Independent Film Festival Boston serves up community and eclectic cinema

“All movies are better together,” says Brian Tamm, executive director of the Independent Film Festival Boston. “By yourself, you’re missing a whole aspect of the film. I think there’s something about being in a room where the only source of light is coming from a story.”

Now in its 21st year, the city’s coolest cinematic happening returns this week with another eight days of eclectic offerings at Greater Boston’s finest independent cinemas, showcasing 39 features and 55 shorts from all over the world. Unspooling across the Somerville Theatre, the Brattle Theatre and the Coolidge Corner Theatre from Wednesday, May 1 through Wednesday, May 8, the movies themselves are only half of the story at IFFBoston.

“There's something embedded within us where we’re hard-wired to come together and share stories,” Tamm adds. “That’s the core of what this festival is about.”

As part of my job, I go to a lot of film festivals. But none I’ve attended have the same close-knit sense of community that you find at IFFBoston. There are people I’ve met while standing in line or chatting after Q&As that have become dear friends over the years, and I know folks who have since moved all over the country yet come back every spring for the festival. The event is about more than just watching movies, it’s about joining a room full of strangers and experiencing our common humanity together. As a culture, we had to get used to staying home alone for a few years, and I think there’s considerable evidence that it made people kind of crazy and mean. Festivals like IFFBoston and the films selected by program director Nancy Campbell remind us that we’re all in this together.

Sure, it might be more convenient to stream stuff on your own timetable, but Campbell insists that “a big screen and a good sound system allow you to be absorbed in a way that you can’t when you’re staring at your television or laptop or, god forbid, your phone. Besides, where else are you going to hear Sean Burns cackling at the new Catherine Breillat film?”

Hey, some movies inspire strong reactions. Especially films directed by Catherine Breillat. The 75-year-old Parisian provocateur behind such mordantly funny firebombs as “Fat Girl,” “Sex Is Comedy” and “Anatomy of Hell” is making her IFFBoston debut with “Last Summer” (Sunday, May 5 at the Somerville), a gasp-inducing drama about a sexual abuse victims’ advocate who throws herself into a destructive affair with her underage stepson.“I’m gonna get so canceled for showing this,” Campbell laughs. “It’s not just triggering, it’s the whole f---ing gun. I’m always a little surprised by Breillat, and I know I shouldn’t be. She has a real gift, I don’t know what else to describe it as.”

Western Massachusetts is ready for its closeup in “Janet Planet” (Saturday, May 4 at the Brattle), the first film from Cambridge-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker, who grew up in Amherst. Set in 1991, this cockeyed coming-of-age story stars Julianne Nicholson as a single mom kissing her share of frogs and then some while trying to raise her introverted, 11-year-old daughter (played by newcomer Zoe Ziegler.) “We have a lot of movies about mothers and daughters this year,” says Tamm. “This one’s about a mother, but you see her through her daughter’s perspective, and I can’t think of anything worse than when you realize that your parents are just regular people who make mistakes.”

It shares that thematic overlap with writer-director India Donaldson’s “Good One,” (Friday, May 3 at the Brattle) the strongest debut I’ve seen in some time. The film follows teenage Lily Collias on a Catskills camping trip with her control freak dad (indie staple James Le Gros) and his shambling wreck of a best friend (Danny McCarthy). “Problematic men in the woods might be my favorite genre,” jokes Tamm. This is a subtle and extremely well-judged picture, in which this seemingly uneventful vacation becomes our protagonist’s introduction to an endlessly disappointing adult world. Similar sentiments abound in “My Old Ass” (Friday, May 3 at the Somerville), writer-director Megan Park’s Sundance sensation starring Aubrey Plaza as an apparition who has arrived from the future to give her younger self some unasked-for advice. “After all,” Campbell asks, “what is adulthood but realizing that nobody’s all that adult?”

Agnieszka Holland’s ”Green Border” (Saturday, May 4 at the Brattle) won a Special Jury Prize at last fall’s Venice Film Festival amid protests and denouncements from Polish nationalists and government officials. Hailed as a return to form for the director of “Europa Europa,” the film follows a Syrian family fleeing ISIS only to be brutalized at the Polish border. “It’s not an easy movie, but it’s one of my favorites in the festival,” says Campbell of the two-and-a-half hour, black-and-white drama. Tamm adds, “Anytime a filmmaker makes a movie and becomes persona non grata in their own country, that’s a film we want to show.” Another tough, highly touted picture is director Greg Kwedar’s “Sing Sing” (Tuesday, May 7 at the Coolidge) starring Oscar nominees Colman Domingo and Paul Raci as inmates putting on a play at the country’s most infamous maximum security prison.

In 2021, Jane Schoenbrun’s “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” was the talk of IFFBoston’s virtual festival, the eerie indie about online identity arguably being the only movie that benefited from being watched in your empty house. Schoenbrun — who will be receiving the Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award in May — returns to the lineup with “I Saw the TV Glow” (Thursday, May 2 at the Brattle), a freaky-deaky horror film about a canceled cult television show that doubles as a trans allegory. The slipperiness of our digital personas also comes to the fore in “Sebastian” (Monday, May 6 at the Brattle), writer-director Mikko Mäkelä’s disturbing sophomore effort about a queer grad student dabbling in online sex work as research for a novel and discovering how much he likes staying in character.

IFFBoston has a well-earned reputation for showing the best in rock docs, and the festival’s Centerpiece Documentary Spotlight, “The Road to Ruane” (Saturday, May 4 at the Somerville), is an essential chapter in the city’s music history. Thirteen years in the making, the film chronicles the messy life and times of Billy Ruane, known around town as the secret godfather of Boston rock. A tireless enthusiast who discovered and promoted area acts like The Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr. and Buffalo Tom, Ruane turned Central Square’s The Middle East into a music venue seemingly by sheer force of his outsized personality. The wayward son of a billionaire (Warren Buffett was Billy’s godfather), Ruane battled alcoholism, amphetamine addiction and bipolar disorder. He was as difficult and obnoxious as he was adored. Director Michael Gill — a former Middle East employee and beloved member of the local music community — died of a heart attack in 2022 at the age of 45. The film was completed by his friend Scott Evans, who will be in attendance at the screening along with numerous other colorful characters from the Boston music scene. It’s going to be an emotional evening.

Local filmmaker Mark Phinney memorably dramatized his own struggles with food addiction in 2013’s “Fat,” so no points for guessing what he confronts in “Fear of Flying” (Monday, May 6 at the Somerville). Mike Mitchell stars as a neurotic, Boston area filmmaker — naturally named Mark — who confronts his most self-sabotaging instincts in this touching story of a guy learning to get out of his own way. (Several scenes were shot at the Somerville Theatre, so this is a rare chance to experience the visual ouroboros effect of seeing a movie that takes place where you’re watching it.) Writer-director Brendan Boogie’s “Tallywacker” (Sunday, May 5 at the Somerville) stars Northampton city councilor and disability activist Jeremy Macomber-Dubs as an aspiring punk guitarist who suffers from brittle bone disease, rocking out from his wheelchair in this rudely funny, black-and-white buddy comedy.

You can also get an early look at future IFFBoston filmmakers at the annual Student Shorts Showcase (Saturday, May 4 at the Somerville), where the best and brightest budding talents from 12 area colleges have been invited to present their projects, free to the public, on the Somerville’s giant screen. Co-presented by the Massachusetts Production Coalition, it’s not just an opportunity for students to introduce themselves to potential fans and prospective employers, but the post-screening reception held upstairs at the Crystal Ballroom provides a chance for young artists from different schools to meet and get to know one another.

“It’s probably the most important thing we do,” says Tamm. Campuses can be awfully insular places and the event aims to open up a world beyond the classroom, forging friendships that will hopefully result in some amazing collaborations and careers. (They even bring in composition students from Berklee to perform at the mixer, reminding students that they don’t always have to rely on canned music.) It’s typical IFFBoston, bringing like-minded artists and enthusiasts together to strengthen our shared community.

The Independent Film Festival Boston runs from Wednesday, May 1 through Wednesday, May 8.