San Francisco IndieFest 2023
Welcome to the San Francisco IndieFest 2023 Virtual Festival!
Explore our on-demand catalog here. Film programs are available Feb 2-12, 2023.
The Whole Lot & Q&A
A woman, her husband, and her estranged brother meet at their late father's property to divide his estate and confront an uncomfortable family history.
#LookAtMe & Q&A
When brothers Sean and Ricky are invited to attend church with Sean's girlfriend, they are treated to a bizarre pop-rocking Evangelical affair capped by a searing anti-LGBT sermon. Sean, a Youtuber, soon gets into trouble for dropping an outrageous video lampooning the megachurch's homophobic pastor. He is widely condemned and prosecuted for flouting Singapore's strict laws on public expression. As Sean struggles to survive prison, Ricky gains prominence as an LGBT activist. Both find themselves at the heart of a culture war teetering on the edge of violence.
The Affairs of Lidia & Q&A
Canadian provocateur Bruce LaBruce has been assailing the sexual status quo for over thirty years. Here he presents an erotic comedy set against the backdrop of the fashion world.
Attack of the Flies & Q&A
Attack of the Flies is a narrative sci-fi thriller set during the 1920's Prohibition in the farthest north regions of Michigan. The isolation naturally breeds despair, but the arrival of an irregular infestation of insects, turns the isolation into madness.
Banglatown & Q&A
Rush Rahman, a struggling actor faces house eviction and so falls in with a local gangster in his London neighborhood affectionately known as Banglatown. To save his son, Rush aids the criminals by using his acting skills, but can he escape the long arm of the law?
A story about dancers, tramps and thieves.
Circus of the Scars-The Insider Odyssey of the Jim Circus Sideshow & Q&A
A scrappy sensational sideshow revival act playing Seattle dive bars is suddenly propelled into the big time, riding the same wave that brought grunge rock crashing into mainstream culture. Circus of the Scars follows the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow on a relentless and controversial world tour as they rise from obscurity to international infamy.
Colineales & Q&A
Throughout a period of 50 years, three couples live in the same apartment in different eras. Based on human emotions, we follow the couples in their relationships as we understand that time is not linear. It is all happening at the same time but at different frequencies.
The Divine Toad & Second Person & A Dozen Loops (Q&As)
A modern retelling of Dante's Inferno set in Silicon Valley.
Fly, Fry Girl & Q&A
The protagonist, who came to Japan after growing up in a foreign country, is troubled by the "differences" between herself and others. On a short trip encouraged by a friend, she encounters people with various "differences. Through the journey, the protagonist tries to find an opportunity to accept her "differences".
In Her Name
Against the backdrop of Los Angeles' contemporary art scene, aspiring artist Freya and her estranged, more conventional sister Fiona navigate their tumultuous relationship as they grapple with the impending demise of their eccentric father.
Let's Meet Halfway & The Aftermath (Q&As)
A long distance couple meet in a small town between them once a month in an attempt to preserve their relationship. Over the course of six months they begin to lose grip on what they once had.
The Locust
Hanieh is a broke forty year old woman on the verge of being thrown out from her apartment. She has tried to make a film based on her own semi-autobiographical script for years, but after accepting that she has no luck to fulfill her dream, she has no other choice than selling the script to one of her best friends.
Love in the Time of Fentanyl & Q&A
As the number of overdose deaths in Vancouver, Canada reaches an all-time high, employees and volunteers at the Overdose Prevention Society take matters into their own hands.
Microwave & Bitsy Bites Back (Q&As)
After a time-rift offers a glimpse exactly one minute into the future, four college-bound kids try to salvage their failing friendship as their perception of free will begins to fall apart.
Murmur & Q&A
When five Bay Area friends venture into the Redwood National Forest to play the augmented (mixed) reality (AR) game MURMUR, their own reality becomes dangerously distorted.
Naked Gardens & Q&A
Naked Gardens follows the stories of individuals drawn to an unusual community, which promises both non-conformist values and a cheap place to live. As its aging owner Morley and his residents prepare for the largest gathering of nudists in the U.S., they are faced with challenges both as a community and as individuals.
This Iranian drama follows a woman who survives a horrific attack by her estranged husband and finds solace as an endurance swimmer, eventually overcoming political and religious hurdles in a bid to swim further than anyone has done before with her hands bound.
The Other Fellow & Q&A
An energetic exploration of male identity via the lives, personalities, and adventures of a diverse band of men, real men across the globe all sharing the same name - James Bond.
Peer Gynt & Q&A
A pre-adolescent boy uses the fictional character of Peer Gynt to deal with the world and his place in it. The layers of joy and sorrow, success and failure are "peeled" away to leave apparently nothing. However out of this confrontation with death and madness Peer finds solace in the love of Solveig, who patiently waits for him.
Perfectly Good Moment & Q&A
-Sneak Preview- Ruby and David have been together on-and-off for 8 years, since she was 19 and he 34. Six months after Ruby last ran out on him, she has returned. Once the initial bliss of the reunion wears off, old toxic patterns re-emerge. Is David that demanding and controlling or is Ruby just too sensitive? Is Ruby as delicate and demure as she appears to be…or is there something more sinister behind the surface? Why did Ruby really come back?
Rough Edges & Q&A
A San Francisco technical writer and a San Jose artist hook up at a BDSM club, their one-night stand evolving into a tentative relationship in which they explore each other's kinks and try to keep things casual.
Salesman and the Nine Circles of Corporate Hell & Q&A
Our Salesman must travel through the nine circles of Corporate Hell to make one final sale. At times both as dark as a Lynchian fantasia or as silly as Monty Python, "SALESMAN" is an experimental journey through the most cruel, horrific, and devilish of places: work.
A widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory in sanctions-gripped Iran receives a marriage proposal that could mean financial security, but could also tear her family apart.
Stand By For Failure & Q&A
Negativland's complex chaos of plunderphonics poses both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, technology, control, propaganda, power and perception in the United States of America. Is what you're hearing and seeing true or simply familiar? The medium reveals that any message is all in our heads.
This is National Wake (+ Q&A) & Souleros
This is National Wake traces the wild rise of a multiracial South African punk band, dubbed "the band that defied apartheid," whose members risked everything to taste freedom. This debut feature offer a profound meditation on how history is lived through art and in our minds.
A hospitalized, critically ill physicist, working on a theory about black holes and the end of the world, meets a rather eccentric hospital housekeeper named TiTi. This is the start of an odyssey that changes their lives forever.
Trapped in Makyo & Q&A
Hana finds that she has been tricked into joining a company that is in fact a multi-level marketing company. After being sexually assaulted by her boss she decides to join a new yoga group in search of her salvation. Based on the true story of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan
Triple Trouble & Q&A
In the year 2023, following the death of Randy Rose, the lead singer of The Residents, his son Randy Junior discovers that his father's ashes have been stolen and listed for sale on eBay by a mysterious culprit. While investigating, Junior discovers the footage for the group's unfinished feature film Vileness Fats in a foot locker in his mother's basement.
Ultraviolence & Q&A
A film editor receives a proposal to edit a new film without knowing that he is going to become so obsessed with the project that he will do whatever it takes to save the protagonist from her death in the story.
Warm Blood & Queer Science (Q&As)
Red, a runaway in the 1980s, returns to the outskirts of her NorCal hometown to track down her wayward father and falls in with a young drifter in this grungy, politically subversive mix of narrative, documentary, and trash B-movies about the underbelly of America.
Shorts Programs
Animated Shorts & Q&A
Bay Area Tales & Q&A
Comedy Shorts & Q&A
Drama Shorts & Q&A
Genre Shorts & Q&A
SF IndieFest Trailers 2000-2004
Short Documentaries Part 1 & Q&A
True Stories From Around The Bay & Q&A
Two Local Docs + Six Local Narratives