Sustainability at STL International Film Festival.

We’re super excited about the 2012 St. Louis International Film Festival (or SLIFF), which started this week! It’s such a great cultural opportunity, and we hope you’re able to check out a few.

It was hard work, drooling over all the great films that are going to be shown, but we managed to make it through the documentary listing and pick out films that include various themes of sustainability.

If you do catch any of these — please, let us know what you think! Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

A Fierce Green Fire
Sat, Nov 10th at 2:00pm
Webster U./Moore
“A Fierce Green Fire,” which premiered at Sundance, provides a big-picture overview of the environmental movement by telling stories of environmental activism and profiling an array of engaged people who strive to save the planet and the future. Chronicling grassroots and global movements over five decades, the film ranges across eras, linking the causes and placing equal emphasis on impassioned activism and explorations of broader ideas and deeper meanings.

Elemental
Sun, Nov 11th at 4:15pm
Plaza Frontenac Cinema
“Elemental” follows three outsiders who are obsessed by nature and driven by a deep desire to change the status quo.

Deadline in Disaster & Heartland: A Portrait of Survival
Thu, Nov 15th at 6:30pm
Plaza Frontenac Cinema
“Heartland” offers a moving snapshot of close-knit Joplin, Mo., which must crawl from beneath the rubble and make sense of the widespread loss caused by one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in American history. The film weaves together the stories of nine families as they traverse a now-unfamiliar landscape in the hope of recovering some sense of home.

More than 100 residents died, thousands of lives changed, and one indispensable community newspaper endured. “Deadline in Disaster” chronicles how the Joplin Globe helped its town find hope in the aftermath of the EF-5 tornado that nearly destroyed Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011.

I Am Eleven & The Children of Rowdy Ridge
Sun, Nov 18th at 1:00pm
Plaza Frontenac Cinema
“I Am Eleven” is a life-affirming global portrait of humanity that focuses on a series of 11-year-olds from 15 countries, each speaking in their own words and revealing the private obsessions and public concerns that animate their lives.

“The Children of Rowdy Ridge” profiles kids who attend a camp that brings survivors of domestic abuse or addiction into nature.

Watershed & Within the Flow of Life
Sun, Nov 11th at 1:00pm
Tivoli Theatre
In “Watershed,” Ehlert joins a diverse group – a rancher, a delta-restoration worker, a Navajo Council member, a Colorado town mayor, and a group of Outward Bound teens – to raft the Colorado River and reflect on a compelling new approach that can balance competing interests and meet the water needs of a growing population.

In “Within the Flow of Life”, Austrian Gregor Sieböck is trekking through Chile and Argentina’s shared Patagonia region, introducing the viewers to an array of Patagonian residents working to prevent the scarring of the region’s astonishing beauty.

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You can get full descriptions of these and other documentaries, shorts, and full length features at http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012. Tickets are also available for purchase online, but you can also volunteer at the showings if your theatre-going budget doesn’t cover your interest (like us!).