Free as Folk

I had a wonderful adventure this year at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF 2026), mainly because I managed to get so many of my friends to join me!

So I wanted to share a few reflections on my Five Favorite Films from the Festival (mmm what nice alliteration)!

Becoming Human

I'll start with the final film I saw, which I absolutely loved and can see myself watching again and again for years to come. It's called Becoming Human, a stunning directorial debut from filmmaker Polen Ly. It's a Cambodian film and about two lonely souls, the guardian spirit of an abandoned cinema about to be demolished and a photo journalist hoping to capture a few fleeting moments there before its destruction.

Becoming Human, dir. Polen Ly, source: SIFF

The film is meditative, beautifully scored and sound designed, melding with the languorous cinematography like a network of entwined roots. The lead actors are both simply excellent in their roles. I love the way Serak Savorn, the young actress playing the guardian spirit, radiates an energy of having lived many decades beyond what her adolescent appearance belies. The quiet sadness and compassion of the photo journalist, played Piseth Chhun, is subtle and deeply tender.

Becoming Human, dir. Polen Ly, actor Serak Savorn

The sweetness that blossoms between these two characters as they reminisce over old movies, attempt to capture a chicken to return to its family, and speak about their homes, past and present, is slow-motion lightning in a bottle. The way their characters and histories unfold as they build trust with one another is so expertly and delicately crafted, and the sensitive nature of these revelations is handled with utmost respect and care.

Becoming Human, dir. Polen Ly

There are so many other things I loved about this film, which I simply want you to experience for yourself (plus I gotta leave some things for the video essay I plan to make about it!), but I’ll leave you with a few of my elements of the film that have lingered with me ever since I watched:

• the use of 3D spatial audio within our screening theater to make it feel like we are physically present in the dilapidated cinema of the film
• the film's very unique take on reincarnation, as a form of border control
• the final shot revealing the protagonist has made a delightful and surprising choice to resist seemingly inescapable control

I'm incredibly grateful I got in from the standby line at this film! It was totally sold out, every seat filled in our screening cinema.

Alt Shorts

I met a sweet kid while waiting in line for this short film collection with my friend. The kid was in the city for a summer internship, but nonetheless wanted to engage with local culture and make connections with other people — a rare thing amongst temporary residents!

Water Sports, dir. Whammy Alcazaren, source: SIFF

There were a couple standouts in the Alt Shorts compilation: definitely refrigerator hum, by American director Jade Wong, which consisted of the filmmaker's Taiwanese grandmother reviewing her granddaughter's abstract experimental film and thus changing its form as we watch it unfold; and Force Times Displacement, an animated film by Taiwanese director Angel Wu, which (as I interpreted) was an exploration of societal control, creative expression, and work (W = F x d for the physicists in the audience).

Left: Force Times Displacement, dir. Angel Wu, source: SIFF Right: refrigerator hum, dir. Jade Wong, source: SIFF.

I really liked Water Sports, directed by Whammy Alcazaren, a chaotic gay Filipino boys film set in a near-future, climate-ravaged Philippines, but where the youth still manage to create joy and find love.

Another short I vibed with strongly was Materia, directed by Mongolian filmmaker Alisi Telengut, as a series of stop motion photography close-ups of dozens of different types of material (sand, lichen, bark, glass, minerals, crystals, dirt, etc.).

Materia, dir. Alisi Telengut, source SIFF

This film reminded me a Sofya Kovalevskaya quote that I love:

“the poet has only to perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others look. And the mathematician must do the same thing.”

Kovalevskaya was the first woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics in 1874, but she was perhaps equally passionate about the humanities, poetry and literature, which she considered deeply intertwined.

Poetry is a mode of expression that I feel speaks to our inner subconscious, not always in literal or logical ways. There are intentional lacunae left by the poet into which our personal understanding blossoms.

I think there are filmmakers who are audio-visual poets. Andrei Tarkovsky and Terrence Malick come to mind, and I would without hesitation place both Materia director Alisi Telengut and Becoming Human director Polen Ly in this category.

Tarkovsky films, clockwise from left: Stalker, Nostalghia, The Sacrifice, and Solaris, source: StudioBinder

Assets and Liabilities

I had absolutely no expectations about Zach Weintraub's quirky comedy Assets and Liabilities, only that it looked off-beat and the director was a Tacoma local. Imagine my surprise and delight to discover it was a supernatural landlord horror comedy. Highly recommend (and you may need to look away at a couple points if you have a squeamish stomach)!

Deadline

This film, whose literal translation from Mandarin is “Suicide Announcement” is as you might expect, a Very Stressful Movie. Directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Kiwi Chow, Deadline is extremely compelling, and very difficult to watch, especially if you've had any experiences in high-control, hyper-competitive education institutions or struggled with being neurodivergent in schools not designed for you. Big content warning for suicide and self-harm on this one. Deadline, dir. Kiwi Chow, source SIFF.

The film is a very, very important and scathing systemic critique of the education system, explicitly drawing the comparison between schools and prisons.

Fun fact* we learned in the post-screening Q&A with the producer: this film does not appear on the Chinese version of Rotten Tomatoes, because the director has been blacklisted by the CCP for a documentary he made about the Hong Kong protests in 2019, Revolution of our Times. Deadline has been banned from screening in China and (surprisingly) also Hong Kong, so it is depending on international release to make back its budget.

*rather depressing fact

I Love Boosters

This is another film I am dying to make a video essay about. Boots Riley is great. I love when a director just comes out of the gate swinging with a sci-fi MacGuffin to teach us about dialectical materialism and liberatory shoplifting! I Love Boosters, dir. Boots Riley, source: SIFF

The director's Q&A afterward with Boots was also great fun, hearing him talk about going from Oakland-grown communist hip-hop group The Coup (which played its last show at The Crocodile music venue in Seattle) to making movies full-time. Boosters his biggest movie yet, set to open in three times as many theaters as his last film, the critically acclaimed Sorry to Bother You (2018).

I Love Boosters is an absolutely bonkers movie, guaranteed most batsh*t sex scene of the year (possibly of your moviegoing life). Keke Palmer is great, LaKeith Stanfield is great, the costumes are effing INCREDIBLE. Go see it when it comes out May 22nd.

I Love Boosters, dir. Boots Riley, source: FirstShowing

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