Local Sightings 2025 – Afterimages: Experimental Shorts
Sun Sep 28:
In-person tickets >
$15 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member
$100 General Admission
$70 Student/Child/Senior
$45 Member
Full Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are available!
Click for Accessibility Info
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum’s ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. All doors in Northwest Film Forum are non-motorized, and may require staff assistance to open. Our upstairs workshop room is not wheelchair accessible.
The majority of seats in our main cinema are 21″ wide from armrest to armrest; some seats are 19″ wide. We are working on creating the option of removable armrests!
We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter. Also available at the front desk is a Sensory Kit you can borrow, which includes a Communication Card, noise-reducing headphones, and fidget toys.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at rajah@nwfilmforum.org. Our phone number (206-329-2629) is voicemail-only, but we check it often.
Made possible due to a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Sensory Access, our Sensory Access document presents a visual and descriptive walk-through of the NWFF space. View it in advance of attending an in-person event at bit.ly/nwffsocialnarrativepdf, in order to prepare yourself for the experience.
⚠️ COVID-19 Policies ⚠️
As of August 2024, NWFF has adjusted its mask policy from universally required to strongly encouraged at the majority of screenings. Occasional exceptions will be noted on each event’s page.
Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them.
Read more about NWFF’s policies responding to the present pandemic here.
About
(57 min TRT)
These spellbinding short films explore nostalgia, liminal and transition zones, the illusion of meaning, and other mysteries of the human condition. Featuring an array of filmmaking techniques, including abandoned 16mm home movies, stop-motion with recycled cardboard, and eco-friendly processing.
Header photo credit: Gorg O Mish (Twilight), dir. Radin Khodadadi
BUY TICKETS HERE
FAQ: What's the festival format this year?
- This year’s festival will be in-person only! For the past several years, we have been proud to offer the festival as a hybrid virtual-and-in-person experience, but due to staff capacity, we cannot do this for the 2025 fest.
FAQ: How do I watch in-person?
- Purchase your ticket through Brown Paper Tickets; come to the show!
- You can also purchase a ticket on the day of the screening at Northwest Film Forum’s box office (1515 12th Ave, Seattle).
- Pass-holders, we will be able to look you up using the name you purchased under.
Films in this program:
Hyperboria
(Dan Sokolowski, Dawson City, Yukon, 2025, 3 min) World premiere!
A dream landscape at 66°N.
Hydro Graphy
(Foteini Tina Jacobson, Seattle, WA, 2025, 5 min) World premiere!
Water light-writes perennial refrains of the PNW during an annual cycle at 47° 38′ 54.8808” N 122° 18′ 37.638” W.
Sierras
(Matthew Wilbur, Bozeman, MT, 2024, 3 min)
A brief glimpse of Yellowstone National Park through 16mm film.
The Peace of Swim Teams
(Foteini Tina Jacobson, Seattle, WA, 2025, 5 min) World premiere!
Hand-painted cyanotype on 16mm is animated by the movement of water at Lake Union, Seattle.
倾听我们的心跳声: Listen to the beating of our hearts
(Wen Wen Lu, Vancouver, BC, 2024, 6 min) World premiere!
倾听我们的心跳声: Listen to the beating of our hearts is a stop-motion animated short inspired by the Chinese word “心” meaning “heart.” Using recycled cardboard as the main material, the film explores one’s role as guest on the land, the value of sustainability, and consumer culture through narration-free storytelling and the pictorial nature of Chinese calligraphy.
44 Houses
(Kari Fisher, BC, 2025, 6 min, in English) U.S. premiere!
This 16mm experimental short film explores generational memory and the impacts of constant uprooting. It features exterior shots of the 44 houses the filmmaker has lived in since birth, recorded over a 3-day road trip, with family audio snippets.
Something Went Click
(Caryn Cline, Seattle, WA, 2024, 4 min, in English) Seattle premiere!
The origin story of the filmmaker’s mother’s struggle with manic-depression, aka bi-polar disorder. A DV interview from 2000 is transformed through the use of analog film techniques.
All Windows Look Inwards
(I. Fredericks, Vancouver, BC, 2025, 4 min) West Coast premiere!
An experimental film exploring loss and memory by repeated projecting and re-filming a collage of abandoned 16mm home movies.
Texas Switch
(Darren Dominique Heroux, Vancouver, BC, 2025, 9 min, in English) Northwest premiere!
A “Texas Switch” is a cinematic sleight of hand where one performer is swapped for another in a single shot, often hidden in plain sight. This experimental documentary short embraces bold acts of substitution, toying with visibility, presence, and what slips past the viewer’s gaze.
Testosterone Gel 1.62%
(Avian de Keizer, Olympia, WA, 2025, 1 min) Seattle premiere!
A meditation on transness in today’s world using remnants of testosterone gel medication printed on film and cyanotyped for an experimental animation.
No Tooth Dog
(Matthew Nash, Portland, OR, 2024, 4 min) World premiere!
Portland video artist Matthew Nash collaborates with local rock band Bad Notes to create an experimental music video that offers a dog’s-eye view of band practice, where each moment is expanded, rearranged, and rendered in vivid splashes of color within the spectrum of canine vision.
Moth
(Youngju Ahn, Vancouver, BC, 2025, 3 min) World premiere!
A mysterious moth leads a lost soul through memories and shadows, revealing hidden fears and truths.
Gorg O Mish (Twilight)
(Radin Khodadadi, Vancouver, BC, 2025, 5 min) U.S. premiere!
An experimentation with perceived movement and composition, drawn from six years of photographic fragments—an imprint of shifting visions, where seeing becomes both a subject and a mirror.
Festival Directory
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 28th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2025 program, which runs from September 19–28, features a competitive selection of curated short film programs and feature films, inviting regional artists to experiment, break, and remake popular conceptions around filmmaking and film exhibition.
Local Sightings champions emerging and established talent, supports the regional film industry, and promotes diverse media as a critical tool for public engagement.