Calendar
A Useful Life
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 01 - Jul 07, 2011
(Federico Veiroj, 2010, Uruguay, 35mm, 67 min)
This tale of the Montevideo cinematheque and its denizens is the latest reminder that venues like our own beloved Film Forum are an endangered species. Shot in beautiful black and white, Veiroj depicts the efforts of a small group of cinephiles struggling to keep open this increasingly antiquated venue. Starring real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek, the film is practically a documentary of the effort curators go through to bring works such as this to art houses near you. Much of the story focuses on Jellinek's Jorge, an employee of the Cinemateca Uruguaya for 25 years.
The Big Uneasy
Director Harry Shearer in Attendance Opening Night!
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 08 - Jul 14, 2011
(Harry Shearer, 2010, USA, DigiBeta, 98 min)
Natural disasters have a way of repeating themselves. Such is the case with the recent tsunami in Japan, and it could be the case for New Orleans, which almost five years ago was struck by Hurricane Katrina. In his feature–length documentary, comedian and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented. Shearer speaks to investigators and whistle–blowers, revealing that some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure during Katrina are being used to rebuild the system to protect from future peril.
Artivist Film Festival
Cinema Rental
Jul 08 - Jul 10, 2011
Founded in 2003 the ARTIVIST FILM FESTIVAL is the only festival dedicated to raising awareness for international human rights, children’s advocacy, environmental preservation, and the humane treatment of animals through international narrative and documentary films. More than just a film festival, we guide the public “From Awareness to Positive Action” by providing educational, informative films that inspire action; we then connect our audiences to dozens of NGOs where they can actively participate in affecting positive change.
I Want To See
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 09 - Jul 14, 2011
(Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, 2009, Lebanon/France, Beta-SP, 75 min)
With the current unrest in the Middle East, there’s no better time for this exceptional hybrid documentary. Operating between the lines of documentary and fiction, French icon Catherine Deneuve, playing herself, asks actor Rabih Mroué, also playing himself, to show her the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war. As the two characters drive towards the border of South Lebanon, a half-spoken complicity grows between them, revealing their anxieties around security and upon the question of whether Mroué will find his family house. Deneuve both denies and takes advantage of her status as an icon of cinema to lend a fresh glance, and to gain physical access, to a landscape whose representation has been exploited and saturated by the media. I Want To See is a reminder of the vulnerabilities laying in the wake of conflicts in the Middle East.
Screening Merce
Special introduction by Velocity's new Executive Director Tonya Lockyer
Jul 12, 2011
(Various directors, 1980/1985/1993, USA, Digital, 30/18/28 min)
We continue our yearlong celebration of the films of Merce Cunningham with three short works that contributed to innovations in the exploration of film/video and dance.
Joel Schlemowitz: Short Experiments
Co-Presented by Third Eye Cinema
Director in attendance!
Jul 13, 2011
Joel Schlemowitz presents a screening of experimental documentaries and short poetic cinema, including Loudmouth Collective/Ugly Duckling Presse, a film-portrait of the anarchic poetry happenings known as "anti-readings," and Teslamania in which the Collective Unconscious fires up their Tesla coil creating giant sparks of lightning in a demonstration of "Tesla cooking." Other works include the Brooklyn-based filmmaker's collaborations with the poet Wanda Phipps, a short film-portrait of comix artist Dame Darcy, and a "correspondence film" collaboration with Seattle's Jon Behrens.
Werewolves Across America
Viking Moses in Attendance with a Live Performance!
West Coast Premiere!
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
Jul 14, 2011
(James Hall and Edward Lovelace, 2010, UK, DigiBeta, 85 min)
What happens when you decide to opt out of the American Dream? Werewolves Across America, a portrait of modern youth culture, stars nomadic folk icon Viking Moses as he guides us through the world of the American "DIY" music scene. We meet a variety of characters, including a young Lutheran priest, a Manhattan real estate agent and an ex-drug addict from Florida. All have chosen to reject the American Dream in search of something else—but what are they seeking and at what cost? While exploring the rich but often ignored underground music scene, the film asks what it is like to live on the fringes of society in modern America. Featuring performances from Deer Tick, The Shivers and Phosphorescent.
Passione: A Musical Adventure
Seattle Premiere!
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
Jul 15 - Jul 21, 2011
(John Turturro, 2010, Italy, USA, 35mm, 95 min)
John Turturro's unconditional commitment to Italy and its culture has developed into a unique film experience. Passione's antique scenery, distinctive sounds and beautiful music take the viewer into the streets of Naples and on a voyage through time and space. The film's strength lays in the diversity of the soundtrack, each song its own universe, each its own poem. Naples becomes the ideal setting for a breathtaking odyssey, where the musicians perform on the streets and take over the city's plazas, ultimately capturing the hearts of its spectators. Turturro (Barton Fink, O Brother Where Art Thou) brings Naples and its heritage to the big screen in a way that confirms its essential contribution to our civilization.
Putty Hill
Director In Attendance!
Seattle Theatrical Premiere!
Jul 15 - Jul 21, 2011
(Matthew Porterfield, 2010, USA, Blu-ray, 85 min)
After a young man overdoses on heroin in a poor, working-class suburb of Baltimore, his family and friends gather on the eve of his funeral to commemorate his life. Their shared memories paint a portrait of a community hanging in the balance, skewed by poverty and a generational divide, but united in their pursuit of a new American Dream. Gifted young filmmaker Matthew Porterfield (Hamilton) casts non-actors, utilizes improvised dialogue and skirts documentary techniques to generate an awe-inspiring realism that is remarkable for its candid emotional honesty.
Orson Welles: From Citizen Kane to Chimes at Midnight
Jul 18 - Aug 22, 2011
This seminar intends to upend the belief that his career went downhill from there and will show that Welles's accumulated body of work -- which ranged from the bold to the bad (but still fascinating!) to the beautiful -- continues to influence filmmakers today. This six week seminar offers the film lover and filmmaker alike a rare opportunity to view, discuss and draw inspiration from films that include Citizen Kane, Chimes of Midnight, The Magnificent Ambersons, and F for Fake.
Redland
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 22 - Jul 28, 2011
(Asiel Norton, 2010, USA, 35mm, 105 min)
Described as an avant-garde Western, Redland is the type of American independent film we haven’t seen for years. Shot stunningly on 35mm, the film is set during the 1930s Depression era in a tiny outpost in Redland County, California. A family struggles to survive in a mountain shack while their daughter conceals her love affair from her zealous father. With starvation and death in the air, the family has to make painful moral sacrifices, which entail dire consequences.
Into Eternity
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 22 - Jul 28, 2011
(Michael Madsen, USA, 2009, DigiBeta, 75 min)
After the devastating nuclear crisis in Japan, Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity—part documentary, part science fiction—is a prescient exploration of how Finland handles its spent nuclear fuel rods. The film begs the question: Since nuclear waste is dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, how do you communicate the danger to distant generations?
Screens with Karn Junkinsmith’s Interpretive Site: Hanford Reach.
Secret Country #2
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
Jul 28, 2011
Dave Harmonson, veteran singer, steel player, guitar picker and Northwest music icon, will entertain with deep catalog country music stylings. The film that follows stars either Merle Haggard, Johhny Cash, George Jones or Waylon Jennings — how could we go wrong with any of those choices?
Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny
Seattle Premiere!
With Special Guests
Jul 29 - Jul 31, 2011
(Richard Trank, 2011, USA, 35mm, 97 min)
Narrated by Ben Kingsley, Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny examines Churchill’s years in the political wilderness, his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism, his support for Jews under threat by the Nazi regime and his ascension to the Prime Ministership in 1940. Sir Martin Gilbert, historical consultant for the film and Winston Churchill’s official biographer, theorizes that Western Civilization as we know it was saved by Churchill during the period when he, alone among world leaders, stood up to Hitler and Nazism.
Summer of Goliath
Seattle Premiere!
Jul 29 - Aug 04, 2011
(Nicolás Pereda, 2010, Mexico/Canada/France, 35mm, 76 min)
It's a hot summer in Huilotepec, in rural Mexico, and there is more going on than appears on the surface. The emotional presence and visual absence of Mexico’s drug cartels haunt the residents of this forested community. Teresa thinks her husband has found another woman, while her son, Gabino, stationed at a quiet military checkpoint, whiles away the time harassing the locals. It’s said that Oscar has killed his girlfriend. And that's just some of the excitement swirling around this small town.
Juntos (Together)
Seattle Premiere!
Free for members!
Aug 01, 2011
(Nicolás Pereda, 2009, Mexico/Canada/France, 35mm, 73 min)
Though Juntos moves slowly, it truly engages the viewer. The camera hovers over details and lets images speak for the characters, bringing cinematography and visual arts close together. Juntos shows that life is very different behind the closed doors of a small apartment from the frightening city that lies outside. Screens with Interview With The Earth.
Happy Hour with Nicolas Pereda
“A distinctive voice from fertile Mexican soil!” —Jay Keuhner, Senses of Cinema
Aug 03, 2011
Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
August 3rd from 4-6pm with special prices on beer and wine.
Nicolas Pereda will be joining the Film Forum next week with several of his feature films. Recently selected to appear in the prestigious New Directors/New Films program, Nicolás Pereda stands as one of Mexico’s finest discoveries. Don’t be deceived by his assured style and risky subjects—Pereda is just 27, though he threatens to become one of world cinema's dominant voices. His ultra low-budget films were described by film critic Robert Koehler as each having "its own thrusts, quirks, obsessions and concerns, they flow together and interconnect, forming by the end of viewing a kind of gestalt which is rare with a director born as recently as 1982."
His latest film, Summer of Goliath (2010), was awarded the Orizzonti Jury Prize at the 67th edition of the Venice Film Festival by jury chair Shirin Neshat. Summer of Goliath, along with his first films, Together, Perpetuum Mobile and Where Are Their Stories? provides a portrait of the difficult lives in 21st century working-class Mexico. Pereda is not just the latest to blur the lines between documentary and fiction; his films also have moments of humor and sadness. Simply put, he is one of the technique's finest practitioners.
Perpetuum Mobile
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 03, 2011
(Nicolás Pereda, 2010, Mexico/Canada/France, 35mm, 90 min)
Pereda’s feature debut, winner of Best Mexican Feature at the Guadalajara Film Festival, is a compelling portrait of family relations in urban Mexico today. Combining genre elements of slacker films with melodrama, the film follows working-class layabout Gabino, who constantly fights with his mother while he hustles with a friend. Gabino’s brother doesn’t bother to visit their mom, whose own mother is left unattended in an apartment. To this he adds elements of the “city film"— Gabino’s work gives him—and us—the opportunity to visit the lives of Mexicans of all classes. Pereda is an anti-glamour director; everything about his characters and their situations ring true.
Donde estan sus historias? (Where are their stories?)
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 04, 2011
(Nicolás Pereda, 2007, Mexico/Canada/France, 35mm, 73 min)
Vicente is a young man living with his grandmother in a small community in the Mexican State of Puebla. One day his uncles return from the US to visit the sick, old woman. Suspecting that she is near death, they try to sell her property without her permission. Trying to prevent the unauthorized sale, Vicente consults the mayor who suggests he seek help from the ministerial office in Mexico City. In the big city Vicente will face a new reality, estranged people, and an impenetrable legal system. Pereda’s debut feature shows an elegant and understated style, capturing the enormity of family conflicts without relying on familiar dramatic territory. Winner of the Best Feature Film Award at the Morelia International Film Festival.
Taxi Driver
New 35mm print!
Aug 05 - Aug 11, 2011
(Martin Scorsese, 1976, USA, 35mm, 113 min)
One of the greatest collaborations of the 1970s was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, a film that alchemized Paul Schrader’s script, Michael Chapman’s cinematography, Bernard Herrmann’s music and Robert De Niro’s totally credible Travis Bickle. Scorsese’s searing images bubble up out of the streets of Manhattan, with violence waiting to be unleashed when you least expect it.
New York never looked so good, or so bad as in Taxi Driver, a post-Vietnam film that's as subversive as any noir of the '40s regarding the American dream. With memorable supporting performances from Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, and Cybill Shepherd, Taxi Driver looks as good on the big screen for its 35th anniversary as when it was originally released!
Film Socialisme
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 05 - Aug 11, 2011
(Jean Luc Godard, 2010, France/Switzerland, 101 min)
Jean-Luc Godard’s rumored final film is neatly divided into three sections, all of which are open to any number of interpretations. From the opening movement, set aboard a cruise ship sailing lazily through the Mediterranean, to its visit with a family who run a petrol station and keep a pet llama, the film comprises a strata of times compressed with melancholy aesthetics. With its refusal of conventional narrative structures and relentless allusions to social, political and cinematic history, it's unlikely you'll leave the screening echoing its already famous final line—a quintessentially Godardian departure to cinema—"no comment."