Calendar
Seattle Art Fair at CenturyLink Field Event Center
Aug 04 - Aug 06
The Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest.
Ugetsu
New 4K restoration!
Aug 04 - Aug 06
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1953, 96 min)
Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss—with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real—is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
The Ornithologist
Aug 02 - Aug 06
(João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, France & Brazil, 2016, 117 min)
Industry Happy Hour
Free and all-ages!
Jul 12 - Aug 30
Join us for Summer Happy Hours at Northwest Film Forum and meet with local professionals in independent film and VR. Each happy hour (Wednesdays, 6–7:30pm) will focus on either Directors and Actors, Producers, and VR (360/VR/AR).
Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk
Seattle premiere!
Aug 09 - Aug 17
(Corbett Reford, US, 2017, 155 min)
Narrated by Iggy Pop and executive produced by Green Day, Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk spans over 30 years of the California Bay Area’s punk music history with a central focus on the emergence of Berkeley's inspiring 924 Gilman Street music collective.
The Woman Who Left
Aug 09 - Aug 10
(Lav Diaz, Philippines, 2017, 226 min)
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s epic story of revenge deferred functions as a tale of urban theater and class warfare.
Bless Their Little Hearts
Aug 10 - Aug 12
(Billy Woodberry, US, 1984, 80 min)
In this agonizing neo-realist feature from L.A. Rebellion director Billy Woodberry, unemployment haunts Charlie Banks with a senseless vengeance. Being unable to provide for his family erodes his ego with frustration and self-loathing. As his spirit weakens, so does his resolve to make things work, resulting in a vicious negative feedback cycle… the situation at home only grows worse.
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Aug 11 - Aug 13
(Bill Morrison, US, 2016, 120 min)
Dawson City, settled in 1896, was the center of the Canadian Gold Rush. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon for prospectors. In 1978, more than 500 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s were discovered in the frozen earth of Dawson: this is the bizarre, true history of their recovery, from Decasia director Bill Morrison.
Tango Negro
Aug 11
(Dom Pedro, France, 2013, 93 min)
Tango Negro examines the dense cultural history of tango dancing. Placing emphasis on Central Africa’s influence in the dance’s origins, the film seeks to unthink the accepted idea that the dance comes from Argentina.
DOUBLE FEATURE: A Life in Waves & Snakes
This extremely rare 35mm screening of Snakes (courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive) screens immediately after A Life in Waves, a documentary on Suzanne Ciani, the electronic-music pioneer behind the Snakes score.
Aug 16
A Life in Waves (Brett Whitcomb, US, 2017, 74 min) // Snakes (Art Names, US, 1974, 35mm, 83 min)
Killer of Sheep
Aug 17 - Aug 20
(Charles Burnett, US, 1977, 80 min)
Killer of Sheep is a vivid depiction of black life in Watts, California during the 1980s, directed by Charles Burnett, a central talent of the L.A. Rebellion. The story follows Stan, whose work in a slaughterhouse is gradually sapping him of both pride and feeling.
Whose Streets?
Aug 18 - Aug 31
(Sabaah Folayan & Damon Davis, US, 2017, 90 min)
Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’s Whose Streets? contextualizes the trauma of the community of Ferguson as local teachers, students, workers, artists, and their families all continue to move forward together after Michael Brown’s murder.
NOddIN Japanese Film Collective
Multiple U.S. premieres! Q&A and reception after the screening!
Aug 18
NOddIN is a collective of filmmakers and activists based in Tokyo, Japan. This is the premiere screening of their short films in the U.S. Curated by Courtney Sheehan and Etsuko Ichikawa.
Bronx Gothic
Seattle premiere! Co-presented with On the Boards.
Aug 20
(Andrew Rossi, US, 2017, 91 min)
From director Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside the New York Times) comes an electrifying portrait of writer and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and her acclaimed one-woman show, Bronx Gothic, a mesmerizing fusion of dance, song, drama and comedy that engages audiences with a story about two 12-year-old black girls coming of age in the 1980s.
Harmonium
Seattle premiere!
Aug 23 - Aug 24
(Kôji Fukada, Japan, 2016, 120 min)
An old acquaintance, recently released from prison, begins to meddle in the life of a factory owner in the Cannes-winning new film from director Kôji Fukada.
Puget Soundtrack: Zen Mother presents The Holy Mountain
Live score! Co-presented with Brick Lane Records
Aug 25
(Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico & US, 1975, 114 min)
Seattle-based band Zen Mother will perform a commissioned live score with Jodorowsky’s legendary freakout Holy Mountain for the Puget Soundtrack Residency, a Cue Northwest project produced in partnership by Brick Lane Records and Northwest Film Forum.
Chicagoland Shorts vol. 3
Director in attendance!
Aug 26
Celebrating the new wave of independent cinema in Chicago, Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 3 champions work by underrepresented filmmakers and combines experimental genres into one seamless anthology.
il Boom
An unseen De Sica masterpiece, never before released in the US, in a brand new restoration courtesy of Rialto!
Aug 26 - Aug 27
(Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1963, 88 min)
Amidst Italy’s “economic miracle” of the early 1960s, everybody’s getting filthy rich – except for archetypal average Joe loser Alberto Sordi. Alberto is given a way out of debt and an opportunity to re-establish himself, however, when a wealthy matron makes him an eye-popping offer...
The Shadow Council
Aug 30
The Shadow Council is a people’s legislative body / satirical current events forum hosted by Brett Hamil. Expert Witnesses present findings on local and national topics, and the Assembly submits proposed legislation, public comment, questions and complaints.
In Pursuit of Silence
Seattle premiere!
Aug 30 - Aug 31
(Patrick Shen, US, 2016, 81 min)
In Pursuit of Silence is a meditative exploration of our relationship with sound and silence. From a hushed tea ceremony in Kyoto, to the streets of Mumbai during the madness of festival season, In Pursuit of Silence invites an intimate awakening to the experience of sound.
No Maps On My Taps & About Tap
Double feature! Two newly restored documentary classics, courtesy of Milestone Films, for the price of one!
Sep 01 - Sep 02
(George T. Nierenberg, US, 1979/1985, 58 min/27 min)
George Nierenberg's remarkable No Maps On My Taps helped bring about a renaissance for this indigenous American art form that still thrives today. About Tap, his brilliant and blissful followup film, introduces Gregory Hines, who shares his childhood memories of imitating the tap dance greats at the Apollo Theater. Taken together, Nierenberg's extraordinary documentaries tell the story of tap as a powerful expression of black heritage and culture.
Automatic at Sea
Sep 01 - Sep 02
(Matthew Lessner, US & Denmark, 2017, 87 min)
Automatic at Sea is a remarkable, terrifying new film about the trappings of privilege. A young Swedish traveler accepts an invitation from a wealthy American heir to vacation on his family’s private island, but shortly thereafter discovers that she has little in common with her host… and the island idyll dissolves into a destabilizing experience in isolation.
All That Jazz
35mm screening!
Sep 02 - Sep 03
(Bob Fosse, US, 1979, 35mm, 123 min)
Director/dancer/choreographer Bob Fosse breaks the barriers of his own outer limits to tell his life story in this funny, harrowing, touching, exhilarating musical work of autobiography.
The Future is 0
The live game show sensation returns with two separate shows of all new games and different contestants! Doors at 7pm
Sep 08 - Sep 09
While watching endless reruns of Hollywood Squares and Supermarket Sweep during a wet Seattle winter, Claire Buss and Kat O'Hara came up with the idea to make a technicolor game show set in the living room of their house. What began as an eccentric DIY art project has blossomed into an immersive live theater event and multi-camera television show, hosted at Northwest Film Forum and filmed in front of a studio audience.
Nocturama
Sep 10
(Bertrand Bonello, France, 2016, 130 min)
A group of young, multiracial radicals with no stated ideology stage a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, then hide out for the night in a shopping center in this transgressive exploration of radical violence. Bertrand Bonello’s new film is a thriller like no other, recalling Robert Bresson and George Romero in equal measure.
