Calendar
Walk Away Renee
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 24 - Aug 30, 2012
(Jonathan Caouette, France, 2011, Blu-ray, 88 min)
Eight years after the making of Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, a documentary tribute to the director’s relationship with his mentally ill mother, Jonathan and Renée return in a sequel—and proper ending—to that film. Walk Away Renée chronicles Caouette’s road trip with his mother from Houston to New York, after he realizes that she must be moved to a new living facility, and explores the director’s relationship with his family in a more thoughtful, less raucous, but equally beautiful light. Renée is already being called last year's most original and evocative American independent film.
Abendland
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 31 - Sep 06, 2012
(Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria, 2011, 35mm, 88 min)
Famous for his documentaries created without music or narration, in Abendland Nikolaus Geyrhalter collages 170 hours of nighttime footage of Europe in an attempt to “capture” the continent on film. His scenes of hospitals, border patrol stations, sex clubs and TV studios offer beautiful glimpses of places that enable the "ideal" Western lifestyle—while inquiring wordlessly what makes that lifestyle preferable.
Kumaré
Seattle Premiere!
Aug 31 - Sep 06, 2012
(Vikram Gandhi, United States, 2011, Blu-ray, 84 min)
This hilarious unscripted documentary finds Vikram Gandhi transforming himself into “Sri Kumaré,” spiritual leader from the mythical village of Aali’kash, after observing gurus in the modern yoga industry gathering devotees. His acquisition of soul-searching American disciples as a false prophet might lead viewers to expect scathing satire, but Gandi's film rises above cynical pretense as Kumaré tries to help his students realize that they don’t need him.
Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
Sep 03, 2012
(Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 100 min)
Join us for a one-time screening of Everyday Sunshine, an outstanding documentary about Fishbone, musical pioneers who have been rocking on the margins of pop culture for the past 25 years. From the streets of South-Central Los Angeles and the competitive Hollywood music scene of the 1980s, the band rose to fame, only to fall apart on the verge of "making it." Laurence Fishburne narrates this look at a unique black punk rock band, a story of fiercely individual artists reclaiming their musical legacy while debunking myths of young black men from urban America. With an introduction and Q&A from the band, this promises to be a memorable screening experience.
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
Sep 07 - Sep 13, 2012
(Marie Losier, United States, 2012, 35mm, 72 min)
Artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge embarked on a years-long project with his late wife and collaborator, Lady Jaye Breyer, to merge into a single hermaphroditic identity and deconstruct the “fiction of self” through a series of plastic surgeries. Marie Losier investigates the Pandrogyne project with the playful eyes of a long-time fan, telling an ingenuous tale of an artistic career/love story.
Beauty Is Embarrassing
Seattle Premiere!
Sep 07 - Sep 10, 2012
(Neil Berkeley, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 87 min)
From his first brush with fame as one of the creators of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Wayne White has been living his mission: to prove that fine art can be funny, too. He can be found parading around Hollywood in a Lyndon B. Johnson puppet suit, painting sarcastic slogans over cheap landscape paintings, or breaking out into one of his regular hillbilly jigs. The story of his career is one of highs and lows, including recoveries from failure and battles with vanity, which only serve to make Berkeley’s charming subject more lovable.
The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller
Co-presented by Seattle Theatre Group and Northwest Film Forum!
Live performance by Yo La Tengo!
At the Moore Theatre
Sep 11, 2012
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) brings his "live documentary," The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, to Seattle's Moore Theatre. It features a new score composed and performed live by the legendary indie band Yo La Tengo. This unique show features a combination of film clips, live narration and live music in a quicksilver portrait of a modern genius.
Maldoror
World premiere!
Sep 13 - Sep 15, 2012
a new work by UMO Ensemble
UMO Ensemble is one of the most innovative and critically-acclaimed performance companies based in the Pacific Northwest. The Ensemble has performed in theaters, at festivals and in schools around the world. Since arriving on Vashon Island in 1989, UMO Ensemble has created over 20 original works, with a creative process rooted in physical theater: improvisations in movement, character, vocalizing and writing. Maldoror is their first original, commissioned performance Live at the Film Forum, mixing theatre, bracing proto-surrealism and industrial-noise compositions with multimedia and acrobatics.
Bill W
Seattle Premiere!
Extended run by popular demand!
Sep 14 - Oct 26, 2012
(Dan Carracino, Kevin Haslon, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 103 min)
In 1934, Bill Wilson—called “Bill” in the tradition of members of Alcoholics Anonymous—faced not only his own lethal addiction, but modern medicine which doomed alcoholics to imprisonment, shock therapy and brain surgery. A surge of spiritual inspiration pushed Bill to recover and pioneer a new way of staying sober: by helping other alcoholics. Seventy years later, nearly 100,000 Alcoholics Anonymous groups follow his timeless example, but his life and legacy have never been documented on film as they are now in Bill W. Dramatic reenactments, never-before-seen image, and interviews with people whose lives were changed by Bill are brought together in this moving account of a hero who refused to be called anything other than an ordinary man.
Annual Member Meeting
Open to all current Film Forum members
Sep 24, 2012
Members, join us to discuss the state of the organization and local filmmaking, network with other filmmakers & film lovers and enjoy a drink.
We'll talk about strategic planning, our 2012 chair renovations, our upcoming Local Sightings Festival and more. This is your chance to guide the direction of Northwest Film Forum, participate in voting for board members, meet the current board and staff and hear about the past year and the year ahead. All current members are welcome to attend.
An Encounter with Simone Weil
Seattle Premiere!
Special introduction by The Stranger editor Christopher Frizzelle on Thursday!
Sponsored by Image Journal
Sep 24 - Sep 27, 2012
(Julia Haslett, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 85 min)
An unyielding feeling of responsibility for the suffering of others links filmmaker Julia Haslett to her idol, Simone Weil, a philosopher and “great spirit” who died 70 years too early for Haslett to ever know her. Encounter chronicles and embodies Haslett’s attempt to connect with the French mystic by any means possible, as it breaks traditional boundaries of documentary filmmaking, hovering between biography and self-reflection.
Battle for Brooklyn
Sep 25, 2012
(Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, 2010, USA, DigiBeta, 93 min)
At once public and intimate, Battle for Brooklyn chronicles eight years in the life of Daniel Goldstein, the graphic designer-turned activist whose refusal to leave his apartment became the last obstacle to mega-developer Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Director Michael Galinsky turns an unflinching eye on the struggle for community rights against corporate interest, looking for the story behind Mayor Bloomberg’s vocal support for the project and examining the city’s questionable legal rationale for replacing homes with a sports arena.
Mysterium Cosmographicum
Sep 26, 2012
(Brent Coughenour in a live video performance, approximately 90 min)
Over recent decades, American automobile factories, steel mills, textile plants have closed, their activities shipped offshore to environments more conducive to cheap labor and environmental exploitation. Mysterium Cosmographicum, a 3-part experimental video essay and performance incorporating materials culled from music videos, documentaries, YouTube and other sources, argues contrary to popular belief that manufacturing is indeed alive and well in the USA, the world's leading exporter of emotional catharsis. In this defining work of the Hoser Formalist genre, Brent Coughenour renders a burbling digital stew exploring the nature of knowledge, belief, delusion, and emotion.
Local Sightings Film Festival
15th year!
Sep 28 - Oct 04, 2012
Local Sightings is Northwest Film Forum's premier showcase of contemporary filmmaking in the Northwest, putting homegrown talent in front of Seattle audiences and connecting artists from Alaska to Oregon in a week-long celebration of cinema from the region. The 2012 festival includes features, shorts and documentary programming, artist conversations, art installations and industry networking events. In 2012, Seattle Weekly called Local Sightings the best film festival in Seattle. Check out the official Festival website for the 2012 program.
International Sign For Choking
Sep 28, 2012
(Zach Weintraub, 2012, Blu-ray, 80 min, Olympia, WA)
Zach Weintraub’s International Sign for Choking allows the viewer room to breathe and reflect as the sumptuous imagery and mood wash over you. Set in Buenos Aires and inspired by his own expat life experiences in Argentina, Choking follows a young American who ambles his way through the urban landscape in search of an ex-flame, evading work constraints, befriending local skater-musicians and half-pursuing a courtship with the girl next door. With its Cubist-influenced framings, Weintraub’s mise-en-scene captures a modern foreigner’s sense of alienation. Quiet and contemplative, its no wonder Variety critic Robert Koehler dubbed the project “something of a hipster Ozu film.”