SF IndieFest is a year-round, non-profit organization that has been operating since 1998. We currently present five annual festivals: the San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF Indie for short), the San Francisco Documentary Festival (SF DocFest), the San Francisco Short Film Festival (SF Shorts), our genre film festival Another Hole in the Head, the Green Film Festival of San Francisco (environmental films) and a screenplay competition.
In the past we’ve also presented the Northern California Action Sports Film Festival, the US edition of the touring shnit International Short Film Festival and numerous music festivals and one-off parties and events. Info on many of these can be found in our Archives.
In addition to the film programs, IndieFest is known for throwing some great parties such as the Big Lebowski Party (later a shadow-cast presentation), the Anti-Valentine’s Day 80s Power Ballad Sing A Long Party, a Super Bowl live sketch comedy show and many live music events. IndieFest also produced a play in conjunction with the Primitive Screwheads theater company called Much Ado About Lebowski.
For ten years, IndieFest presented a series of art gallery events (and published a book) of Bad Art (with comedic art review). There is a catalog of some of this fine work HERE.
In 2016 SF IndieFest became the fiscal sponsor of the (at the time) 10 year old internet community radio station Radio Valencia which now has a radio studio on 22nd St in San Francisco.
A very brief history of IndieFest, in case you are wondering.
In 1998 Jeff Ross realized there was no avenue available for his friend Rand Alexander to show his film, CAGED, even though it had played the prestigious Slamdance Film Festival that same year. Jeff took to the streets and put on a four-day event financed, like many of the films presented, with his personal credit cards. The event was welcomed with an audience of over 3,000 people. The following year Indiefest grew to a nine-day event with over 4,200 in attendance. Over two decades later, February’s SF Independent Film Festival draws crowds of over 11,000 and continues to support and celebrate maverick filmmakers and their work.
We are a 501c3 non-profit with support from the California Arts Council, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, San Francisco Art Commission, and many local newspapers, radio stations, websites, breweries, hotels, venues, businesses, and arts lovers like you!
“The San Francisco Independent Film Festival—a complete, formal name I’ve never heard anyone call it by—celebrates the offbeat, DIY and fun amongst feature-length, short, narrative and non-fiction cinema. It’s easier to pinpoint what you likely won’t get than what you will: This is not an event likely to invite (or attract) Hollywood stars, mount tributes to venerable directors, or show posterior-challenging obscurantist arthouse epics. Instead, there’s a spirit to IndieFest that’s not unlike days of yore when you picked the most outlandish-looking box off the video store shelf for a night’s home viewing with friends—the goal is surprise and adventure, not prestige.” – Dennis Harvey, 48Hills
STAFF
Jeff Ross, Founder/Director
Chris Metzler, Director of Programming
Karen Larsen and Associates, Publicity
Sarah Flores, IndieFest/DocFest Shorts Programmer
Celeste Wong, IndieFest/DocFest Features Programmer
Gigi Haycock, DocFest Features Programmer
Erik Jambor, IndieFest Features Programmer
Lucy Hanna, IndieFest Features Programmer
Jason Wolos, SF Shorts Festival Programmer
Jess Waters, Screenplay Competition Manager
George Kaskanlian, Another Hole in the Head Director
Romany Adams, Another Hole in the Head Producer
Starr Noir, Graphic Design
