Calendar
Yelp Geeks Out: The T.A.M.I. Show
Free event!
Mar 28, 2013
Join Yelp and Northwest Film Forum for a free screening of The T.A.M.I Show on March 28! This legendary concert film introduced rock 'n soul youth culture to America in 1964, and features a veritable who's who of 1960s rock. The event starts with a happy hour in the Film Forum lobby at 5:30pm, with a film screening at 7pm. A free Yelp RSVP is required to attend.
The Men of Dodge City
Director in Attendance Friday!
Mar 22 - Mar 28, 2013
(Nandan Rao, USA, 2011, Blu-ray, 94 min)
The men of Dodge City are not quite men yet. J., Zach and Ben, three young friends transplanted to Detroit with the aspiration of transforming an abandoned cathedral-sized church into a lively arts space, are trying hard to articulate their enthusiasm and noble ideas. All the while they play, flirt, tell stories and struggle to define themselves with their grand schemes. Filmed in the winter, the physical space in The Men of Dodge City—the church, in all its beauty and decrepitude—is a character of its own. The film moves, joyfully, in small steps, rewarding the audience with thoughtful and charming characters, confident cinematography and stunningly beautiful location. Winner of our Jury Award for Best Feature at Local Sightings Festival 2012.
Little Fugitive
New 35mm print! Sponsored by Holiday Inn Seattle
Actor Rich Andrusco in person Friday & Saturday!
Mar 29 - Apr 04, 2013
(Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Ashley, USA, 1953, 35mm, 80 min)
Health and Resiliency: Indigenous Showcase
Q&A with special guest Bruce Harrell!
Mar 30, 2013
Northwest Film Forum continues its partnership with Longhouse Media to present a monthly series showcasing emerging talents in indigenous communities. Join us this March for two short films from the northern territories about health and cultural survival, featuring a dialogue with guest speaker Bruce Harrell (Choctaw) about his own personal road as a humble leader.
Hancock, Shorter, Holland, Blade
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Apr 04, 2013
(76 min)
This 2004 show from Salzau, Germany features a veritable "super band" of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, and Brian Blade, inviting cheer from jazz fellaheen. Dig the set list: "Sonrisa," "V," "Pathways," "Aung San Suu Kyi," "Prometheus Unbound" and "Cantaloupe Island." Part of our ongoing series Music Craft, featuring rare concert footage from music legends.
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.
Leviathan
Extended run by popular demand!
Apr 05 - May 02, 2013
(Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, France/United Kingdom/USA, 2012, HD, 87 min)
The border between viewer and subject is resoundingly breached in Leviathan, which follows a commercial fishing boat from whatever viewpoints it can, be they the hands of a fisherman or a helmet containing a tiny camera as it tumbles across the deck. Directorial super-duo Taylor and Paravel take the narrative of a nature documentary deep into uncharted waters, leaving us orphaned from the idea of a storyteller, even as the story itself—which roams through the daily lives of fishermen, ethical issues in the industry and ecosystems far out at sea—bears us forward helplessly in its net. The most groundbreaking work of cinema in decades, the documentary form will never be the same after Leviathan.
Movie Night
Dec 14 - May 24, 2013
DJs Jon Francois and Nik Gilmore return Movie Night to our screens as they remix quirky feature films with some of the finest vinyl records, live! Feast your eyes on odd cinematic gems, as the DJs replace almost the entire soundtrack (including music, sound effects and dialogue) of classic flicks. Special ticket pricing: $5 online or at the door!
Nathaniel Dorsky: Program 1
Director in attendance!
Q&A moderated by Jonathan Marlow, co-founder of Fandor
Apr 10, 2013
Nathaniel Dorsky is one of a rare breed of filmmakers whose work can be classified as essential viewing. In his visually handsome films, Dorsky renders the prosaic a poetic experience, editing nature, light, and figure to create an utterly sensual cinema. In tonight's program, enjoy a series of 16mm shorts delving into themes and images of winter, poetry and prayer.
Nathaniel Dorsky: Program 2
Director in attendance!
Q&A moderated by Jonathan Marlow, co-founder of Fandor
Apr 11, 2013
Nathaniel Dorsky is one of a rare breed of filmmakers whose work can be classified as essential viewing. In his visually handsome films, Dorsky renders the prosaic a poetic experience, editing nature, light, and figure to create an utterly sensual cinema. In tonight's program, enjoy a series of 16mm shorts delving into themes and images of memory, grieving and the passage of friends.
Band of Sisters
Extended run by popular demand! Director and Sister Nancy Sylvester in attendance opening weekend!
Apr 12 - Apr 28, 2013
(Mary Fishman, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 88 min)
The new film Band of Sisters tells the story of the Catholic Church's bravest heros—the nuns of the 1960s and onwards who were inspired by the reforms of Vatican II and the great social movements of the 20th century to fight for social justice across the United States. Even when their actions provoked the anger of the Vatican, the graceful struggles of these sisters for civil rights and immigration reform persisted. This poignant, funny and moving documentary by first-time director Mary Fishman shows us a forward-thinking portrait of religious women as citizens of the world and covers half a century of activism.
Papirosen
Cine Independiente opening night happy hour at 6pm with Jay Kuehner!
Apr 12, 2013
(Gaston Solnicki, Argentina, 2011, Blu-ray, 74 min)
A home movie that subtly reconfigures the genre, Papirosen (named after the popular Yiddish song) mines Gaston Solnicki’s decade-long chronicle of his well-off Buenos Aires family, revealing a portrait of present-day dysfunction while also conjuring the haunting weight of history. Four generations of this amicable and exasperating brood are brought to cinematic life by Solnicki’s obsessive filming and forays into the archive–from faded 8mm footage of arrival in the South American port to digital video in a South Florida parking lot. Through the alternation of past and present, memorial and incidental, Solnicki chips away at a forlorn essence of his family that, in spite of class privilege, can be traced to the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. One can direct a film, but not a family (the director seems to be lamenting) and Papirosen uncovers heartbreak, deeply affecting but hardly sentimental, in the folds of the ordinary.
El Estudiante/The Student
Apr 13, 2013
(Santiago Mitre, Argentina, 2011, Blu-ray, 110 min)
A political thriller of labyrinthine proportions and true Argentine blood, Santiago Mitre’s El Estudiante features the emerging actor Esteban Lamothe as an ambitious university student who plunges irrevocably into an internecine world of campus activism, which in a post-Peronist and recession-addled Buenos Aires is as heated, ideological, and duplicitous as the revolutionary zeitgeist of the '60s. Lamothe’s idealistic Roque is given an accelerated education in leadership when he falls for a radical instructor with unflappable conviction. The pace is brisk and the politics robust: a riposte to the ennui of its North American counterparts!
Dioramas
Apr 13, 2013
(Gonzalo Castro, Argentina, 2012, Blu-ray, 79 min)
From the prolific and deeply independent Gonzalo Castro (who handles most every aspect of filming, along with running a publishing house devoted to books on cinema), Dioramas charts the demanding rehearsals of a small contemporary dance company (headed by choreographer Mario Pattin) in a visceral, vérité style: almost documentary-like in its observational mode–as in Wiseman’s portrait of the Paris Opera ballet, La Danse–yet in a minor key devoid of any grand thematic agenda. Dioramas, per its title, sketches subtle tableaux of dance sequences unfolding in their own time, paralleled by the increasingly heated partnership shared by two of the female leads. Unrehearsed desire is contrasted with the rigors of process in this austere drama, its subtle lyricism uncoiling like the dancers themselves.
Los Dias
Apr 14, 2013
(Ezequiel Yanco, Argentina, 2012, Blu-ray, 80 min)
Los dias is a confidently somber look at the daily life of two nine year-old twins, Martina and Micaela Mendes, growing up in Quilmes outside of Buenos Aires with their mother. Los dias is indeed about the days, anything but normal for these fast-growing girls, shuttling between school, church, auditions, household chores, preening in front of the mirror, and literally pulling each other’s hair out, (alternately with and without their mother’s supervision, whose job with a taxi company increasingly leaves the girls to fend for themselves). Intimate, unadorned, and candid, Los dias confirms director Yanco as mature beyond his years; the prestigious Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) is screening the film this spring.
Viola
Apr 14, 2013
(Matías Piñeiro, Argentina, 2012, Blu-ray, 65 min)
Matías Piñeiro continues (if not perfects) his reflexive and unconventional adaptations of Shakespeare by spinning Twelfth Night into an ever-refracting, playful, and sumptuous narrative game that unfolds in present-day Buenos Aires. Viola is unleashed in the capital city delivering packages of pirated media for her company, which she runs with her longtime boyfriend Javier. From this beginning Piñeiro spins a tale of chance meetings, intrigues, secrets and destiny-laden encounters with an all-girl theatre troupe mounting a production that assimilates fragments of the Bard’s work. Formally rigorous while manifesting rather than merely illustrating Shakespearean tropes, Viola is evidence of the young Piñeiro’s under-recognized genius and introduces a brave new generation of Argentine actors.
The Other Paris
Apr 18 - Apr 20, 2013
a new work by Luc Sante World premiere!
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, poodles, couture and oo la la. We all know Paris. But there is a city beneath that, or there was, of poor people and tenements, factories and slaughterhouses, crime and vice and revolt. In this new piece from the writer and photo historian Luc Sante, plunge through the class structure in Louis Feuillade's Juve contre Fantômas (1915), follow murder in Maurice Cam's Métropolitain (1939) and stumble through the streets (with a wounded driver) in Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955). Examining the other Paris from these films, Luc Sante shows us the underbelly of one of the world's most beautiful cities and provides commentary throughout.
Pavilion
Apr 19 - Apr 25, 2013
(Tim Sutton, USA, 2011, Blu-ray, 65 min.)
Max leaves his lakeside town to live with his father on the fringe of suburban Arizona. Both fever dream and quiet trip, Pavilion creates a deep and ethereal world, showing us an innocent way of life coming apart at the seams and constructing an indelible image of the enigma of youth. With an original score by Sam Prekop of the Sea and Cake, the film introduces a filmmaker worthy of comparison to Gus Van Sant.
We Are Winning, Don’t Forget
Filmmaker in attendance!
Apr 21, 2013
(83 min)
Jean-Gabriel Périot, born in France in 1974, has over the past fifteen years perfected an innovative filmmaking approach by focusing on archival editing. Moving image and photographic archives make up the raw material of his shorts, which are edited to create an impressionistic story or narrative, typically aided by compelling soundtracks. Périot’s work is distinguished for its intense, emotional approach to contemporary and historic political themes. This program features a series of short works by Périot.
Night Across the Street
Apr 26 - May 02, 2013
(Raúl Ruiz, Chile, 2012, 35mm, 110 min)
This playful yet melancholy drama from one of the world's most distinctive film voices (the late, inestimable Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz) is a beautifully imaginative memoir. An office worker heading into retirement begins to relive both real and imagined memories from his life. Stories hide within stories, and the thin line between imagination and reality steadily erodes, opening up a marvelous new world of personal remembrance and fantastic melodrama. With a memory burnished by a golden haze, Ruiz casts a longing look back to his childhood, while anticipating his own imminent death, and leaves us with a beautiful swan song from one of cinema’s finest poets.