Sonoma International Film Festival begins July 30 with remote screenings

For the Sonoma International Film Festival, at last the show will go on, but via remote screenings from Thursday, July 30 through Sunday, Aug. 2.

Film enthusiasts can enjoy the remarkable variety of features, shorts and documentaries from around the globe without having to leave home, even if they live outside Sonoma County.

The festival, initially scheduled for last March before the coronavirus forced organizers to scrap those plans, includes almost all of the films originally scheduled. A few had to be dropped wit the move to the later date due to distribution rights restrictions.

Festival Director Kevin McNeely had hoped to offer some in-person events at a pop-up drive-in theater at an airport south of Sonoma, but in the end decided to play it safe.

“With everything going on, if one person got sick,” it wouldn’t be worth the risk, McNeely said.

Now featuring more than 110 films from about 20 countries, the 23rd annual Sonoma International Film Festival specializes in films you’re unlikely to see through mainstream channels.

Films such as the lavishly produced “Born a King,” which screens July 31 at 8:30 p.m., follows Faisal, the 13-year-old son of the first king of Saudi Arabia.

Some films, such as “Born a King,” can only be seen at a specific time; others can be streamed throughout the festival’s duration.

A highlight is a real-life thriller, “The Cave,” about a soccer team and their coach trapped underground in northern Thailand. “Don’t miss that one,” McNeely said.

The festival won’t have post-film conversations with filmmakers or celebrities that have been the standard in past years. In the virtual format, festival organizers felt it best to concentrate on the films themselves.

“People tend not to stick around for the post-film talk,” McNeely said.

Among the big attractions that had to be cut was 83-year-old Louis Gossett Jr., who was scheduled to appear at the West Coast premier of “The Cuban” for the festival. The film still will be screened.

Festival organizers had planned to show the controversial film “Vaxxed II: The People’s Truth,” which tells the stories of people who believe they’ve been injured by vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an executive producer of “Vaxxed II,” was scheduled to appear at the festival’s screening, but organizers decided to remove the film from the program.

“In a time when the whole world is hoping for a vaccine, it didn’t seem appropriate to show an anti-vax film,” McNeely said.

McNeely noted that the festival isn’t “theme-oriented,” so it can feature a wide variety of films.

“We want to program in a way that gives our festival-goers a different look, different customs, cultures, languages, different ways of thinking from all parts of the world without ever having to leave Sonoma Valley.”

Of course, McNeely acknowledged, “there’s nothing like a live festival,” but the film program is “so impactful, moving and entertaining” that it deserved to be shared with loyal festival supporters.

Among McNeely’s can’t-miss picks in the updated virtual festival:

“The Artist’s Wife,” about a renowned artist suffering from dementia and his wife’s attempt to chart her future. Featuring Lena Olin.

“Colewell” featuring Karen Allen as the postmaster of a soon-to-be-shuttered post office in Pennsylvania.

“Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art” chronicles how an anonymous outlaw in Bristol, England, became the leader of the graffiti revolution.

“U-235” is a World War II thriller about Belgian resistance fighters seeking to capture a German submarine to get the uranium needed to fuel atomic bombs.

“The Great American Lie,” directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, takes on income and opportunity inequality and examines the misguided spending priorities in the United States. Yes, Siebel Newsom’s husband is the governor of California; she’s known for her film “Miss Representation.”

“The Path of the Anaconda” follows Canadian naturalist Wade Davis as he visits the Colombian Amazon and meets indigenous people. “This is God’s primary laboratory,” Davis says.

Separately, the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, which usually happens around the same time as the Sonoma festival and which also was canceled in March, has launched a series called “Docs Make House Calls” featuring films that were scheduled for its festival last March.

The current program, which runs through Sunday July 26, includes “That’s My Jazz” and “The Poster Boys” and costs $12.

The Sebastopol festival also has a program featuring environmental activism from July 31 to Aug. 9. “The Wild” documents how the EPA rolled back protection for salmon-spawning streams, threatening the most prodigious wild sockeye run in the world.

“Eye of the Pangolin” reveals how these inquisitive prehistoric-looking animals have been nearly wiped out because of the dubious belief throughout much of Asia in medicinal value of their scales. A film called “L’Eau est la Vie” (Water is Life) rounds out the program.

Said Jean McGlothlin, co-director of the Sebastopol festival, “2020 has been a real roller coaster for us. After the festival was shuttered, we received word that Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival has been approved as an Academy-qualifying festival for the Documentary Short Subject category."

For details on the Sebastopol festival, go to sebdocs.org.

Michael Shapiro writes about travel, food and the arts.