Something can’t really be “annual” until it’s happened at least two successive years, and this weekend the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival is making it official.
Starting Thursday, PIFF will crash Northern Liberties for the second summer, bringing with it more than 170 indie films from the world over with at least a dozen homegrown. For four days, local businesses and institutions, including the Yards Brewery and Exit Skate Shop, will serve as movie houses while the east end of Northern Liberties becomes a hotbed for cineaste-centric panels, discussions, and of course, happy hours.
Centered in the area between the Market-Frankford Line’s Spring Garden and Girard stops, the PIFF is easy to get to and a good change of scenery from the standard theater hubs of the Bridge and Old City. For individual screenings, expect to pay what you would at the Ritz theaters ($8 for a single ticket), though day passes ($25) are available, as are festival passes both with and without party access for the four-day stretch ($130 and $75, respectively).
This year’s selections came from a pool of 800-plus submissions, so you can be sure the organizers will be showing only the cream of the contemporary indie cinema crop.
Domestic fare features the short Lady Feet, written and directed by recent film graduate and Philadelphian Christopher Toppino. The story takes place on the top floor of Two Liberty Place, telling the tale of a young man commissioned to paint the Philadelphia skyline and the love triangle that churns around him.
No. 4 Street of Our Lady is the true account of a Polish woman who passed as a Nazi sympathizer in order to rescue Jewish members in her community.
Considerably lighter offerings include I Love My Bicycle, a documentary about a BMX company founded and operated by a teenager in the 90’s, and On Joy and Sorrow, which delves into the past of forgotten art-rock wonders, the Glass Prism.
Head over to the North Bowl for the opening night celebration tonight at 10:30 p.m. More information is available on PIFF’s website.
