Local Sightings 2026 – Lenses (Experimental Shorts)
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$7 Member
$35 General Admission
$25 Student/Child/Senior
$17 Member
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$80 General Admission
$50 Student/Child/Senior
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$150 General Admission
$100 Student/Child/Senior
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$250 General Admission
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Full Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are available!
Visiting Artist
*Filmmakers in-attendance for Q&A!*
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.
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
(49 min TRT)
See life through a new lens. These experimental shorts use underutilized filmmaking techniques to explore love, media, and (of course) shipping containers, all from a different perspective.
Header photo credit: Charlatans, dir. Tess Martin
BUY TICKETS HERE
- This year’s festival will be in-person only! In the past, 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 2026 fest.
- Purchase your ticket through Eventive; 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:
Charlatans
(Tess Martin, Rotterdam, 2026, 5min, in English)
In this abstract music video for Mutual Shock’s “Charlatans,” volatile mixtures of oil, water, and other reactive elements form shifting miniature worlds. Filmed in macro, these unstable chemical landscapes evoke the seduction, distortion, and collapse at the heart of the song.
Freak Farm
(Brian Padian, Portland, 2026, 3min, in English)
A three-minute exploration of modernity and belonging, FREAK FARM incorporates phone footage, recorded sound, and audio effects to create an impressionistic, lyrical look at alienation and isolation. The film evokes a sense of discordance with its images, atmospheric texture, and editing.
Walk and Talk
(Inanna Cusi, 2025, 6min, in English)
A coming-of-age drama shot on 16mm about Eve, a wild and aloof 16-year-old girl who takes a spontaneous night walk. With her thoughts and frustrations pouring out, Eve engages in a conversation with herself, exploring her identity, her neurodiversity and her place in the world.
Harmony Korine is A Weird Old Man
(Kurtis Matthew Russell, 2026, 10min, in English)
A four part ambiguation of “weirdness” in relation to the sublime. A sensory ode to incongruity. A brief and romantic gesture toward un-understanding. A prayer to the anti-self.
BLOWS
(Izzi Margaret Kearns, Vancouver, 2026, 5min, in English)
Blows explores layered effects of exploitation, surplus, and isolation on our collective consciousness in the western core of capital; the belly of the beast. It is a subtle testament to the dark absurdity of the current moment, as useless products and streams of thought intentionally creep into our internal landscapes. It investigates the possibility of hope and intention in a world meant to disempower us from every aspect of life.
What Settles the Dust?
(Alden Doyle, 2026, 9min, in English)
A long-term relationship comes under threat as a new love enters the picture, causing a rift with no definitive resolution.
Thank You, Stillman
(Aurora San Miguel, Seattle, 2026, 3min, in English)
Thank You, Stillman is a Super 8 mm travel diary from a 2021 visit to Brownsville, Texas. The film is made of images from the gulf coast—an abandoned waterpark, a lighthouse, marine debris, and newly erected rockets—set against the lyrics of Gene Autry’s That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine. Brownsville was founded by Charles Stillman, the great-great grandfather of writer and director Whit Stillman. Without Brownsville my paternal family would not exist, and neither would this film.
Shiphead (or, efforts in boycotting my American body)
(Sarah K. Finn, Canada, 2025, 7min, in English)
A tarp-suited figure with a cargo ship head searches across forest, city, and sea. A humorous meditation on the global systems that shape—and inhabit—us.
Festival Directory
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 29th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2026 program, which runs from September 18–27, 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.