SIFF 2024 Reactions

A complete wave of happiness took over me as I bolted from a second viewing of BOB TREVINO LIKES IT all the way down to the SIFF Cinema Downtown to see the premiere screening of the wonderful indie comedy EMPIRE WAIST at the Seattle Film Festival. The movie has an additional screening on Saturday, so […]

Many people back home ask me why I travel to another city to attend movies at film festivals and why I put up with all of the cost and transit, and it’s for movies that you can’t see back home or want to discover a new talent that you may not know about.  BOB TREVINO […]

I am cranking out my documentary reviews for the Seattle International Film Festival today, and one to put on your radar for Sunday is the doc LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH about the legend known as Luther Vandross. This was also the opening night movie of HotDocs in Toronto a few weeks ago! Program Notes: There’s […]

Hungry? Make sure you eat before or get an extra large popcorn before settling down to the enjoyable Seattle International Film Festival documentary SUSAN FENIGER: FORKED, playing Thursday at the SIFF Cinema Uptown. There are a few restaurants, Dick’s Hamburgers across the street and likely food at the SIFF lounge up the street. Just saying. […]

I feel at times that the Seattle International Film Festival is like a “SxSW Catchup” festival for me, as earlier this week I was presented with this lovely documentary that has been making its way across the festival circuit and another one I missed in Austin. About: Hidden in New York’s Hudson Valley, far from […]

More and more docs are surfacing on my radar at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, and GRANDPA GURU is one that is based out of Seattle itself! Festival Notes: Attend the tale of Srđan “Gino” Jevđević, whose later nickname provided the title of Silvio Mirošničenko’s rock doc—an aspiring musician and free spirit who grew […]

If you read my South By Southwest coverage this year, you may have noticed it had a LOT of gaps in coverage, mostly because I made the mistake of waiting in line too long to cover some of the much bigger movies. RESYNATOR was one that I just couldn’t fit into the schedule but after […]

Ready for a documentary ABOUT a cinema? SCALA!!! has you covered, with two screenings happening at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival. Festival Notes: The wild history of the Scala Cinema in King’s Cross, London, a repertory house of ill repute with enough nose-thumbing alternative programming, midnight madness, illicit pornography, and transgressive politics that it […]

I want to preface this reaction review by mentioning that my primary sources of drink are coffee as a delivery device of caffeine to survive film festivals and various forms of water in filtered and carbonated form, preferably without sugar. Beer is the furthest choice in my mind when selecting a drink, however I am […]

It’s a sunny, warm time at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, but with a movie like SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS, it’s totally okay to get a little bit in the festive season. Go ahead, it’s good for you. About: Christmas—it’s the most wonderful time of the year, except when it isn’t. In a quiet […]

Part of the family series of documentaries playing at SIFF, WHY DINOSAURS? is an absolute delight through and through, and the doc plays on this first weekend AND the last one. Don’t miss it, and bring the family! About: Why Dinosaurs? traces the humble beginnings, explorations, and a few different fascinating findings of self-confessed dinosaur enthusiast […]

I have seen many documentaries ahead of and at SIFF this year and THE RIDE AHEAD comes swinging right out of the gate with its first weekend premiere at the SIFF Cinema Uptown! About: Samuel Habib is an adventurous, cool, 20-year-old disabled guy who says things like, “Taking risks makes me feel proud, powerful, confident, […]

I am always a fan of the the midnight section at film festivals, so of course I had to go check the opening night movie out! Though it was lightly attended, I made my first ever visit to the mammoth SIFF Cinema Egyptian, a true palace of a cinema that feels authentic and old the […]

Getting more and more into SIFF features from all over the world, I wanted to focus on a movie made in Seattle’s own yard this time around. TIM TRAVERS & THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX is a wacky sci-fi parable that is for anyone interested in time travel movies. Yeah, you know the one in particular. […]

Leading off my official reactions to SIFF this year, I wanted to start with a movie that comes right from back home. I’M JUST HERE FOR THE RIOT played at last fall’s Vancouver International Film Festival to high acclaim. As I wasn’t at that festival last fall (Toronto is so close that it gets in […]