wcw APRIL 2024
Our April issue includes a profile of Sarah Cartwright, the chief curator at The Ringling Museum. PLus our extensive arts coverage including Artist Series Concerts, Sarasota Art Museum, Arts Advocates, Key Chorale and the Sarasota Film Festival.
Our April issue includes a profile of Sarah Cartwright, the chief curator at The Ringling Museum. PLus our extensive arts coverage including Artist Series Concerts, Sarasota Art Museum, Arts Advocates, Key Chorale and the Sarasota Film Festival.
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- sarasota film festival
- arts advocates
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- artist series concerts
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happening this month<br />
Sarasota Film Festival April 5-14<br />
Festival to Close with Steve Buscemi’s The Listener<br />
The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF)<br />
includes live and in-person screenings<br />
and events that will take place<br />
across Sarasota April 5-14. SFF<br />
will feature a lineup of films that includes<br />
64 features, with 4 World Premieres,<br />
1 North American Premiere, 7 East Coast<br />
Premieres, and 24 Florida Premieres; and<br />
81 short films.<br />
Bull Street<br />
The festival will open on April 5 with the<br />
East Coast Premiere of Lynn Dow’s BULL<br />
STREET, a stirring drama where a South<br />
Carolina small-town lawyer faces local<br />
politics, an unwavering judge and the<br />
town’s past in the battle of her life when<br />
her estranged father’s family tries to evict<br />
her and her grandmother from the only<br />
home she has ever known, starring Loretta<br />
Devine and Amy Madigan. Dow, Madigan,<br />
and additional cast members will attend<br />
the festival in-person and participate in a<br />
post-screening talkback.<br />
The Listener<br />
On Saturday, April 13, the festival will<br />
close with a special presentation of Steve<br />
Buscemi’s THE LISTENER, a film that is<br />
a stirring testament to the power of empathy,<br />
following a crisis hotline worker<br />
(Tessa Thompson) enduring the pressures<br />
of her job. Director Steve Buscemi will<br />
attend and participate in a Q&A conversation<br />
following the film’s Florida Premiere<br />
screening.<br />
This Film is about<br />
The Black Keys<br />
Jeff Dupre’s THIS IS A FILM ABOUT<br />
THE BLACK KEYS, which examines the<br />
story of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s<br />
journey from a basement jamming<br />
session in Akron, Ohio to rock ’n’ roll super-stardom,<br />
will play its Florida Premiere<br />
as the festival’s Documentary Centerpiece<br />
film on Friday, April 12.<br />
The Man in the White Van<br />
Narrative Centerpiece<br />
screenings include the<br />
April 12 East Coast Premiere<br />
of Warren Skeels’<br />
THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN, a thriller<br />
inspired by a true story, diving into the<br />
eerie underbelly of a seemingly idyllic<br />
1974 Florida town and following the harrowing<br />
experience of young Annie Williams,<br />
whose carefree existence is turned<br />
upside down as she becomes stalked by<br />
an ominous man in a white van, starring<br />
Sean Astin and Madison Wolfe; and the<br />
April 13 Florida Premiere of Ethan Berger’s<br />
THE LINE, a chilling, nuanced thriller<br />
exploring the moral ambiguity of loyalty to<br />
tradition, as seen through a college sophomore<br />
in the throes<br />
of fraternity culture,<br />
starring Alex Wolff,<br />
Austin Abrams, Lewis<br />
Pullman, Halle Bailey,<br />
and Angus Cloud. Star<br />
and Sarasota-native<br />
Austin Abrams will<br />
attend the festival and<br />
receive SFF’s Rising<br />
Star Award.<br />
Daughters<br />
SFF’s Spotlight presentations include<br />
screenings of Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s<br />
DAUGHTERS, a documentary<br />
distributed by<br />
Netflix and following four<br />
young girls as they prepare<br />
for a special Daddy Daughter<br />
Dance with their incarcerated<br />
fathers, as part<br />
of a unique fatherhood<br />
program in a Washington,<br />
D.C.; Jeff Zimbalist’s HOW<br />
TO COME ALIVE WITH<br />
NORMAN MAILER, following<br />
the life and times<br />
of an American icon, from his formative<br />
years in Brooklyn through his career as a<br />
preeminent cultural voice; Dheeraj Akolkar’s<br />
LIV ULLMAN: THE ROAD LESS<br />
TRAVELED, a delightful, engaging portrait<br />
of one our greatest actresses, brimming<br />
with intimate memories and profound<br />
reflections on her hopes, fears, grief,<br />
rejections, dreams<br />
pursued, and<br />
lessons learned;<br />
Dawn Porter’s<br />
LUTHER: NEV-<br />
ER TOO MUCH,<br />
an emotional and<br />
jubilant celebration<br />
of Luther<br />
Vandross and his<br />
music that resonates<br />
with evocative<br />
power; Stephen Soucy’s MERCHANT<br />
IVORY, telling the story behind the longest<br />
running partnership in the history of cinema<br />
that has produced such classics as<br />
Howard’s End, A Room with a View and<br />
The Remains of the Day; Amei Wallach’s<br />
TAKING VENICE, exploring the true story<br />
behind the rumors that, at the height of<br />
the Cold War, the U.S. government rigged<br />
the most influential art exhibition, the<br />
Venice Biennale, so that their chosen artist,<br />
Robert Rauschenberg, could win the<br />
festival’s Grand Prize; and Noah Pritzker’s<br />
feature comedy EX-HUSBANDS, following<br />
a middle aged man overwhelmed by his<br />
pending divorce and the declining health<br />
of his father, starring Griffin Dunne and<br />
Roseanne Arquette.<br />
SFF will host an April 6 showcase of all<br />
five Live Action Short Film nominees at<br />
the 96th Academy Awards, which include<br />
Misan Harriman’s THE AFTER, Vincent<br />
René-Lortie’s INVINCIBLE; Lasse Lyskjær<br />
Noer’s KNIGHT OF FORTUNE;<br />
Nazrin Choudhury’s RED, WHITE AND<br />
BLUE; and the recipient of this year’s<br />
award: Wes Anderson’s THE WONDER-<br />
FUL STORY OF HENRY<br />
SUGAR, which marked<br />
the first Oscar win for Anderson.<br />
On April 12, the<br />
festival will also screen<br />
short film THE LAST RE-<br />
PAIR SHOP, the winner<br />
of the Academy Award for<br />
Best Documentary Short<br />
Film at the 96th Academy<br />
Awards. Editor Nick<br />
Garnham Wright will attend<br />
and participate in a<br />
post-screening Q&A.<br />
The Narrative Feature Competition will<br />
showcase GOODBYE JULIA, directed by<br />
Mohamed Kordofani; THE NATURE OF<br />
LOVE, directed by Monia Chokri; Utopia’s<br />
PET SHOP DAYS, directed by Olmo Schnabel;<br />
RED ROOMS, directed by Pascal<br />
Plante; and Magnolia Pictures’ THELMA,<br />
directed by Josh Margolin.<br />
The Documentary Feature Competition<br />
will include A HOUSE IS NOT A DIS-<br />
CO, directed by Brian J. Smith; INTO<br />
THE SPOTLIGHT: THE JAKE ILARDI<br />
STORY, directed by Liam Jordan; PORCE-<br />
LAIN WAR, directed by Brendan Bellomo<br />
& Slava Leontyev; SONGS OF EARTH,<br />
directed by Margreth Olin; and National<br />
Geographic Documentary Films’ SUGAR-<br />
CANE, directed by Emily Kassie and Julian<br />
Brave NoiseCat.<br />
Independent Visions competition will feature<br />
ART THIEF, directed by Arthur Egeli;<br />
BLOOM, directed by Mark Totte; CUR-<br />
RY SCENT, directed by Christa Boarini;<br />
GOOD BAD THINGS, directed by Shane<br />
D. Stanger; and PUDDYSTICKS, directed<br />
by Megan Seely.<br />
Narrative films in the <strong>2024</strong> slate also include:<br />
Janis Pugh’s CHUCK CHUCK<br />
BABY, Jason Cannon’s CLOWNS LIKE<br />
ME, Joanna Arnow’s THE FEELING<br />
THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOME-<br />
THING HAS PASSED, Agnieszka Holland’s<br />
GREEN BORDER, Vito Trupiano’s<br />
HELLBENT ON BOOGIE, Natalie Mac-<br />
Mahon’s THE MEANING OF A RITUAL,<br />
Ken Loach’s THE OLD OAK, and Matt<br />
Winn’s THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA.<br />
Alongside the film programming, this<br />
year’s SFF features nightly events, including<br />
an Opening Night Party at the Sarasota<br />
Modern, Closing Night reception at<br />
Sage, filmmaker receptions at Art Avenue<br />
Gallery, and the Fantastical Friday Night<br />
Street Party in the Rosemary District on<br />
April 12, produced by SRQ Beats.<br />
This year’s festival poster artist is Diana<br />
Dubrovska. Dubrovska, a Ukrainian artist<br />
who found refuge in California after<br />
fleeing the horrors of war, brings her experiences<br />
to life through her vibrant and<br />
dynamic artwork.<br />
This year’s festival will also feature a new<br />
partnership with USA Swimming, formed<br />
in conjunction with the Open Water National<br />
Championships taking place May 3-5<br />
at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park. SFF<br />
will welcome athletes and representatives<br />
from USA Swimming at this year’s edition<br />
to receive a donation directly supporting<br />
the USA Swimming Foundation, which<br />
aims to provide the opportunity for every<br />
person in the US to learn to swim.<br />
Tickets: www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/<br />
Festival Highlights<br />
• OPENING NIGHT FILM:<br />
BULL STREET<br />
In this stirring drama, a South Carolina<br />
small-town lawyer (Malynda Hale) faces<br />
local politics, an unwavering judge (Amy<br />
Madigan) and the town’s past in the battle<br />
of her life when her estranged father’s family<br />
tries to evict her and her grandmother<br />
(Loretta Devine) from the only home she<br />
has ever known.<br />
• CLOSING NIGHT FILM: THE<br />
LISTENER<br />
In this stirring testament to the power of<br />
empathy, Tessa Thompson (in a masterful<br />
performance) plays a crisis hotline worker<br />
enduring the pressures of her job in this<br />
new film from director Steve Buscemi.<br />
• NARRATIVE CENTERPIECE<br />
FILMS: THE LINE<br />
This chilling, nuanced thriller explores the<br />
moral ambiguity of loyalty to tradition,<br />
continued on next page ▶<br />
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2024</strong> WEST COAST WOMAN 23