Calendar
Francine
Jan 04 - Jan 10, 2013
(Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky, 2012, USA/Canada, Blu-ray, 74 min)
After years of incarceration, a quiet, lonely woman (Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo) is released from prison to start a new life in a small, rural town. But despite opportunities for warmth and connection, her years of “rehabilitation” have left her with little ability to create relationships and pursue happiness, finding her only solace in her connections with animals. What happens when a second chance isn’t enough?
Pig Death Machine
Jan 10 - Jan 16, 2014
(Jon Moritsugu & Amy Davis, 2013. United States, 84 min)
After eating rotten meat, a brainless brunette is transformed into a dangerous genius, while in a Doctor Doolittle twist, a misanthropic-punk-rock-botanist-babe gains the power to "talk to plants." Dreams become nightmares as they choke on the sweet nectar of envy and desire.
Search and Rescue
Jan 10, 2013
Search and Rescue returns in the new year for another evening of archival exploration. With a choice selection of 16mm films from our own on-site film vault, you can expect nothing less than the closeted gems of moving image history. Amidst Oscar-winning features and accolade-grabbing animated shorts thrive the underdogs of celluloid with titles such as “How To Use A Calculator” and “I Am My Own Groin.” You’d be crackers to miss out on the opportunity to experience the reels of yesteryear, hand-picked by a Limey we let loose in the vault.
Nana
Director in attendance Friday, Monday, Tuesday!
Jan 11 - Jan 17, 2013
(Valerie Massadian, France, 2011, 35mm, 68 min)
Nan Goldin collaborator Valerie Massadian’s directorial debut stars a four year old. “There's not one word, one gesture—nothing—that I imposed on her. We played,” she told Craig Hubert of Interview Magazine. Toddler actor Kelyna Lecomte plays Nana, a girl abandoned by her mother on the outskirts of her grandfather’s pig farm. Filmed with a voyeuristic distance, Nana unfolds in the allowed space as the character’s isolation endows her own developing independence. Audiences are given an innocently intimate, contemplative glimpse of the world as Nana views it. Played with extraordinary composure, the character of Nana is a quiet delight to watch. Winner of the Best First Film prize at the Locarno Film Festival, this is a sweet, life-affirming faux-fairytale, simultaneously enchanting and elegiac.
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!
Crash Cinema
Jan 12, 2013
Northwest Film Forum and SIFF team up for Crash Cinema, a movie-making challenge, which takes participants from concept to screening in one day. The project is about having fun, making a movie and seeing it on the big screen. The script is developed on the spot by your Crash team (usually 3-6 people) and you design your story based on your team’s resources. Come with your own team or find a team at SIFF. Crash Cinema is a bi-monthly and non-competitive challenge. Filmmakers meet at 9AM; public screening at 5:30PM.
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.
The Law In These Parts
Jan 18 - Jan 24, 2013
(Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Israel, 2011, Blu-ray, 101 min)
Winner of the Sundance world documentary jury prize, The Law In These Parts explores the four-decade-old Israeli military legal system in the Occupied Territories. Since Israel conquered the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 War, the military has imposed thousand of orders and laws, established military courts, sentenced hundreds of thousand of Palestinians and enabled half a million Israeli "settlers" to move to the Occupied Territories. Why does Israel invest so much into the legal infrastructure of the occupation? What is the rationale behind the work of the people charged with developing and upholding the law? The Law in These Parts tries to answer these questions while also exploring the implications of the very effort required to document such a system.
Music Craft: Sarah Vaughan
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Jan 19, 2013
(1969, 61 min)
Up close and personal in this digital rebroadcast from German TV in 1969, the formidable Sarah Vaughan (who was a major influence on Amy Winehouse) delivers her levitating mix of jazz and pop. With Johnny Veith on piano, Gus Mancuso on bass and Eddy Pucci on drums, she and the trio glide in and out of material like "Fly Me To The Moon," "Polka Dots And Moonbeams," and "Didn't We?"
Stolen Seas: Tales of Somali Piracy
Jan 23, 2013
(Thymaya Payne, USA 2011, 92 min)
November, 2008. The CEC Future (a Danish-owned merchant ship) and its thirteen-man crew are held at the mercy of Somali pirates for two months. The pirates’ translator, a single dad called Ishmael Ali, puts in a call to the shipping magnate’s CEO Per Gullestrup, demanding an exorbitant seven million dollars. These two adversaries must become unlikely allies, as they race against time in an attempt to keep the crew from being killed by their violent captors.
Zarafa
Festival opening night!
Washington State premiere!
Jan 24 - Feb 03, 2013
(Rémi Bezançon, Jean-Christophe Lie, France/Belgium, 2012, animation, 78 min)
This gorgeously colorful animated film marks the feature debut of Rémi Bezançon, who teams up here with The Triplets of Belleville supervising animator Jean-Christophe Lie to tell the thrilling story of an escaped slave boy and the baby giraffe he befriends, following them on an incredible journey from Africa to Paris.
Pajama Party with Caspar Babypants
Live performance!
Jan 25, 2013
He’s back! Wear your PJs and fluffy slippers to see Caspar Babypants, the rollicking kids music act by famed Seattle rocker Chris Ballew, of The Presidents of the United States of America. The show is full of catchy tunes that will make kids want to get up and boogie. We’re throwing in a sneak preview of animated films from the festival, including a brand-new music video for Stompy the Bear!
Pancake Breakfast and Short Film Smorgasbord
Breakfast + film screening!
Jan 26, 2013
This all-you-can-eat breakfast of fluffy homemade pancakes and sizzling bacon is fun for the whole family! And of course we’ll have gallons of hot coffee on hand for adults. After breakfast, come to Northwest Film Forum for a special screening of some of the best live action and animated short films in this year’s festival.
Alfie, The Little Werewolf
West Coast Premiere!
Jan 26, 2013
(Joram Lürsen, The Netherlands, 2011, live action, 95 min)
On the night of his seventh birthday, Alfie suddenly changes into a fluffy white werewolf. A quirky, smart and delightful film about a young boy who suddenly develops full-moon issues.
Continent Hop
Jan 26 - Feb 03, 2013
Welcome to your passport to a trip around the world, where you’ll experience life as a kid in different cultures through imaginative animation, captivating documentary and children’s drawings brought to life. Ready, set, go to Istanbul, India, Uganda and Belize – and while you’re at it, soar all over above Europe atop a magic piano!
China Fantasia
North American Premiere!
Jan 26 - Feb 02, 2013
Master animator Joe Chang’s new film is a swirl of color, music and story, blending the magic of well-known Chinese folk music with tales told in ink and wash, paper-cut and traditional Chinese realistic painting.
Path Waves: An Indigenous Showcase
Co-presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Jan 26 - Jan 30, 2013
Learn about the lives of indigenous people in the United States, Canada and Australia. See how the exuberance of youth filmmakers meets the polished sheen of professionals in this collection of traditional tales, video poems about Native perspectives and stories of families and friendships.
The Crocodiles: All For One
West Coast Premiere!
Jan 26 - Jan 31, 2013
(Wolfgang Groos, Germany, 2011, live action, 80 min)
Fans of The Crocodiles films, rejoice! The intrepid gang of kids is back for a third adventure, masterminding a high-stakes prison break that will save the life of one of their friends. The first two Crocodiles films, based on the characters from Max von der Grün’s bestseller, have been seen by more than one million cinemagoers in Germany alone and won countless national and international prizes, including the top prize at Children’s Film Festival Seattle 2010.
For the Beauty of the Earth
Jan 26 - Jan 31, 2013
Made In Seattle
Jan 26 - Feb 03, 2013
This retrospective offers animated and live-action charmers from the best and brightest of Seattle’s vibrant film community. There’s something for everyone here — music, legends and fairy tales, history lessons, an homage to the silent screen and even a film shot at the Space Needle! A viral video showing off the strength and resolve of patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital rounds out the show.
Caleidoscopio! Films From Latin America
Co-presented with the Caleidoscopio de Sueños Festival of Children’s Film
Jan 26 - Feb 02, 2013
This very special program — co-presented with the Caleidoscopio de Sueños festival of children’s film in Bogota, Colombia — will take you on a live action and animated journey to beaches, back roads, jungles and bustling cities throughout Latin America. Get ready for a ride filled with music, exuberant kids, surprise endings and luminous magic.
Animate Your World
Jan 26 - Feb 03, 2013
During this program of gorgeous animation, you’ll navigate the world through darkness with eyes that hear and smell, find a pen pal in a different climate, follow a cat through the Russian countryside, take off to Venezuela for a music lesson and more.