Calendar
Above and Below
Director in attendance! Seattle premiere!
Jul 13, 2016
(Nicolas Steiner, Switzerland/Germany/US, 2015, DCP, 118 min)
Five individuals inhabit a set of apocalyptic landscapes in Swiss filmmaker Nicolas Steiner’s cinematic documentary about people living on the fringes of society; a couple and a man living in the flood channels under the Vegas strip, a man living alone in the desert to find respite, and a woman and her team of astronauts that train in the Utah desert to one day go to Mars.
Messiah of Evil
Jul 13 - Jul 14, 2016
(William Huyck, US, 1973, 35mm, 90 min)
This ultra-eerie, obscure film takes (and corrupts) the idyllic California beach town of Point Dune as its setting for a story of dark secrets and creeping horror. A daughter seeking her absent father in the town of Point Dune encounters strange and guarded townsfolk who, with strong Lovecraftian overtones, speak of the Blood Moon and the coming of their sea-dwelling Messiah.
Cine-meme
Free event!
Jul 14, 2016
For this month's Capitol Hill Art Walk, YouTube lolcats meet high art films in a live video mashup of the best of internet ephemera and avant-garde cinema. Curated by Amber Cortes, videos live mixed by Edward Wolcher!
Right Now, Wrong Then
Seattle premiere!
Jul 14 - Jul 17, 2016
(Sang-soo Hong, South Korea, 2015, DCP, 121 min)
Hong Sang-soo’s award-winning latest film Right Now, Wrong Then is a study in sincerity and awkwardly humorous encounters. A film director meets a woman while killing time before one of his screenings: a painter and former model who's never seen one of his films. They end up spending the day together, but at the exact midpoint of the film the narrative resets, replaying the day with both subtle and overt differences and suggesting new meaning in the spaces in between.
Sixty Six
Filmmaker in attendance! Seattle premiere!
Jul 15, 2016
(Lewis Klahr, US, 2002-15, DCP, 90 min)
Lewis Klahr’s 12-part, feature-length anthology draws upon years of short-form experimental animation. His content is sourced from a vast array of Pop-Art ephemera; comic books, newsprint ads, pulp literature, and Hollywood films. Sixty Six is a gem of distilled narratives and free-association set to classical and popular music cues that ultimately evokes an atmosphere of noirish moonlit nights, swinging mid-60s interiors and desolate city streets.
#Comments
Filmmaker in attendance! Live bands!
Jul 16, 2016
Come sit, drink, watch, and listen to this innovative theater/film/comedy/music hybrid, touring the USA this summer! Inspiration and source material for #Comments are taken from real internet comment threads, so you know it's going to be brilliant. Local band Ichi Bichi will close the show!
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989
Seattle premiere!
Jul 20, 2016
(Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, Heiko Lange, Germany, 2015, DCP, 92 min)
B-Movie brings the urgency, violence, and creativity of 1980s West Berlin back to vivid life with a wealth of unearthed Super-8 films by Mark Reeder along with content from dozens of other filmmakers. Never-before-seen archival fragments of punk and post-punk icons of the time pepper the documentary; footage of Gudrun Gut, Blixa Bargeld, and Malaria!, along with visitations from Nick Cave, Tilda Swinton, Keith Haring, and New Order.
White Star
Jul 20 - Jul 21, 2016
(Roland Klick, West Germany, 1983, DCP, 92 min)
In the lost years between Out of the Blue and Blue Velvet, an unhinged Dennis Hopper starred in this wildly unknown downfall tale, White Star. Hopper gives a terrifying, coke-infused and heavily improvised performance as seedy concert promoter Ken Barlow who aims to get his new synth-punk protégé Moody to the top of the charts - by any means necessary.
Actress
Director in attendance!
With an extended q&a/class on shooting and editing strategies for cinematic nonfiction
Jul 21, 2016
(Robert Greene, US, 2014, 97 min)
Using elements of melodrama and cinéma vérité, Actress is an intimate portrait of a complicated woman in a complex-yet-familiar story. Brandy Burre, diverted from her role on HBO's The Wire by the demands of family life, seeks balance between her performances in the roles of mother, wife and actor.
Decoder
Jul 21, 2016
(Muscha, West Germany, 1984, DCP, 87 min, in German, Portuguese, and English with English subtitles)
Culled from the themes and writings of William S. Burroughs, legendary German cult film Decoder explores techno-fear, dystopian power, mass control and resistance. Examining the science of Muzak as a musical tranquilizer used to calm the masses in public spaces, Muscha’s film follows a young punk and sound enthusiast as he decodes Muzak to discover that it is a brain poison.
Puget Soundtrack: Lazer Kitty presents Legend
Jul 23, 2016
(Ridley Scott, US, 1986, Blu-Ray, 89 min)
In this classic fable directed by Ridley Scott, the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) seeks to master the Power of Light and bend it to his will through the spiritual seduction of a young princess (Mia Sara); a forest-dwelling hunk (Tom Cruise) and a bevy of elves, fairies and dwarves band together in a quest to retrieve her from Darkness’s imprisoning temple. Sumptuous photography and compelling physical effects and environments blend into a fantastic, otherworldly atmosphere that distinguishes Legend as a jewel in the crown among children’s films.
Pioneers of African-American Cinema
Special screening for Film Forum members and Scarecrow $100+ members only!
Jul 27, 2016
Scarecrow Video, Kino Lorber, and Northwest Film Forum are proud to showcase selections from one of the most important home video releases of 2016: a monumental five-disc set representing the significant but long-overlooked achievements of early, independent African-American filmmakers. UW Professor Louis Chude-Sokei and critic Robert Horton will be on hand to discuss these rare, long-thought-lost films.
Puget Soundtrack: Fungal Abyss presents The Devils
Live score!
Jul 28, 2016
(Ken Russell, UK, 1971)
Seattle's Fungal Abyss adds another layer of spooky psychedelia to Ken Russell's The Devils, a dramatic historical horror film already heady with disturbingly violent, sexual, and religious content.
LIGHTHOUSE: An Evening With Paul Clipson
Live performance by Liz Harris of Grouper!
Jul 29, 2016
(Paul Clipson, US, 2009-15, 16mm, 78 min)
Paul Clipson is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who often collaborates with sound artists and musicians on films, live performances, and installations. His Super-8 and 16mm films utilize chance-based processes to encourage unplanned results while aiming to bring to light visual preoccupations that reveal themselves through a stream of consciousness workflow. Each combines densely layered, in-camera edited studies of figurative and abstract environments.
Dig!
Jul 29 - Jul 31, 2016
(Ondi Timoner, US, 2004, 35mm, 107 min)
Timoner’s fascinating documentary is the stuff of rock n' roll dreams and nightmares, an entirely entertaining tale of outsized egos, temper tantrums, substance abuse and creative differences. At the heart of Dig! are The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, two bands whose industry highs and lows polarize them against one another as popularity, camaraderie and idealism snowball into fame, mistrust and disenchantment.
Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 2
Jul 30, 2016
Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 2 is the latest installment in a series that celebrates the vastness of the Chicago experience. This 90-minute program brings together the best of experimental, dance, narrative, and documentary short films from a diverse range of perspectives and joins them into one expansive, rich and engaging evening of cinema.
Speculation Nation
Filmmakers in attendance!
Jul 31, 2016
(Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown, US, 2014, 74 min)
Real estate speculators destroyed Spain’s economy in the 2007 global financial crisis, and now ordinary Spanish citizens occupy empty buildings and speculate about new ways to live.
Seemed Caveats: New Videos from Dakota Gearhart
Local artist's video works on loop at the Film Forum!
Aug 01 - Aug 31, 2016
Now looped in the front window of the Film Forum for the entire month of August: New video works from local artist Dakota Gearhart examining connections between the environment, femininity, and digital futures.