Spring time has arrived and for many film fans that means we’re mere weeks away from the start of the summer blockbuster season.
There will be animated movies! Superheroes! Remakes! Superhero remakes!
However, if you’re a cinephile who prefers their movies to be wrought with drama, grounded in realism and worthy of Oscar gold, the slate of upcoming summer movies may leave you feeling a bit dead inside.
Well thanks to the fine folks at The Independent Film Festival Boston (IFFBoston) – who are celebrating their 15th anniversary – those of us who prefer their films to be on the more highbrow and artistic side will have a plethora of healthy options to binge upon before being faced with nothing but months of popcorn flicks.
IFFBoston has just announced this year’s lineup and yet again it’s an eclectic mix of narrative and documentary features and narrative and documentary shorts. Several of these films have screened at Sundance and other festivals but, being that it’s IFFBoston, many of the the movies debuting were made by New England filmmakers.
Past films to have appeared at IFFBoston include Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, Jackie and The VVitch.
The 2017 edition of IFFBoston will take place between April 26 through May 3 at four different venues in Boston – the Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Somerville Theatre, the Brattle theatre and University of Massachusetts, Boston.
The festival’s opening night film will be the documentary Stumped. Directed by Robin Berhaus, Stumped follows William Lautzenheiser, a Boston-area teacher who had all four of his limbs removed after contracting a vicious bacterial infection. Berhaus’ camera captured Lautzheiser’s entry into the stand-up comedy world as a form of therapy as well as undergoing a rare transplantation surgery at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Stumped will screen at the Somerville on April 26.
Closing IFFBoston will be Band Aid which is the directorial-debut of Zoe Lister-Jones. The indie comedy stars Lister-Jones and actor Adam Pally as a married couple who create a band to work through their issues with one another. Band Aid will screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on May 3.
For the complete list of films, showtimes and locations, check out the IFFBoston website.
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