Alfred Hitchcock

Aaron Hughes' 'Backwards' kicks off the animated portion of this year's Indiefest.

Courtesy Indiefest

The Independent Film Festival enters its second weekend, bringing with it Harmony and Me, this year's closing-night comedy about a slacker caught in the throes of a post-breakup malaise and seemingly incapable of snapping his way out of it. Also coming to the Roxie this Sunday afternoon: Double Take, Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez's experimental rumination on Cold War paranoia featuring none other than the late Alfred Hitchcock. Elsewhere:

1. An Animated World

Long before his Oscar-winning turn as Harvey Milk, Sean Penn played a very different kind of hero.

Courtesy Universal Pictures

San Francisco’s Indie Fest ushers in two weeks of startlingly original sci-fi, unrelenting horror and demented fantasy as the sixth Another Hole in the Head film festival kicks off Friday evening at the Roxie.

A Wink and a Smile makes its Bay Area theatrical debut this weekend at the Red Vic.

Courtesy First Run Features

If you’re ready to experience Vertigo – the Hitchcock classic, not the super-friendly bar and dance club on Polk Street – now’s your chance. As always, here’s a list of some of the films currently in rotation at a San Francisco indie theater near you.

1. Vertigo
Where: Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight St., 415-668-3994
When: June 3-4


A cast of veteran character actors breathes life into Rob Schmidt's tense but problematic thriller.

Courtesy New Films

Just as the Grateful Dead have been fairly and unfairly blamed for inspiring the aimless noodling and whimsical indulgences of jam-band progeny like Phish and Blues Traveler, so too has M. Night Shyamalan born the brunt of criticism for the blindsiding, 11th-hour twists popularized by his 1999 thriller The Sixth Sense.