Calendar
A Wink and A Smile
Opening night party! *Sold out! Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM and Seattle Gay News
May 15 - May 21, 2009
(Deirdre Allen Timmons, USA, 2008, DigiBeta, 91 min)
Seattle filmmaker Deirdre Allen Timmons swings a spotlight across a glittering stage to illuminate one of the many fascinating pocket industries that keeps Seattle interesting: Miss Indigo Blue’s Academy of Burlesque, where anyone of any background or body type can find instruction in the art of striptease.
"Elegantly shot...irresistible...and nicely paced" -Seattle Times
"The local burlesque scene has evolved into a sophisticated, many-tentacled, and nationally admired phenomenon. It's about time it got to tell its story" -The Stranger
FILM IST. a girl and a gun
May 22 - May 24, 2009
(Gustav Deutsch, Austria, 2009, 93 min)
Gustav Deutsch combines archival pornography with World War I footage and really old nature films. The result is an essay on sex and violence and the children born of that union, written entirely with editing choices and music. Your interpretation may vary.
Beket
May 22 - May 23, 2009
(Davide Manuli, Italy, 2008, 80 min)
Loosely based on Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot,” Beket takes place in a no-man's land outside of time, when mankind no longer inhabits the planet. Protagonists Freak and Jaja meet at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere and embark on an absurd, existentialist journey filled with apocalyptic imagery.
California Company Town
May 23 - May 26, 2009
(Lee Anne Schmitt, 2008, USA, 76 min)
This engagingly deadpan documentary is about California’s industrial company towns that were abandoned after industry dried up. Over the footage of these ghostly towns, filmmaker and narrator Lee Anne Schmitt discusses their impact on the economy and the environment.
Secret Sunday Matinee II: Adventure! And Stuff!
Co-presented by The Sprocket Society and Northwest Film Forum
Mar 01 - May 24, 2009
The Secret Sunday Matinee returns, now at a different time! Relive the old-fashioned matinee with a weekly movie serial, a classic Secret Feature, plus cartoons and shorts. This spring, the 12-chapter cliffhanger is Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939). Packed with non-stop action, it's one of the all-time best from the legendary Republic Studios!
Our Beloved Month of August
May 24 - May 26, 2009
(Miguel Gomes, 2008, Portugal, 150 min)
In the Portuguese hills, August is the time of feasts, singing, and debauchery. Seen through the eyes of one of cinema’s true free spirits, this charming mix of fact and fiction depicts urban life and love, and also provides a humorous look at the film profession.
It Came From Kuchar
May 25 - May 27, 2009
(Jennifer M. Kroot, USA, 2009, 86 min)
Twin brothers, Mike and George Kuchar, began making low-budget, experimental, and hilariously melodramatic films in the 1960s. Their pioneering work inspired filmmakers and made the twins into film legends. Director Jennifer Kroot entwines humor and sentiment as she explores the brothers’ lives, their fans, and their influence on the American underground film scene.
Light Year
May 25 - May 28, 2009
(Mikael Kristersson, 2009, Sweden, 100 min)
In a dazzling sequence of shots, Mikael Kristersson explores the greatness of small objects in his garden in Sweden. Viewing the real world from the perspective of the wasp and the cabbage butterfly, we see how human beings are merely one species among many.
Short in the dark
May 27 - May 28, 2009
With poetic visions of worlds that cease to exist or worlds that spontaneously come about, all imbued with breathtaking beauty, we invite viewers to sharpen their gaze, often in silence. This program explores anticipated new films from local artists (Jon Behrens, Salise Hughes, Karn Junkinsmith, Sarah Jane Lapp), national (Pat O'Neill, Robert Todd) and international artists (Michael Snow, Philipp Lachenmann, Eriko Sonoda). Plus, we’re honored to present the Seattle premiere of Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas' first short film. Inside or outside the norms, these films represent the eternal struggle for new frontiers in the cinematic language.
Until The Light Takes Us
Directors in attendance!
May 28 - May 30, 2009
(Aaron Aites, Audrey Ewell, USA, 2008)
This extraordinary documentary chronicles black metal: an ideological movement and music genre comprised of metal musicians, murderers, church-burners and suicide victims. The film examines the birth and explosive arc of black metal through the eyes of the scene's leaders, who tried to change the world using music and symbolic acts of violence.
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three
May 29 - Jun 04, 2009
(Joseph Sargent, USA, 1974, 35mm, 104 min)
Before the release of Tony Scott’s slick, new remake, don’t miss our special 35th anniversary engagement of the original, influential film that helped create the modern action thriller genre. When a gang of criminals hijacks a New York City subway car and demands $1 million cash in one hour, Transit Authority cop Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau, in a broad yellow tie and loud plaid shirt) becomes the point person in a citywide scramble.
STIFF: Seattle's Truly Independent Film Festival
Jun 06 - Jun 12
Seattle's True Independent Film Festival is held at multiple venues throughout Seattle. It is a celebration of off-beat independent film from the Northwest and the rest of the world. Combined with our concurrent companion Music and Stand-Up Comedy festival STIFF Licks, it features the best independent entertainment in the entire city.
In a Dream
Seattle Premiere
Jun 13 - Jun 18, 2009
(Jeremiah Yaches, USA, 2008, DVCAM, 78 Min)
This loving, complex portrait of risk-taking septuagenarian artist Isaiah Zegar and his wife Julia, directed by their son Jeremiah, explores the obsessive passion that possesses Isaiah to create 50,000 square foot mosaic murals in their south Philadelphia neighborhood. Isaiah's single-minded, narcissistic and unstable personality takes its toll on his wife and his family.
"Exhilarating" -The Stranger
"This highly personal film speaks to all of us in the universal languages of art and love" -Seattle Times
"In a Dream exhibits as much beauty and sensuality as Isaiah’s work, while the unabashedly personal nature of the filmmaker-subject dynamic is as candid about familial madness as Tarnation, and captures more insight than those Friedmans did." -Seattle Weekly
Know Your Mushrooms
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM, Mushroom, Inc., Puget Sound Mycological Society, and the Daniel E. Stuntz Memorial Foundation
Jun 13 - Jun 18, 2009
(Ron Mann, Canada, 2007, 35mm, 73 min)
The movie follows visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the mushroom community) as they lead us on a hunt for wild mushrooms and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.
"Just plain fun...[A] delightful exploration of well-chosen subject matter that's more richly fascinating than you might first expect" -Seattle Times
Bachianas No. 5
Plays before Know Your Mushrooms
Jun 13 - Jun 18, 2009
(Curtis Taylor, USA, 2007, 7 min)
In a Tacoma strip club, three women dream of an ideal place for love. Framed within the opera Bachianas Brasileiras (movement No. 5)