Northwest Film Forum Showtimes

Patience, After Sebald

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:39:37 -0800

Following up his documentaries on Radiohead and Joy Division, director Grant Gee turns his lens on author W.G. Sebald. An accolade rather than a biography of the German writer, Patience responds aesthetically to the writer’s body of work. A journey through the landscape of the novel The Rings of Saturn with literary commentary, the film, like the writer’s work, pieces together an intimate collage of fiction, nonfiction, history and recollection.

Showdate(s) May 11 - May 17

Outfest Legacy Project Program

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:53:55 -0800

Los Angeles’s Outfest Legacy Project, which is dedicated to rescuing and preserving films about LGBTQ culture and its social significance and impact, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2012! This year, Outfest brings you three newly rescued films, landmarks in the history of LGBTQ community and individual consciousness, all presented in color 35mm.

Queens at Heart
(Director Unknown, 1967, 35mm, color, 22 min)
Four male-to-female transsexuals from Nw York City candidly discuss their lives and identities with an onscreen interviewer.

Mona's Candle Light
(Director Unknown, 1950, 35mm, color, 28 min)
This rare short is among the small number of films depicting gay people before gay liberation: a snapshot of queer life on its own turf and its own terms.

Choosing Children
(Director: Debra Chasnoff, Kim Klausner, 35mm, color, 45 min)
Debra Chasnoff and Kim Klausner's groundbreaking documentary broke the barrier of discussing gay parenting with grace and towering authority, presenting portraits of several lesbian mothers who were among the first to make the historic choice to become parents.

Showdate(s) May 18

Otter 501

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:39:38 -0700

A storm grows, a sea otter is separated from its mother, and a young woman bound for adventure blows into town. On a wild and windswept beach on the beautiful Monterey Bay coastline, lives collide and an entire species' survival gets personal in Otter 501. Through the efforts of Katie, the film's protagonist, a playful otter pup numbered 501 gets an amazing second chance at life in the wild.

Showdate(s) May 18 - May 20

Native Land

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:54:10 -0800

Native Land, which sought to expose the injustices perpetrated upon Americans by American capitalism, was released shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to an unwelcoming public. But the archival footage that the film’s directors compiled 75 years ago—footage of union busters and strikebreakers at war with farmers, sharecroppers, and minorities—deserves to be brought back and viewed in light of its renewed relevance. Narrated by Paul Robeson, a pioneer in African-American theatre, spiritual music, and Civil Rights, Native Land is a documentary whose artistic production enhances its call to action.

Showdate(s) May 19

Lauren Weedman: SRO-Single Room Occupancy

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:21:46 -0700

"One day on my way to the market a truck pulled over and this guy got out and asked me if I wanted to have coffee. He was bare-chested and covered with grass, so I said yes. A few days later, after listening to my neighbor threaten to kill someone, I packed a bag and entered Denny's world."

In this new one-woman show, writer, performer and comedian Lauren Weedman takes us to the world of Single Room Occupancy, a place of lawn care, electric guitars, the same dinner every night, horror movies and sex.

Lauren Weedman is an acclaimed monologuist, whose previous shows include Bust and No. . . You Shut Up, and whose memoire is titled, A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body. She has appeared on Reno 911, Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood and as “Horny Patty” on the HBO series Hung.

Showdate(s) May 17 - May 19

The Forgotten Village

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:54:38 -0800

Westernization vs. Mexican village: not the subject matter you may expect from a 1941 documentary. But in directing The Forgotten Village, which has been called a work of “ethnofiction,” Herbert Kline chose perhaps the greatest screenwriter for the job: John Steinbeck. Working with an entirely nonprofessional cast, Kline brought Western audiences a dramatized account of a Mexican hamlet beset with typhoid fever. One family’s son, Juan Diego, tries to persuade the village to accept the aid of modern medicine, and in the conflict that unfolds, the lifestyles of the villagers are explored with groundbreaking dignity and detail. The film’s release in 1940—the year that kicked off decades of intensive reforms in Mexico—makes it a landmark of history.

“Integrity is the distinctive quality that lends authority to this handsome picture.” – The New York Times, 1941

Showdate(s) May 20