ByDesign 2022 – Americaville

Available virtually from Mar. 17–27, 2022
In-person screening: Mar. 18 at 7pm

To accommodate evolving public health recommendations regarding COVID-19, we are using a hybrid virtual-and-in-person festival model in 2022. There are three categories of festival pass: VIRTUAL, IN-PERSON, and HYBRID (virtual AND in-person), all available here. Vaccination and DOUBLE-masking are required for NWFF patrons!

Adam James Smith
China & US
2020
1h 20m

About:

Americaville is an eerie disclosure of the Chinese replica city of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where citizens escape to embrace the American dream. Each weekend, Beijing residents like Annie Liu travel to the hills outside the city to enjoy fresh air, a big house, and classic “American” activities: morning walks on Route 66, Jell-O potlucks, and visits from the town sheriff on horseback. However, Annie soon finds that the longer she stays, the more the sheen of the lifestyle sold to her begins to fade.

Filmmaker Adam James Smith takes his keen interest in the creation of built environments and the expression of identity within these spaces to this Chinese replica city. The exploration leaves American audiences staring into a warped mirror that throws extravagance, commercialization, and the endless desire for more into an exposing light.

 

(Adam James Smith, US, China & United Kingdom, 2020, 80 min, in English & Chinese with English subtitles)

FAQ: How do I watch online?
  • Purchase your ticket through Northwest Film Forum’s Eventive virtual cinema. A free Eventive login is required.
  • From the Eventive virtual catalog page, purchased tickets will appear under “My Content Library” under your user menu (upper-right). From the Eventive festival landing page, they will appear under “My Tickets” on the site’s menu bar (at top).
  • Your confirmation email will also route you back to these pages to watch. (Can’t find it? Check spam!)
  • If all else fails, please contact paul@nwfilmforum.org
FAQ: How do I watch in-person?
  • Purchase your ticket(s) in advance through Brown Paper Tickets.
  • You can also purchase a ticket on the day of the screening at Northwest Film Forum’s box office (1515 12th Ave, Seattle).
  • If you have purchased a Hybrid or In-Person-Only Festival Pass, we’ll be able to look you up at Will Call by the name you purchased under.
⚠️ COVID-19 policies ⚠️

For the sake of public safety, NWFF patrons ages 5+ will be required to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination and to double-mask while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them.

NWFF is adapting to evolving recommendations to protect the public from COVID-19. Read more about their policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here. We reserve the option to shift the festival to virtual-only on short notice.


About the director:

About the director:

Adam James Smith is an award-winning, US-based filmmaker originally from the United Kingdom. His films focus on the expression of identity in urban China and include The Land of Many Palaces (2015) co-directed with Song Ting, on the “ghost city” of Ordos, Inner Mongolia and his first solo-feature, Americaville (2020) on an American Wild West-themed community in Beijing’s suburbs. The Land of Many Palaces participated in the Sundance Institute workshop and premiered at the 2015 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film then went on to screen at festivals around the world, picking up awards in Moscow, Rome, and Kyoto. Adam also embarked on an academic tour in North America, screening at Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Stanford, the Asia Society, and many more universities and organizations.

Adam holds degrees from Stanford and Cambridge, the latter of which he is currently an Affiliated Filmmaker at the university’s Visual Anthropology Lab. He is also an Assistant Professor of Multimedia at Florida Atlantic University.


Festival Directory

ByDesign Festival is a cross-cultural exploration of people, structures, and ideas at the intersection of design and the moving image.

Featuring a broad, inclusive selection of films, performances, and interactive activities, ByDesign invites festivalgoers to interrogate their own relationships to personal and collective identity, by examining how humanity’s understanding of itself is central to the ways in which it creates the physical world.

The 2022 edition of Northwest Film Forum’s annual ByDesign Festival, held March 17–20 in-person and March 17–27 online, is curated and promoted in close partnership with Seattle Design Festival, a strategic initiative of AIA Seattle dedicated to unleashing the design thinker in everyone.

 

⚠️ Please note: ⚠️

For the sake of public safety, NWFF patrons ages 5+ will be required to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination and to double-mask while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them.

NWFF is adapting to evolving recommendations to protect the public from COVID-19. Read more about their policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here. We reserve the option to shift the festival to virtual-only on short notice.


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Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave,

Seattle, WA 98122

206 329 2629


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