Festivals Previews

SIFF reopens in-person theaters tonight(!!) with their first-ever DocFest

by Chris Burlingame

It’s hard to believe that it’s eighteen months before SIFF was showing in-person screenings at their theaters. I am having a hard time hiding my excitement. When SIFF shut down on Friday the 13th of March 2020, I don’t think anyone expected it would take until tonight for the theaters to properly open to audiences. But here we are.

Tonight is the beginning of SIFF’s inaugural documentary festival called, appropriately enough, DocFest. It showcases thirteen new documentaries, starting tonight with a film about the legendary eighties synth-pop band a-ha and wrapping up a week from tonight with a screening of a mountain-climbing doc called The Sanctity of Space.

Here at SunBreak Global HQ, we are planning reviews of a veto-proof supermajority of the thirteen films written by myself and Jenn Misko along with updates and news on our social media channels. Be sure to check back here early and often.

What should you see at DocFest? There’s plenty. Josh wrote favorably of The Rescue and Flee when he saw them at other festivals earlier in the year, and Jenn offers a couple of suggestions:

  • Try Harder!: a doc about current high school seniors at a top San Francisco school navigating the brutally stressful college application process, painting a portrait of today’s competitive educational landscape “with humor and heart”.
  • The Sanctity of Space: one of two films in the fest to screen in-person only with no virtual component (playing exclusively on Thursday, October 7), this doc traces the footsteps of legendary mountaineer, explorer and photographer Bradford Washburn, via three present-day climbers exploring the mountains of Alaska.

How will this work? Each movie will be shown at the Egyptian Theater one time between tonight and Monday evening, save for The Sanctity of Space, which will, again, have it’s screening next Thursday evening. Between Monday at 12:01AM and Thursday at midnight, all movies that aren’t Flee and The Sanctity of Space will be streaming on SIFF’s virtual cinema streaming platform.

Some of the films will also be featuring Q&As with the directors. The list and times for those are:

Friday, October 1Time: 4:45 p.m.Film: Storm LakeParticipants:

  • Co-directors, Beth Levison and Jerry Risius
  • Subject, Art Cullen
  • Moderator, Brier Dudley

Saturday, October 2Film: In Balanchine’s ClassroomTime: 11:00 a.m.Participants:

  • Director, Connie Hochman
  • Former dancers for Balanchine, Stephanie Saland and Terri Lee Straton (ne Port)

Film: North By Current

Time: 2:30 p.m.

Participant: Director, Angelo Madsen Minax

Sunday, October 3

Film: The Conservation Game

Time: 11 a.m.

  • Participant: Director, Michael Webber

Film: The Neutral Ground

Time: 2:30 p.m.

  • Participant: Director, CJ Hunt

Thursday, October 7

Film: Sanctity of Space

Time: 6:30 p.m.

  • Participant: Co-director, Renan Ozturk

More information and tickets can be found on SIFF’s website.