For Your Consideration: SIFF Selections for Monday and Tuesday

 SIFF has made it through its first hard-partying weekend. By now your iSIFF skills should be warmed up with festival picks and you should be regaining some of the line zen that will keep you sane throughout the festival.   

With that in mind, let's take a look at some films of note showing over the next two days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for special presentations which cost more. Don't forget, just for water taxiing film fans, SIFF stays in West Seattle at the Admiral Theater through Thursday!

Riders of the Purple Sage  Seattle's nine-piece northwest americana rockers the Maldives perform an original soundtrack for Tom Mix's silent 1925 take on Zane Grey's novel. These live rock performances to archival classics are consistently among the best and most original events presented during the film festival. This one is at the Triple Door; so it includes the benefit of being able to have cocktails delivered while a band of brothers rocks away at dramatic cowboy music. Don't miss it! (May 25, 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m. @ Triple Door)

ReGeneration sees its world premiere in Seattle. Ryan Gosling narrates Phillip Montgomery's documentary that considers the effects of corporate media on youth activism and disaffection. (May 24, 6:30 p.m. @ Egyptian; May 26, 4:30 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema)

Mount St. Elias  A pair of Austrian adventures scale Alaska's 18,000 foot peak for the thrill of skiing down, capturing a world record and thrilling footage along the way. (May 24, 7:00 p.m. @ Neptune; May 27, 4:00 p.m. @ Neptune; May 31, 8:30 p.m. @ Everett)

The French Kissers  French comic-book-writer-turned-director Riad Sattouf brings us French teens in search of French kisses. (May 24, 7:00 p.m. @ Admiral; May 26, 4:15 p.m. @ Neptune)

The Freebie opens with a dinner party that raises the possibility of seeing Sean Nelson in drag. Unfortunately it never delivers on that promise. Within this same scene, though, you can also predict the unhappy course of the the sexual experiment posed by wide-eyed wishy-washy husband Dax Shepard. It doesn't take much longer to realize that the people in this film get exactly what they deserve. (May 25, 4:30 p.m. @ Egyptian)

How Sex Sold Hollywood This archival presentation by Seattle U Professor James Forsher covers various aspects of onscreen sexuality, Hays-Code era-style. (May 25, 7:00 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema)

The Chef of South Polar  The outpost may be isolating and set in an unforgiving climate, but at least the meals are fancy. Based on Jun Nishimura's autobiographical novel. (May 24, 7:00 p.m. @ Harvard Exit; May 26, 6:30 p.m. @ Admiral)

Several weekend recommendations have additional screenings; so if you opted for weekend sunshine instead of popcorn brunching you still have another chance to catch the following:

Air Doll follows Japanese love doll made real (May 24, 9:30 p.m. @ Neptune); Amplified Seattle is quick and effective portraits of 13 Seattle bands and one local karaoke-loving filmmaker (May 26, 9:15 pm @ Neptune); Loose Cannons involves the mostly comedic exploits of an Italian pasta family reacting to a son's coming out (May 25, 7 p.m. @ Admiral); Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll lets Gollum go biographically Britpunk (May 25, 9:30 p.m. @ Egyptian); The Robber is a marathon-running bank robber (May 25, 9:15 p.m. @ Harvard Exit); The Oath looks at the diverging paths of bin Laden associated brothers in law (May 25, 4:30 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema).