@ the Boston Independent Film Festival :: Days 1-3

The city of Boston is currently deep into its 15th annual Independent Film Festival, a staple of the city's film culture that celebrates the spirit of independent cinema.

Not even halfway through its eight-day schedule, IFF Boston has already produced some excellent offerings in its programming of narrative, documentary and short films.

Wednesday night opened the festival in truly local fashion, premiering the documentary "Stumped," which follows the inspirational story of Will Lautzenheiser, a quadruple-amputee who underwent double arm transplant surgery back in 2014. This deeply personal film examines Lautzenheiser's promising background before a deadly infection claimed all four of his limbs, but what ultimately drives the documentary is its subject's endearingly tenacious human spirit. The charming and funny Lautzenheiser took up stand-up comedy to cope with his disability, a journey that the film balances with Will's relationship with his partner and caregiver, Angel, and the ultimate surgery that transformed Lautzenheiser's life.

The panel discussion to follow was certainly worthy of an opening night premiere, with Lautzenheiser himself along with fellow subjects Angel Gonzalez and Steve Delfino, director Robin Berghaus, and Dr. Matthew Carty and Dr. Simon Talbot from Brigham and Women's Hospital, all together in conversation with WBUR's Carey Goldberg. The topics ranged from personal anecdotes to Will asking Gonzalez if he ever misses the days where he had to scrub the then-armless Lautzenheiser's scrotum.

The second night kicked off the festival's multi-screen action at the Somerville and Brattle Theaters, showcasing short film programs (which will continue throughout the weekend) as well as a variety of narrative and documentary offerings. The Brattle had Sundance darling "Patti Cake$," about a New Jersey teen dreaming of rap superstardom, followed by the documentary "Rat Film," which utilizes Baltimore's rat problem to craft a deeper story of the city's history and socioeconomic backbone.

The greatest gift of night two by far was the debut directorial film of Kogonada, an artist whose personal website is filled with analytical supercuts on cinematic legends like Kubrick, Ozu and Bresson. Kogonada's cinematic eye is apparent in every frame of the gorgeously constructed and narratively enchanting "Columbus," which I'm fully expecting to be the greatest thing I see at this festival and one of the greatest performances I'm likely to witness all year. Haley Lu Richardson ("Edge of Seventeen," "Split") is stunning as Casey, an architecture nerd stranded in the city of Columbus, Indiana, working at the local library and living with her mother. Casey's path crosses with Jin (John Cho), the son of a renowned architectural scholar who falls into a coma during a speaking tour stop in the city. The film magnificently progresses as the two form a relationship through understanding one another's personal architecture, which in turn helps them discover the inner constructions of their own souls. It's a beautiful film about people entering each other's lives and leaving better people because of it.

The narrative centerpiece film of night three, Brett Haley's "The Hero," was also quite moving in its character study of an aging Western star (appropriately played by Sam Elliot, in a career performance) who's dealing with the aftermath of a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. The film's co-writer and director Brett Haley, who previously attended the festival to share his 2015 film, the lovely "I'll See You in My Dreams," returned to introduce the film and answer audience questions afterward. Preceding the film, Haley commented on how the film was conceived as a love letter to its star. "So, if you love Sam Elliot, I really hope you'll love this film," said Haley. "And if you don't love Sam Elliot, you should just leave because there's something wrong with you."

In the Q&A that followed the film, Haley dug into a variety of topics including why Jacques Audiard ("Rust and Bone," "Dheepan") is the best filmmaker working today, his affinity for drug humor and how he doesn't make films about death and old people, but rather "life and people who happen to be at a certain stage of it." He even accepted a script treatment from a young aspiring filmmaker who took an interesting approach to the concept of an audience question. "Hell, that takes balls," Haley told the fan as he approached the stage to hand the filmmaker an envelope.

Haley's film about a "sad old pothead" was no match for the saturated melancholy of Kentucky's Audley & Albert Birney's insanely creative "Sylvio," which played a late show at the Brattle. Based off the popular Vine series "Simply Sylvio," the film's title character is a lonely, depressed gorilla who works at a debt collection agency yet yearns to express himself through a hand puppet named Herbert Herpels. As Sylvio gets caught up in the success and celebrity of his shtick on an afternoon talk show, his dreams and temperament risk destruction. This strange and soulful film about a sad, sad monkey will likely be the festival's greatest surprise. It's genuinely shocking how moving and profound some of this seemingly silly film is. It seems like monkey business at first, but the film truly apes expectations in what it ultimately becomes.