With the festival in full swing, here are five picks for the second weekend of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, featuring a film from each of the major series.
Contemporary World Cinema
“Adam and Eve (Still)”
9:30 p.m. Friday, Crown Theaters Block E and 9:45 p.m. Saturday, Lagoon Cinema
“Adam and Eve (Still)” is partly an innocent, philosophical journey but more an existential meditation on the irrelevance of life. After being thrown out of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve journey to Mexico City, where they soon come to question the purpose of their lives and contemplate the prospect of ending their own misery. The making of Ivan Avila Duenas’ film is even more intriguing, as the actors mostly improvised their lines without a script.
Europe At 12
“The Edukators”
9:30 p.m. Friday, Crown Theaters Block E
Consider “The Edukators” this way: It’s a fusion of the mayhem present in “The Yes Men” with the politics apparent in “Roger and Me.” “The Edukators” chronicles the innocent activism of a European group that wants to make the superwealthy aware of their privileged lives. They break into rich homes and do things with their possessions, leaving behind notes reading things such as “You are too rich.” That is, until someone happens to come home during one of the break-ins.
Childish Film Festival
“Princes and Princesses”
7 p.m. Saturday, the Children’s Theatre Company
The culminating event of this year’s Childish Film Festival, “Princes and Princesses” combines the images of an animated film with the more immediate performances of live actors. Appearing at the Children’s Theatre Company, actors from the troupe will read the lines of the animated film live on stage during the screening. Debbie Girdwood, Childish Film Festival director, said the magic of the experience will also be an educational one, calling the audience’s attention to the artifice inherent in any animated production. The short “Hamlet USA” will precede “Princes and Princesses.”
Nonfiction Features
“The Shape of the Moon”
3 p.m. Saturday, Lagoon Cinema and 7:15 p.m. Sunday, McNally Smith Auditorium
In a remarkable follow-up to his “Eye of the Day,” director Leonard Retel Helmrich records a year in the life of a poor family living in the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia. Using a widow as the main subject but also following her son and granddaughter, “The Shape of the Moon” is on one level a horrifying testament to a life of poverty. But on other levels, it captures the strength of faith and prayer for people who are enduring the most difficult of struggles and the greater chaos of a class system and society spiraling out of control.
Shorts Programs
“Mexican Shorts Showcase”
3:30 p.m. Sunday, McNally Smith Auditorium and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Lagoon Cinema
“Pan Asian Shorts Showcase”
9:20 p.m. Sunday, McNally Smith Auditorium and 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, McNally Smith Auditorium
In both the “Mexican Shorts Showcase” and “Pan Asian Shorts Showcase,” more than a dozen short films shed light on the ideas and perspectives of cultures from around the world. The “Mexican” series features seven titles, highlighting the numerous social classes existing in Mexico today. The “Pan Asian” series offers seven titles as a worldwide survey of issues affecting Asians. South Korea is a notable subject of the series, given the recent prominence of Korean filmmakers.
