Hello, Imaginaries! This year’s Face the Music program at the Seattle International Film Festival contains some music documentaries I AM SUPER EXCITED ABOUT!!! You can buy passes to SIFF now, and inividual tickets go on sale this week on Thursday, 5/2. And so, let us (stage) dive in:

First up: a few special events put together by Ms. Hannah Levin of KEXP! The Maldives are doing their thing at The Triple Door this year, performing music for The Wind, a 1928 Lillian Gish film. And the documentary Muscle Shoals will also have a tribute evening at The Triple Door, with music provided by Patterson and Dave Hood with Jeff Fielder and friends. {The Maldives & The Wind, June 7 at The Triple Door, two shows: 7pm & 9:30pm; A Muscle Shoals Tribute, May 30 at The Triple Door, 7pm}  

Speaking of Muscle Shoals, in case you didn’t know, it’s the studio where “legendary musicians including Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett gathered to create music that would later inspire the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many more.” I’m not gonna lie, the trailer makes me drool a little bit. {Screens 5/29, 7pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and again 5/30, 7pm at the Egyptian} 

Power Pop fans rejoice! Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is coming to SIFF!!! Promising never-before-seen footage, rousing musical tributes, and in-depth interviews with members of the band and the musicians they’ve inspired. Yes, yes, yes, and YES. I was hoping this would make it to SIFF. Hooray! {Screens 5/21, 9pm, and again 5/26, 8:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown} 

Hip-hop fans can also rejoice! The Otherside is a documentary on Seattle’s underground hip-hop scene (!!!) featuring interviews and concert footage from all over the US. With: Macklemore, Massive Monkees, Shabazz Palaces, Blue Scholars, Fresh Espresso, and Mad Rad. Cool cool cool. {Screens 5/31, 7pm, and again 6/2, 8:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown} 

You might find this surprising, but I’m a HUGE fan of Peaches, so I’m psyched for the Peaches Does Herself (haha) documentary. From the SIFF description: “Electro-rock goddess Peaches brings her sensational stage show—which she calls “a jukebox musical with a sex change”—to the big screen for a no-holds-barred, operatic, neo-queer extravaganza channeled through the wild, pumping, sexually skewed fibers of Peaches’s unstoppable imagination.” IT LOOKS COMPLETELY INSANE! {Screens 5/25, 9:30pm, and again 5/27, 9pm, at The Egyptian} 

Also with a resounding YESSSS, I’m super psyched for The Punk Singer! About riot grrrl lovely Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, featuring interviews with Joan Jett and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz. {Screens 5/24, 9:30pm, and again 5/26, 1:30pm at The Harvard Exit} 

Gahhhhhhhh. Pack up a case of tissues and bring ’em to Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You – A Concert for Kate McGarrigle. An intimate concert film of Martha and Rufus Wainwright paying tribute to their recently departed mother, Canadian folk musician Kate McGarrigle. {Screens 5/25, 4:30pm at the Egyptian, and again 5/27, 6pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown}

I’m betting our own Chris Estey is going to be first in line for A Band Called Death, about 1970s Detroit punk band Death’s discovery and eventual recognition as the first black punk band and the pioneers of Afro-punk! And I quote, “an electrifying rockumentary and epic family chronicle.” {Screens 5/18, 3pm, and again 5/28, 9pm, at SIFF Cinema Uptown} 

And if you didn’t find ONCE depressing enough (*sob*), Director Matthew Porterfield’s new film I Used to Be Darker focuses on a marriage between two musicians that falls apart, and the music that helps them through it. WHY DO YOU HATE US SO MUCH, PORTERFIELD? Seriously. {Screens 6/4, 6:30pm and again 6/5, 3:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown}  

A few other things rounding out the 2013 programming: Harana, about classical guitarist Florante Aguilar exploring his Filipino roots {5/25 and 5/26 at the Uptown}; backup singers get a little bit of the spotlight in Twenty Feet from Stardom {6/1 and 6/2 at the Egyptian}; if you’re a fan of The National, you probably want to pick up tickets for Mistaken for Strangers, which actually looks more interesting and in-depth than just a documentary of the band itself. {5/20 and 5/21 at the Egyptian}.

What are you guys feelin’ this year?