatched and constantly fighting pair have to dispose of the loot in the face of a Berlin underworld also determined to get its hands on them and the precious stones

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12:00 pm Sunday - Lewis

THE KING’S MUSKETEERS

Giovanni Veronesi Italy / 2018 / 109 min / Italian w/English subtitles / Swashbuckling Comedy

 

After twenty years out of the picture, the King’s Musketeers are called back in action by Queen Anna, desperately seeking their help. Cynical and disillusioned but still incredibly talented with their swords, D’Artagnan, Porthos, Athos and Aramis, will jump again into the fire for their (maybe) last incredible mission: save France from the evil intrigues of the wicked Cardinal Mazzarino and his sensual accomplice Milady!

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2:15 pm Saturday - Lewis

1:00 pm Sunday - Corazon

VICTOR & CELIA

Pierre Jolivet Belgium / 2019 / 90 min / French w/English subtitles / Romantic Comedy

 

Victor and Ben are thirty-somethings planning to open their own hair salon. But very quickly their dream is dramatically thwarted. Determined, nevertheless, to follow through with his quest for liberty and independence, Victor manages to convince Célia, an old friend from hairstyling school, to join him in this adventure. Between their current jobs, administrative paperwork, rules and regulations, debts, family obligations and buried romantic problems that resurface, the two young business partners must team up to face the many obstacles they are confronted with as they try to successfully turn their dreams into reality.

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11:30 am Thursday - Corazon

2:15 pm Saturday - Gamache

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WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS

Sean Bloomfield & Cimela Kidonakis USA / 2018 / 103 min / Link / English

 

Having devoted his life to helping the less fortunate, Fr. Rene Robert was regarded as a "living saint" in the tight-knit community of St. Augustine, Florida. But when Fr. Rene began helping ex-convicts get their lives together after prison, the people closest to him worried that he was putting his life at risk—especially the local sheriff, David Shoar, one of Fr. Rene’s longtime friends. So, in April, 2016, when Fr. Rene failed to show up at a church service, Sheriff Shoar immediately put his best detectives on the case and local residents joined in searching for the beloved priest. It quickly became apparent, however, that Fr. Rene was not just missing—someone had taken him against his will.

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12:00 pm Saturday - Lewis

WORKING MAN

Robert Jury USA / 2019 / 109 min / English

 

Somewhere in the Rust Belt of America another factory is closing down. After decades on the job, the reclusive Allery Parkes finds himself out of work. Following his plant’s closure, Allery attempts to bide his time - same as his former, disgruntled, unemployed co-workers. However, despite the best efforts of his conciliatory wife Iola, a kept and loose-ended existence just doesn’t take for this withdrawn man. Winner of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival’s 2019 Best Ensemble Award.

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2:00 pm Friday - Corazon