With a little help from friends, S.F. IndieFest rolls out its schedule

Jeff Ross didn’t plan to start his own film festival. In 1998, he was working for both the SF International Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Society, yet he couldn’t find a single local venue to screen the film “Caged” by his friend Rand Alexander. 

Within months, Ross found himself running the first San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF IndieFest) out of The Roxie Theater in The Mission. Twenty-eight years and hundreds of films later, IndieFest is the cornerstone of a five-festival enterprise that spotlights indie filmmakers in a fast-changing industry. 

IndieFest 2026 runs February 5-15 at The Roxie and online. While it mixes international films with parties and panel discussions, it’s embedded in The Mission, with afterparties at Kilowatt and Muddy Waters. The fest also platforms diverse Bay Area stories.

A common refrain among the filmmakers playing at SF IndieFest is the scarcity of resources. Writer-director Lauren Shapiro’s first festival entry – co-presented by the Jewish Film Institute – is also her first feature. “Still Life” (Feb. 7, 3:30 p.m.) is based on Shapiro’s own Alameda adolescence when her mother was battling leukemia. Yet, the biggest hurdle in telling the deeply personal story was simply paying for it.

“Fundraising, by far, has been the hardest part of this entire project for me,” says Shapiro, whose “entirely-community-funded” film still has an active PayPal for additional expenses. In a sense, she said, a tight budget made the effort  “really lean and focused and scrappy every step of the way.”

The lack of reliable local financing has inspired a Bay Area hustle. SF director Jon Warfield Harrison’s narrative short, “Late Bloom,” (Feb. 8, 2:15 p.m. and Feb. 12, 8:15 p.m.) takes a poetic approach to the topic of gentrification, with its lead character walking through the empty property where his family home once stood. Like Shapiro, Harrison turned to family and friends to tell a personal story. He also looked to his musical heroes on how to get the word out. 

As he explains, “The best way to go further is to go together; being able to gain support of $5 from 100 people is $500. This is a way to not hurt anybody’s pockets in a significant way.” He’s taken a page from E-40, Too $hort, Spice 1, and other Bay Area rappers: putting up flyers, talking to folks in the community, and sharing posts online. Most importantly, he added, is “taking the step to ask for help.”

Brisbane-based filmmaker and musician Fēgo Navarro used similar means to fund and promote his IndieFest short, “Deville” (Feb. 6, 8:30 p.m. and Feb. 7, 1 p.m.). The throwback comedy-drama about SF gang life is based on Navarro’s youth in The Mission. Navarro turned to his social media following for funding and to procure music rights. (He personally sought out RBL Posse’s Black C for the use of their classic, “Don’t Give Me No Bammer Weed.”) 

For Navarro, the message is both personal and political. “Understanding my history and where I come from is really important, it shapes how I see life here,” explains the Salvadoran-American director. “In ‘Deville,’ for a small portion of the film, I reflect on my dad fighting in a civil war and on my own experience trying to survive my environment. Like Nina Simone said, ‘An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.’ I want to shine a light on the struggles young people face in the inner city, and I hope the film reaches the people it’s meant to and sparks conversation.” 

For Ross, promoting an evolving IndieFest means embracing some innovations while eschewing others. For instance, although the festival doesn’t draw a hard line regarding the use of AI, Ross emphasizes that “we are not seeking AI work nor are we interested in platforming AI work.” They have, however, embraced streaming.

While he opposed the format before the pandemic, now he sees streaming as making films more accessible.  Still, he says, “we have to talk filmmakers into this every year. Mostly, we convince them on the accessibility argument and our streaming host has helped by being very good” at protecting the films from being pirated. 

South San Francisco filmmaker Julen X. Chavarria makes his IndieFest debut with his student film, “Eternal Eclipse” (Feb. 6, 8:30 p.m.). The fantasy short follows a romance between the moon and the sun, based on the Mexican folklore tales of Chavarria’s youth. He, too, turned to family and friends to support the film, and finds the lack of resources brings out his ingenuity.

“Limits will force you to make choices and get really creative in order to fulfill your vision,” says Chavarria. 

SF IndieFest runs from Feb. 5 to 15 online and at the Roxie Theater. Tickets are $5 to $25.