Before Election and Sideways made him an indie darling, Alexander Payne kicked off his career with Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy that ripped into the culture wars with zero mercy. Now Film Forum is bringing back his 1996 debut in a new 4K restoration, running October 30 through November 5.

Laura Dern stars as Ruth Stoops, a drug-addicted woman with four kids already taken away by the state. When she gets pregnant again while locked up, a judge gives her an ultimatum: get an abortion or face a felony charge. What follows is a brutal tug-of-war between pro-life and pro-choice activists, both desperate to use her as a poster child for their cause. Ruth doesn’t care about either side. She just wants to survive.

The film premiered at Sundance in 1996 and introduced Payne’s signature style, sharp satire with uncomfortable truths baked in. Critics at the time loved Dern’s performance, calling her “a revelation” and “weirdly lovable” despite playing someone you probably shouldn’t root for.

Payne went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Election three years later, but Citizen Ruth remains a boldly irreverent first swing. The restoration was handled by IndieCollect, working with Criterion and Paramount. If you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance.

Paweł Pawlikowski is back with another black-and-white stunner. His new film “Fatherland” premieres October 23 at Film Forum in New York, and it’s already racking up serious attention.

The film stars Sandra Hüller (fresh off “Anatomy of a Fall”) as Erika Mann, daughter of legendary author Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler. Set in 1949, they’re driving through a bombed-out Germany after years of exile in the U.S. Mann’s returned as a Nobel Prize winner with celebrity status, but the country he knew is gone. Erika’s coordinating his trip while dealing with her own family trauma, trying to break through her father’s distant facade.

Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes for this one. It’s also Poland’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature. If you know his work, the pedigree checks out. “Ida” won the Oscar in 2014, and “Cold War” scored three nominations including Best Director.

The reviews are glowing. Critics are calling it “a perfectly cut jewel” and praising cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s gorgeous monochrome work. At just 82 minutes, Pawlikowski keeps it lean and devastating.

For indie cinema lovers, this is the kind of restrained, visually striking filmmaking that reminds you why arthouse matters. Film Forum’s the place to see it first.

Jordan Firstman is bringing his feature directorial debut to San Francisco before it hits theaters nationwide. SFFILM just announced a special 35mm screening of Club Kid at the Castro Theatre on November 2, with Firstman sticking around for a post-screening Q&A.

The film made waves at Cannes before A24 scooped it up. Firstman wrote, directed, and stars as Peter, a New York City club promoter whose party-heavy lifestyle gets flipped upside down when a 10-year-old son he didn’t know existed shows up at his door. The ensemble includes Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Reggie Absolom, and Colleen Camp.

“The anarchic humor, incredible ensemble, and unexpected tenderness make this a distinctive film,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. She called out the needle drops as “thrillingly precise” to the characters and story.

SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai pointed out the fitting venue. “For decades, gathering to see movies at The Castro has been at the heart of San Francisco’s queer culture and history.”

Tickets go on sale to SFFILM members September 22 at 10 am, with general public access starting September 24. General admission is $35, members pay $30. Club Kid opens in select cities November 6.

Mat Hames has spent more than 20 years chasing stories where history refuses to stay buried. His latest might be his most personal yet.

The Austin documentarian’s new film, Home from the Vietnam War, follows decorated Army Lt. Lee Alley back to Vietnam over 50 years after the war. Joined by his friend John Nguyen, who fled the country as a child, Alley confronts wounds he spent most of his life avoiding. The journey leads to one of the war’s bloodiest battle sites, where Alley comes face to face with the Vietnamese soldiers he once fought.

Home from the Vietnam War premieres at Heartland Film Festival on October 16, then screens at St. Louis International Film Festival on Veterans Day. Wyoming PBS will host a special screening with Lt. Alley and fellow veterans the same day. The film streams November 12 on Wyoming PBS’s YouTube channel before hitting national PBS distribution.

Hames has built a quiet but formidable résumé. His work has aired twice on PBS’s Independent Lens, screened at SXSW and Hot Docs, and earned 12 regional Emmys. He was even knighted by the King of Belgium for his World War II documentary Last Best Hope.

While Home from the Vietnam War starts its run, his mountain guide film A Life Outside wraps its own festival circuit. His next projects include a doc on Texas governor Bill Clements and season three of Power Trip: The Story of Energy.

For indie filmmakers grinding it out, Hames proves longevity beats hype every time.

A house fire in 1989 set Andrew Carroll on a 30-year mission to save war letters from attics and basements across America. Now his story is getting the documentary treatment, and it’s loaded with A-list talent.

“Behind the Lines” drops October 22nd on Amazon, Apple+, and YouTube. The 88-minute film is narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening, with letter readings from Laura Dern, Michael C. Hall, Gary Cole, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Paul Walter Hauser, DeWanda Wise, and Common.

Director John B. Benitz, a Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize recipient, follows Carroll’s journey through all 50 states and 40 countries, including war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Carroll’s collected over 250,000 war-related letters and emails spanning every U.S. conflict.

The letters themselves are the real stars. A Black Union soldier threatening his former master. A Pearl Harbor sailor describing the attack from inside a sinking ship. A Vietnam vet confessing he’d killed someone. A 9/11 survivor’s handwritten account from Ground Zero.

The release coincides with Carroll’s new campaign, Operation Post War, focused on preserving correspondence from post-9/11 troops and veterans.

For indie docs tackling big subjects, this is how you do it: find the human story, then get out of the way and let the voices speak.

A coming-of-age story set during a sweltering Toronto blackout just scored worldwide representation.

Serville Poblete’s feature debut Sunburn has been acquired by MoreThan Films following its world premiere in TIFF’s Centrepiece Program this week. The boutique sales agency will handle international distribution, while Gersh is repping domestic.

The film follows a group of kids in St. James Town, a high-rise Toronto neighborhood, as they wander through the city’s hottest day while phone networks crash and the power stays off. It’s a hangout movie about youth slipping away in real time.

Poblete, a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker, has been racking up festival wins lately. His short In the Morning Sun took the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2026 and is currently in Oscar consideration. His doc King’s Court earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination earlier this year.

“Making a movie about my neighbourhood with so many amazing collaborators felt like summer camp,” Poblete says. “I’m so excited to partner with MoreThan Films and Gersh to share this project with the world.”

The cast includes Joshua Obra, Dashawn Blackwood, Arianna Shannon, and Milan Deng. Nicole Dane produces, with Christian Bielz on cinematography and Juno-winning composer Aaron Paris scoring.

For indie filmmakers working hyper-local stories with universal themes, Sunburn is exactly the kind of breakout that still happens at festivals when the work connects.

Parlour Magic is pivoting hard. The NYC synth-pop project just announced “Japanese Bonus Track,” a disco-laced club anthem that ditches the guitar sound of its recent album The Embassy and leans into full electronic mode. It drops September 25.

Producer and composer Luc Bokor-Smith wrote the track with Bailey Kislak, bringing in Fab Dupont to mix and Brian Lucey to master. The result is lush strings, a massive singalong chorus, and a sound clearly aimed at the dancefloor.

The music video, directed by NYC filmmaker Lloyd Lenox, was shot over five nights across Tokyo, from Shimbashi to Nakano Broadway. Lenox pulled heavy inspiration from ’80s and ’90s Japanese variety TV, anime opening sequences, bold typography, and the chaotic energy of that era. The concept started as an attempt to recreate Human Tetris, then got weirder.

Lenox made a point to avoid the typical Western gaze when filming in Japan, steering clear of tourist traps and working with a local crew to keep things culturally grounded.

Parlour Magic has racked up over six million streams and grown from Bokor-Smith’s solo project into a full live band. The group plays a hometown show at Berlin in New York on September 25, then heads to Germany.

This one’s a bridge track, and a loud signal of what’s next.

A film about two friends hiking 330 miles through the Scottish Highlands is hitting theaters next month, and it was made the hard way.

Writer-director Bart Schrijver took his tiny crew onto Scotland’s West Highland Way and Cape Wrath Trail, carrying their own gear and sleeping outdoors. No lighting equipment. Fewer than six people on the trail at any time. They shot chronologically, with Schrijver rewriting scenes at night based on what they encountered that day.

The result is “The North,” which follows Chris (Bart Harder) and Lluis (Carles Pulido), two thirtysomethings who reunite after a decade apart to tackle the grueling trek. It’s a reunion story set against lush, unpredictable terrain, filled with rain, wildlife, and fellow hikers on their own journeys.

There’s no musical score. The sound design relies entirely on wind, rain, footsteps, and ambient noise from the trail.

Picturehouse is releasing the film theatrically on October 9 in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. But first, it gets a sneak preview on October 5 at over 100 Dolby Cinema locations, where dual 4K laser projection and Dolby Atmos sound will amplify the film’s immersive quality.

The film has already been shortlisted for the European Film Awards. For indie filmmakers trying to capture the raw feeling of being outdoors, this is one to watch.