Looking at the full Sidewalk Film Festival lineup can be daunting. We know this, and we’re the ones who built it! It can be fun to just show up for a movie you know nothing about and be surprised by what you see, but sometimes it’s easier to make your choices if you know what you’re getting into. So if you’re still building your personal schedule, here are six films from the festival you may want to see — and we tried to help a bit more by making some comparisons to some things you may have already seen.
If you liked Moonlight…
Then you’ll like Exhibiting Forgiveness
This year’s Opening Night selection not only shares a cast member with Barry Jenkins’ 2016 Oscar-winning masterpiece in Alabama’s own Andre Holland, it shares its humanism, sensitivity and compassion for all its characters. In telling the story of Holland’s central character, an acclaimed artist whose creative and personal life is rocked by the sudden reemergence of his addict father (an amazing performance from John Earl Jelks), Exhibiting Forgiveness examines how we can rise from the ashes of a traumatic childhood and rebuild ourselves anew, while asking difficult questions about what it means to forgive those who made our childhoods traumatic. On top of its many other sterling attributes, Titus Kaphar’s feature debut also costars Oscar nominees Andra Day and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Sidewalk is proud to open our 26th festival with this excellent drama with its excellent director and star, Kaphar and Holland, in attendance!
Friday, Aug. 23, 7 p.m. Alabama Theatre
If you liked The Nightingale…
Then you’ll like The Devil’s Bath
The latest film from Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala (The Lodge, Goodnight Mommy) is a harsh and uncompromising look at the agonizing depression of a newlywed wife in rural 18th century Austria, and a terrible epidemic of consequences that result from patriarchal oppression and inflexible religious doctrine. A relentlessly bleak and particularly brutal watch, viewers who found themselves fleeing from Jennifer Kent’s masterful The Nightingale should stay away, but steely sorts looking for a quasi-horror film that examines the banal torture of domestic repression will enjoy themselves… if “enjoy” is the right term.
Saturday, Aug. 24, 7:30 p.m. Alabama Theatre
If you liked Art for Everybody…
Then you’ll like Seeking Mavis Beacon
Why did one of the most popular software programs for teaching typing at the dawn of personal computing use a Haitian-born model on its cover? In Seeking Mavis Beacon, two young filmmakers/investigators dig into the program’s legacy, particularly on young Black women with an interest in technology for whom Mavis Beacon was an unexpected inspiration — even though she was a fictitious figure. Seeking Mavis Beacon isn’t just an investigative doc on a pop culture subject, though, as the filmmakers document their own lives, the making of this film and a broader examination of the intersection of technology and identity.
Sunday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m. Carver Theatre
If you liked Parasite…
Then you’ll like Sleep
In this Korean black comedy-horror film, a newlywed husband (the late Lee Sun-kyun of Parasite) starts committing increasingly disturbing acts in his sleep. What’s the cause — something medical or supernatural? His wife (Jung Yu-mi of Train to Busan) can only watch in horror as her husband’s unconscious behavior grows worse — until she decides to take action to solve the problem herself, and things, somehow, get even stranger. A deft mixture of tones and genre that could only come from South Korea, Sleep recalls the slippery thrillers of Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, proving hard to pin down and even harder to predict what’s coming next.
Sunday, Aug. 25, 10 a.m. Alabama Theatre
If you liked The Daily Show…
Then you’ll like No One Asked You
The story of a group of comics who go on a reproductive rights-related comedy tour to protest the narrowing of abortion access (including a memorable visit to Birmingham), No One Asked You depicts the push back against our nation’s misogynistic erosion of bodily autonomy and civil liberties in funny, furious and unforgettable ways. Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of The Daily Show, hits the road with her Abortion Access Front and fellow comedians and activists, and places herself at the frontline of the abortion rights debate by visiting and supporting providers and clinics besieged by protestors and hypocritical politicians.
Saturday, Aug. 24, 5 p.m. First Church Birmingham
If you liked Buzzard…
Then you’ll like Vulcanizadora
It’s fair to say Sidewalk loves the films of Joel Potrykus — largely deadpan, grimy examinations of arrested development in modern men — and Vulcanizadora, a sequel to Buzzard, might be his best work yet, following his thematic concerns to an unavoidably bleak but logical conclusion. Vulcanizadora follows Marty (Joshua Burge) and Derek (Potrykus) as they trek into the Michigan woods. As in Buzzard, the talkative Derek chatters away as Marty broods — but this is a trip that only gradually reveals itself to be far darker than your average camping excursion. And when their plans go awry, the film morphs into an examination of immaturity, existential dissatisfaction, and the walls men can erect around them to avoid being damaged by their own feelings or the consequences of their own actions.
Saturday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m. Sidewalk Cinema Theater B
We are extremely excited about all of these titles in our lineup and hope you grab a VIP or Weekend Pass to see them all!
Passes and Premium Single Tickets are available TODAY at sidewalkfest.com/tix.
Cinema Programming Director, Corey Craft