Calendar
Queen of The Sun
Additional screenings added on Monday, March 21!
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM
Mar 04 - Mar 21, 2011
(Taggart Siegel, USA, 2010, 82 min)
When documentary filmmaker Taggart Siegel released his debut feature The Real Dirt on Farmer John, he knew he was onto something special. Queen Of the Sun, like Farmer John, provides a profound, alternative examination of the tragic global bee crisis, known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Featuring Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, and Vandana Shiva, Queen of the Sun reveals both the problems and the solutions in reforming a culture to be in balance with nature.
"3 1/2 stars: An uplifting call to action to solve a potentially disastrous problem. Siegel is a solution-savvy filmmaker who favors hope over gloom." —Seattle Times
"A fascinating, emotional look at industrial agriculture and its toll on Mother Nature." —Seattlest
Merce In Three Parts
Introduced by Cornish College Dance Professor Tonya Lockyer
Mar 09, 2011
(Nam June Paik and Shigeko Kobuta, USA, 1973, DVD, 30 min) (Benoit Jacquot, France, 1982, Beta- SP, 45 min)
Continuing our celebration of the year of Merce Cunningham, we present three historic films made with the late legendary choreographer.
Cold Weather
Seattle Premiere!
Mar 11 - Mar 17, 2011
(Aaron Katz, USA, 2010, HD, 96 min)
After becoming an indie sensation with his films Quiet City and Dance Party USA, Aaron Katz returns to the screen with Cold Weather, his newest work (set in his native Portland). Simultaneously a story of siblings Doug and Gail and a mystery in the great tradition of crime and detective fiction, Katz’s coy and funny thriller keeps audiences guessing, while sharpening his singular cinematic style. Cinescope hailed it as "the greatest American film of the year," and we happen to agree. Screens with 9 to 5, Aaron’s film commissioned as part of the Film Forum's One-Shot film program.
"If there's one film you see this weekend, please make it Cold Weather at the Northwest Film Forum. If there are two films you see this weekend, I'm gonna have to suggest seeing Cold Weather twice." —Three Imaginary Girls
"Emerges as a nicely offbeat detective story. Stick with this movie, despite the slow start; it goes places." —Seattle Times
Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune
Additional screenings added on Tuesday, March 22! Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM and Victory Music
Mar 11 - Mar 22, 2011
(Kenneth Bowser, USA, 2010, DigiBeta, 96 min)
Much like his contemporaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Phil Ochs is emblematic of America in the 60s. More than just a folk singer, Ochs helped to infuse popular music with a political perspective, rallying the like-minded and challenging the status quo. He sang in the famous Greenwich Village cafes, in front of massive rallies and in world famous concert venues. Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune explores the motives and goals that drove Phil Ochs to chase after fame. Bowser also reveals the personal struggles that in the end proved overpowering.
"An illuminating odyssey that may convince you that many of your preconceptions of what the world should be are based in shame, fear, and the fists of others. Step out of time with this movie and claim this spirit of change as your own as well." —Chris Estey, KEXP blog
"Ochs is finally the star of his own movie and the supporting cast, which includes Ed Sanders, Van Dyke Parks, Joan Baez, Judy Henske, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger, and Peter Yarrow, is flawless. Director Ken Bowser has given Ochs a proper memorial that resonates with the power and glory of a man who is the blood and bones of American heroism." —Seattle Post Globe
Laffghanistan
Mar 15, 2011
The People’s Republic of Komedy and Scarecrow Video present Graham Elwood’s documentary “Laffghanistan: Comedy Down Range” and Q&A with Graham. At Northwest Film Forum, Tuesday March 15th at 10pm Free! Join us before the show at Scarecrow Video for Grahams in-store, 6-7pm. Free!
Heartbeats
Seattle Premiere!
Mar 18 - Mar 24, 2011
(Xavier Dolan, Canada, 2010, 35mm, 95 min)
Xavier Dolan—at 21 years old one of the youngest filmmakers in North America—continues to impress with this sophomore effort. The film follows good friends Francis and Mary. One night they meet Nick, a young man from the country who has just settled in Montreal. After multiple encounters, troubled by signs and omens (some real, some imagined), Francis and Mary fall deeper and deeper into a fantastical obsession. Soon they find themselves on the precipice of a love duel that threatens the friendship they once thought indestructible.
"The new movie confirms Mr. Dolan as a wildly talented, carelessly extravagant filmmaker nakedly in thrall to idols like , , , and ." —New York Times
Ezra Dickinson & Paurl Walsh: Actually Really
Mar 17 - Mar 19, 2011
Dancer/choreographer Ezra Dickinson and musician/sound-artist Paurl Walsh create a visual and sonic environment that is directly and kinetically linked to the performance onstage. Employing new technology, Dickinson’s movement becomes the instrument through which Walsh’s sound is created.
"The experience is one of submission to cyclical sounds, movements and imagery that sometimes are synchronized, sometimes out of phase — and always hypnotic." —Seattle Times
Sly Stone: Coming Back For More
Seattle Premiere! Come early to enjoy the tunes of KBCS djs in our cinema!
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM and Easy Street Records
Mar 23, 2011
(Willem Alkema, The Netherlands, 2010, DigiBeta, 77 min)
It's been too long since our last celebration of all things soul, so in order to satisfy your longing for the groove we present this fabulous new documentary about Sly Stone. One of the great musical innovators of the last fifty years, Sly survived his drug addiction but disappeared from the limelight in the early 80s. He became untraceable for years. In 2002, director/musician Willem Alkema started searching for the iconic singer. Alkema’s film unfolds like an episode of CSI with one of the funkiest soundtracks you can imagine.
U People
Co-Presented by Central District Forum Post-film discussion moderated by Ralina Joseph of the University of Washington
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3FM
Mar 24, 2011
(Hanifah Walidah and Olive Demetrius, USA, 2008, DV, 77 min)
Winner of the Jury Award at the IMAGE+NATION LGBT Film Festival in Canada, U People is an accidental documentary that brings you behind the scenes of an atypical music video shoot. Featuring an entire cast and crew of 30 gay and straight women, and transsexual people of color, the images the camera caught introduce a hilarious, candid and very human voice into the discussion of gender, race and sexuality within the black community.
Ambient Intimacy
Special deal: Admission is Buy One, Get One Free! Sponsored by CapitolHillSeattle.com
Mar 25, 2011
This program will explore ways in which those intimate moments make their way into the public sphere. Ambient Intimacy presents a selection of the web's most notoriously intimate moments; blogger moms, live interactive Facebook profile construction game, chat roulette on the big screen, and generally a show-and-tell unlike anything you’ve experienced in a theater before. Be a part of it!
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (with --- -----, Olivia's Place and Melting)
Director in attendance! Free for members! Sponsored by King's Inn
Preceded by a members-only reception beginning at 5:30pm
Mar 26, 2011
(Thom Andersen, Fay Anderson and Morgan Fisher, Germany, 1974, 16mm, 60 min, plus shorts 1964-74)
This experimental documentary is a brilliant, innovative film about the origins of cinema and its most famed forefather, Eadweard Muybridge. Over the course of ten years, Andersen animated Muybridge's landmark photographic studies of humans and animals in motion. Interpolated with these incredible sequences are biographical sections detailing Muybridge's personal and professional struggles, narrated by Dean Stockwell. Screens with short films Melting (1965), Olivia’s Place (1966/74), and the rarely-screened --- ------- (1967, with Malcolm Brodwick).
“One of the best essay films ever made on a cinematic subject.” —Jonathan Rosenbaum
"An often thrilling look into the experiments that anticipated the invention of moving pictures." —Seattle Post Globe
The Exiles: Screening & Discussion
A Masterclass with filmmaker Thom Andersen
Mar 27, 2011
(Kent Mackenzie, USA, DVD, 1961)
Thom Andersen will screen and discuss The Exiles (1961), Kent Mackenzie's portrait of a Native American community living in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Director in attendance! Sponsored by King's Inn
Mar 27, 2011
(Thom Andersen, USA, 2003, video, 169 min)
A video essay depicting the city of Los Angeles through films that used its landscape as a backdrop, Los Angeles Plays Itself is the film that finally heralded Andersen as one of the finest working filmmakers in the world. Carefully weaving together footage from dozens of films made in or about the city, Anderson gradually builds his thesis about how Hollywood has represented—and misrepresented—its hometown. Voted Best Documentary of 2004 by the Village Voice.
"The most rambunctiously entertaining journey through the movies as we are ever likely to embark upon. It also plays like a history of Twentieth Century America as refracted through the movies." —Seattle Post Globe
"SW Pick: Outside of a film school, this is the best lecture—and architectural tour—you’re going to find about a misunderstood city that’s long overdue for its close-up." —Seattle Weekly
Red Hollywood
Director in attendance! Sponsored by King's Inn
Mar 28, 2011
(Thom Andersen and Noël Burch, USA, 1996, Beta-SP, 120 min)
Thom Andersen and Noël Burch's provocative documentary looks with fresh eyes at "Red" Hollywood—films by screenwriters and directors who were communists, ex-communists or sympathizers, and who were in some way implicated by the Hollywood investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Red Hollywood reveals a largely neglected Hollywood legacy: films committed to raising questions regarding class, gender and racism, and films that questioned "the system" itself—whether capitalism or the studio—and were answered with the blacklist.
"A must-see: Offers some invaluable clues about how we might start reconstructing our view of Hollywood movies made since the birth of talkies...Simply by broaching the question of political content in Hollywood movies at all, [Red Hollywood] defies a major taboo in most mainstream writing about current movies." —
Get Out of the Car
Director in attendance! This film will be followed by a lecture from Thom Andersen.
Sponsored by King's Inn
Mar 29, 2011
(Thom Andersen, USA, 2010, 16mm, 34 min)
This city symphony film is composed from advertising signs, building facades, fragments of music and conversation, and unmarked sites of vanished cultural landmarks. The film is an effort to discover how much of the ambience and history of Los Angeles can be revealed from these fragments.
"The cumulative effect of the film is a realization of what is gone coupled with the anticipation of what is to come, a symphony of a city that is simultaneously unborn and deceased." —Seattle Post Globe
The Time That Remains
Seattle premiere! *Please note updated showtimes
Sponsored by Typecast Films
Apr 01 - Apr 07, 2011
(Elia Suleiman, 2009, 35mm, 105 min)
Elia Suleiman is one seriously funny man. With The Time That Remains, a semi-biographical film inspired by his father's diaries, Suleiman offers a darkly comedic narrative that unfolds over four historic episodes. The third part of a trilogy that includes Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention, The Time That Remains was the key political film at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. It's a beautiful, unique and deeply personal depiction of Palestine in the 60 years since 1948 as seen by Suleiman and his parents.
"Where other filmmakers see doom and gloom, he sees irony and absurdity, which doesn't mean he wears rose-colored glasses. His movies may be funny, but they're hardly conventional comedies, not when he takes his cues from Franz Kafka and Buster Keaton. Characters rarely smile, but that just makes their predicaments all the more comical." —Kathy Fennessy
"A thorny and intricate film that is also breathtakingly simple and honest." —Seattle Times
Nostalgia For The Light
Seattle premiere! *Please note updated showtimes
Apr 01 - Apr 07, 2011
(Patricio Guzmán, France/Germany/Chile, 2010, 35mm, 90 min)
Veteran Chilean director Patricio Guzmán (Allende) continues to find new and extraordinary ways to never forget the harsh brutality of the Pinochet regime. Using the vast Atacama Desert, its astronomical musings and its archeological and anthropologically pristine treasures as the latest entry, Guzman’s Nostalgia offers up the most varied discussion of Chile’s haunted past yet. A blend of science, philosophy, and politics, this urgent documentary is about the act of looking, which after all is the foundation of cinema.
"3 1/2 stars: archaeology and architecture to form a resonant reflection upon the preservation of memory...."Nostalgia" states [director Guzman's] case so beautifully that even skeptical physicists will be thoroughly convinced." —Seattle Times
"Beautiful, dreamy, and slow...A cinematic poem about the history of Chile and the history of the universe." —The Stranger
The Battle of Chile Part 1 -3
Please note updated showtimes
Apr 02 - Apr 03, 2011
(Patricio Guzmán, Chile, 1976-78, DigiBeta, 330 min)
Internationally hailed as a powerful historical portrait of the passions of a people divided and a nation on the brink of civil war, The Battle of Chile chronicles the tumultuous last months of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government (1970-1973) in Chile. The Equipo Tercer Año, the Chilean filmmaking team led by Patricio Guzmán which photographed and assembled this three-part, four-and-a-half-hour epic documentary, offers the viewer the vivid experience of being thrust into the midst of a society in crisis.
Fine Totally Fine: A Fundraiser for Japanese Tsunami Relief
All proceeds will benefit the Japanese relief effort Co-presented by Brown Paper Tickets
Apr 02, 2011
(Yosuke Fujita, 2007, DVD, 110 min)
Brown Paper Tickets and Northwest Film Forum present the Seattle Premiere of Yosuke Fujita's comedy Fine Totally Fine with 100% of the proceeds going to the relief fund set up by Pictures Dept. president Yuko Shiomkaki. Donations to this fund will be distributed by Japanese aid organization JustGiving and go to help those fighting to put their lives back together.
The Indian Boundary Line
Director In Attendance!
Seattle premiere
Co-Presented By Third Eye Cinema
Apr 02, 2011
(Thomas Comerford, USA, 2010, DigiBeta, 41 min)
Over the last eight years, local musician and filmmaker Thomas Comerford has been at work on a series of quietly-observed films that contemplate the entwined social, political and environmental histories of Chicago. His latest film follows, as Comerford describes, “a road very close to my home in Chicago, Rogers Avenue,” that traces the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis boundary between the United States and “Indian Territory.” Screens with Land Marked/Marquette, a series of clear, concisely observed landscape studies of sites and monuments in Chicago connected to 17th century exploration by Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette.
It
Apr 04, 2011
(Clarence G. Badger, 1927, USA, 35mm, 72 min)
The 1927 masterpiece It stars Clara Bow as Betty Lou Spence, a poor sales girl at a large department store. In this straight-forward Cinderella-esque story, Betty sets her sights on winning the love of the rich owner’s son, Cyrus Walthm Jr. (Antonio Moreno).
The Maids
Co-presented by Three Dollar Bill Cinema
Apr 07, 2011
(Christopher Miles, 1974, 95 min)
Susannah York (The Killing of Sister George) stars with Glenda Jackson in this bizarre sadomasochistic romp. Through role-play, the two maids fantasize about killing their employer, but who will be the ultimate victim?