The 39th annual Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) is consolation to the vacation-deprived set—those of us who actually have to live all the way through Portland’s winter. No cheating! What I mean is: No escape! Unless…
There are a whopping 97 features at 2016’s PIFF, plus 62 shorts, representing four dozen different countries’ perspectives in genres ranging from freaky, creepy sci-fi to ultra-raw documentary. If you subscribe to the Portland-common wanderlust, but didn’t have the cheddar or foresight to actually get the heck out of Dodge, PIFF is your hidey-hole portal to foreign lands. It’s not a flashy fest with red carpet premieres (though that has happened in the past), and it doesn’t offer major awards or attention—but it does represent an affordable way to stay worldly, even if your damp boots never leave PDX.