Local Sightings 2024 – Moving History: Forum Vault Flashback [In-Person Only]
Visiting Artist
** Director Amélia Simard in attendance! **
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.
As of August 2024, NWFF has adjusted its mask policy from universally required to strongly encouraged at the majority of screenings. In the interest of accessibility, the requirement is still in place for Thursday night screenings and Saturday and Sunday matinees; 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
Behold the triumphant return of Moving History, a collaboration between Northwest Film Forum and Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS), a local nonprofit dedicated to protecting archival video treasures. For this special edition, we’ll delve deep into the Forum’s own archives, from our days as WigglyWorld Studios to ancient Local Sightings screenings of yore.
Look forward to rare screenings of the Safdie Brothers and Andrew Bujalski’s contributions to NWFF’s One-Shot program, camerawork and cute cameos by the Forum’s fabled early ’00s staff, goofy animations and acting from our youth alumni, and perhaps – if we can stomach editing this chapter of history that many would just as soon forget – the Little Theatre’s notorious “man versus pig” eating contest of 2003.
Take a trip down recent-memory lane with MIPoPS archivists at this celebration of local filmmakers and Pacific Northwest creativity!
Header image credit: Straight Hustle, by Josh & Benny Safdie, commissioned for NWFF’s One Shot program.
BUY TICKETS HERE
- This particular program will not be available for virtual viewing.
- 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 or In-Person-Only Festival Pass, we’ll be able to look you up at Will Call by the name you purchased under.
Screens with the short film "Familiar Unknowns: FrancoQueers in Vancouver Before and After the Year 2000"
(Amélia Simard, BC, 16 min, in English & French with English subtitles) Northwest premiere!
The program opens with a modern-day love letter to the defiant queer stories buried within archives. The film chronicles non-binary filmmaker Amélia Simard’s quixotic quest to find traces of francophone queer people in Vancouver from before they were born. With a grant deadline looming, they stumble upon André, an older French-Canadian gay man who lived in Vancouver for 25 years, and who shares his personal hidden visual archive.
“Through my exchanges with André, I realized that I was not only sharing my queer ancestors’ story, but also my own. Thus, this film shares the joy and artistry contained in André’s VHS tapes and celluloid strips, but also the quest I went through to put this research together. This film marks the beginnings of my reflection on myself and my place as a FrancoQueer person in western Turtle Island (Canada)” – director Amélia Simard
Co-presented with Seattle Queer Film Festival (Oct. 10-20, 2024)
This year’s SQFF theme, Q-thartic, is about feeling, healing, and everything in between that comes with our community. With over 80 films in our lineup, we’re ready to take you on an emotional journey.
Seattle Queer Film Festival has been an important part of the Seattle queer film community since 1996, and has remained the largest of its kind in the PNW. Since then the festival has expanded to intentionally showcase stories reflecting the vast spectrums and intersections of our queer communities. SQFF has evolved to be a hybrid festival, including in-person screenings, dazzling parties, engaging community meetups, panels with filmmakers, and inspiring educational workshops.
In-Person: Oct. 10-13
Virtual: Oct. 14-20
About Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS)
Ever wonder what kind of video treasures are sequestered in the depths of places like MOHAI, the Wing Luke Museum, or Seattle Art Museum? Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (or MIPoPS – pronounced mee-pops) works with your favorite local libraries, museums, and archives to digitize the video treasures hidden in their collections. They have U-matics, Betacam, DVCAM, LaserDiscs, VHS tapes, and more – and MIPoPS has the equipment and know-how to bring those old formats back to life. Founded in 2013, MIPoPS is a tiny non-profit with a large reach. They have partnered with heritage organizations all over Puget Sound to help make the region’s video heritage accessible again.
📼 Find out more about MIPoPS at mipops.org
📼 Watch past screenings on their YouTube Channel
📼 Browse hundreds of videos they’ve digitized on their Internet Archive collection
📼 Find them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
Festival Directory
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 27th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a virtual-and-in-person showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2024 program, which runs from September 20–29, 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.