Calendar
Venus and Serena
Seattle premiere!
May 24 - Jun 06, 2013
(Maiken Baird and Michelle Major, 2011, USA, blu-ray, 100 min)
The Williams sisters are unlike any other sports celebrities in America today, and so well-known that their last name need never be mentioned—not even in this documentary’s title. Venus and Serena Williams, tennis stars who endured years of training, triumph and hardship side by side, have worked as a team despite countless opportunities for their blood ties to split them apart. Venus and Serena turns the spotlight on their hardest year, as physical challenges and personal changes reveal the inspiring depth of their commitment to each other.
Greetings From Tim Buckley
Seattle premiere!
May 24 - May 30, 2013
(Daniel Algrant, 2013, USA, Blu-ray, 99 min)
Raw, Raucous and Sublime
30 Years Of Vanessa Renwick: An Oregon Department of Kickass Retrospective Artist in attendance!
May 31, 2013
There are few living artists as in tune with the rugged spirit of the Pacific Northwest as Vanessa Renwick and her Oregon Department of Kick Ass. Across work in experimental film, documentary and installations, this Chicago transplant has delivered unsparingly rough but sumptuous visions, ranging from travels with her pet half-wolf-half-dog to an operatic rendition of the Trojan power plant's demolition, to Kodak-hour panoramas of the industrial tidal flats of Puget Sound.
Let Your Light Shine: Experimental Animations by Jodie Mack
Director in attendance!
Jun 01, 2013
Jodie Mack's insightful, handmade films use collage to explore the relationship between graphic cinema and storytelling. Combining the formal techniques and structures of abstract/absolute animation with those of cinematic genres, her film work explores the tension between form and meaning. Mack received her MFA in film, video, and new media from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 and currently teaches animation at Dartmouth College.
Ghosts of Piramida
Seattle premiere!
Jun 02, 2013
(Andreas Koefoed, 2012, Denmark, Blu-ray, 90 min)
In the most thoughtful and affecting music documentary of the year, Danish band Efterklang travels to an abandoned Russian town where, decades earlier, miners and their families managed to live outside the rules and reality of a Soviet authority. If you could call one place a natural host for a trio of musicians, then Piramida—a town of empty buildings waiting to be filled with music—might just be it. Searching for nothing more than artistic inspiration, the musicians discover a way to bring this town’s ghost story into the here and now with their newest album.
Within Reach
Director in attendance! Sponsored by Central Co-op
Jun 03, 2013
(Mandy Creighton, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 90 min)
Within Reach documents one couple’s pedal-powered journey across the United States in search of a new home in a sustainable community. Mandy and Ryan have given up their corporate jobs and their traditional houses to "bike-pack" thousands of miles around the USA, looking around the world as they look within themselves.
Remix
Jun 04, 2013
Curated by Joe Milutis
From the basements of samizdat film geeks to the more well lit purlieus of The Huffington Post, remix filmmaking has transitioned from oddball, obsessive tinkering to a central way our culture communicates. While its prevalence on sites like Funny or Die may give the impression remixing is a frat house gag, the form can contain a potent mix of the lyrical and the awe-ful, the sublime and the cloying, the progressive and regressive, the high and the low. Scratch video, mashups, culture jams, subtitle hacks, “uncreative” data, supercuts . . . tonight’s selection of films will provide a range of historical and current examples, from art house classics to meme-generated, quasi-anonymous endeavors.
The Sprocket Society's Fifth Anniversalodeon
Jun 05, 2013
A special double-bill of cinema treasures from the secret vaults of The Sprocket Society, in honor of their fifth anniversary. Featuring rare 16mm prints of movies spanning the history of movies: animation, silent film, comedy, documentary, music, experiments and more. An indoor version of the backyard movie parties from whence it sprang; a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
R/Evolve
Special preview screening!
Jun 06, 2013
(Billie Rain, 2013, USA, HD, 85 min)
Lucas and Lincoln just got engaged. Marriage equality may soon be legal, and finally Lucas will have everything he wants: a career and a stable home with Lincoln. Meanwhile, Lincoln is leading a major account at his advertising firm, that will rehabilitate conservative company Big Corp's image by having its CEO grandstand for the marriage equality campaign. The approach could secure loyal “pink money” for Big Corp and launch Lincoln’s career. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, but Lincoln senses something isn’t right.
Music Craft: Esperanza Spalding
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Jun 07, 2013
Winner of Best New Artist Grammy 2011 (she beat Bieber!), Portland-raised musician Esperanza Spalding brings her young jazz act to Spain, in collaboration with flamenco specialist Nino Josele. Gifted with violin and bass chops, Spalding adds a powerful voice to a sensational stage presence. Part of Music Craft, our regular series featuring rare concert footage from music legends.
One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das
Seattle premiere!
Jun 07 - Jun 13, 2013
(Jeremy Frindel, 2012, USA/India, Blu-ray, 72 min)
In 1970, Jeffrey Kagel walked away from the American dream of rock 'n' roll stardom, turning down the chance to record as lead singer for the band soon-to-be-called Blue Oyster Cult. Instead, he sold all his possessions and moved from the suburbs of Long Island to the foothills of the Himalayas in search of happiness and a little known saint named Neem Karoli Baba. One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das follows his journey to India and back, witnessing his struggles with depression and drug abuse, and his eventual emergence as Krishna Das (world-renowned spiritual teacher and Grammy-nominated chant master).
Winning Dad Kickoff!
Free event!
Jun 08, 2013
Join the creators of Winning Dad for an evening of live performance, and a chance to meet the cast and crew as they rev up to begin principal photography of this local, crowd-sourced production celebrating Washington's recent Marriage Equality legislation. This event is free and open to the public!
An Evening With Screenwriter Fred Rice and Director Sameh Zaobi
Jun 09, 2013
In 2010, Seattle-based writer Fred Rice’s screenplay for Man Without A Cell Phone found financing and finally went into production with director Sameh Zaobi at the helm. It’s the kind of dream most screenwriters wait a lifetime for. Rice had toiled away at the project for many years, a story of a young Arab Israeli finding his political voice, in a genial comedy about Israel-Palestine tensions. The film was a huge success, screening at dozens of festivals across the world, and even landing a European sales agent. Join us for an evening with Rice and Zaobi to discuss the process of getting this project made and out into the world. Screening of Man Without A Cell phone follows.
Search and Rescue
With a live score!
Jun 11, 2013
More of a film situation than a film series, Search and Rescue is an ongoing effort to review, present and (hopefully) preserve a 1500 title archive of 16mm films, produced between the 1930s and 1980s. Over a decade, Northwest Film Forum has screened over hundreds of films covering a broad range of subjects and styles. Seen today, many of these artifacts are quite engaging—mysterious, even—and definitely the raw material of poetic film-viewing experience. As a tool that can help us fathom the culture of the last 50 years, this film collection offers a particularly illuminating perspective. In one moment absurd, the next informative, then hilarious or mundane, these images and sounds offer one of the most precious commodities in contemporary cinema: an experience of the unexpected. This screening features a live score improvised by local musicians.
The Invisible Forest
Director in attendance!
Jun 12, 2013
(Antero Alli, USA, 2008, HD, 111 min)
Antero Alli's The Invisible Forest is a surrealistic trip through the internal landscape of one man's subconscious to a place beyond belief, beyond words and beyond the mind itself to. Alex, an experimental theater director (Antero Alli), brings his troupe to a forest to perform his vision of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods, and demons. During their "paratheatrical experiment," Alex is haunted by a recurring nightmare where Artaud appears and mocks his ambitions. With his sanity pushed to its outer limits, Alex visits a psychotherapist who suggests hypnotic regression to remedy his problem. Written and directed by Antero Alli with text also by William Shakespeare and Antonin Artaud.
Dreambody/Earthbody
Director in attendance! Seattle premiere!
Jun 13, 2013
(Antero Alli, 2012, USA, HD, 80 min)
Since 1977, underground filmmaker Antero Alli has been developing a medium of "paratheatre," inspired by the late Polish visionary of theater, Jerzy Grotowski. Alli's paratheatre is a highly visceral process that incorporates physical theatre, Zazen meditation, modern dance and vocalization to gain access to the internal landscape. For this "dreambody/earthbody" ritual, Alli trained a group of seven in paratheatre methods to execute a ritual choreography, using movements recalled from their nocturnal dreams. The result is a rare and haunting glimpse into a microculture of asocial group ritual dynamics, normally performed in total privacy.
Hey Bartender
Seattle premiere!
Opening night happy hour at 6pm, in partnership with Small Screen and Barrio!
Jun 14 - Jun 20, 2013
(Douglas Tirola, 2013, USA, Blu-ray, 92 min)
Hey Bartender is the story of the rebirth of the bartender and the comeback of the cocktail, as two bartenders reach for their dreams. Featuring the world’s most renowned bartenders and providing access to the most exclusive bars in New York City (on screen). Interviews include Graydon Carter, Danny Meyer and Amy Sacco—but the real stars are the mixologists who make magic in a glass. Special opening night bartending demonstration and happy hour cocktails.
Old Farts and Jackasses
Live music by Jason Staczek and Garth Reeves!
Jun 20, 2013
Calling all feisty fogies and savvy whippersnappers: we're presenting a big screen rebuke to all things "new country." Sip a cool one in the lobby, then sit back and get schooled on the genius of the giants of country music past: Waylon and Willie, Johnny and June, Buck and Don, Conway and Loretta, Tammy and George and Mr. Merle Haggard.
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.
Portrait of Jason
New 35mm print!
Jun 21 - Jun 27, 2013
(Shirley Clarke, 1967, USA, 35mm, 105 min)
Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason befriends one of the most unforgettable people you’ll never meet. The year, 1967: an African-American gay man in a fitted blazer rehearses show tunes for an act he’s never performed. Clarke builds a memorable cinematic portrait by focusing obsessively on Jason’s dreams for himself (which he chatters about constantly, to anybody listening). Smoothly defying the constraints of genre and the impersonal perspective of classic documentary filmmaking, Portrait of Jason is a legendary character study that has transformed our understanding of self-perception for over 50 years.
Just Like Being There
Director in attendance! Post screening party and The Dee Dees concert starts 9:45pm!
Jun 21, 2013
(Scout Shannon, 2012, United States, Blu-ray, 90 min)
Some of the most prized modern art isn’t hanging in a museum. You’ll find it, instead, on bedroom walls and telephone poles, burning with nostalgia for life-changing evenings. If you’ve ever gone to a concert so good that wished you could take it home with you, you’ll share director Scout Shannon’s fondness for the legends of poster design, whose lives and communities he investigates through intimate vignettes in Just Like Being There. Includes work from Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, Kevin Tong, and many others.
Money for Docs
Free event!
Jun 22, 2013
This free, public discussion features local filmmakers who have successfully raised money for their documentary projects from a broad array of funders. How did they do it? As funding gets tighter, filmmakers need to be more creative to get their projects off the ground. Each of our panelists navigated the funding maze and received money from a variety of sources, including foundations, the government and individuals. Learn how you too can crack the funding nut!
Les Blank Tribute
New 16mm prints! Pre-screening happy hour at 5pm!
Jun 22, 2013
"I only knew the man was a very very good filmmaker" says Werner Herzog when speaking of Les Blank, whose five-decade career came to close earlier this year, when this forever curious filmmaker died of cancer. During the course of his fifty years Blank made forty-two films; in this program, we are excited to present rarely-seen works from Blank’s early filmmaking years, including three films dealing with Blank's fondest subjects: music, food and people. For the first time in Seattle, we screen the restored print of Spend it All (1972), a documentary quintessentially representative of Blank's approach. The film celebrates the vitality of the Cajun lifestyle, paying special attention to the food, music and humor of the culture. Additionally, we will have Northwest premieres/restorations of the rarely-seen films Chicken Real (1970) and Christopher Tree (aka Spontaneous Sound, 1972).
Death Metal Angola
Jun 22, 2013
(Jeremy Xido, 2012, United States/Angola, Blu-ray, 83 min)
The idea of death metal sweeping a nation torn by political violence might seem absurd—or absurdly fitting—to an outsider, but that’s exactly what happens in Jeremy Xido’s lauded, hyper-real new documentary. Sonia and Wilker run an orphanage in Angola’s capital for a handful of the nation’s thousands of orphans, born into a civil tempest that calmed barely ten years ago. Into the silence that follows war, Wilker and other death metal musicians bring the release of noise, and of a nationwide musical community that comes together in a benefit concert to benefit Sonia’s orphanage.
It’s the Earth Not the Moon
Film introduction by Cinema Scope writer Jay Kuehner!
Jun 23, 2013
(Gonçalo Tocha, 2012, United States/Mexico, DVCAM, 183 min)
For anyone who laments the modern world seeming too small, filmmaker Gonçalo Tocha’s voyage to the smallest of all worlds will inspire and revolutionize. On the two-mile-long island of Corvo exists a civilization which, for 500 years, has sat adrift in the middle of the Pacific, sustaining itself independent of the world economy. Tocha arrives, with few camera crewmen to distort his narrative, documenting his hesitant integration into the community that has eluded written record for so long.
Winter, Go Away
Jun 23, 2013
(Marina Razbezhkina's School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre, 2012, Russia, Blu-ray, 79 min)
Winter, Go Away is a defiant answer not only to the injustices done by Vladimir Putin’s government, but to the mainstream media that averted its gaze as crowds of Russians protested during the elections last winter. Shot by ten young filmmakers on behalf of a liberal Russian newspaper, this unblinking look at one of the most glaring political struggles of our time must not be missed. While admirably acknowledging the dangers of solidarity, the documentary’s triumph is in its understanding of a resistance movement as complicated and unromantic—and the honesty that compels us to action.
Tectonics
Jun 24, 2013
(Peter Bo Rappmund, 2011, United States/Mexico, Blu-ray, 60 min)
While others talk, Peter Bo Rappmund watches. His sharp gaze has never been more welcome or refreshing than in Tectonics, when he visits the place that’s on most every American’s lips—our border with Mexico. Tectonics interrupts the recent deluge of immigration documentaries with a story that is visual rather than dogmatic, its stranger-than-fiction shots surveying the landscape of the border. Pitting our social images of the border against the area’s natural history, Rappmund dares us to do what is most difficult in our charged political culture: challenge the ideas and myths that affirm our nationhood.
Trash Dance
Sponsored by CleanScapes
Jun 24, 2013
(Andrew Garrison, 2012, United States, Blu-ray, 68 min)
Allison Orr’s conception of a grand dance performed by sanitation workers and garbage trucks is a thing of brilliance, but the close look that Trash Dance takes at the lives of Orr’s reluctant dancers makes the film brilliant in its own right. Andrew Garrison’s documentary spotlights what even the dance cannot reveal: the difficulty in unifying city workers’ day-to-day struggles with the ambiguities of modern art. Turning the spotlight on some of society’s least-observed, and least-appreciated workers, the film is an artistic inspiration, even as it wrestles with our assumptions about performance.
People’s Park
Jun 25, 2013
(JP Sniadecki and Libbie Cohn, 2012, China, Blu-ray, 78 min)
The thrill of the unexpected runs through all 78 minutes of this single-take journey through a Chinese city park, a panoramic celebration of urban diversity that reveals as many different attitudes about the camera as it does people. Friends, families, artists, dancers and even opera singers: the space they share is their only common feature at times, as the film imperceptibly compiles a portrait of energy. People's Park's secret genius lies in paying equal attention to each of its subjects, returning to the forgotten attitudes of medieval landscape paintings: that a view of a crowd, rather than blurring the distinctions between people, can reveal more than the sum of its parts.