SIFF DocFest
SIFF's annual documentary film festival
October 5-12, 2023
SIFF's third annual DocFest will return October 5-12, 2023 at SIFF Cinema Uptown. Join us for a celebration of all films documentary, with stories of people you know, stories that will floor you, and stories that will make you look outside yourself. Moving from the thought provoking to the tenacious, with stops at tearful and tense, DocFest returns with our celebration of documentary films from around the world.
PASSES - $100 | $75 Members
Access to all screenings
TICKETS - $14 | $9 Members
Available to purchase on individual film detail pages
Going Varsity in Mariachi
USA | 2022 | 105 min. | Alejandra Vasquez, Sam Osborn
October 5, 2023
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.
Radical Wolfe
USA | 2023 | 76 min. | Richard Dewey
October 6, 2023
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.
Silver Dollar Road
USA | 2023 | 100 min. | Raoul Peck
October 6, 2023
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.
Maestra
USA | 2023 | 88 min. | Maggie Contreras
October 7, 2023
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.
Invisible Nation
USA | 2023 | 85 min. | Vanessa Hope
October 7, 2023
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.
Plan C
USA | 2023 | 94 min. | Tracy Droz Tragos
October 7, 2023
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.
Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
France | 2023 | 240 min. | Frederick Wiseman
October 8, 2023
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.
A Song Film By Kishi Bashi: Omoiyari
USA | 2023 | 75 min. | Justin Taylor Smith, Kaoru Ishibashi
October 8, 2023
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.
La Huella, The Story of a Beach Bar/Resto
Argentina | 2022 | 70 min. | Alessio Rigo de Righi
October 9, 2023
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.”
Mutiny In Heaven
Australia | 2023 | 86 min. | Ian White
October 9, 2023
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.
Time Bomb Y2K
USA | 2023 | 80 min. | Marley McDonald, Brian Becker
October 10, 2023
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.
Copa 71
United Kingdom | 2023 | 90 min. | Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
October 10, 2023
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.
Between the Rains
Kenya | 2023 | 83 min. | Andrew H. Brown, Moses Thuranira
October 11, 2023
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.
Richland
USA | 2023 | 94 min. | Irene Lusztig
October 11, 2023
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.
The Pigeon Tunnel
United Kingdom | 2023 | 94 min. | Errol Morris
October 12, 2023
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.
