documentary Festivals SIFF

It is once again time for SIFF DocFest

by Chris Burlingame

The time is nigh for SIFF to kick off its third(!) DocFest, a festival of many of the most interesting documentaries around the world. It all goes down starting tonight and running through next Wednesday at the Uptown. I’m most interested in catching two documentaries about two very different writers: John LeCarre and Tom Wolfe. But there’s a lot more to catch the attention of us documentary lovers.

DocFest once again remains UnRedacted-less, which is unfortunate, but there is still a lot I’m interested in catching. Here’s the entire program:

Going Varsity in Mariachi (USA | 2022 | 105 minutes | Alejandra Vasquez, Sam Osborn)
Dive into the dramatic world of competitive high school mariachi, as coach Abel Acuña grapples with his school’s shoestring budget and a diverse crew of inexperienced musicians in a quest to reach the state championships.

  • October 5, 2023, 7:00 PM: The film will be preceded by a live performance from Mariachi Monarcas from 6-7pm.

Radical Wolfe (USA | 2023 | 76 minutes | Richard Dewey)
Richard Dewey’s enlightening portrait of legendary writer Tom Wolfe, the debonair, contrarian author whose provocative work blurred the lines between reporting and literature, playing a monumental role in American journalism.

  • October 6, 2023, 4:30 PM

Silver Dollar Road (USA | 2023 | 100 min. | Raoul Peck)
Academy-Award Nominee Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) returns with the shocking story of a Black family in North Carolina combating decades of harassment by land developers trying to seize their waterfront property.

  • October 6, 2023, 7:00 PM

Maestra (USA | 2023 | 88 minutes | Maggie Contreras)
Five women from around the world gather to compete in the prestigious, ultra-competitive “La Maestra” competition, the only competition in the world for female classical orchestra conductors.

  • October 7, 2023, 1:00 PM: Sunny Xia (Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor, Seattle Symphony) scheduled to attend.

Invisible Nation (USA | 2023 | 85 minutes | Vanessa Hope)
With unprecedented access to Taiwan’s sitting head of state, director Vanessa Hope’s eye-opening documentary investigates the election and tenure of Tsai Ing-wen, the first female president of Taiwan.

  • October 7, 2023, 4:00 PM: Director Vanessa Hope, Executive Producer Patrick Pfupajena, and Producers Ted Hope, Arie Thompson, and Ivan Orlic are scheduled to attend, along with James Lin (Associate Chair, UW Taiwan Studies Program).

 

Plan C (USA | 2023 | 94 minutes | Tracy Droz Tragos)
Shot over the course of four years, Plan C takes us into a clandestine network of activists and physicians, fighting to keep abortion pills available in the face of crumbling reproductive rights across the US.

  • October 7, 2023, 7:00 PM: Post-film discussion with Amy Merrill (one of the founders of PLAN C), lead editor Meredith Perry, Amelia Bonow (Shout Your Abortion), Mercedes Sanchez (Cedar River Clinics), and Dr. Ying Zhang (UW Assoc Professor of Family Medicine).

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (France | 2023 | 240 minutes | Frederick Wiseman)
A food-lover’s dream, legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s latest film is a luxurious look behind-the-scenes of France’s celebrated restaurant La Maison Troigros, which has held three Michelin stars for over five decades.

  • October 8, 2023, 1:00 PM


A Song Film By Kishi Bashi: “Omoiyari”(USA | 2023 | 75 minutes | Justin Taylor Smith, Kaoru Ishibashi)
Violinist and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi (better known as Kishi Bashi) embarks on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.

  • Previous coverage
  • October 8, 2023, 7:00 PM: Producer JJ Gerber scheduled to attend, and beforehand at Traveling Goat from 5:00-7:00pm there is a happy hour sponsored by Seattle Documentary Association.

La Huella, The Story of a Beach Bar/Resto (Argentina | 2022 | 70 minutes | Alessio Rigo de Righi)
Twenty years ago, three friends challenged each other to build a beach restaurant in a small, Uruguayan village. That simple seafood restaurant created a miraculous community, and became “The Best Beachside Restaurant on the Planet.”

  • October 9, 2023, 5:00 PM

Mutiny In Heaven (Australia | 2023 | 86 minutes | Ian White)
Featuring never-before-seen live archival footage, Mutiny In Heaven reveals the story of the legendary Australian band The Birthday Party, led by Nick Cave, in a thrilling tale of epic struggle, creative vision, and total dysfunctionality.

  • October 9, 2023, 7:30 PM

Time Bomb Y2K (USA | 2023 | 80 min. | Marley McDonald, Brian Becker)
A hilarious and human look back at the end of the 20th century, when fears rose that a ubiquitous coding error would cause the world’s computerized systems to grind to a halt, and armageddon loomed.

  • October 10, 2023, 5:00 PM

Copa 71 (United Kingdom | 2023 | 90 minutes | Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine)
Told by the pioneering women who participated in it, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women’s Soccer World Cup: a tournament that was written out of sporting history.

  • October 10, 2023, 7:30 PM: Producer Kim Nyhous and former OL Reign Academy coach Jan Smisek scheduled to attend.


Between the Rains (Kenya | 2023 | 83 minutes | Andrew H. Brown, Moses Thuranira)
In their visually stunning film, Moses Thuranira and Andrew H. Brown’s award-winning documentary explores a tribal boy’s childhood as he grows up in a traditional Kenyan culture that is a casualty of climate change.

  • October 11, 2023, 5:00 PM: Director Andrew H. Brown and Executive Producer Michal Pietrzyk scheduled to attend.

Richland (USA | 2023 | 94 minutes | Irene Lusztig)
Approaching the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Hanford reactor, Richland, Washington’s residents wrestle with both pride and ambivalence about their role in the Nagasaki bombing and the nuclear legacy they have left behind.

  • October 11, 2023, 7:00 PM: Director Irene Lusztig, Kathleen Flenniken (2012 Poet Laureate of Washington State), and Shannon Cram (University of Washington Department of Geography) scheduled to attend.

The Pigeon Tunnel (United Kingdom | 2023 | 94 minutes | Errol Morris)
Academy Award-winner Errol Morris creates an enthralling portrait of former British spy David Cornwell—a.k.a. writer John le Carré, whose classic novels changed how we perceive espionage in popular culture and the world.