Movies We’re Excited About at This Year’s SF IndieFest

The 27th San Francisco Independent Film Festival kicks off at the Roxie on Thursday, Feb. 6 with Pavements (an idiosyncratic ode to the legendary indie rock band), and keeps up the offbeat energy throughout its 13-day-long program.

Live screenings at the Roxie and Vogue theaters and online offerings mean there’s a wealth of films from around the world to choose from (a total of 80 features and shorts). We know it can be tricky to prioritize in the face of such plenty, so here are seven movies we’re excited to see in this year’s festival.

‘Draft Night’

Feb. 7, 8:45 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming
Part of Bay Area Tales pt 1

Ambitious in its scope, Draft Night captures a single, nerve-wracking evening for a young man who’s waiting to find out if he’s made it into the NBA. Filmed in Oakland with a cast and crew with deep Bay Area ties, Draft Night explores themes around mental health, wealth and the commodification of Black athletes by white team owners. This weighty tale, told in a slim 11 minutes, is part of a program filled with locally minded shorts. —Rae Alexandra

‘Meet Me in Chinatown’

Feb. 8, 12 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming
Part of True Stories: Documentary Shorts

It’s hard to find a more charming guide to Chinatown’s nightlife of yore than Cynthia Yee. She started dancing professionally in the 1960s, joining Dorothy Toy’s dance troupe, touring around the world and winning the Miss Chinatown 1967 crown (with what sounds like a fairly risqué silhouette dance choreographed by Toy). Now in her 70s, Yee and her friends perform as the Grant Avenue Follies, dressing up in sparkles and feathers, donning serious amounts of makeup and generally having the time of their lives performing dance numbers on stage. We can only hope this is a proof of concept for a future full-length film. —Sarah Hotchkiss

‘Anxious.’

Feb. 9, 4:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming

Anyone who’s experienced chronic anxiety knows how the mind can force one down ever-tightening corridors once an episode begins. (Not to mention the effort to then get loose from anxiety’s grip.) If the trailer for Anxious is anything to go by, Pakistani American writer/director/actor Nida Chowdhry clearly understands the predicament.

Chowdhry’s debut feature sees her character Ruby inside an anxiety attack, wandering through the recesses of her own brain, pursued by different (exquisitely well-dressed) versions of herself. Chowdhry, who has written for children’s TV shows on Max, Netflix, Disney and PBS, leans into surreality as a way of explaining something more clearly. Anxious offers insights for folks who don’t suffer from the condition, and a heap of gorgeous relatability for those that do. —Rae Alexandra

‘The Protected Men’

Feb. 11, 8:30 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming

I’m all here for a story that takes an outlandish sci-fi concept and runs with it. What if men’s sexual violence didn’t hurt the objects of their desire, but themselves? In Irene von Alberti’s feature, men are suddenly stricken with a deadly disease brought on by their own arousal. Heads of state start dropping like flies.

The end of men is not a new premise by any means (see Joanna Russ’ excellent The Female Man and the less excellent Y: The Last Man). This movie follows both those seeking a cure, and the leaders of a feminist political party in Germany who seize power and establish a new social order. Satirical and goofy, this may just be the psychic release we need. —Sarah Hotchkiss

‘Vampire Zombies…from Space!’

Feb. 12, 6:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming

If Nosferatu was a bit too serious for your taste, may I present this delightfully self-aware, black-and-white feature about a small town besieged by … well, the title says it all. Picture a requisite gang of misfits, including a Rebel Without a Cause-type and a plucky young heroine, and plenty of practical effects (like rubber bats on very visible strings). An homage to — and send-up of — creature features of the 50s, this movie looks like it was exceedingly fun to make, which more often than not means it will be exceedingly fun to watch. —Sarah Hotchkiss

‘Among Neighbors’

Feb. 18, 6 p.m. at the Vogue Theater

In 2016, Tower — a documentary about the tragic 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas in Austin — vividly brought an old story to life by combining enthralling first-person accounts and beautiful, low-key animation. Bay Area documentarian Yoav Potash has deployed a similar method for his film Among Neighbors, an investigation into how neighbors in the Polish village of Gniewoszów turned on one another during World War II.

The addition of animation is a departure for Potash, who previously earned praise for the 2011 documentary Crime After Crime, and 2010’s Food Stamped. The latter movie, following Potash and his wife’s attempts to survive on food stamps, won the Grand Jury Prize at SF IndieFest that year. Among Neighbors, meanwhile, looks to be Potash’s most powerful work yet. —Rae Alexandra

‘Timestalker’

Feb. 18, 8:30 p.m. at the Vogue Theater and steaming

In the U.K., British actor, director and writer Alice Lowe is most recognized for her work in surreal comedies (including The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace) and her role in Horrible Histories — an educational kid’s TV show that’s so hilarious, it has a healthy following of grown-ups.

It makes sense, then, that with Timestalker, Lowe has taken a gloriously bizarre concept, given it a historical backdrop and piled on layers of anarchic, dry humor. Here she plays Agnes, a woman who keeps falling for the same terrible man as the pair are repeatedly reincarnated across time periods. How many lives will it take before Agnes learns her lesson, breaks the cycle and stops sacrificing herself for love? And how transformative can an elaborate hairstyle truly be? Timestalker has the answers — and the laughs. —Rae Alexandra

The San Francisco International Independent Film Festival plays at the Roxie, Vogue and online Feb. 6–18, 2025.