All film stills courtesy of SIFF

There are more than 100 films screening during this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, May 7–17, and some of them are amazing. Or, at least, that’s what internet hype and mainstream film critics say. Olivia Wilde’s The Invite incited a bidding war after premiering at Sundance, and Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, currently has a 94 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. But we didn’t get to screen those films. (Read more about that insider bureaucracy in our May issue.) Instead, we looked at the titles you likely won’t read about in the mainstream magazines, the below-the-fold films made here in the Pacific Northwest or inspired by themes we find interesting (like human composting and besties fighting a supernatural monster while planning their quinceañera). Turns out, several of them were fascinating, and if not great, then at least a movie we wouldn’t stop talking about around the editorial table for weeks after we’d seen it.

* Means it’s local!

Ghost in the Machine

USA, 2026 (110 min), Dir. Valerie Veatch

Not exactly a joyful watch, but required viewing by Seattle-born director Valerie Veatch, who traces a chilling throughline from AI to techno-fascism and eugenics. The film opens in Seattle, 2016, when Microsoft unveiled its doe-eyed Twitter bot, Tay, who turned neo-Nazi Holocaust denier in 16 hours flat (and was summarily yanked from the internet). Veatch shows just why and how these ghosts are tangled up in AI, taking us back to 19th-century statisticians who sought to quantify intelligence to justify racial hierarchy. From there, the film moves through Nazi ideology, Stanford’s eugenics legacy, early Silicon Valley, and the small cadre now steering AI development with military backing in pursuit of AGI. Veatch argues that AI is both an overhyped venture capital engine and a dangerous tool for power-hungry techno-fascists who believe in a superhuman intelligence designed in their own image. The film does end on a (brief) high note: an admonition to resist the fuck out of AI. AI domination is not a foregone conclusion. JUST SAY NO TO AI. (PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center May 10, SIFF Cinema Uptown May 11) AMANDA MANITACH

* Powwow People

USA, 2025 (88 min), Dir. Sky Hopinka

Sky Hopinka’s Powwow People is a beautiful documentary that captures a full day, from preparation to performances, at a Native powwow at Seattle’s Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. While it was interesting to get a sense of the production that goes into such an event, I do wish Hopinka had taken the camera even further behind the scenes. Much of the film is from the sidelines, but the most touching moments came when the dancers and singers spoke over footage of their performances, telling their own stories about the music, about the people who taught them their skills, and about how they see the crafts changing and growing to accommodate gender diversity. One jingle dress dancer, Jamie John, spoke candidly about having to reestablish their place in the tradition after coming out as nonbinary. A singer, Freddie Cozad, shared sweet stories about learning to sing and drum with his grandparents, and picking up where they left off. Powwow People is a lovely snapshot and worth seeing, but I was left wishing I could take a deeper look into those pockets of humanity. (SIFF Cinema Downtown May 16, SIFF Cinema Uptown May 17) MEGAN SELING

Becoming Human

Cambodia, 2025 (99 min), Dir. Polen Ly

One can think of the Cambodian film Becoming Human as having its back to (and heading in the opposite direction of) the famous German film Wings of Desire (1987). The former, directed by Polen Ly, has spirits who guard places (both natural and cultural); the latter, directed by Wim Wenders, has angels who watch the inhabitants of Berlin. A spirit in the former falls in love with a human; an angel in the latter also falls in love with a human. But the Cambodian spirit, Thida (Serak Savorn), who guards the ruins of a cinema house, must leave the world, and as a consequence lose connection with (her moments with) the human who has claimed her phantom heart. The Berlin angel must, instead, enter the human world to connect with his flesh/meat/bones obsession. Both films are political. But the politics in Becoming Human—a film that is, true, slow, but doesn’t contain a moment that’s not powerfully felt—has greater gravity. Though the Cambodian spirit is in appearance a teenager, she is 50 years old. Meaning, she lost her life during the last year (1975) of the Cambodian Civil War. Becoming Human is reflective, melancholy, and must not be missed. (PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center May 13, SIFF Film Center May 14) CHARLES MUDEDE

The Seoul Guardians

South Korea, 2026 (71 min), Dir. Kim Jong-woo, Kim Shin-wan, Cho Chul-young

The amazing thing about this documentary, which concerns the night, December 3, 2024, the inhabitants of Seoul surged into the streets of their city to defy the martial law declared by their corrupt president, Yoon Suk Yeol, is that it’s less than 80 minutes long. There’s so much going on in this film. It’s packed wall-to-wall with the events of the night, the passions of the people, and the history of that country. The documentary is a beautiful mess, which, in a sense, is all a true democracy could be. Also, that night’s resistance eventually resulted in Yoon Suk Yeol’s life imprisonment for attempting a coup. Yes, he didn’t have black/brown people to keep him politically viable. Trump, who attempted to overthrow our government in 2021, is now president. Yoon Suk Yeol is in prison. Let that sink in. (SIFF Cinema Uptown May 9–10) CHARLES MUDEDE

* The Life We Leave

USA, 2026 (87 min), Dir. JJ Gerber

At the start of this documentary, you’ll wonder if you’re watching a decently disguised advertisement for Micah Truman’s company, Return Home. And I’ll admit, it never quite stops feeling that way. But even so, it will also genuinely move you, and I dare you not to cry by the end. The film opens in a place you probably didn’t know existed: a funereal convention. In the first scenes, Truman is building the second-ever human composting facility in Washington state, and he needs customers. And initially, the business hinges on an environmental pitch: Human composting means less carbon in the atmosphere, fewer trees felled for caskets. But over time, it becomes a complete reimagining of deathcare. It’s not just cremation, but with compost. Their two funeral directors chose to re-ask every question about how they guide loved ones through loss. What does decor look like in a terramatorium? Plants, mostly. How do you hand over 500 pounds of compost to a grieving family? They give the family a small “huggable bag.” How do you visit your loved one while they’re composting? Some families choose to sit against the box, so you can feel the heat that they’re generating. The emotional moments, buried inside the business pitch, surprise you, but they’re worth the watch. (PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center May 13, SIFF Film Center May 14) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

* RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole

USA, 2026 (83 min), Dir. Peter Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks

Here in Seattle, we tend to take KEXP DJ Kevin Cole for granted. Even though I’ve heard his voice on the air since I was a child, I only really knew two things about him: He has long, wavy hair and a distinctive voice so ever-present in my life that I could detect it anywhere. Cole has done almost too good a job at championing artists and public radio, because I knew nothing about his own legacy. RADIOHEART: The Drive & Times of Kevin Cole takes you on his journey from an underqualified disco DJ in 1970s Minneapolis to a beloved fixture of the Seattle music scene, with several surprises along the way, like run-ins with then-up-and-coming musician Prince, and a stint at the then-little-known online bookseller, Amazon, where he helped shape digital streaming as we know it. While I can appreciate Cole’s original vision for streaming as a way to make music more accessible, there was a missed opportunity in the documentary to ask Cole about the current state of streaming, its negative impacts on radio, and the fact that he helped form an evil machine (Amazon, obviously) that is seemingly opposed to everything he believes in. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, May 12, 15, and 17) AUDREY VANN

* Again Again

USA, 2026 (99 min), Dir. Mia Moore, Heather Ballish

Agatha (or Aggie, played by the compelling Mia Moore Marchant, the film’s writer and co-director) is a young trans woman who has been stuck in a 10-year time loop, reliving the same day over and over, waking up next to her childhood best friend, Tessa, who is also the love of her life. Or is she? Again Again begins where most time-loop stories end: with the next day finally arriving. But sometimes figuring out how to move forward once you’ve “broken free” can be more difficult than being stuck in the first place. Filmed in Marchant’s hometown of Aberdeen, WA (guess who else is from there!), with an executive producer credit belonging to Lilly Wachowski, the genre is sci-fi classic, but make it alt-’90s and deeply queer. Again Again stays with the characters’ emotional experiences and doesn’t get hung up on how the loop works, exactly, but I’ll say there’s a twist that I enjoyed. Moody and endearing, this debut film works within a well-worn genre but absolutely carves out an identity of its own. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, May 11, 12, and 15) EMILY NOKES

Maintenance Artist

USA, 2025 (95 min), Dir. Toby Perl Freilich

In her 1969 Manifesto for Maintenance Art, Mierle Laderman Ukeles declared, “Maintenance is a drag; it takes all the fucking time (literally).” A fascinating portrait of New York City’s first Sanitation Department artist-in-residence—the Marcel Duchamp of trash—who declared everyday activities to be works of art, from cleaning the toilet to dusting the baffles. We follow Ukeles as she grapples with juggling art and motherhood, ultimately pursuing a practice enmeshed with New York’s 1970s performance art scene. But rather than flash her naked body at the male gaze, Ukeles’s performances were rooted in a feminist examination of invisible labor, a path that eventually led to the NYC Sanitation Department. I won’t give it all away, but she ends up shaking the hands of 8,500 sanitation workers as part of an ambitious art piece that turned her into a New York City hero. Is it maintenance work or maintenance art? You’ll leave the theater inspired to spring clean—but make it art. (PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center May 9, SIFF Cinema Uptown May 10) AMANDA MANITACH

Fifteen

Mexico, 2026 (99 min), Dir. Jack Zagha, Yossy Zagha

Two best friends, Mayte and Ligia, already have to deal with enough shit while planning their co-quinceañera. But throw in a teen pregnancy, a botched backroom abortion, and a supernatural mystery, and you’ve got yourself a brilliant and bloody high school tale that strikes the same campy chord as all the greats—Heathers, Carrie, Jawbreaker, and The Craft—with an entertaining conclusion worth its weight in fake blood. (SIFF Cinema Downtown May 15, SIFF Cinema Uptown May 16) MEGAN SELING

* Under a Million Stars

USA, 2026 (77 min), Dir. Chezik Tsunoda

I know what you’re thinking: You don’t want to go into a documentary about Seattle’s homeless epidemic blindly. What side of the debate will the narrative fall on? Will it feel like the directors are taking advantage of a vulnerable population? Is it a platform for Bruce Harrell to praise his sweeps? I am pleased to report that Under a Million Stars is a thoughtful, beautifully done film that everyone should watch. Within the first 10 minutes, the film turns the current narrative on its head. Seattle mutual aid organizer Tye Reed points out all the ways in which shelters, which are often pushed on people as the best option, can be unsafe, while author Gregg Colburn reminds people that “homelessness isn’t prevalent in our poorest cities, it’s prevalent in our richest cities.” Read: It’s the billionaires, stupid! From there, Under a Million Stars keeps its foot on the accountability pedal, connecting the current-day crisis back to the state of emergency declared in 2015, back to the redlining in the 1970s, back to the pioneer days when white people came to claim land that was already owned by someone else. And though it was a bit of a jump scare to see We Love Seattle founder Andrea Suarez pop up on the screen, rest assured, she hangs herself with her own rope. (SIFF Cinema Uptown May 9–10) MEGAN SELING