Join Donate

Streaming Suggestions from SIFF

What to watch? Let us help.

SIFF programmers, staff, and friends chime in with suggested films to stream while we find ourselves with more time at home, and while our Cinemas are temporarily closed due to COVID-19. New suggestions will be posted weekly here and on our social media. Follow us on social @SIFFNews: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Andy Spletzer, Programmer

Enjoy clips and suggestions for movies that push the boundaries of cinema, starting with Jean-Luc Godard’s prototypical French New Wave film Breathless up through the viral video collage that makes up last year’s Lynch: A History. Along the way we highlight a couple of films you probably haven’t heard of but you definitely should see.

Breathless

Breathless

d. Jean-Luc Godard | 1960
The film that kicked off the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard used innovative and experimental techniques that have inspired filmmakers ever since, techniques now seen every day in places like YouTube. See also: Jump Cuts.

Where to Stream

Manifesto

Manifesto

d. Julian Rosefeldt | 2015
Cate Blanchett plays a dozen different characters performing a dozen different monologues inspired by a dozen different revolutionary art manifestos. It's a tour de force performance (series of performances) in a cinematic film that started its life as an art installation.

Where to Stream

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 1

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 1

d. William Greaves | 1968
Actor turned director William Greaves had an idea: To make a movie while simultaneously shooting the making of the movie, then combine everything together as a sort of documentary. The crew then adds another layer when they secretly shoot themselves questioning the whole experiment. It's like a real-life version of Tom DeCillo's film about the making of an indie film, Living in Oblivion.

Where to Stream

Chameleon Street

Chameleon Street

d. Wendell B. Harris, Jr. | 1990
A cross between Sorry to Bother You and Catch Me if You Can (long before either one existed), this poetic and provocative film is about a con man trying to make a living in a racist society that's stacked against him. Though it won the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990, it struggled to find distribution and is currently hard to find. That means you may need to buy it from Amazon for $10, but it's worth it.

Where to Stream

Lynch: A History

Lynch: A History

d. David Shields | 2019
Former Seahawk Marshawn Lynch got in trouble as much for what he didn't say as for what he did. Director and UW professor David Shields uses more than 700 video clips and a handful of literary quotes to weave together a collage that forms the underlying biography, but it's also about race and the exploitation of athletes and American society as a whole.

Where to Stream

Colleen O'Holleran, Programmer

SIFF WTF programmer Colleen O’Holleran chimes in with five Wild, Terrifying, and Fantastic recommendations that have screened at the Seattle International Film Festival in recent years.

The Devil’s Doorway

The Devil’s Doorway

d. Aislinn Clarke | Northern Ireland | 2018 | 76 min.
In 1960, two priests are sent to a Magdalene Laundry to investigate a miraculous event. The Devil's Doorway is not your typical found footage horror movie. Shot in 16mm, this film breathes new life into antichrist, religious mystery, witch, and possession tropes.

Where to Stream

Tigers Are Not Afraid

Tigers Are Not Afraid

d. Issa López | Mexico | 2017 | 83 min.
A horror fairytale set against the backdrop of Mexico's drug wars, Tigers are Not Afraid follows a group of orphaned children armed with three magical wishes who are running from the cartel that murdered their parents.

Where to Stream

Revenge

Revenge

d. Coralie Fargeat | France | 2017 | 108 min.
Revenge glories in the warpath of a woman intent on obliterating the men who did her wrong. It's a suspenseful story told in a delight of visual color and a body horror extravaganza that will make even the most ardent horror fan squirm.

Where to Stream

Greener Grass

Greener Grass

d. Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe | USA | 2019 | 97 min.
An absurdist, unsettling satire of upward mobility and political correctness from two Upright Citizens' Brigade alumni, Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, Greener Grass is a hilarious and dark look at suburbia gone wrong.

Where to Stream

Good Manners

Good Manners

d. Marco Dutra, Juliana Rojas | Brazil | 2017 | 135 min.
A lycanthropic film about a woman who hires a nurse to be the nanny of her soon-to-be born child, Good Manners begins as a mystery and unfolds as a tale about devotion and the lengths we go to for the ones we love.

Where to Stream

Marcus Gorman, Programmer

The Seattle International Film Festival has been home to hundreds of top American arthouse films for over 40 years now. SIFF programmer Marcus Gorman highlights five that deserve more recognition and, we hope, will brighten up your day and deepen your empathy.

At the End of the Tunnel

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

d. David Zellner | 2014
Follow up 1996's Fargo and all three seasons of Noah Hawley's television anthology adaptation, the latter of which is available on FX and Hulu, with this indie starring Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom, Babel) as a Japanese woman in pursuit of the missing satchel of cash from the original Coen Brothers film.

Where to Stream

Dope

Dope

d. Rick Famuyiwa | 2015
Rick Famuyiwa's ferociously fun teen crime comedy has a killer soundtrack and enough energy to power you through the next couple weeks.

Where to Stream

Other People

Other People

d. Chris Kelly | 2016
We've been processing a lot of grief recently, so I recommend this cathartic pressure valve from Chris Kelly (former SNL head writer, creator of Comedy Central's The Other Two), starring Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon.

Where to Stream

Brigsby Bear

Brigsby Bear

d. Dave McCary | 2017
If you appreciate the work that's gone into the episodes of Saturday Night Live made during the quarantine, you'd do well to rent this bizarre, bittersweet fable from cast member Kyle Mooney about a man raised in an underground bunker who has trouble acclimating to the real world.

Where to Stream

Never Goin’ Back

Never Goin’ Back

d. Augustine Frizzell | 2018
A female-forward hangout stoner comedy from Augustine Frizzell (HBO's Euphoria) that shakes off the subgenre's masculine tendencies but none of its goofy charm.

Where to Stream

Stan Shields, Programmer

Stan Shields highlights five Seattle International Film Festival hits and award winners.

At the End of the Tunnel

At the End of the Tunnel

d. Rodrigo Grande | Argentina | 120 min.
Wheelchair user and computer geek Joaquin is thrust into a dangerous game of survival, double-cross, and redemption when he discovers that his new neighbors, including a single mother whom he has feelings for, are planning a bank heist by tunneling under his home.

Where to Stream

The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia

The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia

d. Arturo Infante | Cuba/Germany | 92 min.
Stuck in a rut, former schoolteacher and planetarium guide Celeste Garcia is suddenly chosen to begin a new life on the planet Gyrok, leading to an unexpected journey to the center of her own life in this warm, funny debut feature.

Where to Stream

Sami Blood

Sami Blood

d. Amanda Kernell | Sweden |110 min.
A coming-of-age drama set in 1930s Sweden, Sami Blood stars Golden Space Needle Award-winner Lene Cecilia Sparrok as a rural Indigenous teen who attends a state school that pressures her to break ties with her family and culture.

Where to Stream

Sand Storm

Sand Storm

d. Elite Zexer | Israel | 87 min.
Two Bedouin women, a teenager and her mother, dare to defy polygamist marital traditions in southern Israel.

Where to Stream

Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You

d. Boots Riley | USA | 112 min.
Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, and Armie Hammer star in the exhilarating directorial debut of musician Boots Riley, a biting and bonkers satire that follows a black telemarketer who discovers an unknown skill which gives him magical selling powers that shoot him up the corporate ladder.

Where to Stream

Kathleen McInnis, Programmer

Miss the New Works-in-Progress Forum at the Seattle International Film Festival? Hear from its curator Kathleen McInnis in this video, as she shares a list of the films she’s currently watching including several New Works-in-Progress alum films.

The Dive

The Dive

d. Yona Rozenkier | 90 min.
It is Thursday and another war is hitting the northern part of Israel hard. Three brothers reunite in their childhood kibbutz to bury their father. Two days later the youngest has to go to war, and while he seeks guidance from his older siblings who have both experienced the battlefield, the homecoming soon spins out of control.

Where to Stream

Holiday

Holiday

d. Isabella Eklöf | 92 min.
Sascha, the young and beautiful trophy girlfriend of a Danish drug lord, arrives at his holiday villa in the seaside town of Bodrum, on the Turkish Riviera, where she is welcomed into his inner circle. Under the summer sun, she lives a carefree dream of luxury and fun until she meets Tomas, a Dutch traveler trying to discover himself.

Where to Stream

Julia Blue

Julia Blue

d. Roxy Toporowych | 88 min.
Julia, a photojournalism student living in post-revolutionary Ukraine,  finds her life disrupted after falling for a solider fresh from the war zone and suffering from PTSD. Capturing a fleeting love story in a very specific time and place, one year after the 2014 revolution in Kyiv, Julia Blue is a different kind of war narrative.

Where to Stream

The Other Side of Everything

The Other Side of Everything

d. Mila Turajlić | 100 min.
For Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlic, a locked door in her mother's apartment in Belgrade provides the gateway to both her remarkable family history and her country's tumultuous political inheritance.

Where to Stream

Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts

d. May el-Toukhy | 127 min.
Anne, a brilliant and dedicated advocacy lawyer specialising in society's most vulnerable, children and young adults, lives what appears to be the picture-perfect life with her doctor-husband, Peter, and their twin daughters. When her estranged teenage stepson, Gustav, moves in with them, Anne's escalating desire leads her down a dangerous rabbit hole which, once exposed, unleashes a sequence of events destined to destroy her world.

Where to Stream

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem

d. Muayad Alayan | 127 min.
The affair of a married Palestinian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages.

Where to Stream

Retablo

Retablo

d. Alvaro Delgado Aparicio | 101 min.
High in the Andes, a young boy is following his father's footsteps to become a master artisan. In a region renown for its' "Retablos", 14 year-old Segundo Paucar is learning to carry the family legacy on his own shoulders but he begins to understand the weight of his father's gift could keep him on the mountain forever.

Where to Stream

Dan Doody & Megan Leonard, Programmers

Dan Doody and Megan Leonard, Seattle International Film Festival ShortsFest Programmers, recommend six short films from past festivals that are available to watch online. 

Dan's Picks

Scary Larry

"Scary Larry"
d. Greg Ivan Smith | USA | 2015 | 13 min.
In 1952, four New England college students play a seemingly innocent card game which holds a terrifying ulterior motive.

Unleaded

"Unleaded"
d. Luke Davies | United Kingdom | 2015 | 8 min.
Three thugs attempting to rob a petrol station are interrupted by three stoners with a severe case of the munchies.

The Driver is Red

"The Driver is Red"
d. Randall Christopher | USA | 2018 | 15 min.
Argentina 1960—this true crime documentary follows secret agent Zvi Aharoni as he searches for a mysterious man named Ricardo Klement. What he discovered in the remote outskirts of Buenos Aires would send shockwaves around the world.

Megan's Picks

Miller & Son

"Miller & Son"
d. Asher Jelinsky | USA | 2019 | 21 min.
A mechanic lives between running their family's auto shop during the day and expressing themselves at night, until an unforeseen event threatens their compartmentalized life.

Fanny

"Fanny"
d. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel | Norway | 2017 | 29 min.
Fanny, a young woman in her mid-twenties, has just moved back to her hometown to start at the local University. During orientation she struggles to bond with the other students, and decides to seek out an old friendship.

Emergency

"Emergency"
d. Carey Williams | USA | 2017 | 12 min.
Faced with an emergency situation, a group of young Black and Latino friends carefully weigh the pros and cons of calling the police.

Stan Shields & Dustin Kaspar, Programmers

Stan Shields (SIFF's Festival Programming Manager) and Dustin Kaspar (SIFF's Educational Programs Manager and Festival Programmer) recommend six features and four shorts all made by Washington State filmmakers or featuring local subjects.

The Punk Singer

The Punk Singer

Feminism, punk music, and rare archival footage slam together in Sini Anderson's documentary on legendary musician and activist Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), featuring interviews including Joan Jett and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz.

Where to Stream

A Lot Like You

A Lot Like You

Director-Subject Eliaichi Kimaro's brilliant documentary examines the intricate fabric of multiracial identity, and grapples with the complex ties that children have to the cultures of their parents.

Where to Stream

Lane 1974

Lane 1974

Thirteen-year-old Lane lives in a communal wild and free world until her mother alienates their cohabitants and forces the family to bounce from one unlikely interaction to another. 

Where to Stream

Prospect

Prospect

An inventive sci-fi western where a father and daughter travel to a distant moon to unearth a massive deposit of rare gems, only to discover that they are not alone there, and will have to fight to survive.

Where to Stream

Zombies of Mass Destruction

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction

Life is idyllic in Port Gamble, WA....until a zombie virus outbreak! A fun political satire and a gory good time.

Where to Stream

Lynch: A History

Lynch: A History

A mesmerizing video collage rather than a traditional doc, this portrait of heroically controversial (ex-?) Seahawk Marshawn Lynch focuses on his narrative-controlling interview strategies in the context of race and media celebrity in America.

Where to Stream

Strowlers

Short Films

"Hagereseb"
A young boy in Yesler Terrace searches for keyboard batteries to facilitate one final music lesson before his older brother returns to Eritrea.

"Anaiyyun: Prayer for the Whale"
Whaling is a cultural cornerstone of Iñupiaq identity and the harvest of the bowhead whale is considered a gift.

"Breathe, Just Breathe"
A great reminder to take a moment to explore whatever space you may be in—in this case the Georgetown Steam Plant.

"Strowlers"
Travel the globe with this fun, well-crafted fantasy series that follows the outcasts and activists who exist on the magical fringes of modern society.

Dustin Kaspar & Nancy Pappas, Programmers

Dustin Kaspar (SIFF Educational Programs Manager and Seattle International Film Festival Programmer) and Nancy Pappas (Seattle International Film Festival African Pictures Programmer) recommend five films from Africa that are available for streaming:

Supa Modo

Supa Modo

A Kenyan love letter to the power of film finds a community rallying around a young girl with a terminal illness to make her the star of her own superhero film.

Where to Stream

Félicité

Félicité

This deeply affecting non-traditional musical follows a nightclub singer desperately looking across Kinshasa for money to support her son after a life-threatening accident.

Where to Stream

Silas

Silas

An empowering documentary portrait of a Liberian environmental activist as he shifts from grassroots activism to governmental policy.

Where to Stream

I Am Not a Witch

I Am Not a Witch

A visually striking Zambian fairy tale about a girl who is accused of witchcraft and her journey through the societal rejection and enterprising mysticism of her culture.

Where to Stream

Atlantics

Atlantics

Social commentary is brilliantly infused in this supernatural Senegalese debut feature that won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019.

Where to Stream

Beth Barrett, SIFF Artistic Director

SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett shares some of her favorite Q&A's at SIFF Cinema Egyptian.

The Farewell

The Farewell

My favorite Q&A from SIFF 2019 was hands down talking to Lulu Wang for her incredible film The Farewell, but the at-capacity opening day for the theatrical run was inspiring in so many ways. The value of the theatrical experience was at the heart of her plans for the film—she wanted it to be seen in community—and being able to participate in that is at the core of SIFF's mission—to create experiences around film that bring people together.

Where to Stream

20 Feet from Stardom

20 Feet from Stardom

Magical. The only word for our SIFF 2013 Centerpiece Gala screening of 20 Feet from Stardom, with a live performance from Merry Clayton and Tata Vega.

Where to Stream

After the Storm

After the Storm

In 2016, Hirokazu Kore-eda was in Seattle for the Festival, and presented his quiet masterpiece After the Storm to a sold-out audience. Once of the masters of Japanese cinema, it was a treat to be able to share that experience.

Where to Stream

Chicken People

Chicken People

In a high-stakes world where a single broken feather can mean a shattered dream, these competitors are playing at the highest level. That's right, it's Chicken People. Sharing the stage with competitive chickens really upped my game.

Where to Stream

To Die For

To Die For

The Q&A that started it all—1995's To Die For with Gus Van Sant and Nicole Kidman. One of the first festival films in my decades-long love for SIFF, it was my first time at the Egyptian, and I fell in love.

Where to Stream