Calendar
Strongman
Director In Attendance Friday-Tuesday!
Jan 08 - Jan 14, 2010
(Zachary Levy, USA, 2008, 35mm, 113 min)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Slamdance Film Festival, Strongman is the cinema verite tale of Stanless Steel--The Strongest Man in the World at Bending Steel and Metal. Part real-life The Wrestler, part Grey Gardens, and absolutely all heart, the film follows Stan as he faces the tests of his Fellini-esque calling while simultaneously grappling with advancing age and difficult personal relationships.
"3 1/2 stars: Without being intrusive, Levy chronicles these lives like a trusted family member, and Strongman allows a privileged and affectionate glimpse of a truly American dreamer. You can't help but root for Stan, even if he doesn't always deserve it." -Seattle Times
The Sun
Jan 08 - Jan 14, 2010
(Alexander Sokurov, 2005, Russia, Italy, France, Switzerland, Japan, 35mm, 110 min)
Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov is unquestionably one of today’s most accomplished directors. The Sun offers a hypnotic and tragic account of the fall of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito following the end of World War II, wherein the Emperor renounced his status as divine ruler during the American occupation of his Japan in 1945.
"Sokurov...I rate as the greatest living director." -The Stranger
"3 1/2 stars: Exquisitely conveyed...the movie is best understood not in banal docudrama terms but as an impressionistic portrait of a man who, stripped of power, is revealed as grotesquely human." -Seattle Times
New Brow
Director in attendance opening night! Sponsored by Henry Art Gallery
Jan 15 - Jan 17, 2010
(Tanem Davidson, 2009, USA, Beta-SP, 87 min)
New Brow presents interviews from artists, galleries and collectors who initiated and gave momentum to the New American Art Movement. The revealing footage captures the makeshift studios and gallery spaces where the movement began, and the intensity and passion required to birth a new genre.
Rebel Without a Cause with Stewart Stern
Introduced by screenwriter Stewart Stern *Please note updated showtime!
Jan 15, 2010
(Nicholas Ray, 1955, USA, 35mm, 111 min)
Join us for a special 55th anniversary screening of this classic film, with special introduction by screenwriter Stewart Stern. James Dean achieved iconic status for his starring turn in Ray's searing study of teenage alienation in mid-century America. Rebel Without a Cause is a stylist's rendition of the socially conscious melodrama. This anguished portrait of the American nuclear family has become an enduring emblem of the very decade it sought to question.
New Hollywood Cinema
Instructor: Dennis West
Jan 18 - Feb 22, 2010
This class will explore the themes and styles of the New Hollywood
movement that lasted from 1967 to 1980, the year of Raging Bull. Key films will be screened, studied for their cinematic power, and discussed for how they reflect the wider culture.
Gogol Bordello: Non-Stop
Seattle Premiere Sponsored by the Vera Project
Jan 18 - Jan 21, 2010
(Margarita Jimeno, USA, 2008, 87 min)
Non-Stop is a behind-the-scenes look at the gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello and their charismatic front man Eugene Hütz. The film, shot over five wild years, follows the hugely entertaining Hütz and the members of his band as they tell their stories, share their music and progress from underground legend to international phenomenon.
"It would be impossible to bottle [the band's] lightning for the screen, but fan and filmmaker Margarita Jimeno's five-year journey with the band is like a gateway drug, shot in scruffy DV that's suitable for Hütz's gleefully debauched, outsider persona...Exhilarating" -Seattle Weekly
"Eugene Hutz...just might be the coolest guy in popular music" -Seattle PostGlobe
The 5th Annual Children's Film Festival Seattle
See the world. Feed your mind. 100 films in 10 days.
Jan 22 - Jan 31
The largest children's film festival in the Pacific Northwest, Children's Film Festival Seattle celebrates the best and brightest in international children's cinema with a 10-day extravaganza of films from more than 25 countries. This year's edition includes a mind-blowing blend of programs that include live performances, animation, features, shorts, historical films and fantastic hands-on workshops for the filmmakers of tomorrow.
Small Change
Playing as part of the Children's Film Festival Seattle
Jan 23 - Jan 28, 2010
(Francois Truffaut, France, 1976)
Truffaut's critically acclaimed film is a gentle and comedic tribute to the small moments and chance happenings that define and shape the childhoods of a group of children in the picturesque French town of Thiers. Film critic Vincent Canby called the "an original, a major work in minor keys."
White Lightnin'
Jan 23, 2010
(Dominic Murphy, USA, 2008, 90 min)
Deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, where every man owns a gun and a moonshine still, in a battered trailer, abides living legend Jesco White, 'the dancing outlaw.'
Eat For This is My Body: A Benefit Screening for Haiti
Jan 28, 2010
(Michelange Quay, Haiti/France, 2007, video, 105 min)
Northwest Film Forum joins the Haitian earthquake relief effort by hosting a benefit screening of Michelange Quay's Eat For This is My Body. The film combines elegant lyrical surrealism and restrained fury in a political pamphlet that sends the viewer on a visceral, hypnotic trip to the spiritual core of the suffering of Haiti.
Visual Acoustics
Seattle Premiere
Jan 29 - Feb 04, 2010
(Eric Bricker, 2009, USA, DigiBeta, 83 min)
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream.
"3 1/2 stars: it's joyously obvious that Bricker has made a well-deserved tribute to Shulman and his priceless photographic legacy." -Seattle Times
"Excellent...The cinematographer glides through the modern home effortlessly. His camera swerves smoothly in the living room—he films the lines, the shining glass, the glittering city, and the old photographer's reflection, which is somewhere between space and time. All of this is so wonderful." -The Stranger
RR
Seattle Premiere
Free for members!
Feb 03, 2010
(James Benning, USA, 2008, 16mm, 111 min)
In 1895, the first film audience ever reportedly ran screaming from the theater during the Lumiere brothers’ The Arrival of a Train. Although today’s moviegoers may be more comfortable with train footage, James Benning’s RR promises a unique kind of cinematic experience for audiences.
Awesome Land: Women of Dirt
Feb 05 - Feb 11, 2010
(Mark Brent, USA, 2009, digiBETA)
Awesome Land: Women Of Dirt celebrates the mountain bike while celebrating the women who love them. A beautiful and energetic film that opens a window into an awesome world.
French Cinema in the ’90s
Jan 19 - Feb 23, 2010
An introduction to the films of the decade, with a sprinkling of French culture. Films studied represent highlights from a decade significant for its artistic and economic transition into the 21st century.
When It Was Blue
Feb 10, 2010
(Jennifer Reeves, 2008, USA, DigiBeta, 60 min)
Jennifer Reeves’s epic, years-in-the-making When It Was Blue presents an experience of a world that is both visceral and fleeting. Photographed in 16mm over many years in various waters and terrains, an elaborate montage connects diverse ecosystems spanning from the northeastern USA, to Iceland, Canada’s Pacific coast, New Zealand and Central America.
Cris Cheek Live
Co-Presented with University of Washington Bothell
Feb 11, 2010
Cris Cheek is a sound artist, poet, photographer, mixed-media practitioner and interdisciplinary performer. He will perform an evening of “live writing” or “performance writing” works for sound, text and video. His work, indebted to the history of sound poetry, is highly improvisational and ephemeral.