Each September I plan my life around the Vancouver International Film Festival. I love the Vancouver programming; we get a few big Hollywood films but the festival organizers choose tons of documentaries, some experimental work and features from countries that don’t make a lot of films.

Captain Abu Raed which is a rare entry from Jordan. I’m mostly looking forward to the non-fiction features; if there is a movie about deaf retirees getting cochlear implants or Egyptian garbage collectors I will definitely be there. As Slow as Possible is an intriguing film based on the memoir Cockeyed, by Geist contributor Ryan Knighton, and it chronicles his slow process of going blind which began when he was a teenager.

The festival brings out a lot of kooks—people who hop from film to film, never watching one through to its conclusion, families who talk at full volume though entire movies, ranters who explode with rage during question and answer periods—but I put up with them because it’s all part of the festival experience.