Calendar
Sun Don't Shine
Director in attendance!
Feb 26, 2013
(Amy Seimetz, USA, 2012, HD, 82 min)
Crystal and Leo are on a road trip, but the joys of freedom and contemplation on the highway are complicated by jealousy, brutality and destructive desire in Sun Don’t Shine. As the couple makes their way through the Florida backwoods—the home of first-time director Amy Seimetz, who manipulates the setting like an old dollhouse—the trunk of their vehicle sags with grotesque cargo, and a closer look at their relationship reveals an equally dangerous anxiety. As it drags the audience into a culture of mistrust, Sun Don’t Shine is perversely entertaining to get lost in, with an erratic narrative voice and a new take on the crime classics of the 1930s.
Nothing But A Man
New 35mm print!
Feb 22 - Feb 28, 2013
(Michael Roemer, USA, 1964, 35mm, 95 min)
Adapted from a 1933 stage play and proclaimed “one of the most sensitive films about black life ever made in this country,” Nothing But a Man tells a story whose realism and universality needs no embellishment. Duff Anderson, a black railroad worker, falls in love with and marries schoolteacher Josie, but their marriage is threatened by Duff’s struggle to keep a steady job while fighting for his dignity in a world of economic and racial inequality. As pressures personal and societal bring the tension in Duff’s life close to breaking point, will his marriage to Josie be his ruin or his deliverance?
Crazy and Thief
Feb 27, 2013
(Cory McAbee, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 52 min)
Crazy and Thief takes its title from the two main characters, who happen to be director Cory McAbee’s children—Vy, his seven-year-old daughter, and Johnny, his impressionable three-year-old son. Fulfilling the duty of all older siblings, Vy shows Johnny around their hometown (New York City), as their literal quest to navigate Vy’s “star map” parallels Johnny’s own intellectual odyssey. Songs provided by McAbee himself become both narration and soundtrack, following Crazy and Thief along a startlingly honest and grown-up journey.
Framing Pictures
Free event!
Feb 28 - Jul 20, 2014
Join us for a free, lively monthly discussion led by long-time Seattle film critics (and occasional guests) who have much to say on the subject of cinephilia past, present and future. The July conversation includes former Film Comment editor Richard Jameson, Everett Herald/KUOW critic Robert Horton and Bruce Reid.
Easy Rider
Feb 28, 2013
(James Benning, USA, 2012, HD, 95 min)
The cross-country voyage of two boys in Easy Rider (1969) inspired countless romantics to retrace their route across the States, searching for America. If they went searching today, what would they find? James Benning sharpened his road-movie claws last year with small roads—a pensive look at 50 of the roads least traveled in the U.S.—and now returns to the highway with an Easy Rider “remake” capturing the sites from the original as they appear today. Benning updates the image of the frontier-free dream with his characteristic long shots, resurrecting corners of the country that for decades have been preserved in amber.
Hors Satan
Mar 01 - Mar 07, 2013
(Bruno Dumont, France, 2011, 35mm, 110 min)
The spiritual fully embraces the material in Hors Satan, as a gaunt religious ascetic wanders the towns of northern France. His austere lifestyle is punctuated by acts of brutality, including rape and murder, that sometimes manage to produce "good" outcomes. The cinematic experience for the audience pulls no punches either, with forceful visual fluctuations and a tuneless soundtrack that includes the creaks of the camera dolly. Like its title—in English, Outside Satan—Dumont’s sixth film is constantly questioning faith and asking the audience to do the same.
Daughters of the Dust
New 35mm print!
Mar 01, 2013
(Julie Dash, United States, 1991, 35mm, 127 min)
A heroic hallmark of independent filmmaking, Daughters of the Dust tells a visually fantastic story about a world that, for many of us, barely exists: the Gullah community, descendents of slaves, living in southern Georgia at the turn of the century. Daughters of the Dust uses surreal imagery as a backdrop for exposing the conflicts—modernity versus spirituality, tradition versus sexuality—that tore at an isolated community tossed in the tides of American history.
L.A. Rebellion Cinema Salon: Weekend One
Free event!
Mar 02, 2013
Join us for a conversation about the evolution of a black feminist perspective in cinema and the intersections of art, gender and civil rights, as well as how far black women's filmmaking has come in the last 20 years. Panelists include Zola Mumford of the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Christina Lopez of the Radical Women collective, Isis Asare of Sistah Sinema and moderated by Seattle University Professor Gary Perry, Affiliated Faculty with the Women's Studies and Global African Studies Programs.
Bush Mama
New 16mm print!
Mar 02, 2013
(Haile Gerima, United States, 1979, 16mm, 105 min)
It’s rare that a film brazenly combines realist politicking and fictional narrative, but in 1975 Los Angeles, Haile Gerima didn’t have time to flinch. In Bush Mama, whose very title pits the image of the tribal family against the American city, Gerima builds a heroine around the skeleton of his own observations: Dorothy, a single mother mistreated by the welfare system and harassed by the law. Dorothy’s resistance to cynical submissiveness appears on screen alongside the director and film crew as they fight for the right to tell Dorothy’s story on film.
A Different Image + Selected Short Films
Mar 03, 2013
(Allie Sharon Larkin, United States, 1982, 16mm, 112 min)
Anyone who’s ever prayed for a film to drive a wedge in outdated Hollywood portrayals of women—and particularly of African-American women in a white-dominated society—will be as liberated by A Different Image, as the film’s protagonist Alana builds a self-image that defies men’s ideas of pursuit. Striking at cultural barriers to women’s expression through an uplifting portrait of a lady, A Different Image quietly raises the specter of any individual’s ability to bust out of cultural expectations.
Fourplay
Director in attendance Monday! Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema, the Foundation for Sex Positive Culture and The Center for Sex Positive Culture
Mar 04 - Mar 05, 2013
(Kyle Henry, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 80 min)
Bathroom sexcapades, porn store shenanigans and complex human-canine relationships are just some of the adventures in Kyle Henry’s engaging feature anthology, Fourplay. The film is divided into chapters/cities: in Skokie, a closeted woman’s infatuation with her minister’s wife is sublimated during a weekend of dog sitting. In Austin, a young couple struggles with opposing desires regarding conception and arrive at a startling compromise. In Tampa, a queer man plagued with self-doubt finds a surreal nirvana in a public mall restroom. And in San Francisco, a cross-dressing prostitute faces a challenging assignment with a quadriplegic man.
Search and Rescue
Mar 07, 2013
Search and Rescue returns with another exciting cavalcade of celluloid’s rarities, oddities and deformed half-siblings, for your viewing pleasure! Direct from our very own on-site 16mm vault, this installment marks a departure from the traditional series format, as a galleon of music will accompany the evening’s film selections. Draconian visuals twinned with local talent make this a unique one-off Search and Rescue you’d be bonkers to miss.
Only the Young
Mar 08 - Mar 14, 2013
(Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 72 min)
Nothing is missing from all the existing documentaries about American high school kids in this post-Cold-War world–but maybe there’s something that could be taken away: agenda and narrative structure (which the directors of Only the Young wanted nothing to do with). It’s a movie about two SoCal skateboard punks and best friends who also happen to be evangelical Christians, and so what? Pairing the look of a classic coming-of-age soap with a story cut loose from order, Mims and Tippet depict the reality of growing up and make us recall an aimlessness we have actually experienced.
My Brother’s Wedding
Director's Cut! Director in Attendance!
Mar 08, 2013
(Charles Burnett, USA, 1983/2007, digiBETA, 82 min)
In Charles Burnett’s follow up to Killer of Sheep (1977), Pierce, a laid off factory worker, returns to work for his family’s dry cleaning business. In Burnett’s renowned, unadorned narrative style and richly detailed settings, we see Pierce pulled between the two worlds of his brother’s upper-middle-class fiancé and an old friend who was recently released from prison. Through Pierce’s choices, My Brother’s Wedding speaks beyond personal conflict to a community that was itself at a crossroads.
L.A. Rebellion Cinema Salon: Weekend Two
Free event!
Mar 09, 2013
In the mid-1970s, a loose-knit group of black graduate students at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) produced a body of films designed to challenge Hollywood cinema thematically and stylistically. Chief among these student filmmakers was director Charles Burnett. Join University of Washington Professor Clarence Spigner and pioneering filmmaker Charles Burnett as they discuss the history and personalities of the L.A. Rebellion film movement.
Bless Their Hearts
New 35mm print! Cinematographer Charles Burnett in attendance!
Mar 09, 2013
(Billy Woodberry, USA, 1984, 35mm, 84min)
The last neorealist film to emerge from the L.A. Rebellion, Bless Their Hearts portrays the effects of underemployment on both a single family and the whole community. Originally written by Charles Burnett, who had first encouraged Woodberry to make a feature film and had introduced him to the cast of Killer of Sheep, the material was subsequently developed by Woodberry. Bless Their Hearts is a beautiful collaboration, exemplary of the mentorship that enabled UCLA’s Ethno-Communications program to flourish.
As Above So Below
New 16mm print!
Mar 10, 2013
(Larry Clark, USA, 1973, 16mm, 52 min)
After helping the U.S. suppress social uprisings in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic, Jita-Hadi returns home a veteran with a heightened political conscience. Paralleling Hadi’s cynicism, the character Pee Wee’s blind faith in the system brings his life to a tragic end. Larry Clark’s As Above So Below takes a strong stand against hope as a means of combating corruption, and serves not only as a powerful story, but a call to arms.
Who Bombed Judi Bari?
Director and producer in attendance!
Mar 11, 2013
(Mary Liz Thomson, USA 2012, Blu-ray, 94 min)
This riveting, musical and wry award-winning documentary features legendary Earth First! and labor organizer Judi Bari. Bari was car-bombed in Oakland in 1990 while on a tour of college campuses with Darryl Cherney, advocating to save the redwoods. Despite receiving many death threats, the pair was instantly arrested by the FBI and Oakland Police for bombing themselves; they subsequently sued the authorities for violations of the Constitution.
Eco Warriors
Seattle premiere!
Producer Jennifer Pickford in attendance!
Mar 12, 2013
(The Red Octopus Collective, Canada, 2012, Blu-ray, 52 min)
When did activism become terrorism? And why are America's heroes being jailed, while its corporations continue to be rewarded? These questions are front and center in the timely, heartfelt and engaging documentary Eco Warriors. The film follows the story of Portland activist Tre Arrow, who was on the FBI's Most Wanted List for his radical environmental actions and forced to seek asylum in Canada rather than face life in jail.
Framing Pictures
Free event!
Jan 18 - Sep 13, 2013
Join us for a monthly discussion with three long-time Seattle film critics (and occasional guest commentators) who have much to say on the subject of cinephilia past, present and future. The conversation includes former Film Comment editor Richard Jameson, Everett Herald/KUOW critic Robert Horton and MSN.com critic Kathleen Murphy.
The Rabbi's Cat
Mar 15 - Mar 21, 2013
(Antoine Delesvaux and Joann Sfar, France/Austria, 2011, 35mm, 100 min)
From Joann Sfar’s beloved collection of comic books comes a rich animated feature about the bedlam that arises when somebody silent acquires a voice. After swallowing the other household pet—a parrot—one rabbi’s cat is at last able to discuss his dream of having a bar mitzvah. The philosophizing feline sparks religious debate all around Algiers, whose Jewish community is reeling from the cultural ripples of the Russian Revolution. Unfolding in antique colors and wistfully surreal shapes, The Rabbi's Cat is a treat for the eyes and a feast for the mind
Passing Through
New 35mm print!
Mar 15, 2013
(Larry Clark, USA, 1977, 35mm, 111 min)
Larry Clark's poignant film follows an African American saxophonist, recently released from prison, who struggles to preserve his artistic integrity as he awakens to racial consciousness via encounters with the elderly "Poppa" (played by veteran actor Muse). The film's score, arranged by Horace Tapscott, features music by Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Sun Ra, along with a live performance by the Pan African People's Arkestra.
L.A. Rebellion Cinema Salon: Weekend Three
Free event!
Mar 16, 2013
Many people's knowledge of black filmmaking in the 1970s is limited to "blaxploitation" films, but the films of the L.A. Rebellion tell an extraordinary history of black cinema and offer insight into the legacies of Black communities. Join local filmmakers Shaun Scott, Charles Mudede and Brian McDonald as they discuss radical black filmmaking today and the legacy of the L.A. Rebellion. Conversation will be moderated by Carmel Curtis.
Your Children Come Back to You
New 16mm print!
Mar 16, 2013
(Alile Sharon Larkin. USA, 1979, 16mm, 30 min)
A single mother lives welfare check to welfare check, struggling to provide for her daughter. Larkin’s film masterfully presents a child’s perspective on wealth and social inequality. Screens with three powerful short films by Gay Abel-Bey, S. Torriano Berry and Jacqueline Frazier.
Emma Mae
New 35mm print!
Mar 17, 2013
(Jamaa Fanaka, USA, 1976, 35mm, 100 min)
In Jamaa Fanaka‘s second feature, Emma Mae arrives in Los Angeles from Mississippi replete with rough edges and an exceptional ability to kick ass. Emma Mae’s plain looks and shy demeanor set her apart from super mama heroines of this “Blaxploitation” era (e.g. Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones). But when folks underestimate her, Emma Mae surprises everyone (including her no-good boyfriend Jesse) with her extraordinary physical and emotional strength.
Dance Cinema Quarterly
Co-presented with Velocity Dance Center
Mar 19, 2013
Dance through our collective past with a surprising juxtaposition of two dance films, made by master choreographers, which explore the New York immigration experience. Jerome Robbins' West Side Story, set on the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1950s and featuring conflict between rival street gangs, screens along side Meredith Monk's pioneering Ellis Island, which explores the site of an iconic building and tells a historical/psychological ghost story about our ancestors.
Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Mar 21, 2013
(58 min)
Music Craft continues at the Film Forum with some scrupulous "Harmolodics" from Free Jazz badass Ornette Coleman and his Prime Time gang. Performing in 1988 in Montreal, with guitar power-assists from Pat Metheny, Chris Rosenberg and Ken Wessel, Coleman rouses multi-melodies and polytones in a high-energy orbit of pieces such as "Latin Genetics" and "Bourgeois Boogie."
The Men of Dodge City
Director in Attendance Friday!
Mar 22 - Mar 28, 2013
(Nandan Rao, USA, 2011, Blu-ray, 94 min)
The men of Dodge City are not quite men yet. J., Zach and Ben, three young friends transplanted to Detroit with the aspiration of transforming an abandoned cathedral-sized church into a lively arts space, are trying hard to articulate their enthusiasm and noble ideas. All the while they play, flirt, tell stories and struggle to define themselves with their grand schemes. Filmed in the winter, the physical space in The Men of Dodge City—the church, in all its beauty and decrepitude—is a character of its own. The film moves, joyfully, in small steps, rewarding the audience with thoughtful and charming characters, confident cinematography and stunningly beautiful location. Winner of our Jury Award for Best Feature at Local Sightings Festival 2012.
Compensation
Mar 22, 2013
(Zeinabu Irene Davis, United States, 1999, digiBETA, 118 min)
To fit the parallel romances that it recounts—between a deaf woman and a hearing man in Chicago’s African American communities—Compensation shows us the world as its deaf protagonists experienced it, minimizing spoken dialogue, employing title cards and lingering on rich, contemplative images. The film’s aesthetic not only makes it enjoyable for deaf and hearing audiences alike, but makes the stories feel like dreams: good dreams, though fraught with the characters’ struggles with racism, disability and the presence of death.
L.A. Rebellion Cinema Salon: Weekend Four
Free event!
Mar 23, 2013
The L.A. Rebellion film movement unfolded against the backdrop of the recent Watts Uprising, the profound sociocultural re-assessments it provoked and amidst growing dissension among black political groups, from the Panthers to Ron Karenga's US movement. Join author Pat Thomas (Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975), Ron Johnson (member of the Seattle Black Panther Party) and Seattle University professor Gary Perry, as they discuss the legacy of Watts, the L.A. Rebellion and social justice, reviving a cultural, social, artistic and political framework now lost to memory. This event is held at The Project Room on Capitol Hill.
Black Art, Black Artists: Short Films
Mar 23, 2013
We begin an evening of five unique films with Elyseo J. Taylor's Black Art, Black Artists. Created by the founder of the Media Urban Crisis Committee (MUCC), precursor to the Ethno-Communications program, Black Art, Black Artists takes the viewer on a sweeping museum tour. Tracing African American artists throughout history, the greater discussion of what aesthetic principals define black art emerges. Questions surrounding the role of audience and the responsibility of social commentary draw attention to the artistic decisions made by all of the filmmakers in series.
Child of Resistance + Selected Short Films
Mar 24, 2013
(Haile Gerima, United States, 1972, 16mm, 83 min)
Barbara O. Jones, whose legend would be formed with her role in Bush Mama, brings to life Haile Gerima’s charged daydream of a woman activist in chains. Seething with the political current of the early 1970s,Child of Resistance provides great company for a second mid-length film screening tonight—Brick by Brick, which documents black residents of Washington, D.C. coming together to avoid being bought out of their homes.