Programmers' Picks: Dan Doody

We Can Be Heroes

Drawn to a hidden, magical realm (NY’s Hudson Valley), a group of fearless champions (i.e. neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed “nerdy” teens) converge to combat an overwhelming force of devastation that threatens to destroy their legendary realm (Wayfarer LARP camp). By far, this is my favorite Festival film this year; warm, generous, and profoundly moving, too.

Scala!!!

London’s legendary repertory cinema offered its patrons a wealth of diverse film programming; if there ever was a high temple of cult cinema, it was the Scala, and this wonderfully entertaining documentary charts its life and times, and how it influenced a generation of renowned musicians, artists, and filmmakers.

Oddity

Winner of the SXSW Midnighter Audience Award, Oddity is an absolutely original and unsettling supernatural thriller: a blind psychic uncovers the truth behind her sister's death with the help of a grotesque wooden mannequin.

Dragon Superman

A true archival discovery from Taiwan. The evil Cosmos Gang threatens the city, and it’s up to our motorcycle-riding masked hero, Dragon Superman, to bring them to justice. Cut from the same spandex as Santo and the Green Hornet, Dragon Superman is pulp cinema at its exhilarating best.

Lies We Tell

Imagine your favorite “Masterpiece Theatre” story gone to hell. Based on Le Fanu’s classic Gothic chiller, this taut thriller reimagines the genre’s women-in-peril foundations through a dark and disturbing lens.

The Primevals

This lost world adventure creature feature has been 30 years in the making and employs old-school stop-motion special effects. Time to relive the days of classic Saturday morning matinees at midnight!

So This is Christmas

If you’ve ever had a bad Christmas season, or maybe every Yuletide is a slog, then this is the film for you! Documentarian Ken Wardrop explores all of the fraught emotions surrounding Christmas, giving us a truly complete portrait of the holiday season’s capacity to inspire melancholy and joy in equal measure.

Bonjour Switzerland

From Peter Luisi and Beat Schlatter, the same creative team behind SIFF 2018 sleeper hit Streaker, comes their new uproarious comedy in which famously multilingual Switzerland falls victim to a rather dubious referendum—now everyone needs to speak French—catalyzing a crisis among the German and Italian speakers.

Merchant Ivory

An in-depth and rather candid portrait of the filmmaking team, which included screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins, whose iconic ’80s and ’90s films defined that era’s arthouse cinema; a case where life did not in any way imitate the art. Get ready for a whole host of juicy, gossipy behind-the-scenes stories!

Once Upon A Nightmare…

Eight macabre short films that will haunt your dreams, including bad dates, broken curfews, a noisy day on the film set, and chilling folk horror visions.