Concessions

Certain things about STIFF (Seattle’s True Independent Film
Festival) are annoying to me: There’s the fact that it happens
during SIFF, at exactly the moment when my brain is melting and
coming out my ear all gross. And there’s the kinda-victimy false
opposition implied by its name (the “I” in SIFF doesn’t stand for Independent, it stands for International). That said, it’s hard not
to like STIFF. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It brings some
great stuff to town and provides a more affordable, less stuffy
alternative to SIFF. (Plus, STIFF sent a bottle of bourbon to every
person on our staff, and I am nothing if not completely bribable! P.S.:
I also enjoy Doritos, plane tickets, and haircuts!)

Anyway, here’s what I semirandomly pulled out of the STIFF bag this
year! (See trueindependent.org for a full
schedule.)

Freeing Silvia Baraldini (Fri June 12, NWFF, 7:20 pm)

I don’t know how you can make FBI-sanctioned domestic assassination
boring, but this film sure tries. Chronicling former political prisoner
Silvia Baraldini’s life from her childhood in Italy through her
involvement with the Black Panthers and the Puerto Rican independence
movement, this super-dry documentary veers all over the map: 1960s
civil rights, present-day prisoner abuse, the legal intricacies of RICO
statutes, the philosophies behind self-determination and
noncollaboration. The ground covered is fascinating and important, but
you wouldn’t know it from the glacial narration (and by that I mean
cold AND slow AND seemingly on the verge of death).

Bronx Paradise (Fri June 12, NWFF, 9:30 pm; Sat June 13,
Rendezvous, 4 pm)

An intimate, mockumentary-ish look inside one man’s road rage,
Bronx Paradise is a nicely constructed little hard-knock story
about a bald dude named Wayne who yells a lot. A LOT. And beats the
shit out of people. And punches girls in the head. All of which is
confusing, because Wayne, a semicriminal family man, is the moral
center of the film. His constant aggro freak-outs are grueling and the
shoestring budget can’t quite pull off gritty mob-movie swagger, but it
has a scrappy charm.

Frat House Massacre (Fri June 12, Rendezvous, 8 pm)

I guess if you’re a slasher-movie fan, you desire to see the
slasher-movie scenario play out under as many different circumstances
as possible. Bar Mitzvah Massacre! Pizza Party Massacre! Burlington
Coat Factory Massacre! Here we have Frat House Massacre. The
film (campy though the title may be, it has no sense of humor) is not
terribly done, if you like this sort of thing—lots of boobs and
pubes and sorority brunettes who all look the same and
blood-pouring-out-of-the-mouth-to-signify-death (does that really
happen? Surely not always). Basically, it’s a massacre. In a
frat house. Seriously, brah!