Calendar
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)
Beggars of Life
Oct 11, 2010
(William A. Wellman, USA, 1928, 100 min)
A year after picking up Hollywood's first Oscar for Wings, legendary director William Wellman turned to this rollicking saga of hobos on the lam. After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl (played here by the magnificent Louise Brooks in what was probably her finest Hollywood feature), tries to escape the country with the handsome but rag tag tramp, played by Wallace Beery.
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.
15th Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Oct 15 - Oct 21
Held annually in October since 1996, The Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has grown into the largest event of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, gaining industry and audience recognition for showcasing the latest and greatest in queer film, from major motion picture premieres to emerging talent. An important venue in the Seattle film scene—and the social event of the season—the festival provides unique opportunities for visiting and local filmmakers to engage and entertain over 10,000 attendees.
Ghost Bird
Director in attendance at the 7pm show!
*Additional tickets just released for pre-sale*
Oct 15, 2010
(Scott Crocker, 2009, USA, DigiBeta, 85 min)
This is the true story of an extinct giant woodpecker, a small town in Arkansas hoping to reverse its misfortunes and the tireless odyssey of bird watchers and scientists searching for the holy grail of birds, the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.
Styx: Kilroy Was Here
Screening introduced by Western Bridge’s Eric Fredrickson
Oct 15, 2010
In 1983, Styx returned to the record charts with Kilroy Was Here, the most ambitious of the band's concept albums, which focused on a renegade leading a rebellion in a totalitarian future by bringing rock and roll to the people. This rock classic is a half-amusing, half-menacing parable of technology, the rock culture and modern demagoguery. In other words its just plain awesome!
Underworld
Oct 18, 2010
(Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1927, 80 min)
Underworld was the film that launched Josef von Sternberg's very successful career. Working for the first time at a major Hollywood studio, Sternberg exploited his mastery at visual texture, conjuring extravagant effects of light and shadow with translucence and opacity, while casting a lustrous and laded halo around Feathers - the moll who is the lynchpin in a cruel love triangle with George Bancroft's mobster heavy and an alcoholic former lawyer.
The Anchorage
Q&A hosted by film critic Jay Kuehner on Saturday
Oct 22 - Oct 28, 2010
(Anders Edström & CW Winter, USA/Sweden, 2009, 35mm, 87 min)
Winner of the Filmmakers of the Present Award at the Locarno Film Festival, The Anchorage begins with an elderly woman about to take an early morning swim in the cold waters off the Stockholm Islands, where she lives alone except for the occasional visit from her daughter. But the sudden appearance of a deer hunter disturbs her peaceful and quiet life.
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.
Vengeance
Oct 22 - Oct 23, 2010
(Johnny To, Hong Kong, 2009, 35mm, 108 min)
This fast-paced thriller offers neo-noir fans and newcomers a genre-busting gem complete with a hit man turned chef, a family man moonlighting as an assassin, and an androgynous detective.
"There hasn’t been a genre film director as versatile and virtuoso as Hong Kong’s Johnnie To since Howard Hawks. [Vengeance is] possibly this year’s most exquisitely directed film." —Seattle Post Globe
Regeneration
Oct 25, 2010
(Raoul Walsh, USA, 1915, 72 min)
Raoul Walsh's Regeneration was the first gangster film ever made, and it also belongs to a period in which the feature-length film was just coming into existence and was still in the process of discovering its own rules. Based on the autobiography of a turn-of-the-century gangster, Walsh gives us a powerful slum melodrama produced on location in the lower east side of New York City, with a gaggle of authentic low-life types performing alongside professional actors.
Howl
Oct 29 - Nov 04, 2010
(Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, USA, 2010, 35mm, 90 min)
The beats are alive and well thanks to a soaring performance by James Franco in Howl, a mesmerizing channeling of Allen Ginsberg, set in 1957 San Francisco as his poetic masterpiece is put on trial.
"Attempts several exciting things all at once, and you remember that biopics don't have to fit some awards-friendly formula. They can actually be ambitious experiments, too." —The Stranger
"Howl...is that rarity: a film that celebrates language. It's a unique blend of documentary, feature and performance art...effective and at times thrilling." —Seattle Times
Ornette: Made In America
Oct 29 - Oct 30, 2010
(Shirley Clark, USA, 1985, 35mm, 80 min)
Shirley Clarke was one of the key figures of the American independent film movement, with the films The Connection (1961) and The Cool World (1963) building her reputation. Both had strong jazz elements, and for her final film Clarke returned to the jazz scene, making this brilliant music documentary featuring the legendary Ornette Coleman, a toweringly innovative yet humble figure.
Ed Thigpen: Master of Time, Rhythm and Taste
Nov 01 - Nov 03, 2010
(Don McGlynn, USA/Denmark, 2009, Beta-SP, 91 min)
Apart from being an incredible musician with a rare feel for music, the drummer Ed Thigpen, who passed away this year, was also a human being with a fascinating personal history. This multifaceted portrait film, tells the story of Thigpen, whose work (on no less than 900 albums) has included collaborations with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald.
"I can imagine no better tribute to Mr. Thigpen than Don McGlynn’s extremely personal documentary that plays more like a friendly visit than a historic document, although it is both." —Seattle Post Globe
Hitchcock Masterpieces
November 23rd class has been postponed due to weather. (Class will now go an extra week to make up the missed date.)
Nov 02 - Dec 14, 2010
As a detailed investigation into one of cinema's landmark directors, this class will look at films from three periods of Hitchcock's remarkable career: The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, which crowned his early British period; Notorious, which culminated his American work of the 1940s; and his astonishing succession of classics from 1956 through 1964, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds.
Do it Again
Nov 04, 2010
(Robert Patton Spruill, USA, 2010, DigiBeta, 90 min)
Every serious music fan has a favorite band—but it’s a very rare fan that single-handedly attempts to reunite that band years after they’ve packed it in. In order to conquer his midlife crisis, the committed pop journalist Geoff Edgers’ dream is to bring back together The Kinks.
Carlos
Seattle premiere!
Nov 05 - Nov 07, 2010
(Olivier Assayas, 2010, France, HD, 333 min)
A daring and amazing biography of a still-living figure, delving into international politics, terrorism, history, religion, sex and much more. Assayas handles all the issues with staggering dexterity, intelligence and skill. The film is nothing short of a must see! Shown in three parts.
"Does for international terrorism what “The Sopranos” did for organized crime." —Seattle Post Globe
"The best biopic I have ever seen...it's one of the highest achievements of one of the greatest directors of our moment. The whole film is a visual feast of bullets, booze, and beautiful bodies." —The Stranger
Nightfall
Nov 05 - Nov 11, 2010
(Jacques Tourneur, USA/France, 1956, 35mm, 78 min)
This 1957 noir masterpiece by Jacques Tourneur stars Aldo Ray as a man fleeing a private investigator and Anne Bancroft as the barroom acquaintance who agrees to help him. Ray plays an artist whose life goes permanently haywire when fate interrupts a winter hunting trip. From then on it’s life on the run, complete with dozens of double-crosses, psychotic killers on his trail, lots of flashbacks, and a young Anne Bancroft decked out in sequins and lace.
"[Columbia Pictures] made some authentically hard-boiled crime pictures on those back lots, of which Nightfall was one of the best." —Seattle PostGlobe
"SW Pick: Worthy of Hitchcock...Aspiring filmmakers should take notes." —Seattle Weekly