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Stephen Sporer, Writer
Stephen Sporer (sporer@macalester.edu) works at Macalester College in St. Paul and has reviewed films for KTFM, San Antonio’s most popular radio station. He recently moved to the Twin Cities from New York, where he studied theater at Sarah Lawrence College as well as acting and singing at a wide range of venues.
Film note: The girl got game
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival is known for serving up cinematic offerings from virtually every corner of the globe, so one might expect to see only highbrow, dramatic films. However, the festival features several family-friendly films as well. MORE »
Film note: Shorts, but sweet
One of the most enjoyable movie watching experiences each year is when the five Oscar-nominated short films are screened back-to-back. Watching these shorts is a miniature lesson on the latest trends in filmmaking. Often these films—especially the animated ones—are geared to children. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival has programmed Time for Shorts specifically with children in mind. The six short films in the program add up to a total of 70 minutes and run a gamut of topics and styles. MORE »
Film note: Ellen Page in "Fragments"
At the beginning of The Tracey Fragments, one of the selections from Canada in this year’s Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, the character Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) says, “I’m Tracey Berkowitz, and I’m just your average teenager who hates herself.” MORE »
Film note: If the zebras get it, why don't we?
Everyone remembers the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth—perhaps because of its connection to Al Gore, perhaps because of its Academy Award win for Best Documentary, or hopefully, if they weren’t lost in all the hype, the disturbing facts the film presented about global warming. MORE »
Film note: "Big Dreams, Little Tokyo"
An offering from the ‘American Cinema’ section of the Filmfest, Big Dreams, Little Tokyo is a light-on-its-feet, off-beat comedy about a determined American businessman obsessed—and I mean obsessed—with Japan. MORE »
