Calendar
Farmageddon
Nov 04 - Nov 06, 2011
(Kristin Canty, 2010, USA, Bluray, 86 min)
Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice is under attack. Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies. Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations.
"One of the most humanizing, highlighting some of the institutional obstacles faced by small farmers in the uphill battle to provide clean, sustainable food sources." —The Stranger
"An eye-popping wake-up call revealing how the USDA and FDA have increasingly waged war on America's small farmers even when they can prove they are contributing healthful products to our food supply." —LA Times
Public Speaking
Seattle Premiere!
Sponsored by AJC Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Nov 04 - Nov 10, 2011
(Martin Scorsese, 2011, USA, DigiBeta, 82min)
Public Speaking is Martin Scorsese’s “enormously enjoyable” (New York Times) portrait of literary phenomenon and unparalleled raconteur Fran Lebowitz, who offers her wise, brilliant and hilarious opinions on absolutely everything as she holds forth from a cozy booth in New York’s legendary Waverly Inn.
"4 1/2 stars: An ode to the art of conversation, and it's a delight." —Seattle Times
"Confirms [Lebowitz's] stature as one of the greatest talkers in the world." —The Stranger
"SW Pick: [Lebowitz] remains a sharp observer, holding forth on racism, sexism, tourism, and, most pungently, elitism." —Seattle Weekly
The Oregonian
Oct 29 - Nov 12, 2011
(Calvin Lee Reeder, Washington, 81 min)
Using surrealism, 70s shock horror cinema and Throbbing Gristle’s mandate, “entertainment through pain,” as a starting point, director Calvin Lee Reeder has made a road trip film that deprives its audience of every conventional expectation in a movie-going experience. The Oregonian re-imagines our dreary, forested Northwest landscape as a purgatory from an old-time religion, complete with its own symbolism, a cast of arch-angels and at least 59 levels of hell.
Alternatives to Hollywood
Oct 24 - Dec 05, 2011
We will consider different filmmaking styles or “languages," alternative stories, and how outside the Hollywood system filmmakers have explored images, worlds, ideas and concerns that parallel writing, painting and other art movements of the past century. We will look at and discuss films by such great filmmakes as Vittorio de Sica, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Ross McElwee, Jim Jarmusch, Won Kar-Wai, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Claire Denis, Gus Van Sant and Richard Linklater.
Orbit
Co-Presented by Third Eye Cinema
Nov 09, 2011
(Various, USA, 2011, HD, 80min)
On this day in 1967, Apollo 4 was launched as the first unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, a shuttle that would later take the first men to the moon. With our shuttle program faltering, we decided to honor this day in history with a special program curated and produced by Mike Plante (Cinemad) and Mark Elijah Rosenberg (Rooftop Films).
Inni
Additional encore screenings at Northwest Film Forum scheduled by popular demand!
Oct 29 - Nov 15, 2011
(Vincent Morisset, 2001, Canada, HD, 75min)
Inni is Sigur Ros second live film following 2007's hugely-celebrated Heima. Whereas that film positioned the enigmatic group in the context of their Icelandic homeland, providing geographical, social and historical perspectives on their otherworldly music, with uplifting results, Inni focusses purely on the band's performance, which is artfully and intimately captured by French-Canadian director Vincent Morisset (Arcade Fire's Miroir Noir).
Curling
Seattle Premiere!
Saturday 7pm show free for members; preceded by a members-only reception with the director at 5:30pm
Nov 11 - Nov 17, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2010, Canada, 35mm, 96 min)
Côté takes a more conventional turn in Curling than in his previous films, going through three producers and several script drafts to come up with a film that he, himself, describes as “more mature.” Several aspects are still classic Côté: the focus on setting, the stark realism, and the sense of dread that builds throughout this subdued thriller.
"Four 1/2 stars: A beguiling, unusual film about secrets...Enticingly different." —Seattle Times
"SW Pick: Canadian director Denis Côté has an interest in individuals with "one foot outside of society," he says, as is evident in the new Curling, a crisp portrait of a solitary Québécois man and his cloistered preteen daughter." —Seattle Weekly
Drifting States
Seattle Premiere!
Nov 11, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2005, Canada, 35mm, 91 min)
Côté’s first film already displays the documentary realist aesthetic, interest in the margins of society, and conceptual rigor that have come to characterize his body of work. After euthanizing his terminally ill mother, Christian (Christian LeBlanc) leaves Montreal and becomes a garbage collector in a remote town on James Bay.
Magic Silver
Presented in collaboration with KidFlix Global
Nov 12, 2011
(Katarina Launing and Roar Uthaug, 2009, Norway, DVD, 83 minutes)
This Norwegian Christmas tale, winner of The Gryphon Award at Giffoni Film Festival 2010, tells the enchanting story of a small gnome, Princess Bluerose, who must set out on a remarkable journey to save the world from eternal darkness. Filled with fantasy, magic and heartwarming holiday spirit, it's a story sure to make the dark, rainy days of November seem a little brighter.
Our Private Lives
Seattle Premiere!
Free for members!
Nov 12, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2007, Canada, 35mm, 82 min)
Three years before Catfish, Denis Côté was already exploring that most modern of romances: The online affair. Our Private Lives tells the story of a Bulgarian couple (played by real-life Bulgarian couple Anastassia Liutova and Penko Gospodinov) who decide to meet in person for the first time after a lengthy Internet liaison.
All That She Wants
Seattle Premiere!
Nov 13, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2008, Canada, 35mm, 105 min)
Côté took home the Golden Leopard from Locarno Film Festival for the exquisitely constructed All That She Wants. True to form, he turns the camera on characters at the margins—broken families in a nameless country. Composed in breathtaking black and white, All That She Wantsis a collection of images and relationships creating more than a conventional narrative.
Carcasses
Nov 14, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2009, Canada, 35mm, 72 min)
Carcasses is one of the most original Canadian movies in recent years. It opens as a documentary portrait of Jean-Paul Colmor, the unabashedly eccentric owner of a massive junkyard in rural Quebec containing just about every conceivable object, as well as the dilapidated carcasses of thousands of cars. This gnarled, rusted landscape proves to be as fascinating as Colmor himself, especially when his kingdom has some equally surprising visitors.
First Light: The Birth of Cinema 1895-1901
Co-Presented by The Sprocket Society
Nov 16, 2011
(Various directors, various years, 16mm, 75 min)
Kinetoscope Peepshows introduced the world to moving pictures but it was when they could be projected that these new “movies” changed the world. This special program features selections of these very first films, presented with live narration. Films include releases by the Lumière brothers, Thomas Edison, American Mutoscope, Georges Méliès and James Williamson, plus a very rare showing of films by Max Skladanowsky, whose Berlin screenings actually preceded the Lumieres’.
Happy Hour Saloon
Enjoy drink specials from 5-6:30!
Nov 17 - Feb 16, 2012
This Thursday, please join NWFF and special guest Xan Aranda, Director of Andrew Bird: Fever Year for happy hour drinks. Film lovers and film makers: Come out to the Saloon -- make new acquaintance and mingle with old friends! As always, our hand-selected wines and beers are $1 off (which makes beer $3, house wine $4 and wine specials $6).
You All Are Captains (Todos vós sodes capitáns)
Seattle Premiere!
Director Oliver Laxe in attendance!
Nov 18 - Nov 23, 2011
(Oliver Laxe, Spain/Morocco, 2010, 35mm, 79min)
Compared with the films of Abbas Kiarostami and Francois Truffaut, Spanish-French director Oliver Laxe's You Are All Captains follows a self-described "neo-colonialist" filmmaker, playfully portrayed by Laxe, who goes to Tangier ostensibly to hold a series of workshops for disadvantaged street children. It quickly becomes clear, however, that Laxe's intention is to turn these children into pawns in his own feature.
"Laxe filmed "Captains" in a black-and-white that is almost luminous, and the sound design is remarkable. The gabble of kids' voices, the sharp chirps of birds, the sibilances of the wind coursing through a wheat field in a section where the boys are taken on a trip to the country, are all deployed to create a kind of tone poem that slowly but surely casts a spell over the viewer.' —Seattle Times
Diary Of A Country Priest
60th Anniversary! New 35mm Print!
Nov 18 - Nov 20, 2011
(Robert Bresson, France, 1951, 35mm, 115 min)
Rookie priest Claude Laydu has drawn a tough assignment in a small village in northern France, whose inhabitants seem as cold as the forbidding climate. Try as he might, he fails to capture the hearts and minds of the villagers, who find the young man odd, lacking in authority, and, with his delicate health and his diet limited to bread and wine, suspect him of chronic drunkenness.
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Additional dates added by popular demand!
Nov 25 - Dec 14, 2011
(Jason Cohn, Bill Jersey, 2011, DigiBeta, 81 min)
The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life—from the development of modernism to the rise of the computer age—has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work.
"Delightful...will engage you from start to finish." —The Stranger
"4 stars! Superb...an extraordinary and enjoyable history of how two people influenced so much of our thinking and surroundings today." —Seattle Times
The Bride Wore Black
New 35mm print!
Nov 25 - Dec 01, 2011
(François Truffaut, 1968, France, 35mm, 107 min)
Though one of the key figures of the French New Wave, François Truffaut was influenced by—and indebted to—the cinematic mastery of Alfred Hitchcock. In 1967 Truffaut completed his seminal book of conversations with Hitchcock, in which he intimately engages Hitchcock in a dialogue about cinema. The Bride Wore Black was released the following year, and in many ways demonstrates Truffaut’s capacity both as a pupil of Hitchcock and a gifted filmmaker in his own right. The story of a vengeful bride widowed on her wedding day, The Bride Wore Black stars Jeanne Moreau in a work that combines the cinematic craft of Hitchcock with the novel visual language that is all Truffaut.
"SW Pick: Julie (Jeanne Moreau) is, in a way, an avatar of true love, a wronged woman determined to do right—but by killing for the sake of honor in a corrupt new world." —Seattle Weekly
Scriptless in Seattle: A Conversation with Lynn Shelton
Free!
Nov 28, 2011
Writer/Director Lynn Shelton’s latest feature film, Your Sister’s Sister(which premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and has a theatrical release date of June 2012), was created without the use of a traditional script. Shelton’s previous three projects (My Effortless Brilliance, Humpday, and $5 Cover Seattle) were all created in a similar fashion. Shelton will present clips from these works, and discuss the unique elements of her highly collaborative filmmaking process, including how she develops and writes these stories, how she and her actors work with improvisation on set, and how the final project comes together in the edit room.
Luminous Earth: The Films of Robbie Land
Co-presented by Third Eye Cinema
Dec 01, 2011
Robbie Land’s 16mm films provide a personal vision of the southeast United States, re-imagining our familiar surroundings, both natural and man-made. His unusual methods include pasting plant life and other items directly on to the filmstrip to painstakingly create vibrant, colorful and haunting imagery.
Dragonslayer
Seattle premiere! *Please note updated showtimes
Director in attendance Saturday
Dec 02 - Dec 07, 2011
(Tristan Patterson, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 85 min)
Director Tristan Patterson brings an intimate, cinematic look into the life of 23-year-old skate legend Josh “Skreech” Sandoval with this verité-style documentary. While following Skreech around Fullerton, California, the film captures a special time in the lives of SoCal youth—skating in abandoned swimming pools, experimenting with drugs, experiencing first loves and the effect of broken homes.
"SW Pick: Patterson's one-of-a-kind hybrid captures a socio-historical moment with the kind of charged authenticity that only comes from a willingness to embrace contradictions: It's discursive and hypnotic, laconic and urgent." —Seattle Weekly
Growth Busters: Hooked on Growth
Dec 03, 2011
This documentary, produced by the non-profit Citizen-Powered Media, follows the story of one man who takes on City Hall, Wall Street, and the Pope as he questions society's most fundamental beliefs about prosperity. Delving into issues of poplution, econcomic, and consumption growth, the film features interviews with luminaries including Bill McKibben, Herman Daly, Dennis Meadows, and many more.
The Man Nobody Knew
Seattle premiere! *Please note updated showtimes
Dec 03 - Dec 08, 2011
(Carl Colby, 2011, USA, 35mm, 104 min)
Carl Colby has often been told that his father William Colby, the Director of Central Intelligence from 1973-1976, was a murderer. “My immediate reaction used to be: you don’t know what you’re talking about,” he explains. “And then I’d find myself thinking: was he?” InThe Man Nobody Knew, Emmy award-winning director and producer Carl Colby considers the life of his father, both in William Colby’s role as an often-distant family member and as a man criticized for actions, which included deadly covert operations that classified him as a war criminal.
“SW Pick: Respectful, loving, but never lionizing, Carl’s thorough investigation transcends his personal catharsis to become an enduring treatise on how character flaws affect policy." —Seattle Weekly