Northwest Film Forum Showtimes

French Cinema in the ’90s

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:29 -0800

An introduction to the films of the decade, with a sprinkling of French culture. Films studied represent highlights from a decade significant for its artistic and economic transition into the 21st century, including the famous assertion of cinema as a "cultural exception." The "cinema du look" was waning; heritage epics held strong; women directors were becoming visible; a new generation of young filmmakers began to rise. Students will watch films prior to a weekly discussion session using a handout of study notes/questions to guide and organize their viewing. Bibliographies of selected readings for each work will be available. No special background required.

Instructor: Joan West. Members: $80; non-members: $100

Among the films we will watch: The Lovers on the Bridge (Léos Carax, 1991); Indochine (Régis Wargnier (1992); French Twist (Josiane Balasko, 1995); Family Resemblances (Cédric Klapisch, 1996); The Dream Life of Angels (Eric Zonca, 1998); The Girl on the Bridge (Patrice Leconte, 1999)

Enrollment for this class has ended. Please sign up for our emails to hear about the next Required Viewing classes.

Showdate(s) Jan 19 - Feb 23

Awesome Land: Women of Dirt

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:04:57 -0800

Featuring the bicycle stylings of Tammy Donahugh, Stephanie Nychka, Cierra Smith, Emily Johnston, Lisa Myklak, Jill Kintner, Leana Gerrard, Dawn Cashen, Katrina Strand, Kathy Pruitt, and Darcy Turenne, Awesome Land: Women Of Dirt is a unique look into the world of Downhill Racing, Dirt Jumping and Freeriding. This film looks through the eyes of the wondrous women that have helped grow the sport of Gravity Mountain Biking with their strength and courage. Other mountain bike films have overlooked these vibrant and dedicated women but no longer! Awesome Land: Women Of Dirt celebrates the mountain bike while celebrating the women who love them. A beautiful and energetic film that opens a window into an awesome world.

Showdate(s) Feb 05 - Feb 11

When It Was Blue

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:40:14 -0800

Jennifer Reeves’s epic, years-in-the-making When It Was Blue presents an experience of a world that is both visceral and fleeting. Photographed in 16mm over many years in various waters and terrains, an elaborate montage connects diverse ecosystems spanning from the northeastern USA, to Iceland, Canada’s Pacific coast, New Zealand and Central America. Reeves hand-painted the 16mm film, creating impressionistic textures and colors that mimic the qualities of land, water and trees, and fuse with the photographic imagery. A frenetic, delighted and mournful visual journey ensues through decades and seasons, as if trying to “capture” as much of the natural world as possible before it disappears. Icelandic musician and composer Skúli Sverrisson’s emotive and haunting score brings the internal human experience to this vast world away from home.

Showdate(s) Feb 10

Cris Cheek Live

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:40:55 -0800

Cris Cheek is a sound artist, poet, photographer, mixed-media practitioner and interdisciplinary performer. He will perform an evening of “live writing” or “performance writing” works for sound, text and video. Cheek writes that he “projects video about writing and gets in the way of his projections, tries to read the writing, toys with and enacts ideas of trying to read what we might be seeing and changes what is seen by doing so.” His work, indebted to the history of sound poetry, is highly improvisational and ephemeral.

One of the works he will be presenting, the video-text-performance piece “monday morning quarterbacking ‘on’ and ‘off’ gods commons,” has appeared on many “best-of” 2009 lists for experimental poetics. He will also be presenting other short videos, live sound pieces and readings from his acclaimed new book “part: short life housing” (The Gig, Toronto, 2009).

Showdate(s) Feb 11

The Red Shoes

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:50:10 -0800

A Technicolor classic based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of magic ballet slippers whose wearer cannot stop dancing, The Red Shoes tracks a ballerina's rise to the lead role in a ballet version of the well-known story. As Powell noted of the film's role in a post–World War II free world, "For 10 years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art." A landmark in film style and themes, The Red Shoes has become a touchstone to cineastes, lovers of dance and filmmakers ranging from Vincente Minnelli to Martin Scorsese. Its astounding production design, music and choreography, and its shockingly sumptuous color palette and revolutionary treatment of dance on film now may be rediscovered and savored anew. This new 35mm print debuted at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Appriopriate for ages 10 and up.