For the past decade and a half, HBO has been presenting some of the best documentaries being made in America. The downside: They’re all on the prohibitively-expensive-to-many HBO. So cheers to SIFF for their HBO Documentary series, featuring free (yes, free!) screenings of new HBO docs before they even make their pay-per-view premieres. First up: Ellen Goosenberg’s Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, which investigates the heart-crushing epidemic of suicide among US war veterans. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, siff.net, 7 pm, free)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...