Calendar
French Cinema in the ’90s
Jan 19 - Feb 23
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.
Awesome Land: Women of Dirt
Feb 05 - Feb 11
(Mark Brent, USA, 2009, digiBETA)
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.
When It Was Blue
Feb 10
(Jennifer Reeves, 2008, USA, DigiBeta, 60 min)
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.
Cris Cheek Live
Co-Presented with University of Washington Bothell
Feb 11
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. His work, indebted to the history of sound poetry, is highly improvisational and ephemeral.
The Red Shoes
New 35mm print
Feb 12 - Feb 18
(Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948, USA, 35mm, 133 min)
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.
"Watching The Red Shoes, whatever the quality, on the small screen is like drinking champagne, whatever the vintage, through a plastic straw. Catch it here now, and you will not just be seeing an old film made new; you will have your vision restored." —The New Yorker
New Hollywood Cinema
Instructor: Dennis West
Jan 18 - Feb 22
This class will explore the themes and styles of the New Hollywood
movement that lasted from 1967 to 1980, the year of Raging Bull. Key films will be screened, studied for their cinematic power, and
discussed for how they reflect the wider culture.
O’er The Land
Seattle premiere
Feb 17
(Deborah Stratman, 2008, USA, 16mm, 52 min)
O’er the Land is Deborah Stratman’s meditation on freedom and technological approaches to manifest destiny. She captures the marching-band battle cries of the country with a strong, controlled tone that proves its point but is also extremely playful.
For The Love Of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
Seattle Premiere
Director In Attendance
Feb 18
(Gerald Peary, 2009, USA, DigiBeta, 81 min)
From the raw beginnings of criticism before The Birth of a Nation to the incendiary Pauline Kael-Andrew Sarris debates of the 1960s and 70s, to the battle today between youthful on-liners and the print establishment, For the Love of Movies motivates audiences to consider reviews by the best American critics as a key component in watching movies in a deeper, more thoughtful way.
Home
Sponsored by the Consulate General of France, San Francisco
Feb 19 - Feb 25
(Ursula Meier, 2008, Switzerland/France/Belgium, 35mm, 97 min)
As upbeat, jazzy music sets the mood for fun, a happy family in roller skates finishes the match point of a hockey game played out on a strip of nondescript tarmac. Thus begins Swiss-French filmmaker Ursula Meier’s debut feature, Home—in stark contrast to what lies ahead. With its unique style, dark humor and tragic-hopeful denouement, Meier’s film is sure to be one of the most discussed of the quarter.
Serj Tankian – Elect the Dead Symphony
Feb 20
(Madsen Minax, U.S.A. / New Zealand, 2009, Beta-SP, 62 min)
On March 16th, 2009, Serj Tankian, a Grammy Award winner and one of rock’s most unconventional frontmen, took the stage at the majestic Auckland Town Hall in New Zealand with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to perform a very special orchestral interpretation of his critically acclaimed debut solo album Elect the Dead. The dynamic one- off performance was recorded and filmed in HD by six cameras, and the dramatic result has been captured in Elect the Dead Symphony.
Film Challenge Screenings: One Roll of Super 8
Feb 24
This winter the Northwest Film Forum’s quarterly film challenge asks local filmmakers to pull out their super 8 cameras and make a film with a single roll of film. Films must be edited in camera, which means the film must be shot in sequential order. No editing allowed! The project is open to all levels of skills and experience.
Nineteen Seventy-Four
Seattle Premiere
Feb 26 - Mar 01
(Julian Jarrold, UK, 2009, 35mm, 102 min)
Nineteen Seventy-Four starts with the fruitless investigations of newspaper correspondent Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) into the latest missing person case assumed to be associated with the Yorkshire Ripper.
Old Partner
Seattle Premiere
Feb 26 - Mar 04
(Chung-Ryoul Lee, South Korea, 2008, DigiBeta, 77 min)
In a remote valley in South Korea, the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Lee live on a farm with their rickety ox. A charming, heartbreaking, existential buddy tale, Old Partner conveys the almost mystical inextricability of humans and nature.
Nineteen Eighty
Seattle Premiere
Feb 26 - Mar 04
(James Marsh, UK, 2009, 35mm, 93 min)
In Nineteen Eighty the narrative focus shifts to the covert investigations of the Yorkshire police handing the Ripper cases, conducted by an outsider to the department, Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine). Ever deeper layers of corruption and betrayal are unearthed as Hunter’s investigation proceeds, coming to a shocking conclusion.
White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights
Feb 26 - Feb 27
(Emmett Malloy, USA, 2009, DVD, 93 min)
White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights is a stylish rock-doc that follows the Jack and Meg White's 2007 Canadian tour. The band played remote towns and provinces, while finding time at each tour stop to make an unusual promotional appearance, playing on city buses, boats, bowling alleys (where they rolled a full game while rocking), and even one free daytime show in which they only played a single note.
Nineteen Eighty-Three
Seattle Premiere
Feb 27 - Mar 04
(Anand Tucker, UK, 2009, 35mm, 100 min)
Like the two preceding films, Nineteen Eighty-Three gains as much from its stellar cast of new and known talent as from its gripping plot and the stylistic construction of the film’s grim atmosphere.
Danny Yount
Mar 05
Self-taught designer Danny Yount has become one of today's top title designers for film and television, as well as a photographer and commercial director. Yount will be here to show his work, discuss his creative and technical processes and field questions.
Opening Night Event
Free!
Mar 05
Join us in celebrating the opening of the 10th annual ByDesign fest with drinks, short films and live audio/visual performances by Iller Aint, Scientific American and Wyndel Hunt.
Seattle Moves: Screening and Panel Discussion
Mar 06
Seattle animators and motion designers will screen recent projects and discuss their inspirations, creative processes and the behind-the-scenes techniques in creating recent main titles, commercials and short films.
The Light Surgeons
Mar 06
Since 1995, UK based art collective The Light Surgeons has been developing it's own unique style of creative media “surgery” and pioneering a new form of audiovisual narrative. This retrospective program spans the past decade, from earlier collage films to their latest documentary short, Schlemazeltov. Founder Chris Allen scheduled to attend.
Curator Talk: Classic Film Titles
Mar 07
ByDesign Curator Peter Lucas presents an informal primer on the history of film title sequences. He’ll screen over a dozen classic title sequences created in the 1950s and 60s by such masters as Saul Bass, Maurice Binder, Robert Brownjohn, Pablo Ferro and others.
Eames Design
Mar 07 - Mar 09
(Charles and Ray Eames, USA, 1954–72, Beta-SP, 65 min)
The husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames are among the most influential designers of the 20th century. This selection of their films playfully documents their Herman Miller furniture, their private home and even a solar powered kinetic sculpture.
Eames Communication
Mar 07 - Mar 09
(Charles and Ray Eames, USA, 1953-72, Beta-SP, 65 min)
This selection of short films by influential designers/filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames focuses on their exploration of concepts of communication, science and new technologies.
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
Mar 08 - Mar 11
(David Ridgen & Nicolas Rossier, USA/Canada, 2009, DigiBeta, 84 min)
Exploring the deeply complex issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, American Radical is the insightful and enraging documentary that follows Finkelstein around the world as he attempts to negotiate a voice among his impassioned critics and supporters.
Hillman Curtis Artist Series
Mar 08 - Mar 10
Designer and filmmaker David Hillman Curtis directs this series of beautifully shot short film portraits of notable artists and graphic designers. Together the films present an inspiring tapestry of images, wisdom and the questions asked by all those who create.
Entropy: New Shorts & Music Videos
Mar 08 - Mar 10
Creatures, cutouts and colors illuminate the screen in this year’s survey of inventive new short films and music videos from around the globe. Features music by Yeasayer, Grizzly Bear, Ramona Falls, N.A.S.A. and others.
Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized
Mar 11
(Peter Sluszka, Julia Pott, Guilherme Marcondes, Santa Maria; USA, 2009, 99 min)
After the release of The Decemberists’ The Hazards of Love last year, four filmmakers embarked on a special project to take the album to new heights. Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria created animated films to accompany the ambitious and acclaimed song cycle.
45365
Seattle Premiere
Mar 12 - Mar 18
(Bill Ross, Turner Ross, USA, 2009, DigiBeta, 93 min)
An elegiac portrait of goings-on in the middle-American town of Sydney, Ohio, 45365 is a celebration of everyday life, mundane and profound. Directors Bill and Ross Turner, using images of their hometown, construct perhaps the world's first rural symphony, a patient, inquisitive and non-judgmental study of community, lives and landscape.
Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle of Wight, 1970
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM and Sonic Boom Records/Sony
Mar 12 - Mar 13
(Murray Lerner, USA, 1970/2009, DV-CAM, 64 min)
On August 31, 1970, 35-year-old Leonard Cohen was awakened at 2am and brought onstage to perform at the third annual Isle of Wight Music Festival. An estimated 600,000 people were waiting, energized by a legendary set by Jimi Hendrix...
Lunch Films
Randy Walker in attendance!
Mar 13
(Various, 2008/2009, 100 mins)
One day Randy Walker's bought a filmmaker friend lunch. Instead of owing him a lunch in return, he wondered why not make a film for that same money? The two made a napkin contract with “rules” to follow. Now 50 "Lunch Films" have been commissioned. Like a menu, the series has a wide variety of tastes and styles, from languid, real life documents to vibrant fiction to pure art.
Early Resnais Shorts
Sponsored by JTNews
Mar 16 - Mar 17
(Alain Resnais, France, 1950-56, various formats, 86 min)
Discover director Alain Resnais’s hard-to-find documentary shorts of the 1950s! Resnais’ early work established him as a filmmaker of inimitable sensibility.
Soul Nite!
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM (DOORS at 7:30PM)
Mar 18
It's back! Curator and host Peter Lucas presents a selection of vintage soul music performance footage on the big screen, cranked up loud. Don’t miss this all-star soul show on screen, including a rarely seen performance from the one and only wicked Wilson Pickett in celebration of his birthday!
October Country
Directors In Attendance Opening Weekend!
Mar 17 - Mar 24
(Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher, USA, 2009, DigiBeta, 80 min)
October Country is a beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. This vibrant and intimate documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life.
LET'S DO IT! A night of sex worker made media
Sponsored by the Central Co-op Panel discussion and special guests in attendance
Mar 20
(Various, 80 min)
From the Sangli district in the rural south of India to the life of a New York City callboy, sex workers reach out through film and video to share their experiences. LET'S DO IT! is a night of experimental and documentary shorts dedicated to human rights and advocacy for sex workers across the globe.
too
Mar 25 - Mar 27
"too" is an ecstatic interplay of live and recorded movement by dancers Amy O’Neal and Ellie Sandstrom. The duo interacts with strangers, friends, acquaintances and family in dance of physical extremes. Drawing inspiration from the rural/urban divide, karaoke, and Japanese love hotels, "too" ruminates on the increasing challenges of human contact in a fractured and complex technological age.
Warsaw Bridge
20th Anniversary
Mar 28 - Apr 01
(Pere Portabella, Spain, 1990, 35mm, 85 min)
A thoroughly engrossing collage of images and surreal sequences woven together by only a loose plot, Warsaw Bridge is one of intermittent filmmaker Pere Portabella’s (Silence Before Bach) masterpieces.
Jeonju Digital Project 2009
Mar 29 - Mar 30
(Hong Sang-Soo, Naomi Kawase, Lav Diaz; various countries, 2009, DigiBeta, 108 min)
A kind of Northwest Film Forum brethren on the other side of the Pacific, South Korea’s Jeonju Digital Project, initiated in 2000 by the Jeonju International Festival (South Korea), commissions three filmmakers to make a digital short. This year’s selections come from some of the best filmmakers in recent time.
Still Bill
Seattle Premiere Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM and Jive Time Records
Mar 31
(Alex Vlack and Damani Baker, USA, 2009, Beta-SP, 82 min)
Soul music legend Bill Withers was an undersized, asthmatic, stuttering child from the small town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. It wasn’t until his mid-30s that the instant success of his song “Ain’t No Sunshine” would catapult the unlikely pop star into fame. This intimate documentary highlights his career, catches up with the reclusive, low-key singer at home and captures his first musical endeavors in decades.
Lourdes
Seattle Premiere
Apr 02 - Apr 08
(Jessica Hausner, Austria/France/Germany, 2009, 35mm, 96 min)
Isolated, wheelchair-bound Christine (Sylvie Testud) wants a way to meet people, so she pretends to be pious to take advantage of opportunities for travel with pilgrimage groups. The film’s focus isn’t so much religion, but competing human capacities for openness and jealousy, and our ultimate underlying fragility.
The Ukrainian Time Machine
Director In Attendance!
Apr 02
(Naomi Uman, Ukraine/USA, 2008-09, 16mm, 55 min)
These poetic documentary films combine personal, experimental and non-fiction approaches to capturing life in the Ukrainian town of Uman. Director Naomi Uman draws upon her personal experience, living with her subjects for a long time to become integrated into a family or community.
Éric Rohmer, preuve à l’appui
Apr 04
(André S. Labarthe, France, 1994, Beta-SP, 115 min)
To honor and celebrate the life of Eric Rohmer, who passed away this January, we screen this two-part interview in which Rohmer develops some of the ideas underlying how he sees and makes films. Come out to toast Eric Rohmer, the grandfather of the French New Wave, on what would have been his 90th birthday.
Man From London
Sponsored by the University of Washington Ellison Center, the UW Center for Western European Studies and the Hungarian American Association of Washington
Apr 05 - Apr 08
(Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, France/Germany/Hungary, 2007, 35mm, 132 min)
Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s latest film features an international all-star cast, including Tilda Swinton. Based on the 1934 French language thriller L'Homme de Londres, Tarr tells the story of an impoverished railway switchman who, after witnessing and interrupting a crime, discovers a suitcase of English banknotes.
My Son My Son What Have Ye Done
Apr 09 - Apr 15
(Werner Herzog, USA, 2009, 35mm, 91 min)
A cinematic cocktail combo, the wholly creative marriage of German agitator Werner Herzog and absurdist David Lynch. Jammed with ostrich farms, Peruvian jungles, and a staging of Sophocles’ Oresteia, this surreal take on reality is the perfect mix of the synthetic with the natural, the iconoclastic and the expected leaving us as always with these two auteurs, queasily involved.
Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger Retrospective
Apr 09
(Oskar Fischinger, Germany/USA, 1926-47, 35mm, 70 min)
German-born painter and filmmaker Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) was an enormously influential artist of the 20th century. His abstract animations- made between the 1920s and 40s- greatly expanded the possibilities of the medium of film, presenting a range of inventive, visual and temporal techniques and pioneering a new form of audio-visual art.
Seeing Sound: The Films of Mary Ellen Bute
in association with Cecile Starr and the Women's Independent Film Exchange.
Apr 10
(Mary Ellen Bute, USA, 1934-52, 16mm, 70 min)
American filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute (1906-1983) is an important and often overlooked pioneer of visual music and electronic art. Beginning in the 1930s, Bute produced short films that translated music (often classical music including Bach and Shostakovich) into choreographed shapes, ever-changing lights and shadows, brilliant colorful forms, and elegant design.
The Magnificent Tati
Apr 11
(Michael House, USA, 2009, Digital, 60 min)
Detailing just how far reaching the career of France’s greatest comic auteur Jacques Tati was, this compelling new documentary explores Tati’s career rom his roots in the Parisian music-halls of the ‘30s to his rise and ultimate fall from grace after the release of his masterpiece Playtime.
Jordan Belson: Films Sacred and Profane
Apr 11
(Jordan Belson, USA, 1959-2005, 16mm/DigiBeta, 70 min)
Filmmaker and artist Jordan Belson has created some of the most moving, ethereal works of visual music. After seeing the films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren and Hans Richter, he was inspired to make what he called "cinematic paintings
Seattle Psychedelics
Apr 13
This panel discussion, moderated by curator Peter Lucas, explores the little-known history of experimental films and light shows in the Seattle area in the late 1960s and early 70s, and celebrates the pioneers of this funky, techno-folk multi-media art form.
Sixties Synaesthetics
Apr 15
(Various directors, USA, 1961-70, 16mm, 70 min)
In this final program of the Visual Music series, we present a selection of highly original works by artists who shattered the boundaries between visual and sonic through the creative use of optical printing, animation, electronics, and editing.
Barking Water
Seattle Premiere
Apr 16 - Apr 22
(Sterlin Harjo, USA, 2009, 35mm, 85 min)
Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo traces the impromptu journey taken by weathered, handsome couple Frankie and Irene as they visit the stations of their fractured relationship. This wise second feature affectionately travels Oklahoma’s roads, stopping now and then to reveal itself as one of American cinema’s most moving love stories—adult and unsentimental—to have appeared in a long time.
Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky
Apr 18
(Dmitry Trakovsky, Russia, 2008, DigiBeta, 90 min)
This outstanding documentary journeys from Los Angeles to rural Russia to investigate Tarkovsky's legacy through encounters with those who collaborated with him. The film offers a touching, highly personal and provocative record of the lingering effects of Tarkovsky on an extraordinary range of individuals.
Wild River
Sponsored by the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Network
Apr 23 - Apr 29
(Elia Kazan, USA, 1960, 35mm, 105 min)
One of Kazan's personal favorites, Wild River pits a timid yet determined Tennessee Valley Authority official—portrayed by a fascinating Montgomery Clift—against a hamlet targeted for imminent flooding and a young resident—played by a radiant Lee Remick—smitten by his eccentric charm.
The Bug Trainer
Sponsored by Seattle Bug Safari and Arkitek Studios
Apr 24 - Apr 25
(Donatas Ulvydas, Linas Augutis, Marek Skrobecki; Lithuania, Poland, Japan, Germany; 35mm, 2008, 53 min)
Ladislas Starewitch, Europe's answer to Disney and a pioneer of puppet animation, is a forgotten film genius. The Bug Trainer explores Starewitch’s creative ideas and concepts of his work, along with opinions from film critics and other animation directors to help us understand why he is considered one of the greatest creators of the animation world.
Barbara Hammer In Person
Sponsored by Seattle Gay News
Apr 24
Barbara Hammer, on tour with her first book HAMMER! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life, presents films from four decades of work in this rare celebration at Northwest Film Forum. Films from each decade will be screened and Barbara will read short passages from her new book.
Typeface
May 04
(Justine Nagan, 2009, DigiBeta, 60 min)
In an age of digital design and portable media, this new documentary explores the twilight of an analog craft and the small town museum that once was a thriving center of the printing industry. Typeface investigates the history of wood type, introduces us to proponents of the letterpress process around the country, and champions the convergence of modern design and traditional technique.
The Annual Northwest Film Forum Gala
A fundraiser for Northwest Film Forum
May 06
Save the date! Our Annual Gala is a dinner, a party and a show, and this year we are moving all three to the glamorous Georgetown Ballroom. The evening starts with cocktails at 6, and continues with dinner, a live auction and a film program. It ends at 9, when the after-hours dancing begins.
Breath Made Visible
Sponsored by Velocity Dance and Northwest Dance Network
May 07 - May 12
(Ruedi Gerber, Swtizerland, 2009, Beta-SP, 80 min)
Since she was a small child, Anna Halprin has danced. Now at 89, she still possesses the grace and romanticism of her youth. Halprin has spent her life spreading a gospel of healing and wholeness through self-expression—an extraordinary story that unfolds, with the help of fascinating interviews and archival performance footage, as a moving and beautiful tribute to one of Northern California's most beloved and inspirational artists.
Peter Pan
Mother's Day Special: A CD Release party and screening of Peter Pan, with live harp accompaniment by Leslie McMichael With special refreshments for all mothers and children!
May 09
(Herbert Brenon, 1924, USA, video, 105 min)
Live music gives new life to this amazing 1924 classic version of Peter Pan, lovingly restored after having been "misplaced" for over 70 years. Prepare to fly to another place and time, where magic is in the air and children never have to grow up.
Condomillenium
May 13 - May 15
Join us for a performance spectacle written and directed by Marya Sea Kaminski. Inspired by the transformation of Seattle’s Pike-Pine corridor and developed from interviews with politicians, activists, developers, children, comedians, and construction workers, this event brings performance, video, live music and absurd fantasy together to paint a picture of our evolving urban landscape and the places we call home.