Calendar
My Neighbor Totoro
Jul 22 - Jul 23, 2008
Hayao Miyazaki, 1988, 35mm, 86 min
One of the most beloved family films of all time, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is a meticulous and utterly awe-inspiring film, filled with the kind of gentle magic that can only be seen through the eyes of a child. Two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, exploring their new home in the countryside, discover a mysterious, lovable and all-powerful forest spirit called Totoro, who shows them the secrets of the natural world and leads them on an incredible journey.
"How can I describe its inexplicable power? It is like how childhood memories feel, if you had a happy childhood — wide-eyed and blissful, matter-of-factly magical and entrancingly prosaic." -Steven D. Greydanus, DECENT FILMS GUIDE
This film is rated G and is appropriate for all ages.
SCREENS WITH:
COOKIES FOR SALE
(Wes Kim, 2007, 35mm, 4 min)
A little girl selling cookies door-to-door engages in a battle of wills with a very grumpy neighbor.
* Part of Northwest Film Forum's Signature Shorts collection
* Best Northwest Film and Audience Award at Children's Film Festival Seattle
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Jul 18 - Jul 24, 2008
Scott Hicks, Australia, 2007, 35mm, 112 min
Philip Glass's achievements in music - film scores, operas, symphonies - make him one of the most important composers of our era, crossing divides between elitist concert halls and popular venues. His minimalist compositions are so iconic that he has been featured as a character on THE SIMPSONS. Director Scott Hicks (SHINE, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS) gains access to confidants and situations that the average documentarian could never obtain. The film traces an eventful year in Glass' life, as he stages the opera WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS, writes his eighth symphony, scores several films, travels the world and maintains a family with his fourth wife, Holly. Throughout the ups and downs, Glass maintains a Zen approach: "You don't like my music? Listen to something else."
Operation Filmmaker
Jul 25 - Jul 31, 2008
Nina Davenport, USA, 2007, Digi-BETA, 92 min
Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stood in the rubble of the city’s film school and explained to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a film maker had been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changed Muthana’s life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stopped channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decided to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. But getting coffee and making copies is not Mohmed’s idea of learning how to direct. And that's only the beginning of the culture clash. With his home in flames, Mohmed has nowhere to go. But how long can Schreiber and his team support a young man who they will eventually have to leave?
Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in this situation and the young Iraqi’s life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms. OPERATION FILMMAKER, revealing on several levels, addresses the power dynamics between the American filmmaker and her Iraqi subject, unfolding as an engaging parable about the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Panel discussion
Northwest Film Forum will be hosting a panel discussion following the Saturday 4:30 matinee screening with several Seattle-based documentary filmmakers. What is the relationship of the filmmaker to the individuals and communities they portray? What is their responsibility in what is so often an unequal relationship? Please join us and the guests below for this special event!
BRYAN GUNNAR COLE
Bryan Gunnar Cole is a director, producer and union picture editor. As a director, his documentary credits include the award-winning Nation Geographic special "Search for the First Dog", and the feature documentary "Boomtown", which premiered nationally on the PBS showcase POV. Recently, he directed and edited the feature "Day Zero" starring Elijah Wood, Chris Klein and Jon Bernthal, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. He has edited award winning feature documentary films like Danae Elon's "Another Road Home" (Sundance), Andrew Walton's "Arctic Son" (PBS/P.O.V.), and Phil Bertelsen's "The Sunshine "(IFC), in addition to respected television series like A&E's "The First 48" and the PBS series "Texas Ranch House" among many others.
JOHN JEFFCOAT
John Jeffcoat is the founder of Strangelife Productions; a Seattle based production company. Since graduating from Denison University in 1994, John Jeffcoat has worked in the film industry as a writer, director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. After years of working on commercials and industrials, Jeffcoat co-wrote 'Outsourced' with George Wing (50 First Dates), loosely based on Jeffcoat's travels in Nepal and India. Jeffcoat went on to direct 'Outsourced' winning numerous awards including the 2007 Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival, the John Schlesinger Award for Outstanding First Feature at the Palm Springs Int'l Film Festival as well as critical praise from the New York Times, Variety, Roger Ebert and a host of others.
JOHN SINNO
John Sinno was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, where he acquired a BA in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut. He moved to the United States in 1984, continuing his graduate education in Southern California. There he obtained an MA in Communication Theory as well as an MFA in Film Production, winning the 1989 Arkoff Award for his film, "Killing a Deer." In 1990, Sinno founded and operated Video Press, an Orange County-based video production company which he operated until he moved to Seattle in 1993.
He joined Arab Film Distribution in Seattle, becoming president of the company in 1998. Since its inception, AFD has acquired hundreds of feature and documentary films for distribution, offering North American audiences unprecedented access to films from and about the Arab world. AFD has also brought of a number of critically acclaimed films to North American movie screens, such as "Rana's Wedding," "Ali Zaoua" and "Gaza Strip." In 2005 Sinno founded Typecast Films, which released the controversial Italian drama "Private" to US cinemas. Most recently, Typecast Films produced the documentary film "Iraq in Fragments," which won three top prizes at Sundance and earned him a nomination in 2007 for an Academy Award. Sinno also serves as producer and curator for the biennial Seattle Arab and Iranian Film festival. He is currently finishing his first narrative feature production for Typecast Films, ZMD.
The Warped Ones
Jul 25 - Jul 26, 2008
Koreyoshi Kurahara, Japan, 1960, 35mm, 75 min
NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
THE WARPED ONES (aka SEASON OF HEAT and THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS) is visually raw and stunning. Released not long after Godard’s BREATHLESS, THE WARPED ONES has similarly amoral characters, frenetic pace and dynamic hand-held cinematography. But Kurahara’s vision is more extreme, to the point of existing in a world of its own. The protagonist transcends the usual social and moral categories, like an animal in human form. (Kurahara reportedly told the actor Kawachi to think of his character as a "hungry lion roaring at the sun.") A fascinating experiment in style (not to mention the limits of human behavior), Kawachi's famously uninhibited performance catapults the film into the highest ranks of "bad youth" cinema, and perfectly captures the essence of Beat. A stylistic and amoral high point of early 60s cinema, THE WARPED ONES was actually released in dubbed form in the US by Radley Metzger's Audubon Films as THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS.
Glass Johnny
Jul 25 - Jul 26, 2008
Koreyoshi Kurahara, Japan, 1962, 35mm, 108 min
NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
Inspired by Federico Fellini’s LA STRADA, and a sharp departure from the Nikkatsu Action norm, GLASS JOHNNY stars Jo Shishido as a bike track manager whose mission in life is to make a winner out of a struggling rider (Akihiko Hirata) and become rich. Before he can achieve this, he becomes the unwilling savior of a pure-hearted, simple-minded prostitute (Izumi Ashikawa) on the run from her pimp. Prior to GLASS JOHNNY, Ashikawa’s portrayals of cute-but-spunky girls had won her a devoted male following--animator Hayao Miyazaki even later used her as a model for his anime heroines. In this film, however, she moves brazenly from childhood to womanhood, while following Giulietta Masina’s journey in LA STRADA from victimhood to transcendence.
Velvet Hustler
Jul 27 - Jul 28, 2008
Toshio Masuda, Japan, 1967, 35mm, 97 min
NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
VELVET HUSTLER stars Tetsuya Watari as Goro, a Tokyo hitman who likes his women like he likes his cars: fast and dangerous. After rubbing out a rival gang boss, he leaps into a conveniently parked red convertible and hotfoots it to the other side of Japan. After a year of lying low, he has wound up the kingpin of the Kobe underground, hanging out in smoky lounge bars, while avoiding both a suspicious police detective and the mysterious hitman sent to kill him. But Goro pines to leave vulgar Kobe to return to the sophisticated big city, perhaps with the striking Keiko (Ruriko Asaoka) by his side.
A Colt is my Passport
Jul 27 - Jul 28, 2008
Takashi Nomura, Japan, 1967, 35mm, 84 min
NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
In Takashi Nomura's noir thriller, Japanese tough guy actor Jo Shishido plays a hit man hired by a gang to eliminate a rival boss. The ensuing story includes a sidekick, narrow escapes, and numerous deadly complications. The final showdown, staged on a deserted beach at dawn, is as impressive as anything of the era in this neglected masterpiece
Shampoo
Jul 29 - Jul 30, 2008
Hal Ashby, USA, 1975, 35mm, 109 min
This classic mid-seventies comedy is a harsh and funny time capsule stuffed full of great performances. An elegy to the wasted potential of America’s cultural revolution, SHAMPOO unfolds over the course of one 24-hour period in 1968 when Nixon was elected to office. Warren Beatty excels as an amorous hairdresser sleeping with every woman in sight, from the wife (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner, Lee Grant) of his business advisor Jack Warden (THE VERDICT, BEING THERE) to Warden’s mistress (Julie Christie) and teenage daughter (Carrie Fisher in her first role). Screenwriters Beatty and Robert Towne provided the brave and challenging Oscar-nominated script that has stood the test of time. SHAMPOO features a great soundtrack by Paul Simon, welcome use of incidental music (including tunes by The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix) and fine camera work by Laszlo Kovacs.
"The most virtuoso example of sophisticated, kaleidoscopic farce that American moviemakers have ever come up with." -Pauline Kael
Soul Nite!
Sponsored by Cafe Racer and Emerald City Soul Club
Jul 31, 2008
Don't miss our quarterly celebration of great 60s and 70s soul music, featuring vintage performance footage on the big screen and djs and drinks in the cinema. Dancing in the aisles is encouraged
The Silence Before Bach
Sponsored by Henry Art Gallery
Aug 01 - Aug 07, 2008
Pere Portabella, Spain, 2007, 35mm, 102 min
The meaning is in the music, or so the story goes in veteran surrealist filmmaker Pere Portabella’s THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH. Portabella, who in the 1960s produced Luis Buñuel's VIRIDIANA, proves he is still as idiosyncratic and energetic with this film on all things Bach. The title refers to a poem by the Swedish poet Lars Gustafsson, "The Silence of the World Before Bach." In it, the significance of Bach and the position of his music in the history is made clear by the simple reflection that there was once a world without Bach's music. Filled with visually stunning images, this wonderful film is as much music for your eyes as for your ears.
"Beguiling. A work shaped by correlation and metaphor… by beautiful images and fragments of ideas, a work that locates the music in the twitching of a dog’s ears, in the curve of a woman's belly, a child’s song and an adult's reverie. Like the music it celebrates, this is a film made in glory of the world." - Manohla Dargis, NY TIMES
The Trial
Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
Aug 01 - Aug 03, 2008
(Orson Welles, France/Italy/Germany/Yugoslavia, 1962, 35mm, 118 min)
In 1962, when the noir style was in decline, Welles agreed to direct a black-and-white adaptation of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL. It wasn’t Welles’s first choice for a Kafka adaptation—he preferred THE CASTLE—but he called the end result “the finest film I have ever made.” The film was so successful in combining the elements of noir and Kafka that it came to define the term "Kafkaesque." Josef K (Anthony Perkins) is arrested for an undisclosed crime by police straight out of a "B" movie. The search for justice, or at least an explanation, leads him past desolate Zagreb apartment blocks to the abandoned Gare d’Orsay, a shifting maze of offices and vast halls inhabited by bureaucrats and the condemned waiting for fate to call their number. Balancing the baroque expressionism of Welles’ visual style are a script and performances—including the squirming Perkins and Welles as the Advocate—that emphasize the affinity between nightmare and comedy.
"Given the impact of screen size on what he’s doing, you can’t claim to have seen this if you’ve watched it only on video." -Jonathan Rosenbaum
Bound for Glory
Sponsored by KCBS 91.3 FM
Aug 05 - Aug 06, 2008
Hal Ashby, USA, 1976, 35mm, 145 min
Based on the life of Woody Guthrie, BOUND FOR GLORY explores the social, economic and political hardships that molded the legendary folk singer’s beliefs. Beginning with his life in Texas and his terrible experiences in the Southwest Dust Bowl, the film follows Guthrie as he moves to California to begin his radio career. There he discovers the political power of music, which he harnesses by writing and singing his own songs. BOUND FOR GLORY broke new ground as the first feature film in which the Steadicam was used. For his brilliant work, director of photography Haskell Wexler took home an Oscar. The film, which was produced by music promoter Harold Leventhal, was also recognized for its score, which was based on Guthrie's own music.
"Elegantly crafted, hugely beautiful and interesting film, which reveals loving integrity in every frame." -LOS ANGELES TIMES
Karaoke Challenge
Aug 07, 2008
Rise to the challenge and explore one of the last uncharted territories in film – the Karaoke Video! Join us for the third year of this hugely enjoyable program. Create your own work for our ever-expanding NWFF Karaoke Catalog. Expect over-the-top performances, spontaneous sing-a-longs, and a whole mess of surprises in this one of a kind event. For more info email Adam Sekuler at [email protected]
Rules: 1). Songs must be no longer than five minutes 2). Acceptable formats are mini-DV, DVD, Beta-SP, or if you're feeling ambitious, Super-8 and 16mm 3). Include title, filmmaker's name and contact info with submission. Send to: Northwest Film Forum, c/o Adam Sekuler, 1515 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. Submissions are due July 31.
Full Battle Rattle
KBCS 91.3 FM
Aug 08 - Aug 14, 2008
Tony Gerber & Jesse Moss, USA, Digi-BETA, 95 min
In California's Mojave Desert, the US Army has built a billion dollar, 100 square mile "virtual Iraq." The urban warfare simulation, populated with hundreds of Iraqi role-players, is the last stop for troops before deployment to the war. FULL BATTLE RATTLE follows one Army battalion through the simulation, as they attempt to quell an insurgency and prevent a village from slipping into civil war. Its realistic sets, role players with personas and motivations, laser systems for gun fire, and even a faux news network make the training center the most elaborate and surreal "virtual reality" ever. But the deadly “big game” that awaits these "players" gives it a grave seriousness. Though the movie could have easily became a rant against the U.S. military machine, the filmmakers have allowed their narrative to dictate the film's politics. Capturing the engrossing simulation as well as interviews with role players on all sides, FULL BATTLE RATTLE finds a potent, multi-layered allegory of the Iraq War and the cultural and religious differences that confound America's efforts.
Chimes at Midnight
Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
Aug 08 - Aug 10, 2008
Orson Welles, 35mm, France/Spain/Switzerland, 1966, 113 min
This is one of the great Shakespearean adaptations and a true "lost classic." It's also the last masterpiece that Orson Welles directed, and, with CITIZEN KANE, MAGNIFICIENT AMBERSONS and TOUCH OF EVIL comprise the quartet of his major cinematic achievements. The film is an inventive re-editing and condensation of Shakespeare's historical works. Welles assembled scenes from RICHARD II, HENRY IV PARTS I AND 2, HENRY V, and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, along with a commentary taken from the chronicles of the Elizabethan historian Holinshed, to create a wholly new work that might alternatively be titled "The Tragedy of Sir John Falstaff." The film focuses on the character of Jack Falstaff, played by Welles in a virtuoso performance. Falstaff's relationship with young Prince Hal (later Henry V) is explored and parallels Welles' own experience with the young talents of Hollywood.
"If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I'd offer up." - Orson Welles on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Opening Night Introduction from Seattle Shakespeare Expert Bill Matchett Discussion after Friday 7pm screning with playwright Dickey Nesenger
Coming Home
Aug 12 - Aug 13, 2008
Hal Ashby, USA, 1978, 35mm, 126 min
Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Academy Awards for their work in this Vietnam drama. Fonda stars as Sally, the prim and privileged wife of a Marine Captain who leaves for Vietnam. Left at home, Sally volunteers at a local hospital. There, among the many injured soldiers that have returned from the war, she meets Luke (Voight), an acquaintance from her school days. Once a vain jock, Luke has come home a haunted paraplegic. He gains a new lease on life through Sally and the pair grow close, gradually trapping themselves within a tragic love triangle. Unlike THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW, the better known Vietnam movies which were released just months after COMING HOME, this film rejects the epic form so often appropriated for accounts of war. Ashby makes COMING HOME a time capsule of a troubled era, faithfully capturing the fashions, attitudes and tunes of the decade. The film comes with a contemporary rock soundtrack that today would cost a fortune to assemble: cuts from Hendrix, Dylan and The Beatles sit alongside an album's worth of Rolling Stones hits.
Tintin Et Moi
Sponsored by Alliance Francais and Izilla Toys
Aug 14, 2008
Anders Ostergaard, Denmark, 2003, 35mm, 75 min
NWFF presents this amazing comic documentary, coinciding with the Alliance Francais’ weeklong celebration of French cartoonist David B. As recognizable in Europe as Superman or Mickey Mouse in the U.S., the character of Tintin appeared in print across Europe for more than five decades beginning in 1929. TINTIN ET MOI draws on fourteen hours of interviews conducted in 1971 with Herge, who created the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. The film examines the artist's signature graphic style, as well as the unparalleled popularity of the Tintin character and his fantastic adventures around the world.
The Immortal Story
Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
Aug 15 - Aug 17, 2008
Orson Welles, 1968, France, 16mm, 63 min
In a mansion in Macao at the turn of the last century sits an aged merchant, Mr. Clay (Welles), with no family and nothing to do but contemplate his fortune. Mr. Clay believes in power, not in prophecies, facts, not stories. So he decides to make an oft-repeated seafarers’ fable come true, enlisting an aging beauty (Jeanne Moreau) to play his young bride, and a virginal sailor to enact the plot and later tell the tale. But some stories must remain untold—truth is their undoing. Welles adapts Isak Dinesen’s parable in melancholy tones, draping layers of narration over deep-focus images of ornate chambers and crumbling squares, with music by Erik Satie setting a measured rhythm. “By my brain and by my will, many things come together,” Mr. Clay says, and one could easily read his story as an allegory of moviemaking, his character somewhere in the margins between playing director and playing God.
Mock up on MU
Sponsored by Third Eye Cinema
Aug 15 - Aug 16, 2008
Craig Baldwin, US, 2008, 114 min
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE! RECEPTION AFTER FRIDAY SCREENING
Notorious Bay Area "kino-renegade" Craig Baldwin tops his earlier found-footage operas SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM and SONIC OUTLAWS with this highly anticipated new work, a rapid-fire pulp serial–cum–political take on California’s major industries: the military, entertainment and religion. Hitting upon everything from Satanism to Scientology, the Beats to the jets (propulsion, that is), Baldwin revs up his characteristic stock footage remixes with live-action scenes of his own, adding an over-the-top pulp flair to the proceedings. Arising with demonic force from the detritus of the twentieth century, the film surveys “the repurposing of the popular imagination in postwar California,” according to Baldwin, tracing the “simultaneous rise and convergence of New Age religious cults, the military/aerospace industrial complex and modern-day myths from Disney to certain sci-fi overlords.”
Tubs Film Challenge
Aug 18, 2008
After our successful Actress(es) Film Challenge, in which we asked local filmmakers to all use the same actresses in their films, we’ve decided to ask what would happen if all of Seattle’s filmmakers used the same location for a film. Enter DK Pan, a former Northwest Film Forum volunteer and local artist, who has taken up residence in the former Tubs building in the U-District. Stripped bare of its sparkling acrylic spas and hydro-therapy jets, the setting is perfect - whether you’re looking to conjure images of its steamy past, or use the barren empty space as an apocalyptic setting for the future. Our only request is that your film be shot in this location and last no longer than 5 minutes! To reserve the space contact Adam Sekuler at [email protected] Submissions can be made on DVD, super-8, 16mm, or 35mm and are due to NWFF on August 4
Being There
Aug 19 - Aug 20, 2008
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1979, 35mm, 130 min)
In 1971, Jerzy Kosinski published the novel BEING THERE. Soon afterwards he received a telegram from its lead character, Chance the Gardener: "Available in my garden or outside of it." A telephone number followed and when Kosinski dialed it Peter Sellers answered. For years afterwards, Sellers would try to get this film made. "That's me!" he would tell people of the Chance character. Finally in 1979, with the clout he had gained from the Pink Panther series, he was able to fulfill his dream. What followed was the culmination of Peter Sellers' career, a masterpiece of double-edged satire on politics and television. But Kosinki's screenplay goes deeper than that. What he and director Hal Ashby expose is a self-serving and self-deceived society. Through the innocence of the Chance character, all the schemes and manipulations of the world are laid bare for what they are: pure folly. For those who hunger for the truths in life, this is a film that will satisfy your appetite.