SIFF 2023: Five Movies You Must See!

Guest post by Vida Behar

There are so many amazing films showing at SIFF this year that looking through the program can feel a bit overwhelming! To help you choose, I’ve picked out some of my top selections from the festival.

Circus of the Scars
This documentary follows the epic rise and fall of the unlikely punk-rock circus sideshow act that emerged from the seedy underbelly of Seattle, WA, and went on to find international success. It is a saga that interestingly coincides with the rise of Grunge from dive bars into the mainstream in the early 1990s. The wacky characters that make up the former sideshow performers are humanized, and their relationships fleshed out through thoughtful, incisive interviews. I particularly enjoyed the playful editing style, which featured liberal usage of cartoonish sound effects, fun-house mirror distortions of documentary footage, and psychedelic film colorizations. Certainly not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, this fascinating film dives head-first into the world of ‘sex, drugs, and sideshow.’

The Grab
In our modern reality where the productive capacities of earth are being transformed by climate change, food and water resources are becoming the new oil. Investigative journalist Nate Halverson begins by following the money on a historic pig farming deal, a journey which eventually leads him to exposing the ‘second scramble for Africa.’ This time, neo-colonialists are scrambling for Africa’s agricultural resources rather than its minerals. Documentarian Gabriela Cowperthwaite paints a disturbing portrait of the insidious methods of power-hungry private investors such as Erik Prince. This is a nuanced story featuring interviews with both former mercenaries and CIA operatives and members of the disenfranchised communities that are fighting back. Everyone should watch this ground-breaking documentary.

Art for Everybody
At once the most mainstream and controversial artist of his time, Thomas Kinkade is known best for his cloyingly pastoral painted landscapes which have graced everything from calendars to Christmas ornaments in homes all over America. After his passing, his daughters share previously unseen works that reveal him to be a far more experimental artist than anyone had believed. But who was Kinkade, really? And what did his art represent? Rather than forcing an interpretation, this thoughtful, well-paced documentary raises more questions than it answers. Interviews reveal that Kinkade was far more hurt that he wasn’t being acknowledged at all by the Art world than by the sting of receiving negative criticism from it. Director Miranda Yousef thus pays respect to Kinkade’s artistic legacy by engaging with his work in the nuanced way that he himself lamented the lack of during his own life.

Mother Superior
The shadow of WWII is like a thick blanket of fog that hangs over 1970s Austria where Sigrun, a young woman raised in the foster system, takes a job as a nurse for an eccentric baroness whom she suspects holds the keys to the mystery of her past. On a mission to seeks out the truth of her origins, what she is confronted with is far more bizarre and sinister than anyone could have imagined. I found it deeply disturbing thanks to the slow pacing which built up suspense and the imaginative yet sparing usage of special effects. The striking visual imagery of the film pairs perfectly with the understated yet chilling soundtrack. Nothing happened the way I expected it to, and by the end I was left breathless.

My Love Affair with Marriage
This animated musical for adults follows Zelma, a young girl living in communist Latvia, over the course of the 23 years in which she becomes a woman. Wanting nothing more than to be accepted, Zelma’s quest for love is shaped by internalized patriarchal pressures, as embodied by the singing Mythology Sirens. Zelma’s inner conflict between these pressures and her own biology is externalized through a surreal visual language that personifies her own Biology in its struggles against the Mythology Sirens. The film’s whimsical animation style layers ever-shifting hand-drawn figures over fanciful stop-motion backgrounds. This is a feminist story that is as moving as it is magical.

Vida Behar is a freelance writer, artist, and illustrator based in Seattle, Washington. Reach her at vidabehar@gmail.com. View her writing portfolio at https://vidabehar.wordpress.com, her design portfolio at https://vidabehar.my.canva.site/portfolio, and her art portfolio at https://vbehar.artstation.com/