Brand Upon The Brain! [In-Person Only]
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$15 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 NWFF Member
Guy Maddin
United States & Canada
2006
1h 38m
About
(Guy Maddin, 2006, United States & Canada, 98 min, silent with original music and effects)
The Brand upon the Brain is an autobiographical family melodrama, with hints of the grand guignol, 1920’s teen detective fiction and Feuillade. Shot in black and white, edited alternatingly in furious and langourous paces meant to replicate the way we remember the curious passage of time in our childhoods, the movie is silent with an original score and a multitude of sound effects. (In fact, it is designed to be projected with live orchestra and foley artist accompaniment).
The story concerns a boy named Guy Maddin who lives with his sister and some forty orphans in a lighthouse cum school run by his parents on the remote Black Notch Island. Guy’s parents are up to no good with their young charges. In a procedure which leaves many children psychically scarred, father Maddin harvests brain nectar from his young charges and feeds it to his wife, Guy’s mother, to keep her young. When the mother starts to look younger than her own daughter, a teen detective named Wendy Chase arrives on the island to investigate. Guy falls in love with Wendy, but Wendy falls in love with Guy’s sister Janet and goes into Shakespearean drag as a boy teen detective named Chance in order to pursue her heterosexual beloved, leaving Guy heartbroken and confused over the exchange of one teen sleuth for another. Together, the three youths — Guy, Janet and the androgynous Wendy/Chance — plunge themselves into the horror of the Maddin family’s predatory, at times cannibalistic, sexual secrets.
A story that adapts real events in the director’s dreamily misremembered coming of age and attempts to present them with the same respect for the cruelty of gods that ancient Greek myths have. Melodrama raised to the Nth power. Completely music-driven.
Very wild. Very lyrical. Very true.
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 suji@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 ⚠️
NWFF patrons will be strongly encouraged to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.
Read more about NWFF’s policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.
