Cadence 2024 – When we bite down [Hybrid]

Watch in person: Apr. 20 at 7:30pm

Watch online: Apr. 19–28, 2024

In-person tickets >

$14 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 NWFF Member

Virtual tickets >

Pay what you can, $5-25

Festival passes >

Pay what you can, $55-85
For NWFF members, $40

All Festival Passes are HYBRID, granting access to both virtual and in-person viewing! Non-member passes are priced on a sliding scale; please pay what you can to support our work. Passes exclude workshops and satellite screenings, please register separately.

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.

🆓 Free Community Tickets 🆓

A limited number of seats may be available at each show for members of the community for whom ticket cost is an obstacle. If you’d like to attend free of charge, please email cadencevideopoetry@gmail.com to let us know which program and showtime you’re interested in!

⚠️ COVID-19 Policies ⚠️

NWFF patrons will be required 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.

Read more about NWFF’s policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.

About the program:

(76 min TRT)

Poetry has a history of getting people in trouble. Throughout time, poetry has been suppressed and poets persecuted for not writing the party line. This showcase gives voice to the outcasts and the cast out, the identity-torn seeking belonging, and the otherwise outlawed. By questioning the status quo and our place within it, these video poems reveal disruptive truths. To all poets who persist, who write rebellion, who reject silence and speak out—it can be dangerous, but we are many and poetry provides us refuge.

Header photo credit: The Light That Burns Us, dir. Jazra Khaleed, Silvia Tsompanaki
Showcase title credit: Eve, poet Meghan Plunkett, animator Miranda Javid

BUY TICKETS HERE

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).
  • If you have purchased a Hybrid Festival Pass, we’ll look you up at Will Call by the name you purchased under.
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

Films in this program:

Midnight Whispers

In a world where poetry is an illegal substance, a dealer roams around an estate receiving cash in exchange for whispering lines of illicit verse into her customers’ ears.

(director: Baldwin Li, poets: Linxi Doël & Baldwin Li, United Kingdom, 2023, 10 min, in English with English subtitles)

💙 Honorable Mention for EXCEPTIONAL NARRATIVE 💙

Eve

US premiere!

An animated poetic retelling of Adam & Eve’s story.

(Meghann Plunkett & Miranda Javid, US, 2022, 2 min, in English with animated English subtitles)

🏆 Winner of the MICHAEL V. AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE at Cadence 2024! 🏆

Exiles (Exils)

Exiles is a conversation with oneself when the ground slips away beneath our feet. A forced journey, when we would rather remain grounded by our roots; the refusal of an imposed destiny, out of home. A dreamlike vision of a home-island that we cling to; our asylum from chaos.

(director: Josef Khallouf, poet: Corinne Boulad, Lebanon, 2023, 5 min, in French with hardcoded English subtitles)

💙 Honorable Mention for CREATIVE ENERGY 💙

The Racist Bone

West Coast premiere!

Poet and Cave Canem co-founder Cornelius Eady performs “The Racist Bone,” exploring the subtle and straightforward aspects of racism through the lens of the classic B-movie.

(director: Matthew Thompson, poet: Cornelius Eady, US, 2022, 3 min, in English with no subtitles or captions)

Bubble Hat

World premiere!

Through the lens of an outsider estranged from urban life, Bubble Hat is an evocative poetry film that delves into the sense of alienation birthed from the frantic hustle of an automated, fast-paced culture.

(directors: Maryam Imogen Ghouth & Kama Ranaulo, poet: Maryam Imogen Ghouth, United Arab Emirates, 2023, 4 min, in English with hardcoded English subtitles)

When I Was Clandestine (Cuando Fui Clandestino)

US premiere!

Juan Garrido Salgado immigrated to Australia from Chile in 1990, fleeing the regime that burned his poetry, imprisoned him, and tortured him for his political activism. “My verse is born by the nights of the curfew… when I was clandestine.

(director Ian Gibbins, poet: Juan Garrido Salgado, Australia, 2023, 5 min, in English & Spanish with hardcoded subtitles in Spanish and English)

WALK ONE MILE

Northwest premiere!

Incarcerated high school students ask you to “walk one mile… just one, in my shoes.

(director: Lindy Boustedt, poet: Echo Glen H.S. Student, US, 2023, 2 min, in English with no subtitles or captions)

The Light That Burns Us

World premiere!

GREECE, your light caught us by your E and burned us all the way to your G.” A poetry film against nationalism and the state of emergency in Greece.

(directors: Jazra Khaleed & Silvia Tsompanaki, poet: Jazra Khaleed, Greece, 2023, 7 min, in English with hardcoded English text)

🏆 Winner of the SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD at Cadence 2024! 🏆 

🏆 EXCELLENCE IN POETIC CRITIQUE AWARD at Cadence 2024! 🏆

Broken Arabic

US premiere!

A spoken word poem about the war within the diaspora child living between two continents, unable to fully give their condolences in the language of their grief.

(Amal Kassir, US, 2024, 4 min, in English & Arabic with hardcoded English and Arabic subtitles)

Ossip & Marina - the forbidden words (Ossip e Marina - entre as linhas)

US premiere!
CW: Nudity and consensual intimacy.

The life and the verses of Ossip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetaeva incite us to use forbidden words – words that we cannot speak in public, or even to our loved ones.

(Elcio Basilio, Brazil, 2023, 34 min, in Portuguese with English subtitles and intertitles)


Back to Festival Home

Cadence Video Poetry Festival, presented by Northwest Film Forum and programmed in collaboration with Seattle author Chelsea Werner-Jatzke and intermedia artist Rana San, is a series of screenings, workshops, and discussions on the genre of video poetry, during National Poetry Month.

Cadence approaches video poetry as a literary genre presented as visual media that makes new meaning from the combination of text and moving image. Featuring screenings, an artist residency, generative workshops for youth and adults, and juried awards, the festival fosters critical and creative growth around the medium of video poetry.

⚠️ Please note: NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. We are not currently checking vaccination cards.


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Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave,

Seattle, WA 98122

206 329 2629


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