Calendar
Le Amiche
New 35mm Print
Sep 10 - Sep 15, 2010
(Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1955, 35mm, 104 min)
With their two-faced cattiness and cold-blooded sexual manipulation, the women of Antonioni’s Le Amiche make the promiscuous characters of Sex and the City look dull in comparison. Largely overlooked amidst Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni’s celebrated oeuvre, it’s among the most entrancing views of love's sweet devastation seen in cinema.
"An unexpected treasure" —Seattle Weekly
The Family Jams
Seattle Premiere
Sep 10 - Sep 12, 2010
(Kevin Barker, USA, 2009, DigiBeta, 81 min)
The freak-folk explosion of the mid-00s was a musical trend that demanded documentation. There was the rare sensation of a group of major artists emerging at the same time, hanging out and collaborating with one another, not minding if their styles overlapped. The Family Jams might be the defining film of that moment.
An Evening with Jacob and David
An evening of performance and video with live music
Sep 11, 2010
Jacob Ciocci and David Wightman (Extreme Animals, Paper Rad, You Can't Do That on Television) present a mash-up of live music, video, staged theatrics and global meltdowns. Their newest performance delves into the world of "tween" culture, the vampire fad and the current obsession with the infinite hall of mirrors known as "forever young."
Our Beloved Month of August
Director in attendance!
Sep 14, 2010
(Miguel Gomes, 2008, Portugal, 35mm, 150 min)
Ravishingly photographed and brilliantly assembled, Our Beloved Month of August is a travelogue to get lost in, an indigenous film created by tourists. It’s also a window into a fascinating filmmaking process that continues to unravel long after the credits roll.
"Don't miss! Gomes is the kind of director who sees the magic (or eternity) in the smallest, least consequential places of life." —The Stranger
The Face You Deserve
West Coast Premiere
Special introduction and Q&A hosted by Jay Kuehner
Sep 15, 2010
(Miguel Gomes, Portugal, 2004, 35mm, 108 min)
Gomes' first feature is a beautiful musical comedy. Francisco is a teacher who, while helping with his school's production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, contracts the measles and dreams his own version of the famous fairytale.
Miguel Gomes Shorts
Seattle Premiere
Sep 16, 2010
(Miguel Gomes/1999-2006)
A collection of five short films by Miguel Gomes.
The French Project: The New New Wave
Sep 16 - Sep 18, 2010
Seattle’s neo-French all-star music collective presents a new show that manages to balance the louche worldview of Gainsbourg, the voiceover musings of Godard and the ambition of a band of people who can barely speak French or hang on to a day job.
"The Stranger Suggests: I've said it before and I'll say it again—Erin Jorgensen is Seattle's sweetest songbird...Her band the French Project is as witty, pretty, and arch as you could want." —The Stranger
"Sublimely silly, and sometimes simply sublime, "The French Project: The New New Wave" is an evening of chansons with a difference." —Seattle Times
Bunny & The Bull
Sep 17 - Sep 23, 2010
(Paul King, UK, 2010, 35mm, 101 min)
Written and directed by The Mighty Boosh director Paul King, Bunny and the Bull is one of the most original and charismatic films to come out of Britain in recent years.
"A unique and memorable trip" —Seattle Weekly
"Comparisons are unavoidable but flattering: 'Bunny' begins with a clever credit sequence that recalls 'Delicatessen' and other films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. As its story winds through imaginative landscapes of papier-mâché, cardboard cutouts and multilayered stagecraft, the childlike whimsy of Michel Gondry comes to mind. A hint of Terry Gilliam's irreverence adds flavor to the mix." —Seattle Times
Annual Meeting
*Please note updated time
Sep 20, 2010
Members, join us as we vote on board members, discuss the state of the organization and local filmmaking, network with other filmmakers & film lovers, and enjoy a drink. This is your chance to guide the direction of Northwest Film Forum, meet the board and staff, and hear about the past year and the year ahead. All members are welcome to attend; members at the WigglyWorld level and above have voting privileges.
End-of-the-Western
Sep 21 - Oct 26, 2010
If any genre defines the film medium, it is the Western. The second half of the 20th century saw a continuing dialogue of culminating epic westerns, defining and redefining the genre, announcing its end while struggling to point toward new directions. In this class, we'll try to define the essential features of the western genre, and why it lends itself so appropriately to crisis, apocalyptic finality, and some kind of renewal.
Journey Of the Childmen: The Mighty Boosh on Tour
Sep 22 - Sep 23, 2010
(Oliver Ralfe, UK, 2009, DVCAM, 76 min)
The Python-like comedy troupe known as The Mighty Boosh has the cultiest of cult reputations in the U.S. thanks to the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, but in the UK, where they’re idolized as national heroes, they sell out large arenas and fight off droves of swooning girls.
First Words: The Birth of Sound Cinema, 1895-1929
Sep 23, 2010
(16mm, 90 min)
Al Jolson was not the first to sing on screen, and Mickey Mouse did not star in the first sound cartoon. In reality, sound movies are nearly as old as cinema itself. Travel back in time as this program of rare short films traces the evolution of sound, from the earliest experiments through the transformation of the entire film industry.
Off Your Rocker
Sep 25, 2010
(Duncan McDougal, 2002, Beta-SP, 80 min)
Filmmaker Duncan McDougal, who spent months sleeping on the Film Forum's couch back in the day, brings us this wild tale of an underground senior citizen's extreme sports club.
One Shot Films
Free!
Sep 25 - Sep 30, 2010
Join us in Cinema 2 each night as we showcase our commissions of visiting artists, made through the One-Shot Film program! Visiting filmmakers are asked to shoot a one shot film with no edits. We provide gear, casting, locations and all the energy we can muster.
Naked Proof
Sep 25, 2010
(Jamie Hook, USA, 2003, 35mm, 108 min)
In honor of our filmmaking co-founders, Debra Girdwood and Jamie Hook, we are giving Seattle another chance to see the film they wrote together. Proof is a philosophical romantic comedy about a PhD candidate whose questions about truth and life are further confused by the unexpected responsibility to care for a mysterious pregnant woman.
The Mountain, the River and the Road
Sep 25, 2010
(Michael Harring, USA, 2008, DigiBeta, 75 min)
An ill-fated road trip leaves Jeff stranded in small town Kernville with the promise that his friend will return shortly. After initial regrets, Jeff’s decision to stay behind to wait is rewarded when he meets local cutie Cat. Growing closer, the couple embarks on adventures that include night sledding, cave exploring and meeting Cat’s family.
Polterchrist
Sep 25, 2010
(Brady Hall, Calvin Reeder, USA, 2001)
Co-directed by Brady Hall (June And July) and Calvin Reeder, who was named one of the "25 New Faces in Film" by Filmmaker Magazine in 2007, this B-grade horror movie about Jesus Christ returning as a bloodthirsty zombie was made for a mere $5000. Rough around the edges, sure, but it marked the beginning of one of the city’s finest film collaborations.
Bingo
Sep 26, 2010
(John Jeffcoat, 1999, USA, 59 min)
What is America's favorite pastime outside of TV? BINGO! It draws more people than the movies, rock concerts or bowling. As John Jeffcoat (Outsourced) demonstrates in this offbeat documentary, which received support from the Film Forum back in 1997, bingo isn't just for blue-haired old church ladies; it's also for blue-haired drag queens, trendy hipsters, impoverished gambling addicts and everybody in between.
First Aid for Choking
Sep 26, 2010
(Meghan Griffiths, USA, 2003, 99 min)
Set in the director's hometown of Moscow, Idaho, and funded through our fiscal sponsorship program, First Aid is filled with likeable and familiar characters that don't always make the decisions you'd like them to. The film is a realistic portrait of the entrapments of small towns and family histories.
Money Buys Happiness
This film has been replaced by Silence! Please see below for details.
Sep 26, 2010
(Gregg Lachow, USA, 1999, 35mm, 109 min)
The first film to receive the innovative Start-to-Finish grant, this charming mid-life crisis comedy follows a Seattle couple as they attempt to push a free piano across the city. "This breezy, Seattle-made film is a charming black comedy with touches of poetic realism reminiscent of Godard or Renior." —1999 Seattle Int'l Film Festival
Silence!
Sep 26, 2010
(Gregg Lachow, USA, 2000, DigiBeta)
Gregg Lachow (Seven Mysteries of Live, The Wright Brothers, Money Buys Happiness) has long concerned himself with constructing dreamlike realities. With Silence! He takes on an even more elaborate challenge.
Borrowing Time
Sep 26, 2010
(Web Crowell, USA, 2004, DV, 93 min)
Before he received the first Stranger Genius award for film, animator Web Crowell started his first feature Borrowing Time with a little help and love from Northwest Film Forum. Made on a shoestring, this epic about Victorian aliens, Atomic insects and all around outdated technology is a distillation of 1940s serial adventure films, complete with atomic insects, planes on string and the very theft of history itself.
Buffalo Bill's Defunct
Sep 27, 2010
(Matt Wilkins, USA, 2004, DV, 84 min)
Bill, the aging patriarch of a semi-rural Washington family, is hell-bent on tearing down his barn with a hundred foot cable and a winch. His family watches in horror and fascination as the man they love drifts away from them. The third feature produced through WigglyWorld's Start-to-Finish grant program was made by acclaimed Seattle filmmaker Matt Wilkins.
Sweet Crude
Sep 27, 2010
(Sandy Cioffi, USA, 2009, DigiBeta, 90 min)
We're pleased to once again share this urgent film which chronicles the history of non-violent protest, and the members of a new insurgency, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) who are demanding an end to the environmental degradation (equivalent to 50 Exxon Valdez spills) and a share of the $700 billion oil profits.
Hedda Gabler
Sep 28, 2010
(Paul Willis, USA, 2004, DV, 73 min)
A woman in a small Central Washington town struggles against a new marriage and is forced to reckon with a life that falls short of her ideals. The fourth feature made through the Film Forum's Start-to-Finish grant program, Hedda is a daring, urgent update of the Norwegian masterpiece.
Cthulhu
Sep 28, 2010
(Daniel Gildark, USA, 2007, DigiBeta, 120 min)
Cogswell's feature film Cthulu,directed by Daniel Gildark, is a contemporary adaptation of HP Lovecraft's mythos, was shot throughout the Pacific Northwest. It received support from our fiscal sponsorship program and also reunited much of the crew from Police Beat, including cinematographer Sean Kirby, production designer Etta Lilienthal and producer Alexis Ferris.
Police Beat
Sep 29, 2010
(Robinson Devor, USA, 2005, DigiBeta, 80 min)
Hailed by Art Forumas one of the top ten films of 2005, and proclaimed "the best film of Sundance" by Village Voice critic Dennis Lim, Police Beat follows Z, a young policeman hailing from Senegal, patrols the streets of Seattle by bike, but his thoughts are far, far away. By using his diary and reports as the foundation of the film, this crime movie that has more in common with the early works of Jean-Luc Godard than Michael Mann.
The Gits
Sep 29, 2010
(Kerri O'Kane, 2008, DigiBeta, 80 min)
In the pre-Film Forum years, Seattle was known for its thriving Grunge scene. The Gits were the resident musical underdogs with the unparalleled vocal power of front woman Mia Zapata they set the bar for indie rock in the Pacific Northwest. That was until tragedy struck in 1993 with Ziapata's murder right in the heart of Capitol Hill.
Brand Upon the Brain!
Sep 30, 2010
(Guy Maddin, USA/Canada, 2006, 35mm, 95 min)
Back in 2004 Guy Maddin came to town for a Northwest Film Forum retrospective. As part of his stay we hooked him up with the non-profit film studio The Film Company, who were renting space from us and coordinating productions through our WigglyWorld Studios. When we asked him to produce a short film, he used the opportunity to change the way films are experienced!
We Go Way Back
Sep 30, 2010
(Lynn Shelton, 2006, USA, 35mm, 80 min)
Winner of both Best Narrative Feature and Best Cinematography at Slamdance, We Go Way Backwas Lynn Shelton's entry into the festival world that brought her later to Humpday fame. On her 23rd birthday, Kate (Amber Hubert) opens a letter that she wrote as a precocious adolescent to her imaginary grown-up self. The letter asks, "Are you happy?"
Local Sightings Film Festival
Oct 01 - Oct 06
Local Sightings is Northwest Film Forum's premier showcase of Northwest filmmaking. The festival, which happens at Film Forum theaters in Seattle, features great prizes, filmmaker parties, archival Northwest films and an impressive national film industry jury looking for strong Northwest work.
Party like it's 1995!
Oct 01, 2010
Join us for our 15th Anniversary Bash and Local Sightings Opening Night Party. Come dressed like it's the year of our founding, 1995, and dance the night away to tunes from that bygone era.
A Cottage on Dartmoor
Oct 04, 2010
(Anthony Asquith, UK, 1929, 87 min)
Hitchcock wasn't the only silent-era British director to make audiences claw their seats in suspense; Anthony Asquith, later known for classics like The Importance of Being Ernest, whips up a psycho-noir to make the Master smile.
I Am Secretly an Important Man
Oct 06 - Oct 28, 2010
(Peter Sillen, 2010, USA, DigiBeta, 85 min)
Peter Sillen's documentary portrait of the guru of grunge, Steven (Jesse) Bernstein, undulates like a spoken-word performance. Known in the Seattle art and music scene as one of the most influential voices of the late twentieth century, Bernstein was a poet and performance artist who recorded with Sub Pop Records and inspired Kurt Cobain, Oliver Stone and many other writers, filmmakers, and grunge and punk musicians.
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
*Please note updated showtime
Oct 08 - Oct 10, 2010
(Bradley Beesley, 2010, USA, HD, 90 min)
Since 1940, the Oklahoma State Penitentiary has held an annual "Prison Rodeo." Part Wild West show and part coliseum-esque spectacle, it’s one of the last of its kind—a relic of the American penal system. Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo goes behind prison walls to follow convict cowgirls on their journey to the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo.
"This might be one of the most unique documentaries we've seen lately." —Seattlest
Enter the Void
Oct 08 - Oct 14, 2010
(Gaspar Noe, France, 2009, 35mm, 156 min)
Sleep Furiously
Oct 09 - Oct 14, 2010
(Gideon Koppel, UK, 2008, 35mm, 94 min)