Programmers' Picks: Dan Doody on SIFF 2025
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story
Irish author Edna O’Brien lived a more exciting life than many literary characters. Through archival clips, diary entries, and extensive interviews conducted with the author during her final year, this film is a vibrant and engaging portrait of a trailblazing feminist.
Cat Town, USA
Meet Terry and Bruce Jenkins, stewards of Cats Cradle Foundation, a living community and hospice for senior cats. Expanded from the short film Cats Cradle (SIFF 2018), this heartwarming documentary is the cinematic equivalent of catnip for all animal lovers.
Time Travel is Dangerous
London vintage shop owners Megan and Ruth use a time machine to plunder the past to swell their inventory, who cares if the fabric of time and space unravels…? I mean, I care but also, look at this authentic cowboy hat I found…
The Glass Web in 3-D
’50s film noir presented in all the glory of 3-D?! On the SIFF Downtown big, big screen?! Why would you be anywhere else?
Good Boy
Who’s a good boy? Indy, our canine star, is a very good boy and a great actor, too. A creepy haunted house tale comes with a brilliant twist: the entire film is presented from Indy’s POV.
The Spirit Cabinet
Within the Spirit Cabinet, discover seven phantasmagorical short films exploring spectral messengers, supernatural terrors, and an unimaginably creepy cabaret.
Four Mothers
From the director of A Date for Mad Mary, this Irish charmer follows Edward, a gay YA novelist poised on the brink of success, who finds himself in charge of four elderly women when his best mates leave him behind in favor of the Gran Canaria Pride festival.
Starman
If there are trillions of planets where intelligent life could have evolved, then why have we not definitively seen or heard from anyone (yet)? NASA engineer Gentry Lee takes us on a behind-the-scenes look at the Viking and Voyager missions as he muses about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers
Trans icon Holly Woodlawn stars as Eve Harrington (not that one), a small town girl looking to make it big in NYC in this fantastically bawdy rediscovered camp classic.
Jean Cocteau
Poet, playwright, visual artist, filmmaker—Jean Cocteau was one of the 20th Century’s great creative polymaths. This documentary portrait, directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, SIFF 2021), is an inspirational appraisal of the artist’s remarkable legacy.
Chain Reactions
Alexandre O. Philippe’s newest film documentary explores the cultural and aesthetic impact of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre through interviews with five notable fans, including Stephen King, Karyn Kusama, and Takashi Miike.
