The forty-fourth Seat­tle Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, the largest and best-attend­ed film fes­ti­val in the Unit­ed States, starts next Thurs­day, May 17th, and runs through June 10th. We’re delight­ed to announce that the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute has been accred­it­ed to cov­er the 2018 Fes­ti­val, which means we’ll be able to bring you reviews of new films from around the world.

Press screen­ings have already start­ed, so we invite you to come back to the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate reg­u­lar­ly to read our reviews of films par­tic­i­pat­ing in SIFF 2018.

There are over four hun­dred films at the fes­ti­val this year. I’ll be try­ing to see as many doc­u­men­taries as pos­si­ble. Among the films I’ll be screen­ing are:

Won’t You Be My Neigh­bor? a heart­felt and nos­tal­gia-induc­ing doc­u­men­tary about Fred Rogers. Cre­ator, writer, and star of long-run­ning chil­dren’s show “Mis­ter Rogers’ Neigh­bor­hood”, Rogers (a beloved fig­ure in his home­town of Pitts­burgh) was com­mit­ted to giv­ing “an expres­sion of care each day to each child.”

This film makes it clear that the Mis­ter Rogers on the TV show was­n’t a char­ac­ter, as Rogers in his real life was as car­ing and com­mit­ted to the mes­sage of love and the unique val­ue of each per­son as he was for chil­dren on the show.

Crime + Pun­ish­ment is about a group of New York City police offi­cers who speak out, risk­ing their careers and lives by expos­ing the dis­crim­i­na­to­ry quo­ta-based sys­tem used across the department.

Local doc­u­men­tary The Most Dan­ger­ous Year is one of thir­ty-five films mak­ing its world pre­miere at SIFF this year. Direct­ed by Vla­da Knowl­ton, this film pro­files fam­i­lies with trans­gen­der chil­dren as they fought dis­crim­i­na­to­ry leg­is­la­tion pro­posed in Wash­ing­ton State in 2016 (which, thank­ful­ly, did not become law).

The Oslo Diaries, which recounts the 1992 Oslo Accords, in which a small group of Pales­tini­ans and Israelis met in secret to nego­ti­ate a solu­tion for peace, using the per­son­al diaries of the nego­tia­tors to give insight into the hid­den process.

Silas, which high­lights the activism of Silas Kpanan ‘Ayoung Siakor of Liberia as he fights cor­po­ra­tions seek­ing to take over his land and strip it of all the valu­able nat­ur­al resources, dev­as­tat­ing African villages.

I am also hop­ing to screen and review all sev­en of the films by indige­nous film­mak­ers that SIFF is fea­tur­ing this year. These films are:

Bee Nation, direct­ed by Lana Šlez­ic. This doc­u­men­tary pro­files par­tic­i­pants in Canada’s Inau­gur­al First Nations Provin­cial Spelling Bee who, with the sup­port of their com­mu­ni­ty, hope to make it to the nation­al com­pe­ti­tion in Toronto.

Dawn­land, direct­ed by Adam Mazo and Ben Pen­der-Cud­lip. Through a focus on the Wabana­ki peo­ple as they go through a his­toric truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion com­mis­sion, this doc­u­men­tary exam­ines some of the hor­ri­ble gov­ern­ment-sanc­tioned activ­i­ties that have rav­aged Native peo­ples in North America.

Luk’Luk’I, direct­ed by Wayne Wapeemukwa.

This nar­ra­tive-doc­u­men­tary hybrid gives us a look into the lives of five strug­gling Van­cou­ver res­i­dents dur­ing the 2010 Olympic Games.

The Mise­d­u­ca­tion of Cameron Post, direct­ed by Desiree Akha­van. This dra­ma was win­ner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val. It tells the sto­ry of three resilient gay teens who meet at a con­ver­sion-ther­a­py camp in the 1990’s.

Sweet Coun­try, direct­ed by War­wick Thornton.

This film is set in the Aus­tralian out­back and fol­lows an Abo­rig­i­nal ranch hand fac­ing chal­lenges in divid­ed fron­tier society.

Waru, direct­ed by Bri­ar Grace-Smith, Awanui Simich-Pene, Katie Wolfe, Renae Mai­hi, Casey Kaa, Chelsea Win­stan­ley, Paula Whetu Jones, Ains­ley Gar­diner. This film from New Zealand is made of eight vignettes, each direct­ed by a Maori woman, with each seg­ment focus­ing on a dif­fer­ent woman as she strug­gles with issues like pover­ty, child abuse, and hopelessness.

War­rior Women, direct­ed by Eliz­a­beth A. Cas­tle, Christi­na D. King.

Indige­nous and women’s rights activist Madon­na Thun­der Hawk and her daugh­ter are the sub­ject of this doc­u­men­tary film.

SIFF has an amaz­ing line-up of diverse films this year and we are excit­ed to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­vide reviews of many of them!