The Berkshire International Film Festival returns this weekend, June 2 to 5, screening independent feature, documentary, short and family films on big screens across the county, with panel discussions and events focusing on filmmakers and artists from both sides of the camera.

Films will screen at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, the Triplex in Great Barrington (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and the Tanglewood Learning Institute in Lenox. They also have virtual films available for screening at home. Here are the films coming to the Tripex on Friday, June 3.

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Films on Friday

Listen — 9 a.m.

Dara Nevo, a young and dedicated soldier in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit, races against the clock to find a captured Israeli soldier hidden in Gaza. When Israel is faced with a prisoner swap that includes the man who killed her dad, Dara will stop at nothing to keep her father’s killer from freedom.

Berkshire Shorts — 9:30 a.m.

Filmmakers will be here for the screening.

THE SWEET TASTE OF FREEDOM (2022)
A man facing a lifetime prison sentence has 48 hours to put his life in order.

THE BACKPACK (2021) A small-town police Sergeant reflects on the collision of his roles within his community. On a ride along through the roads where he grew up, raised his children, coached his kids and their friends, and where he’s patrolled for 30+ years, memories come flooding in at every turn. We hear the emotional impact and trauma these roads hold for him, as well as how he has mended these wounds for himself and how he plans to for other police officers. By the end of the film, you see a man beyond the badge he wears.

HOW TO DISAPPEAR (2022)
A girl collects herself in her parked car at the gas station after doing something unimaginable. When the gas station clerk offers to help her, they form an unexpected connection.

IN RUINS (2022)
Secluded in a cabin in the woods, an aspiring writer struggles to complete his first work. To his surprise, he sees a man out on the lake he’s supposed to have to himself. When the two meet, their perspectives on artistic expression clash.

Black Square — 10 a.m.

Two art thieves have stolen the famous “Black Square” of the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich. They plan to meet their clients on a cruise ship to hand over the looted art. However, things are not going quite as planned. A weird cat-and-mouse chase develops on board – A comedy about art, friendship and fear of loneliness

Pasang — noon

PASANG chronicles Pasang Lhamu Sherpa’s tragic and inspiring journey to become the first Nepali woman to summit Everest in 1993. As an uneducated, indigenous woman and a Buddhist in a Hindu kingdom, Pasang’s dream to scale the legendary mountain pits her against family, foreign climbers, her own government, and nature itself. Her determined pursuit of Everest plays out within the context of her nation’s quest for democracy and the emergence of the commercial climbing industry. As told by the Nepalis who knew her, by some of the world’s most notable alpinists, and by Pasang herself, her historic quest would transfix her country and uplift a new generation’s belief in its possibilities.

A Crack In The Mountain — 12:30

Deep in the jungle of Central Vietnam lies a magnificent underground kingdom. Hang Son Doong (“mountain river cave”) is the largest cave passage in the world and a place of spectacular beauty. In 2014, Son Doong’s future was thrown into doubt when plans were announced to build a cable car into the cave. With the local community divided over the benefits this development would bring, the film follows those caught up in the unfolding events.

Zero Gravity — 1 p.m.

Zero Gravity is a powerful story about education, science and the next generation that follows a diverse group of middle school students who compete in a nationwide competition to code satellites aboard the International Space Station.

Ali and Ava — 3 p.m.

When Ali and Ava meet, both lonely for different reasons, sparks fly. Over a lunar month, a deep connection begins to grow, despite the legacy of Ava’s past relationship and Ali’s emotional turmoil at the breakdown of his marriage.

Open Field — 3:30 p.m.

They played by NFL rules in NFL stadiums. They won world championships. They’re at the top of their game. What else do they have to do to level the playing field? Meet quarterback Sami Grisafe, San Francisco 49ers coach Katie Sowers and other legends of women’s tackle football who played for the love of the game against all odds. With commentary from Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris and 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan, Open Field tells the story of the women who leave everything on the field in their drive for greatness, earning recognition and respect.

Full Time — 4 p.m.

Julie goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national strike breaks out, paralyzing the public transport system. The fragile balance that Julie has established is jeopardized. Julie then sets off on a frantic race against time, at the risk of faltering.

Photo by Riley Smith

Joshua Odjick and Phillip Lewitski lie side by side in the grass in the film Wildhood. Press image courtesy of the filmmaker

Wildhood — 6 p.m.

In a rural east-coast trailer park, Link lives with his toxic father and younger half-brother Travis. When Link discovers his Mi’kmaw mother could still be alive, it lights a flame and they make a run for a better life. On the road they meet Pasmay, a pow wow dancer drawn to Link. As the boys journey across Mi’kma’ki, Link finds community, identity, and love in the land where he belongs.

Bad Axe — 6:30 – p.m.

After leaving NYC for his rural hometown of Bad Axe, MI at the start of the pandemic, an Asian-American filmmaker documents his family’s struggles to keep their restaurant open. As fears of the virus grow, deep generational scars dating back to the Cambodian Killing Fields unearth between the family’s patriarch, Chun, and his daughter, Jaclyn. When the BLM movement takes center stage in America, the family uses their voice to speak out in their town where Trumpism runs deep. What unfolds is a real-time portrait of 2020 through the lens of this multicultural family’s fight to keep their American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and the trauma of having survived a genocide.

The Caviar Connection — 7 p.m.

Caucasian and Central Asian countries, most notably Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, are known for their dictatorial regimes, autocratic governments and multiple human rights violations towards their population, this film argues, but by using a right combination of soft power and corruption, they have been able to clean their reputation and become commercial partners to many countries.

Their most powerful allies sit in the Council of Europe or Western Parliaments and choose to turn a blind eye when confronted with their abuses. This systemic corruption and its tragic consequences show the limits of our democratic institutions in the West and are at the core of this investigation.

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