12 Greater Boston film festivals to check out this spring

My mind is blown by how much is happening film-wise this spring. March especially. There are legacy screenings, retrospectives (Frederick Wiseman), tributes (David Lynch), forays into new territory (IFFBoston’s concert film series Music March Madness). Plus, there’s the usual ongoing good stuff (art docs at the MFA). Never mind a calendar jam-packed with festivals.

One of those festivals, Salem Horror Fest, has been growing and evolving over its eight years. Founded by Kay Lynch, it sensibly started as a limited event during the month of October in 2017. Then it expanded to the whole month. Then given the skyrocketing number of visitors flooding Salem in the fall, in 2023 it sensibly moved to spring. When Lynch announced she was stepping down in October, a new group called Horror Arts Collective took the reins. The five people I spoke with on Zoom call themselves “legacy staff” because they’ve been involved with the fest for several years. They also told me they have professional lives that they want to separate from their arts programming lives. So at least for now, that means keeping a lower profile without a masthead or online bios.

In fact, one organizer said planning this year’s fest has been different because of a shift that prioritized community at every step. They praised the approach, prompting one member to comment, “Something about the shared labor felt very authentic.” For them, horror can help process trauma and deal with living in a political dystopia. They invite audience members old and new to Salem April 30 through May 4 to grow that sense of community “at a time when it’s so easily taken for granted.” Here are 12 ways to connect to community through cinema this spring.

When: Through May 20

Where: Brattle Theatre, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Somerville Theatre and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Highlights: In all my years covering Boston filmgoing, I can’t recall a collective, city-wide effort that compares to the robust slate of Frederick Wiseman documentaries showing this spring. In addition to the independent theaters listed above, the organizers of IFFBoston also joined forces to make this program happen. Where to begin with a filmmaker as legendary and prolific as Cambridge’s own Wiseman? For those unfamiliar, his tireless documentation of civic institutions and mostly American slices of life span more than six decades. His first film, “Titicut Follies” (1967), drew scrutiny and praise for revealing Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane as an inhumane and cruel place for patients who needed care. It also put Wiseman on the map.

The program of 20 of his 46 films does not follow a chronology nor should viewers. Because 2023’s “Menu-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros,” showing on April 10, feels as relevant today as 1993’s “Zoo,” showing on April 27. Both “High School” (1968) and “Central Park” (1990) screen as new 4K digital restorations. If you want to see something you missed, or not featured, I suggest the DVD section of the nearest library. Whatever one chooses, Wiseman will offer a gateway into another place, distinctive of its era, and distinctive to this one-of-a-kind raconteur of history.

Good to know: Wiseman’s talents and interests encompass far more than film. He thinks of his directing techniques as more literary than journalistic. In 2015, I saw a preview of a dance adaptation of “Titicut Follies” at the Toronto International Film Festival, which had its world premiere in 2017.

Load YouTube video

When: March 16-31

Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre, Showcase Chestnut Hill and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Highlights: For this 49th annual festival, it seems appropriate to start with the closing night because it’s such a big deal. Released to general audiences in 1922, “Breaking Home Ties” was made by Jewish filmmakers who sought to tell a relatable story with Jewish lead characters and a frank depiction of harsh realities of immigrant life in the United States. Like so many early films, it was thought to be lost. But the National Center for Jewish Film found and restored the only known print. (They also found documentation of the producers’ intent to counter antisemitism by the Ku Klux Klan and Henry Ford.) The project took decades, and during the pandemic an array of musicians — including Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Mocean Worker (also known as Adam Dorn), and Scott Amendola of the Charlie Hunter/Amendola Duo — collaborated on a new score.

This event marks the New England premiere of the 2024 restoration and score. The getting there makes for a fascinating story in its own right and center co-directors Lisa Rivo and Sharon Pucker-Rivo will attend to describe the process. Among a solid line-up of nine feature films, some with accompanying shorts, another title stands out as particularly timely. The documentary “Riefenstahl,” about Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl (“Olympia,” “Triumph of the Will”), draws on the filmmaker’s abundant personal archive and examines her controversial life-long evasion of accountability. She died in 2003 at age 101.

Good to know: While making “Olympia” during the 1936 Olympics in Germany, Leni Riefenstahl employed 170 camera operators and mounted a camera on rails, a precursor to the modern-day tracking shot, one of her many cinematic innovations.

When: Through March 19 with more titles to be announced

Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre

Highlights: In addition to its remarkable history as a top-notch independent exhibitor of film, historically speaking, Boston has had a heavy hand in producing film critics and documentary filmmakers. The 2013 book “American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn” by Scott MacDonald how Harvard and the former MIT Film Section proved especially fertile ground for documentarians, especially Robb Moss, Ross McElwee and others who harnessed the power of first-person storytelling. Using MacDonald’s book as inspiration, the LEF Foundation, which has provided grants to documentary filmmakers with New England ties since 2001, has organized a new ongoing series “to bring long overdue attention to those who made seminal contributions to the documentary field” with more titles to be announced later this spring. On March 19, Robert Drew’s “Primary” (1960), a glimpse into John F. Kennedy as a presidential candidate, screens with Richard Broadman’s “The Collective” (1985), a portrait of American anti-war activists and change agents that spans 15 years.

Good to know: This writer served as associate producer on LEF Foundation executive director Lyda Kuth’s 2011 first-person documentary “Love and Other Anxieties.” Kuth knew and admired the work of Ed Pincus and the 1977 documentary he made with Steven Ascher, “Life and Other Anxieties,” inspired her title.

When: March 19-23

Where: Brattle Theatre

Highlights: Last year, BUFF director of programming Nicole McControversy wrote that this fest welcomes “New England cinephiles who love the thrill of gathering in a dark cinema to contemplate the oft-darker side of the human condition.” BUFF has been playing that host for 25 years. Who better than Nic Cage to ring in a quarter century, and at the Brattle no less? Sorry folks, he’s only onscreen in “The Surfer,” but as always he’s larger-than-life in the fest’s opening night film, an East Coast premiere. It’s very Nic Cage-like to play a role called The Surfer in a film about a guy who was once local to an Australian beach, then gets hounded by the current hooligan locals until all surf breaks loose. It makes me wish he played Pig in one of my favorites of his movies, “Pig,” or Hat in “Wild at Heart.” If that’s an oddball digression well then BUFF is the place for such asides. Additional regional premieres round out the eclectic lineup with talent expected to attend. BUFF typically has at least five shorts programs with one devoted to New England filmmakers.

Good to know: Nic Cage legends abound, inspiring Reddit threads and listicles all over the internet, especially in regard to his outlandish spending. Seriously, though, in 2012 the Brattle gave him the ultimate nod with the retrospective “Nicolas Cage: Greatest American Actor.” So consider BUFF another Cage-y (Cage-less?) homecoming. Better alert the locals.

Load YouTube video

When: March 26-30

Where: Capawock Theatre in Vineyard Haven, The Grange Hall in West Tisbury, and The Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center

Highlights: To celebrate 25 years, this fest hosts Jacinda Arden, former prime minister of New Zealand, for a screening on March 28 of the documentary “Prime Minister,” about her path into leadership and ascent to icon for women. (Like Boston’s own Mayor Michelle Wu, she also gave birth while in office.) Directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe will join Arden and documentarian Dawn Porter for a post-film conversation.

Excellent food stands out as an unofficial theme with the documentary “Marcella,” about cookbook author Marcella Hazen, on opening night and “Tokito: The 540-Day Journey of a Culinary Maverick” also showing; both events have unique food experience tie-ins, such as a restaurant discount with ticket. The connection makes sense, since along with movies this festival features daily on-site gourmet meals. On the fictional side, the adult comedy (so rare these days) “Fantasy Life” is partly set on the Vineyard and will screen twice, both times with director, writer and actor Matthew Shear and producer Philip Keefe present. As in the past, several titles screen more than once at this festival.

Good to know: Scenes in “Prime Minister” take place in Boston because of Jacinda Arden’s ongoing tenure as a fellow at Harvard.

Load YouTube video

When: March 27-30

Where: Cinema Salem, Peabody Essex Museum and National Park Service Visitor Center in Salem

Highlights: Founded by filmmakers, this all-nonfiction fest curates its line-up with decisions made by committee. (Most festivals open their submissions to anyone, often for a fee, with an opaque decision process.) Several fest leadership positions have changed hands in recent years, but the line-up remains steadfastly at the intersection of quality and quirk. At the festival’s “Reveal Party” on March 2, an intro clip of “The Flamingo” showed a woman in her 60s, walking onto a deserted beach, setting up a beach chair and smiling into the sky. That cut to an interior scene of a flamingo pool float slowly inflating. (Hmm, I thought, not sure what’s going on but I’m in.)

Also at that event, one clever director, Evan Carpenter, set up a clip from his film “Artifact War” by teasing the improbability that archeologists would act as spies with the nail-biting drama of a reality show host. The film uncovers looting and black market trading driven by ISIS. A vitriolic tirade by a white American man suiting up for a violent encounter in the clip from “Homegrown” quieted the full house in Salem. Director Michael Premo and producer Rachel Falcone will attend for a conversation moderated by Watertown documentarian Margo Guernsey. Many filmmakers from other titles (“Heightened Scrutiny,” “Remaining Native,” “Life After,” to name a few) are expected to attend this year. In addition, the fest features two thematic shorts programs and two shorts programs featuring films by college students and high school students, respectively.

Good to know: On March 30, three filmmaking teams from New England will present their “Docs-in-Progress” to a panel of experts in front of a live audience. Audience members will get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the filmmaking process and have a chance to ask questions, too.

Load YouTube video

When: March 30-April 5

Where: West Newton Cinema, JCC of Greater Boston, and Congregation Kehillath Israel

Highlights: After pausing for a year, this showcase of contemporary films from Israel returns with five features and a music and film performance. The documentary “The Return from the Other Planet” tracks the rise in popularity of author and Auschwitz survivor Yechiel De-Nur, who wrote under a pen name about life in Israel just after WWII. The film reflects on his pivotal testimony in the 1961 Eichmann trial, which further cemented his legacy as one of the first and most influential writers to translate personal Holocaust experience into literary fiction.

In the class-conscious, darkly comedic feature “The Milky Way,” a young mother contributes to a breast milk bank to make ends meet. (Could this be “Anora” 10 years down the road?) The film “Bliss” played TIFF and makes its Massachusetts premiere with a story about a couple trying to cover an age gap in their relationship and their son’s gambling debt. All films except “Bliss” include either a pre-recorded intro or moderated post-film conversation.

Good to know:  As part of the festival, on Thursday, April 3, Congregation Kehillath Israel hosts “Movie Music Magic!” featuring performances by Israeli musicians Itay Dayan, Tomer Rozen, Noa Blumer, Ravani Loushy Kay, Nahar Eliaz and Gilad Paz.

Load YouTube video

When: March 31-May 19

Where: Apple Cinemas in Cambridge and West Newton Cinema

Highlights: Belmont World Film invites us to spend Monday nights at the cinema thinking about “Freedom on Film.” That’s the theme of this year’s international series. “From personal liberation to political resistance, the films in this year’s series showcase compelling stories from around the globe, shedding light on the struggles and triumphs of those who dare to break barriers,” said executive director Ellen Gitelman in a press release.

Fresh from Sundance where it picked up two awards, the Macedonian coming-of-age feature “DJ Ahmet” opens the series on March 31. Attendees can arrive early for a meal featuring North Macedonian cuisine. Shot in Italy with a majority Iranian cast, “Reading Lolita in Tehran” brings the notable memoir to the screen on April 21. The heartbreaking story of “Manas” (April 28) is set in the Amazon rainforest and told primarily through a young girl’s eyes. To protect her younger sister, she decides to confront her community’s entrenched sexual abuse. In Canadian director Sophie Deraspe’s latest film, “Shepherds,” an ad exec leaves the big city hustle to become a sheep herder in the French Alps. Does that feel like freedom? Those who attend will discuss after the May 12 screening. Additional series films hail from the EU with three additional titles showing June 2-16 in observance of Pride and World Refugee Awareness Month.

Good to know: North Macedonian cuisine might include burek — layers of thin dough filled with meat, cheese or spinach then baked — or the national dish tavče gravče, of beans stewed with onions, oil and spices. For an armchair escape, visit the Taste Atlas food map.

Load YouTube video

When: April 4-15

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Coolidge Corner Theatre and online

Highlights: One of the bonuses of having this festival in Boston for 24 years is that audience members can follow an individual filmmaker’s work over time. For example, writer-director Selman Nacar won an audience award for his fictional short “The Well (Kuyu)” at the Boston Turkish Festival’s Documentary and Short Film Competition in 2016 then screened his first feature film “Between Two Dawns (İki Şafak Arasında)” at the main festival in 2022. This year, his latest, “Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi),” screens. It’s a jaw-clenching thriller about a lawyer caught between visiting her ill mother and defending a client for murder. IndieWire called it “a study of stress that does for lawyers what ‘Uncut Gems’ did for jewelers.”

Similarly, Erkan Tahhuşoğlu’s films have been shown at past festivals and this year the writer-director will attend with “Cycle (Döngü),” a study in moral and class conflict through the eyes of a house cleaner. The documentary “Game Changers (Spielerinnen)” won the best documentary audience award at the 2024 Documentary and Short Film Competition and returns for an encore screening. It, too, is a study over time, though in this case the film catches up with professional women soccer players from the 1990s three decades later. Guess what? They’re not exactly living the dream. Torn between German lives and Turkish identities, the film tackles the fascinating subject of life after being “first” and what the women do and do not want to pass on to their daughters.

Good to know: Director Aysun Bademsoy first filmed the women soccer (or football) players in “Game Changers” for a 1995 documentary, “Mädchen am Ball.” She stayed in touch with her subjects and decided to revisit their lives again on film nearly 20 years later.

When: April 5-14

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and other venues

Highlights: Though it’s a tad early to have this program sorted, Wicked Queer executive director Shawn Cotter shared two of the 140 films that audience members can count on seeing this year. Sam Feder’s transgender rights documentary “Heightened Scrutiny” and Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s lighthearted “chosen family” rom-com “The Wedding Banquet” will both play the 41st festival.

Feder’s name may sound familiar from his media critique doc, “Disclosure,” which, with input from several experts, dissected American onscreen cultural depictions of gender fluidity, transgender characters and audience responses going back a century. “Heightened Scrutiny” is a courtroom drama that follows ACLU attorney Chase Strangio’s legal fight to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (U.S. v. Skrmetti).

Cotter says this year’s theme is “Community is Resistance” and that the festival champions the belief that queer love and joy is revolutionary, adding, “We will not disappear despite the attempts to eradicate us.”

Good to know: Released in 1993, “The Wedding Banquet” was Ang Lee’s second feature film and paved the way to other mid-1990s relationship dramas, like 1995’s Austen adaptation “Sense and Sensibility” and one of my favorites of the era, 1997’s “The Ice Storm,” also an adaptation. Peak Joan Allen and Henry Czerny before he became a rich dad on the TV series “Revenge.”

Load YouTube video

When: April 30-May 4

Where: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Access TV, Die With Your Boots On, Hallowed Ground and other Salem venues

Highlights: For eight years, Salem Horror Festival has thoroughly embraced the “festival” portion of its mission and done so with great creativity. Yes, there are films. But there are also lectures, book readings and signings, live podcast recordings, trivia contests, parties and the like. Case in point, they call the eve before opening night “Night Zero” and this year April 30 is set aside for films made in and around Massachusetts.

The festival officially opens on May 1 with its jury-award-winning short film followed by “Hellbound: Hellraiser II,” starring Ashley Laurence, with Laurence in attendance for a post-film discussion. The remainder of the weekend will explore the theme “the horror within” with films like “Chain Reactions,” a documentary about “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” I’m hoping the stars align so I can see “The Substance” and hear the “Faculty of Horror” podcasters record a live episode immediately following at 12:15 p.m. on May 3 at PEM. Additional films and events to be announced.

Good to know: On opening night, Black speculative fiction author and UCLA professor Tananarive Due will deliver a keynote address about “the horror within our current sociopolitical climate.”

When: April 23-30

Where: Somerville, Brattle and Coolidge Corner theaters

Highlights: Since this fest arrives in late spring, the program is still in development. Highlights from past years give the best indication of what’s to come to Boston’s top smorgasbord of independent film. Last year, they showed two of my five year-end picks: “Janet Planet” and “Green Border.” Anticipate that lots of great talent will show up to talk about their work, too. Celebs tend to be there on opening and closing nights. But I especially enjoy seeing local filmmakers get local applause, like when the team behind the Cape-set drama “Crookedfinger” lined up along the big screen after the North American premiere last year. At least a dozen, maybe two dozen, cast and crew members showed up to root on directors Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund. Nothing compares to the buzz in the room when you’re surrounded by people who know what it took to get there.

Good to know: Can’t wait to see your IFFBoston friends? Check out the IFFBoston March Music Madness Screening Series playing at the Somerville Theatre through March 27.