It’s here! SIFF returns to in-person (and online) format this year beginning on Thursday night with a screening of Navalny at the Paramount followed by a gala in the street (like audiences and juries, the vital and thrilling documentary wowed us at Sundance; it’s a home run for a SIFF opener). By now, we’re all used to outdoor dining; so the springlike weather with its cool temperatures and ever-present threat of showers shouldn’t pose too much of an imposition. This is a city that knows well the virtues of layering so a little weather shouldn’t dampen the mood of a crowd eager to celebrate the return of its signature film festival. 

Below, we each highlight a few films to look forward to in the opening days of the festival as it kicks into full gear on Friday.

My love for comedies has no bounds. Typically I watch films to escape, and I realize that seems pretty limiting considering all the documentaries, dramas and thrillers out there but comedies will forever be my first love. Over the last year as I binge watched like I’ve never binged before, I started to realize Netflix originals, new releases and even HBO are all full of dramas and downers, murders and destruction, depression and angst. I welcome any and all stories, but during a pandemic I don’t find comfort in reality or looking down the barrel of our dismal ecological future. Can a girl just laugh? Damn. The three movies I’m going to talk about below may have had a little strife here and there but they were just fun and heartfelt, exactly what I needed right now.

Official Competition films There is No Evil and Under the Open Sky had found a perpetual spot on my “watch later” queue, but when I saw that they secured top spots among the audience awards, I knew that I had to use the waning hours of SIFF Privilege to make them my Closing Night double feature (with apologies to Rosa’s Wedding).

Three SIFF documentaries to get you fired up about fighting the power.