We’ve had a whole weekend to sup up all the delicious morsels that SIFF has laid out for us, how’ve you fared so far? Of course this fantastic experience happens just as the best weather we’ve seen for a loooong time pops up in the PNW, but there’ll be more sunny days. I say stay in and gather ye rosebuds another day (or maybe watch a film, grab a rosebud, repeat).
So far my experience has been pretty dang great. Like Chris mentioned, the entirety of the festival is wide open to us all from start to finish (4/8-4/18) of the festival. Another cool thing to note is even if you miss the live Q&As, they “attach” them to each film’s page so you can watch that even after it has happened. For other virtual fests, this has been a complaint of mine. Only having a day or even a few hours where you’re able to watch a particular film feels like you’re missing out so getting the chance to view any film at any time is a BIG WIN for us at The Sunbreak. However, there are still some stellar scheduled events like interviews and discussions and that’s what I’m here to tell you about.
SIFF has created a handy dandy calendar for us to keep track of all the live events going on throughout the week (and weekend). And in case you didn’t catch it on first glance, this calendar has direct zoom links to all these talks so just click on the square and it takes you straight there at the time of the discussion. If you’d like a full listing of all the events this week just head over to SIFF and they’ll give you the low-down.
I’m really excited to see that they’re honing in on indigenous and POC-specific content for these events more than anything else. Honestly, I’m excited to see them creating clusters of films based on this as well. They’ve always been pretty sensitive, especially about acknowledging indigenous lands, but this year it seems they’ve gone a step beyond and want to curate discussion throughout the festival as well.
I haven’t seen the film yet (something I’ll definitely fix today), a really interesting and relevant discussion to us here in Seattle and greater Pacific Northwest is the chat for Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. The film itself is a discussion on the history of racism in America, but follows the decades’ long efforts by a Seattle son, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, Jeffery Robinson. It digs up the awful past for us all to see and unveils our role (whomever you are) in it. Looking forward to hearing not only what the director has to say but the “audience” as well!
And of course, the ceremony to honor Tom Skerritt’s impressive and vast body of work is this Thursday at 6:30pm so make sure you get your ticket for that event before it sells out. You can see his feature film, East of the Mountains, as well as a Q&A with the director right now if you’re a passholder, or you can nab a ticket here.
However you decide to enjoy your festival we’d love to hear from you! Tell us your pain points and your excitement for this weird new world of digital festivals. Keep an eye out for our mid-fest check in from The Sunbreak staff and more reviews to come.
Keep up with us during the festival on Twitter (@thesunbreak) and follow all of our ongoing coverage via our SIFF 2021 page.