Here in Boston, the arrival of April means that we can put away our snow shovels, get back to using the Frog Pond as a reflecting pool, and start counting down the hours until opening day at Fenway. It also means an influx of independent cinema throughout our fine city’s wonderful collection of repertory theaters, brought on by the annual Independent Film Festival of Boston. 2014 marks IFFBoston’s twelfth year of highlighting quality indie filmmaking for Boston cinephiles, and with the release of the fest’s line-up, it looks like this could be one of the best years yet in its lifetime.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood – which has dazzled us over here at Movie Mezzanine not once, but twice – may well be the stand-out entry of the whole shindig, but it’s just one title in a wide array of films worth getting excited about. Boyhood comes paired with the likes of ominous Tom Hardy vehicle Locke, Justin Simien’s Sundance favorite Dear White People, Ti West’s Jonestown parable The Sacrament, David Zellner’s Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (another film that has earned our admiration), Michel Gondry’s surreal, jazz-influenced Mood Indigo, and many, many others.
And that’s just touching on the Narrative Features, to say nothing of the smorgasbord of documentaries and shorts on display in tandem. We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists director Brian Knappenberger returns to IFFBoston with The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, while Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo have committed their slice-of–Missouri-life doc Rich Hill to the festivities.
Put simply, there’s something for everybody at this year’s fest, and no shortage on variety and quality. (Not that that represents a marked difference from previous years, but I digress.) Curious to see the whole line-up for 2014? Scroll below, and find out for yourself:
Opening Night Film
BENEATH THE HARVEST SKY directed by Gita Pullapilly & Aron Gaudet
Closing Night Film
MOOD INDIGO directed by Michel Gondry
Narrative Features
A FOR ALEX directed by Alex Orr
BELLE directed by Amma Asante
BIG SIGNIFICANT THINGS directed by Bryan Reisberg
BOYHOOD directed by Richard Linklater
CALVARY directed by John Michael McDonagh
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE directed by Justin Simien
THE DOUBLE directed by Richard Ayoade
FAT directed by Mark Phinney
FORT TILDEN directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers
HELLION directed by Kat Candler
HOMEMAKERS directed by Colin Healey
I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS directed by Leah Meyeroff
KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER directed by David Zellner
LOCKE directed by Steven Knight
OBVIOUS CHILD directed by Gillian Robespierre
PALO ALTO directed by Gia Coppola
PING PONG SUMMER directed by Michael Tully
RUBBER SOUL directed by Jon Lefkovitz
THE SACRAMENT directed by Ti West
SKELETON TWINS directed by Craig Johnson
STARRED UP directed by David Mackenzie
TRAP STREET directed by Vivian Qu
THE TRIP TO ITALY directed by Michael Winterbottom
WE ARE THE BEST directed by Lukas Moodysson
WILD CANARIES directed by Lawrence Michael Levine
Documentary Features
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
THE 78 PROJECT MOVIE directed by Alex Steyermark
9-MAN directed by Ursula Liang
AYITI TOMA directed by Joseph Hillel
THE CASE AGAINST 8 directed by Ben Cotner & Ryan White
EVERY EVERYTHING directed by Gorman Bechard
FIGHT CHURCH directed by Bryan Storkel & Daniel Junge
FREEDOM SUMMER directed by Stanley Nelson
FREELOAD directed by Daniel Skaggs
IN COUNTRY directed by Mike Attie & Meghan O’Hara
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ directed by Brian Knappenberger
JON IMBER’S LEFT HAND directed by Richard Kane
LIFE ON THE V: THE STORY OF V66 directed by Eric Green
ONE CUT, ONE LIFE directed by Lucia Small & Ed Pincus
OVERNIGHTERS directed by Jesse Moss
POINT AND SHOOT directed by Marshall Curry
PRINT THE LEGEND directed by Luis Lopez & Clay Tweel
PROJECT WILD THING directed by David Bond
RICH HILL directed by Tracy Droz Tragos & Andrew Droz Palermo
RIOT ON THE DANCE FLOOR directed by Steve Tozzi
THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO directed by Ian Cheney
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY directed by Mary Dore
STARFISH THROWERS directed by Jesse Roesler
SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON directed by Mike Myers
THE SUPREME PRICE directed by Joanna Lipper
THIS TIME NEXT YEAR directed by Jeff Reichert & Farihah Zaman
TOUGH LOVE directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal
VESSEL directed by Diana Whitten
WEB directed by Michael Kleiman
WICKER KITTENS directed by Amy C. Elliot
Short Films
25.7 directed by David Abel
A PLACE CALLED PLUTO directed by Steve James
AFRONAUTS directed by Frances Bodomo
THE APOTHECARY directed by Helen Hood Scheer
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER directed by Brian Paccione
BHIWANI JUNCTION directed by Abhi Singh
THE BRAVEST, THE BOLDEST directed by Moon Molson
CHOREOGRAPHY directed by David Redmon & Ashley Sabin
DISCONNECTED directed by Ludovic Littee
DISTANCE directed by Aimee Long
ELVIS LOSES HIS EXCESS AND OTHER TALES OF THE WORLD’S LONGEST YARD SALE directed by Riley Hooper
THE EXHIBITOR directed by Scott Norwood
FIRST PRIZE directed by Kevin McMullin
FONT MEN directed by Dan Covert
FOR THE LOVE OF DOGS directed by Tim O’ Donnell
THE HERO POSE directed by Mischa Jakupcak
HOUSEKEEPING directed by Catherine Licata
LAMBING SEASON directed by Jeannie Donohoe
LOMAX directed by Jesse Kreitzer
MARQUEE directed by Joseph Stankus
THE MORNING OF EVERYTHING directed by Jeff Stern
NAILED IT directed by Jean-Paul Discisio
OTHERWORLDLY directed by Evan Mann
OVERPASS LIGHT BRIGADE directed by Dusan Harminc & Matt Mullins
PAUL THE DOWSER directed by Kire Paputts
RAT PACK RAT directed by Todd Rohal
REAL ETHEREAL directed by Evan Mann
SAMNANG directed by Asaph Polonsky
SEASICK SAILOR directed by Torre Catalano
SHE LOOK GOOD directed by Carly Short
SO YOU’VE GROWN ATTACHED directed by Kate Tsang
SPACEMAN directed by Chloe Lee
STUMPED directed by Robin Berghaus
TOKEN EXHANGE directed by Aaron Matthews
TRASHCANLAND directed by Christopher Ward
WALLACE directed by Ian McCulloch
WHAT I HATE ABOUT MYSELF directed by Bobby Moser & Ben Mullinkosson
IFFBoston runs from April 23rd to April 30th, so if you’re a local-area Beantown film lover, head over here for information on attending – and maybe I’ll see you there!
