Every year when SIFF rolls around, a handful of our favorite theaters become de facto independent venues. This, of course, makes it harder for our year-round indie venues, as audiences tend to be drawn to the glamour.

Consolidated Works has an extra hurdle to jump over, as it has yet to establish a loyal and recurring audience for film. I know this because I've had the pleasure and the hardship of programming there. Nestled in South Lake Union, it's not far from Capitol Hill or downtown, but people aren't familiar with the neighborhood yet, so they don't explore it. And that's too bad, because the cinema inside is both adorable and comfortable. Maybe the new Sex series will help draw in audiences. Running for the next five weekends, it opens with "A Dash of Sprinkle" (Fri-Sun May 23-25), an evening of film featuring Herstory of Porn, in which famed sexologist Annie Sprinkle gives a guided tour of some of the 150-plus movies that made her a one-of-a-kind star.

Another way to draw in audiences is to appeal to people who would rather go to the clubs. Over at the Sunset in Ballard, there will be a free screening of X: The Unheard Music (Mon May 26) hosted by DJ Yzene, followed by piano-bar craziness. The lovely EMP film series is keeping up its side of the disco-exhibit bargain by showing the 1977 film ABBA: The Movie (Wed May 28), which is not only infused with infectious Swedish pop but directed by Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, My Life as a Dog).

During Northwest Folklife, EMP's movie theater becomes the hub for the Folklife Documentary Film Fest (Fri-Mon May 23-26, www.nwfolklife.org), which rotates through all sorts of topics--from Native Americans to sailors to Arabs to one movie about women in Zimbabwe and many movies about music. Meanwhile, 911 Media Arts keeps up its tradition of socially responsible docs with a double feature of Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America and Innocent Until Proven Guilty (both Fri May 23).

Of course, there are some venues that will try to beat the festival at its own game, either through archival events--like showing Fellini's The White Sheik (Wed May 28 at the Rendezvous), or "Disney Before Mickey," an evening of early animated films from the Disney studio (Fri-Sat May 23-24 at Hokum Hall)--or by focusing on last year's Emerging Master™ Takashi Miike with a double feature of Audition and Dead or Alive: Final (Fri-Thurs May 23-29, no shows Monday, at the Grand Illusion).

Even SIFF itself gets into the game by promoting locally made work in its Spawned in Seattle series. Along with a handful of features, there are two events I want to be sure to point out. There will be a script reading of Police Beat (Mon May 26), a new movie penned by our own Charles Mudede, based on his column of the same name. Right afterward, it's the return of Fly Filmmaking, where this year 10 local filmmakers (including our own Shannon Gee) were set loose making short documentaries.

andy@thestranger.com