MAY 15, Thursday at 8pm

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

GEORGES MELIES: IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGER

Join us for a special celebration of the father of special effects, Georges Melies, featuring his greatest epics from the early 1900s. A stage magician turned filmmaker, Melies produced more than five hundred whimsical "trick films," crafting tales of the fantastic that pushing nearly every technical boundary of the time. His spectacular images remain some of the most iconic in film history, and continue to instill wonder and delight a century later. This special presentation includes rare tinted and hand-colored film prints accompanied by non-traditional musical selections including world music, avant-garde jazz and early electronic music. The film THE IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGE (1904) will include a rare live performance of Melies' original narration combined with an audio collage of period 78-RPM records (compiled by Robert Millis and Jeffrey Taylor of Climax Golden Twins) played live on real Victrolas. Co-presented by The Sprocket Society and NWFF.

Read more about this event and the evening's presenters

MAY 16 - 22, Friday-Thursday at 7, 9:15pm (plus Sat and Sun at 4:30pm)

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF GUMMO AND JULIEN DONKEY BOY

MISTER LONELY

(Harmony Korine, USA/France, 2007, 35mm, 112 min)

Werner Herzog, Michael Jackson, Samantha Morton, Marilyn Monroe, Abe Lincoln, Shirley Temple, and Charlie Chaplin come together in Panama and Paris for MISTER LONELY, the latest feature by wunderkind American director Harmony Korine. The titular Mister Lonely is a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who ekes out a living in Paris. He bumps into Marilyn Monroe (Morton) who brings him to a castle in Scotland where she lives in an impersonator community that includes her husband, Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant) and various others. It’s a wild world, and Harmony Korine is its playful mischievous master.

More on Harmony Korine

See the trailer

"Like (Carlos) Reygadas, Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely could be considered the first self-consciously mature work by a onetime enfant terrible." -Dennis Lim

MAY 16 - 22, Friday-Thursday at 7, 9pm (no 7pm on Tuesday, May 20)

Northwest Film Forum and Artist Trust present

ALICE NEEL

(Andrew Neel, USA, 2007, 35mm, 82 minutes)

Portrait painter Alice Neel (1900-1984) beautifully, and often hauntingly, captured the image and spirit of each of her hundreds of subjects over six decades. When the theatrics of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art consumed the art world, Neel's figurative humanism was so unfashionable that she lived on welfare and was marginalized until the 1970s, when the counterculture embraced her and major museums began showing her work. Her grandson, filmmaker Andrew Neel, directs this unique documentary portrait of the artist that both celebrates her determination and explores the effects of her choices and sacrifices. The film traces Alice Neel’s tumultuous biography, as well as delving into the conflicts that her children (the filmmaker’s father, uncle and aunt) still struggle with. By turns fascinating, uncomfortable and inspirational, ALICE NEEL is a thought provoking, personal journey.

www.aliceneelfilm.com

"The fascinating documentary Alice Neel illuminates history while also demonstrating how an artist’s style reveals his or her personality." - New York Times


Tickets $5/NWFF and Artist Trust members, $6/children and seniors, $8.50/general

MAY 17, Saturday at 1 pm

RECENT ADDITION!

LE GRAND VOYAGE

(Ismaël Ferroukhi, 2004, DVD, 118min)

Introduction to film by Dr. Selim Kuru, Turkish Studies, University of Washington

A few weeks before his high school final exam, Réda, a young man who lives in the south of France, is chosen to drive his aging father to Mecca for the traditional pilgrimage. From the start, the journey promises to be difficult, as Réda and his father have nothing in common. They are separated by culture, language and religion. Réda is a modern young man who does not speak Arabic and cares little about his father's deep sense of religion. Through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Réda and his father interact minimally and the grandiose settings and often-desolate landscapes reflect this uneasiness. As their journey progresses, their adventures and misadventures bring father and son closer, forcing mutual recognition and reconciliation. In Mecca, where the filmmaker received rare permission to shoot, Réda's father disappears in the crowd of pilgrims, never to return. In this road-movie, Ismaël Ferroukhi handles cultural and generational differences with skill. In the director's efforts to "stop the clichés that are carried around about a community that is deeply pacifist and peaceful." the film challenges preconceived ideas about Islam.

LE GRAND VOYAGE screens as part of the University of Washington's French and Francophone Film Festival  More info can be found at http://staff.washington.edu/stromj/festival/

MAY 20, Tuesday at 7pm

ANTHEM FILM CHALLENGE

This quarter we screened Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short film ANTHEM (April 15, 16, 22, 23), created as a nostalgic tribute to a tradition in Thailand in which a Royal Anthem honoring the King is played before all movies and is therefore an integral part of the experience of going to the cinema. This quarter’s film challenge charged Seattle filmmakers with creating their own unique anthem films, using the Star Spangled Banner or ANY anthem as a basis. For further incentive to filmmakers, tonight's audience will determine the best film and the winning film will be screened before all future film challenges as a sort of Film Challenge Anthem.

Click here for entry rules!

May 23 - May 29

Seattle International Film Festival Group and Northwest Film Forum present:

ALTERNATE CINEMA

Your typical movie aims to engage your emotions through storytelling in such a way that the filmmaking becomes invisible. Alternate Cinema is different. Incorporating experimental and avant-garde elements, these films engage you on an intellectual as well as emotional level; often by making you aware that you’re watching a film. Czech director Ivo Trajkov achieves this effect by making his 8mm feature MOVIE, OR AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF AUTEUR FULM MAKING both a road movie and an independent filmmaker's manual of advice. Other filmmakers hold their shots for long periods of time, shifting your attention from story to shot composition and encouraging you to examine motion pictures as though they were paintings, as in MILKY WAY or CASTING A GLANCE. Because themes and stories aren't spoon-fed, audiences must work to decipher a thru-line, such as the colonial self-criticism found in EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY or the city symphony of human foibles that is YOU, THE LIVING. Then there's the alternate documentaries like Marie Losier's unconventional short films about experimental artists, Hartmut Bitomsky's philosophical essay about life, death, and tiny particles, DUST, and Alina Marazzi's exquisitely edited archival films for the post-feminist WE WANT ROSES TOO. Heinz Emigholz's chronological look at modernist buildings of Adolf Loos, is given without commentary and the architecture itself becomes autobiography, in LOOS ORNAMENTAL. This year we have all this and shorts, too! We invite all adventurous filmgoers to take a look at the movies that exist in the realm of Alternate Cinema.

MAY 30 - JUNE 5, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9pm (plus Sat & Sun at 5pm, no Friday 9pm screening)

PRÊT-À-FILMER: A WEEK OF FASHION FILMS
OPENING NIGHT PARTY AFTER FRIDAY'S SCREENING!

LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL

Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema

(Rodolphe Marconi, France, 2007, 35mm, 89 min)

Karl Lagerfeld – arguably one of the most influential fashion designers of the last half-century – takes center stage for this portrait of a fashion icon. Two years in the making, and created from over 200 hours of digital and Super 8 footage, Rodolphe Marconi takes us behind the distinctive black sunglasses into the world of one of the most powerful figures in the fashion business. Footage of Lagerfeld’s daily working routine – sketching dress designs, preparing catwalk shows, photographing models – is interspersed with candid interviews with the man himself. Lagerfeld recalls his youth and his rise to fame, which would eventually see him take the helm as head designer at Chanel. Shot over two years, and studded with appearances from the likes of Nicole Kidman, Anna Wintour and Baz Luhrmann, LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL delivers a startling look at how unthinkable luxury can coexist with unbelievable isolation. In French with English subtitles.

PRÊT-À-FILMER series pass $15/NWFF members, $25/general

"Flashy, dazzling... It exerts an undeniable fascination that suggests a tantalizing synthesis of LET’S GET LOST and UNZIPPED." -Patrick Z. McGavin, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

"Diverting... Lagerfeld turns out to be an extraordinarily clever and monstrously interesting character." -Lisa Mullen, SIGHT & SOUND

OPENING NIGHT FASHION CELEBRATION

Join us after the Friday 7pm screening of LAGERFELD for an evening of food, drinks, and music provided by DJ Chrispo and dancing from the lovely ladies of Tangerine Tonic.

MAY 31 - JUNE 1, Saturday - Sunday at 7:30pm

PRÊT-À-FILMER: A WEEK OF FASHION FILMS

YVES SAINT LAURENT - 5 AVENUE MARCEAU 75116 PARIS

Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema

(David Teboul, 2002, 85 min)

In November 2001, the doors of 5 Avenue Marceau were opened for the first time to reveal a secret place: Yves Saint Laurent's couture house. The director, David Teboul, spent over three months within the walls of this building with total freedom to move about and shoot his film. In a world of mirrors, where agitation is handled with kid gloves and filled with punctilious coddling, 5 AVENUE MARCEAU 75116 PARIS is a serious meeting with the legendary designer at close quarters, in his place of work, from the original sketch to the final garment. The film is a study of the loneliness, obsession, and eccentricity that accompany the designer as well as of the disappointment and happiness he gains from his work.

PRÊT-À-FILMER series pass $15/NWFF members, $25/general

MAY 31 - JUNE 1, Saturday - Sunday at 9:15pm

PRÊT-À-FILMER: A WEEK OF FASHION FILMS

YVES SAINT LAURENT - HIS LIFE AND TIMES

Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema

(David Teboul, 2002, 77 min)

A man of culture and a consummate artist, Yves Saint-Laurent has been one of the most influential designers of the past forty years. His innovations, such as the pantsuit for women, have revolutionized fashion. This documentary traces his career, from his happy youth in colonial Algeria to his most recent collections. At age seventeen, Yves Saint-Laurent started his career at Christian Dior’s couture house where he quickly became the designer’s protégé and heir. He became the darling of the wealthy elite, although he strived to “liberate fashion” and make it more accessible. In this piece, the designer speaks freely and candidly about his private and professional life, recollecting important moments and difficult times. Interviews of his close friends and collaborators (including Pierre Bergé and Loulou de la Falaise) shed light on Yves Saint-Laurent’s personality. Using a rich array of photos and fashion footage, David Teboul paints a moving portrait of Yves Saint-Laurent.

PRÊT-À-FILMER series pass $15/NWFF members, $25/general

JUNE 2 – 4, Monday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9pm

PRÊT-À-FILMER: A WEEK OF FASHION FILMS

MARC JACOBS & LOUIS VUITTON

Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema

(Loïc Prigent, France, 2007, 75 min)

Bringing the same intimate insight into the fashion world as his previous acclaimed documentary series SIGNE CHANEL, filmmaker Loïc Prigent focuses on Marc Jacobs, called the most influential designer of his generation. This witty and colorful portrait follows Jacobs as he balances roles as artistic director of venerable French house Louis Vuitton and his own eponymous American line, in meetings, preparing collections and at high-profile shows. With Naomi Campbell, Sophia Coppola and Uma Thurman.

PRÊT-À-FILMER series pass $15/NWFF members, $25/general

JUNE 5, Thursday at 8pm

PRÊT-À-FILMER: A WEEK OF FASHION FILMS

SEARCH AND RESCUE: EPHEMERAL FASHIONS

Sponsored by Three Dollar Bill Cinema

Our ongoing exploration of 16mm cinematic detritus celebrates the secret life of clothes and those who love them. Clothes and cloth, when filmed independent of the body parts that normally give them meaning, are revealed as estranged, dreamlike, playful and elusive—making them potent symbols of fascination, desire, emotion and sensual pleasure.

PRÊT-À-FILMER series pass $15/NWFF members, $25/general

JUNE 8 - 12, Sunday - Thursday at 7, 9:30pm

RESPECT YOURSELF: THE STAX RECORDS STORY

Sponsored by Easy Street Records
(Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon, 2007, USA, BETA, 115 min)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stax Records, Morgan Neville (THE COOL SCHOOL) and Robert Gordon (MUDDY WATERS: CAN'T BE SATISFIED) made a chronicle of the rise of the Memphis soul label that changed the world. RESPECT YOURSELF is jammed with amazing archival rarities, live performances, forgotten TV appearances, home movies, news footage and lost recordings of all the legendary Stax artists -- from Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes to Booker T & the MG's, Sam & Dave and The Staples Singers. Their definitive film is also a story of the civil rights movement and how the music created at Stax mirrored the glories and pains of that struggle.

JUNE 8 - 12, Sunday - Thursday at 7:30, 9:30pm

35th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING

WATTSTAX

Sponsored by Easy Street Records
(Mel Stuart, USA, 1973, 35mm, 98 min)

A legendary concert film, WATTSTAX documents the Woodstock of black America. The Stax label, along with Tamala Motown, was one of the greats of American soul, funk and R&B recording. With a lineup that included such greats as Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the MGs, the Emotions and many more, the Stax label oozes cool. WATTSTAX represents both a fantastic timepiece and a prophetic look into the future. Held in 1972 to commemorate the 1965 Watts riots, the concert "drew an overwhelmingly African-American crowd of 100,000 and turned into a memorable black-pride event," according to the BALTIMORE CITY PAPER. Director Mel Stuart not only focuses on the big names on the Coliseum's stage but also takes his camera out into the community, watching and listening to Watts residents talk about everyday life in the inner city.

JUNE 13-15, Friday - Sunday at 7, 9:15pm

SPECIAL ENCORE PRESENTATION!

ZIDANE, A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM, Easy Street Records, and Cafe Presse
(Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, France / Iceland, 2006, 35mm, 92 min)

After turning scores of people away during our screenings in April, we’re pleased to bring this stunning portrait of one of the greatest players in the history of soccer, Zinédine Zidane, back to NWFF! Seventeen synchronized cameras were used, each focusing on Zidane in real time, from the first kick of the ball to the moment he was ejected from the game. The match, between Real Madrid (Zidane's team) and Villarreal, was played on April 23, 2005 and was witnessed by eighty thousand screaming fans. Zidane himself recounts, in voice-over, what he can and cannot remember from his matches. Magnificently edited and accompanied by a majestic score from Scottish rock heroes Mogwai, this is perhaps the best sports films ever made, but also one of the finest studies of man in his element, an ode to the loneliness of the athlete and the poise and resilience of the human body.

JUNE 13 - 19, Friday - Thursday at 7:15, 9:15pm (plus Sat & Sun at 5:15pm)

THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS

(Bruce McDonald, Canada, 2007, 35mm, 80 min)

JUNO’s Ellen Page stars in Bruce McDonald's (DANCE ME OUTSIDE, ROADKILL, HIGHWAY 61) latest feature. This is a rattling, in-your-face trip through the hell of puberty as experienced by troubled Tracey Berkowitz. Based on Maureen Medved's eponymous novel, THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS follows the protagonist through the big, dark city, where she encounters dangers at every turn. The camerawork – non-linear chronology, jarring camera editing and the use of split-screens - renders cinematically what's at stake psychologically, as Tracey alternates truth with lies, hope with despair. The most daring and disarming turn, however, is the talented Ellen Page as Tracey – playing a "normal" girl indulging sweet romantic fantasies, while suffering paranoid visions and harboring an urgent need to be forgiven.

www.thetraceyfragments.com

JUNE 15, Sunday at 2pm

SEATTLE PREMIERE!
Filmmaker Antero Alli In Person
Vertical Pool Productions presents

THE INVISIBLE FOREST

(Antero Alli, USA, 2008, DVD, 111 min)

Berkeley underground filmmaker Antero Alli's "The Invisible Forest" follows a sleep-deprived theatre director who undergoes hypnotic regression to stop a reoccurring nightmare that began in the forest where his troupe attempted to enact Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods and spirits. Inspired by the radical visions of the French Surrealist playwright, Alli also borrows from Rimbaud's poetics for the "deliberate disorientation of the senses" to achieve a series of altered states. In the director's own words, "if cinema was a drug, some movies act on us like tranquilizers and others jack us up like triple espressos. I see The Invisible Forest as a 100% organic, user-friendly hallucinogen".

Tickets on sale at the door!


THE INVISIBLE FOREST is a special rental of NWFF's cinemas. Please visit www.verticalpool.com for more information.

JUNE 20 - 26, Friday - Thursday at 7, 8:15, 9:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 4, 5:30pm)

JOIN US FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH LOCAL JAPANESE-AMERICANS OPENING NIGHT

PASSING POSTON

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
(Joe Fox and James Nubile, USA, 2007, BETA-SP, 60 min)

For the over 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly interned during World War II, the scars from this traumatic time have not fully healed. PASSING POSTON tells the moving and haunting story of four former internees of the Poston Relocation Center. Each person is shadowed by a tragic past, and each struggles in their own painful way to reconcile the trauma of their youth and find their rightful place in this country. In the wake of this painful past Ruth Okimoto returns to the desert of Arizona (on the grounds of the future Colorado River Indian Reservation), where she spent her childhood years behind barbed wire.

www.passingposton.com

JUNE 21 - 22, Saturday - Sunday at 4, 6pm

LOCAL FILMMAKER!

RABBIT IN THE MOON

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
(Emiko Omori, USA, 1999, 85 min)

RABBIT IN THE MOON uncovers a buried history of internment camps built by the US government for Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the West coast. This new history includes political tensions, social and generational division and the dialectic between resistance and collaboration. Emiko Omori and her older sister, Seattle filmmaker and film critic Chizuko Omori, use archival and recently recovered home movies to confront their own family secrets. They were children when they went to one of the internment camps. Their mother died only a year after the family's release, but silence has surrounded that event. They correspondingly confront the collective quiet among Japanese American about the social antagonisms and insecurities that were born in the camps and still haunt their community life 64 years later.

JUNE 24 - 25, Tuesday - Wednesday at 6:30, 9pm

FAMILY FRAMES PRESENTS
DREAM SCREEN: THREE BY MIYAZAKI

NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

Sponsored by Izilla Toys
(Hayao Miyazaki, 1984, 35mm, 116 min)

This is the masterpiece that gave birth to the famous Studio Ghibli. Set in the post-apocalyptic distant future, in the isolated mythical seaside kingdom of the Valley of the Wind, this film features Miyazaki touchstones such as flying imagery, strong female characters and stunning retooling of Japanese folklore. The story is unforgettable and inspiring: the brave and compassionate Princes Nausicaa must lead her people in an epic struggle to save the world, working against all odds to repair the rift between humanity and nature. This Disney version features voice actors Uma Thurman and Patrick Stewart.

JUNE 27 - JULY 3 Friday - Thursday at 7, 9:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 4:30pm)

FROWNLAND

(Ronald Bronstein, USA, 2007, 35mm, 106 min)

In an alternate universe, FROWNLAND might be Lodge Kerrigan’s NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE. A self-described "troll from under the bridge," the painfully awkward Keith Sontag spends his days selling coupons door-to-door and his evenings trapped in a squalid apartment situated in an outer ring of New York City. Finding even the most basic human communication a challenge, Sontag staggers through an uncaring city, attempting to aid a suicidal friend, evict an unctuous roommate and simply attain some measure of self-respect. With FROWNLAND, Bronstein has made a bold and bracing film that is both a savage black comedy and a ragged love letter to an earlier era of independent film. Both the film and its hero are raw, confrontational and unforgettable.

www.frownlandinc.com

JULY 1 - 2, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:15, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

THE LANDLORD

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1970, 35mm, 112 min)

A devastating satire, THE LANDLORD is Ashby’s outrageous debut, a film that still feels daring, both stylistically and politically. Beau Bridges buys a row house in a New York City ghetto, planning to remodel the home once he has evicted its tenants - but finds all of his preconceptions tested once his and their lives are intertwined.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

JULY 4 - 10, Friday- Thursday at 7, 9pm

THE GITS

Sponsored by Easy Street Records
(Kerri O'Kane, 2007, Digi-BETA, 80 min)

In a pre-Nirvana Seattle, The Gits were the resident musical underdogs. With the unparalleled vocal power of front woman Mia Zapata they set the bar for indie rock in the Pacific Northwest. After inspiring such incendiary bands as Seven Year Bitch to pick up their instruments, they caught the ear of major record label execs who heard the muscular riffs and soulful hooks and realized what fans already knew – The Gits were anything but your typical street punk outfit. Because of this, the tragedy that struck in 1993 was that much harder to swallow.

With intimate live footage and interviews with the surviving members, director Kerri O’Kane explores the mystique and digs into the mystery of one of the rock world’s most enigmatic bands. One part The Filth and The Fury, one part CSI: Seattle, THE GITS is a rock doc as engaging and powerful as the music that inspired it.

www.thegits.com

JULY 7, Monday at 8pm

THIRD EYE CINEMA AND NWFF GREEN SCREEN PRESENT

PROFIT MOTIVE AND THE WHISPERING WIND

(John Gianvito, USA, 2007, Digi-BETA, 58 min)

A calm, beautiful and wordless testament to fallen rebels and radicals in American history, from colonial times to the present. The film consists of elegantly composed images of gravesites and public shrines. A monument to monuments and a call to arms, PROFIT MOTIVE visits the resting places of such figures as Malcolm X, Mother Jones, Cesar Chavez and Eugene V. Debs. Winner, Best Experimental Film, 2007, National Society Film Critics.

More on Director Gianvito and PROFIT MOTIVE

PERFECT FILM

(Ken Jacobs, USA, 1986, 16mm, 22 min)
An experimental work structured around outtakes from TV news footage after the assassination of Malcolm X.

JULY 8 - 9, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

HAROLD AND MAUDE

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1971, 35mm, 91 min)

Harold is 20 years old, rich, obsessed with death and reigned over by a dominant mother whom he tries in vain to prompt towards some show of emotion through his attempts at suicide. He has no interest in girls his age. Free-spirited Maude is 79, obsessed with crazy ideas and is glad to be in the world despite knowing that nothing and no one lasts forever. They both share a curious passion for visiting funerals for the therapeutic value, and it is at one such funeral that they first meet and forge a peculiar romantic relationship, united in their desire to rebel against conventional superstitions of youth, age, death and sex. Hal Ashby’s black comedy is a provocative and unsentimental love story that not only outraged conservative moviegoers at the beginning of the 1970s but rebellious youth as well. The film took on radical positions with humor and an original concept of the world, defying all norms and ideologies. That, coupled with a wall-to-wall Cat Stevens soundtrack, makes this cult classic a sublime experience.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

JULY 10, Thursday at 8pm

THE INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY CHALLENGE SEATTLE SHOWCASE

The International Documentary Challenge is a filmmaking competition where teams from around the world have just 5 days to make a short documentary film. This past March, 122 filmmakers from 16 countries participated, with the finalists premiering at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. They were assigned a documentary genre (character study, music, social issue, etc.) along with the theme of "Change." This showcase includes the Seattle-area produced films (two of which were winners) presented with several of the international standouts. The Doc Challenge is produced by Doug Whyte of KDHX Community Media and sponsored by Hot Docs, P.O.V., SILVERDOCS, The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the International Documentary Association, the 48 Hour Film Project and Film Action Oregon.

Two Seattle filmmaker were prizewinners at the Doc Challenge at Hot Docs! One of the films, ARS MAGNA (about an anagramist) won the POV Award and is getting a national broadcast on POV in July. Another film, CLICK WHOOSH (about the demise of the Polaroid camera) won Best Film.

JULY 11 - 17, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 2, 4:30)

NEW 35MM PRINT!

MONSIEUR VERDOUX

(Charles Chaplin, USA, 1947, 35mm, 123 min)

Anyone who accuses Charlie Chaplin of too much sentimentality clearly hasn't seen MONSIEUR VERDOUX, arguably the crown jewel in the Chaplin canon. Years ahead of its time, this "comedy of murders" is Chaplin’s most audacious and atypical film and remains one of his most underappreciated. James Agee took three columns to write about it, even though it had already left theaters by the time the third column was published. Jonathan Rosenbaum named it "one of the greatest American films of all time" and railed when the AFI left it off their "Greatest Comedies" ballot. Luminaries such as critic Lotte Eisner and filmmakers Federico Fellini, Jacques Rivette and Luchino Visconti have named it one of the ten best films of all time. Orson Welles had wanted to write the script and direct Chaplin in the film, but Chaplin decided that it was too late for him to start acting for other directors. He did his own version, crediting Welles with the "story suggestion." Chaplin plays Henri Verdoux, a bigamist and serial killer who makes his living by marrying and murdering rich widows under assumed names. Chaplin softened the character and made him palatable to audiences by making him a lifelong bank worker who was laid off in middle age, too late to start over.

JULY 12, Saturday at 7pm

LIVE PERFORMANCE!

THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH

The world-renowned Kids of Widney High are a group of young adults with developmental disabilities who write, record and perform their own unique brand of rock music. They have been compared to Daniel Johnston and Wesley Willis. For the first time in their illustrious underground career, the Kids are embarking on a full-fledged multimedia tour up the West Coast in which they will be showcasing their artistic endeavors, which include short films that evoke the "gaze" avant-garde aesthetic of Stan Brakhage, Harry Smith and Jonas Mekas. The Kids will be performing after the screening for all audience members who wish to stay and boogie.

www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com

JULY 15 - 16, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

THE LAST DETAIL

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1973, 35mm, 103 min)

Screenwriter Robert Towne's adaptation of Darryl Ponicsan's novel accurately catches the flavor of peacetime military life. Randy Quaid is cast as a teenage misfit whose bungled swindle of charity money has landed him in prison. Jack Nicholson and Otis Young, awaiting new assignments at a military receiving station, draw escort duty. With several days of transit time allowed, Nicholson decides to set a leisurely pace. The essence of the story is the exchange of compassion between the guards and prisoner, and the latter's effect on his escorts.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

JULY 17, Thursday at 8pm

DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE!
THIRD EYE CINEMA PRESENTS

THE PERFECT SHOW: The Films Of Karl Krogstad

"THE PERFECT SHOW is Karl Krogstad’s example of the most direct and unconventional expression possible — and it’s darned close to perfect! The program includes five new short films plus a lot of 'fillers.' The fillers aren’t really films, but the songs of birds. And when these birds sing you can almost smell the tail feathers. The show lasts about one hour and is like a feather that actually falls like a coin, to land on its edge. They are strange." –Karl Krogstad

www.karlkrogstad.com

JULY 18-19, Friday - Saturday at 7, 9:15pm

A SLICE OF BLOOD AND HONEY:
Experimental Cinema From Macedonia

Against the struggles of economic hardship and bitter Balkan politics, Macedonia has a flourishing youth culture. NWFF Studio Director, Dave Hanagan, visited its capital, Skopje, this spring to meet filmmakers and bring back examples of their work as part of a CEC ArtsLink grant—supporting cultural exchanges between the US and Eastern Europe. Among these four programs are short films, video art and feature-length documentaries, including GHETTO 103, a documentary about Skopje’s underground radio station as it saved from being taken off the air by party-loving protestors, HUMAN NAILING, a Svankmayer inspired animation featuring a clay homunculus pursued by nails, and FIFTEEN SECONDS, a sci-fi short about a woman’s attempt to escape from a hospital’s menacing staff.

Macedonia is going through a unique period as it shrugs off the stifling socialist patriarchy to become a modern, cosmopolitan nation. Consciously and unconsciously, Macedonia’s emerging artists capture both the nation’s sense of curiosity and paranoia. Dave will be on-hand to present the films and discuss the significance of these artists and their emerging culture.

This program is supported by a grant from CEC ArtsLink.

JULY 18 - 24, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 2, 4:30)

GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN 12 PARTS

(Scott Hicks, Australia, 2007, 35mm, 112 min)

Philip Glass's achievements in music - film scores, operas, symphonies - make him one of the most important composers of our era, crossing divides between elitist concert halls and popular venues. His minimalist compositions are so iconic that he has been featured as a character on THE SIMPSONS. Director Scott Hicks (SHINE, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS) gains access to confidants and situations that the average documentarian could never obtain. The film traces an eventful year in Glass' life, as he stages the opera WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS, writes his eighth symphony, scores several films, travels the world and maintains a family with his fourth wife, Holly. Throughout the ups and downs, Glass maintains a Zen approach: "You don't like my music? Listen to something else."

www.glassthemovie.com

JULY 20, Sunday starting at 4pm

SEATTLE BIKE-IN
At Cal Anderson Park - Free!

Northwest Film forum teams up with Sustainable Capitol Hill to bring you this year's Seattle's Bike-In. Entering its third year of supporting alternative transportation in the city, this year's partnership includes an all day event called Imagine Capitol Hill, where Sustainable Capitol Hill and its partners provide information and entertainment about sustainable issues facing Capitol Hill residents. Imagine Capitol Hill takes place at the Broadway Farmers market and is followed by a bicycle parade to Cal Anderson Park for music and movies!

JULY 22 - 23, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9pm

FAMILY FRAMES PRESENTS
DREAM SCREEN: THREE BY MIYAZAKI

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

Sponsored by Izilla Toys
(Hayao Miyazaki, 1988, 35mm, 86 min)

One of the most beloved family films of all time, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is a meticulous and utterly awe-inspiring film, filled with the kind of gentle magic that can only be seen through the eyes of a child. Two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, exploring their new home in the countryside, discover a mysterious, lovable and all-powerful forest spirit called Totoro, who shows them the secrets of the natural world and leads them on an incredible journey.

"How can I describe its inexplicable power? It is like how childhood memories feel, if you had a happy childhood — wide-eyed and blissful, matter-of-factly magical and entrancingly prosaic." -Steven D. Greydanus, DECENT FILMS GUIDE

JULY 25 - 26, Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 9:15pm

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
NOT AVAILABLE ON VIDEO!

THE WARPED ONES

(Koreyoshi Kurahara, Japan, 1960, 35mm, 75 min)

THE WARPED ONES (aka SEASON OF HEAT and THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS) is visually raw and stunning. Released not long after Godard’s BREATHLESS, THE WARPED ONES has similarly amoral characters, frenetic pace and dynamic hand-held cinematography. But Kurahara’s vision is more extreme, to the point of existing in a world of its own. The protagonist transcends the usual social and moral categories, like an animal in human form. (Kurahara reportedly told the actor Kawachi to think of his character as a "hungry lion roaring at the sun.") A fascinating experiment in style (not to mention the limits of human behavior), Kawachi's famously uninhibited performance catapults the film into the highest ranks of "bad youth" cinema, and perfectly captures the essence of Beat. A stylistic and amoral high point of early 60s cinema, THE WARPED ONES was actually released in dubbed form in the US by Radley Metzger's Audubon Films as THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS.

NIKKATSU ACTION series pass $15/NWFF members, $20/general

JULY 25 - 26, Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 7pm

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA

GLASS JOHNNY

(Koreyoshi Kurahara, Japan, 1962, 35mm, 108 min)

Inspired by Federico Fellini’s LA STRADA, and a sharp departure from the Nikkatsu Action norm, GLASS JOHNNY stars Jo Shishido as a bike track manager whose mission in life is to make a winner out of a struggling rider (Akihiko Hirata) and become rich. Before he can achieve this, he becomes the unwilling savior of a pure-hearted, simple-minded prostitute (Izumi Ashikawa) on the run from her pimp. Prior to GLASS JOHNNY, Ashikawa’s portrayals of cute-but-spunky girls had won her a devoted male following--animator Hayao Miyazaki even later used her as a model for his anime heroines. In this film, however, she moves brazenly from childhood to womanhood, while following Giulietta Masina’s journey in LA STRADA from victimhood to transcendence.

GLASS JOHNNY trailer

NIKKATSU ACTION series pass $15/NWFF members, $20/general

JULY 25 - 31, Friday - Thursday at 7:15, 9:15pm (plus Sat & Sun at 5:15pm)

OPERATION FILMMAKER

(Nina Davenport, USA, 2007, Digi-BETA, 92 min)

Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stood in the rubble of the city’s film school and explained to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a film maker had been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changed Muthana’s life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stopped channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decided to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. But getting coffee and making copies is not Mohmed’s idea of learning how to direct. And that's only the beginning of the culture clash. With his home in flames, Mohmed has nowhere to go. But how long can Schreiber and his team support a young man who they will eventually have to leave?

Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in this situation and the young Iraqi’s life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms. OPERATION FILMMAKER, revealing on several levels, addresses the power dynamics between the American filmmaker and her Iraqi subject, unfolding as an engaging parable about the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

OPERATION FILMMAKER trailer

JULY 27 - 28, Sunday at 7pm, Monday at 9pm

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
NOT AVAILABLE ON VIDEO!

VELVET HUSTLER

(Toshio Masuda, Japan, 1967, 35mm, 97 min)

VELVET HUSTLER stars Tetsuya Watari as Goro, a Tokyo hitman who likes his women like he likes his cars: fast and dangerous. After rubbing out a rival gang boss, he leaps into a conveniently parked red convertible and hotfoots it to the other side of Japan. After a year of lying low, he has wound up the kingpin of the Kobe underground, hanging out in smoky lounge bars, while avoiding both a suspicious police detective and the mysterious hitman sent to kill him. But Goro pines to leave vulgar Kobe to return to the sophisticated big city, perhaps with the striking Keiko (Ruriko Asaoka) by his side.

NIKKATSU ACTION series pass $15/NWFF members, $20/general

JULY 27 – 28, Sunday at 9pm, Monday at 7pm

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA
NOT AVAILABLE ON VIDEO!

A COLT IS MY PASSPORT

(Takashi Nomura, Japan, 1967, 35mm, 84 min)

In Takashi Nomura's noir thriller, Japanese tough guy actor Jo Shishido plays a hit man hired by a gang to eliminate a rival boss. The ensuing story includes a sidekick, narrow escapes, and numerous deadly complications. The final showdown, staged on a deserted beach at dawn, is as impressive as anything of the era in this neglected masterpiece.

NIKKATSU ACTION series pass $15/NWFF members, $20/general

JULY 29 - 30, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

SHAMPOO

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1975, 35mm, 109 min)

This classic mid-seventies comedy is a harsh and funny time capsule stuffed full of great performances. An elegy to the wasted potential of America’s cultural revolution, SHAMPOO unfolds over the course of one 24-hour period in 1968 when Nixon was elected to office. Warren Beatty excels as an amorous hairdresser sleeping with every woman in sight, from the wife (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner, Lee Grant) of his business advisor Jack Warden (THE VERDICT, BEING THERE) to Warden’s mistress (Julie Christie) and teenage daughter (Carrie Fisher in her first role). Screenwriters Beatty and Robert Towne provided the brave and challenging Oscar-nominated script that has stood the test of time. SHAMPOO features a great soundtrack by Paul Simon, welcome use of incidental music (including tunes by The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix) and fine camera work by Laszlo Kovacs.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

JULY 31, Thursday at 8pm

SOUL NITE

Presented by Northwest Film Forum and Emerald City Soul Club
Sponsored by Cafe Racer

Don't miss our quarterly celebration of great 60s and 70s soul music, featuring vintage performance footage on the big screen and djs and drinks in the cinema. Dancing in the aisles is encouraged!

AUGUST 1 - 3, Friday- Sunday at 7, 9:15pm, (plus Sat & Sun at 4:30pm)

THE TRANSITIONAL ORSON WELLES: LATE WORKS AND ADAPTATIONS

THE TRIAL

Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
(Orson Welles, France/Italy/Germany/Yugoslavia, 1962, 35mm, 118 min)

In 1962, when the noir style was in decline, Welles agreed to direct a black-and-white adaptation of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL. It wasn’t Welles’s first choice for a Kafka adaptation—he preferred THE CASTLE—but he called the end result “the finest film I have ever made.” The film was so successful in combining the elements of noir and Kafka that it came to define the term "Kafkaesque." Josef K (Anthony Perkins) is arrested for an undisclosed crime by police straight out of a "B" movie. The search for justice, or at least an explanation, leads him past desolate Zagreb apartment blocks to the abandoned Gare d’Orsay, a shifting maze of offices and vast halls inhabited by bureaucrats and the condemned waiting for fate to call their number. Balancing the baroque expressionism of Welles’ visual style are a script and performances—including the squirming Perkins and Welles as the Advocate—that emphasize the affinity between nightmare and comedy.

Orson Welles series passes $10/NWFF members, $15/general

AUGUST 1 - 7, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9pm (plus Sat & Sun at 3, 5pm)

THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH

Co-presented by Henry Art Gallery
(Pere Portabella, Spain, 2007, 35mm, 102 min)

The meaning is in the music, or so the story goes in veteran surrealist filmmaker Pere Portabella’s THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH. Portabella, who in the 1960s produced Luis Buñuel's VIRIDIANA, proves he is still as idiosyncratic and energetic with this film on all things Bach. The title refers to a poem by the Swedish poet Lars Gustafsson, "The Silence of the World Before Bach." In it, the significance of Bach and the position of his music in the history is made clear by the simple reflection that there was once a world without Bach's music. Filled with visually stunning images, this wonderful film is as much music for your eyes as for your ears.

"Beguiling. A work shaped by correlation and metaphor… by beautiful images and fragments of ideas, a work that locates the music in the twitching of a dog’s ears, in the curve of a woman's belly, a child’s song and an adult's reverie. Like the music it celebrates, this is a film made in glory of the world." - Manohla Dargis, NY TIMES

AUGUST 5 - 6, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

BOUND FOR GLORY

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1976, 35mm, 145 min)

Based on the life of Woody Guthrie, BOUND FOR GLORY explores the social, economic and political hardships that molded the legendary folk singer’s beliefs. Beginning with his life in Texas and his terrible experiences in the Southwest Dust Bowl, the film follows Guthrie as he moves to California to begin his radio career. There he discovers the political power of music, which he harnesses by writing and singing his own songs. BOUND FOR GLORY broke new ground as the first feature film in which the Steadicam was used. For his brilliant work, director of photography Haskell Wexler took home an Oscar. The film, which was produced by music promoter Harold Leventhal, was also recognized for its score, which was based on Guthrie's own music.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

AUGUST 7, Thursday at 7:30pm

KARAOKE CHALLENGE

Rise to the challenge and explore one of the last uncharted territories in film – the Karaoke Video! Join us for the third year of this hugely enjoyable program. Create your own work for our ever-expanding NWFF Karaoke Catalog. Expect over-the-top performances, spontaneous sing-a-longs, and a whole mess of surprises in this one of a kind event. For more info email Adam Sekuler at adams@nwfilmforum.org.

Rules: 1). Songs must be no longer than five minutes 2). Acceptable formats are mini-DV, DVD, Beta-SP, or if you're feeling ambitious, Super-8 and 16mm 3). Include title, filmmaker's name and contact info with submission. Send to: Northwest Film Forum, c/o Adam Sekuler, 1515 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. Submissions are due July 31.

AUGUST 8 - 10, Friday - Sunday at 7, 9:15pm (plus Sat & Sun at 4:30pm)

THE TRANSITIONAL ORSON WELLES: LATE WORKS AND ADAPTATIONS
Opening Night Introduction from Seattle Shakespeare Expert Bill Matchett

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
(Orson Welles, 35mm, France/Spain/Switzerland, 1966, 113 min)

This is one of the great Shakespearean adaptations and a true "lost classic." It's also the last masterpiece that Orson Welles directed, and, with CITIZEN KANE, MAGNIFICIENT AMBERSONS and TOUCH OF EVIL comprise the quartet of his major cinematic achievements. The film is an inventive re-editing and condensation of Shakespeare's historical works. Welles assembled scenes from RICHARD II, HENRY IV PARTS I AND 2, HENRY V, and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, along with a commentary taken from the chronicles of the Elizabethan historian Holinshed, to create a wholly new work that might alternatively be titled "The Tragedy of Sir John Falstaff." The film focuses on the character of Jack Falstaff, played by Welles in a virtuoso performance. Falstaff's relationship with young Prince Hal (later Henry V) is explored and parallels Welles' own experience with the young talents of Hollywood.

Orson Welles series passes $10/NWFF members, $15/general

AUGUST 8 - 14, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9pm (plus Sat & Sun at 3, 5pm)

GREEN SCREEN PRESENTS

FULL BATTLE RATTLE

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
(Tony Gerber & Jesse Moss, USA, Digi-BETA, 95 min)

In California's Mojave Desert, the US Army has built a billion dollar, 100 square mile "virtual Iraq." The urban warfare simulation, populated with hundreds of Iraqi role-players, is the last stop for troops before deployment to the war. FULL BATTLE RATTLE follows one Army battalion through the simulation, as they attempt to quell an insurgency and prevent a village from slipping into civil war. Its realistic sets, role players with personas and motivations, laser systems for gun fire, and even a faux news network make the training center the most elaborate and surreal "virtual reality" ever. But the deadly “big game” that awaits these "players" gives it a grave seriousness. Though the movie could have easily became a rant against the U.S. military machine, the filmmakers have allowed their narrative to dictate the film's politics. Capturing the engrossing simulation as well as interviews with role players on all sides, FULL BATTLE RATTLE finds a potent, multi-layered allegory of the Iraq War and the cultural and religious differences that confound America's efforts.

AUGUST 12 - 13, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

COMING HOME

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1978, 35mm, 126 min)

Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Academy Awards for their work in this Vietnam drama. Fonda stars as Sally, the prim and privileged wife of a Marine Captain who leaves for Vietnam. Left at home, Sally volunteers at a local hospital. There, among the many injured soldiers that have returned from the war, she meets Luke (Voight), an acquaintance from her school days. Once a vain jock, Luke has come home a haunted paraplegic. He gains a new lease on life through Sally and the pair grow close, gradually trapping themselves within a tragic love triangle. Unlike THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW, the better known Vietnam movies which were released just months after COMING HOME, this film rejects the epic form so often appropriated for accounts of war. Ashby makes COMING HOME a time capsule of a troubled era, faithfully capturing the fashions, attitudes and tunes of the decade. The film comes with a contemporary rock soundtrack that today would cost a fortune to assemble: cuts from Hendrix, Dylan and The Beatles sit alongside an album's worth of Rolling Stones hits.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

AUGUST 14, Thursday at 7, 9pm

TINTIN ET MOI

Co-presented by Henry Art Gallery
Sponsored by Alliance Francais and Izilla Toys
(Anders Ostergaard, Denmark, 2003, 35mm, 75 min)

NWFF presents this amazing comic documentary, coinciding with the Alliance Francais’ weeklong celebration of French cartoonist David B. As recognizable in Europe as Superman or Mickey Mouse in the U.S., the character of Tintin appeared in print across Europe for more than five decades beginning in 1929. TINTIN ET MOI draws on fourteen hours of interviews conducted in 1971 with Herge, who created the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. The film examines the artist's signature graphic style, as well as the unparalleled popularity of the Tintin character and his fantastic adventures around the world.

AUGUST 15 - 17, Friday- Sunday at 6:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 3:30, 5pm)

THE TRANSITIONAL ORSON WELLES: LATE WORKS AND ADAPTATIONS
NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD

THE IMMORTAL STORY

Sponsored by Scarecrow Video
(Orson Welles, 1968, France, 16mm, 63 min)

In a mansion in Macao at the turn of the last century sits an aged merchant, Mr. Clay (Welles), with no family and nothing to do but contemplate his fortune. Mr. Clay believes in power, not in prophecies, facts, not stories. So he decides to make an oft-repeated seafarers’ fable come true, enlisting an aging beauty (Jeanne Moreau) to play his young bride, and a virginal sailor to enact the plot and later tell the tale. But some stories must remain untold—truth is their undoing. Welles adapts Isak Dinesen’s parable in melancholy tones, draping layers of narration over deep-focus images of ornate chambers and crumbling squares, with music by Erik Satie setting a measured rhythm. “By my brain and by my will, many things come together,” Mr. Clay says, and one could easily read his story as an allegory of moviemaking, his character somewhere in the margins between playing director and playing God.

Orson Welles series passes $10/NWFF members, $15/general

AUGUST 15 - 16, Friday - Saturday at 8pm

DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE!
RECEPTION AFTER FRIDAY SCREENING
THIRD EYE CINEMA PRESENTS

MOCK UP ON MU

(Craig Baldwin, US, 2008, 114 min)

Notorious Bay Area "kino-renegade" Craig Baldwin tops his earlier found-footage operas SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM and SONIC OUTLAWS with this highly anticipated new work, a rapid-fire pulp serial–cum–political take on California’s major industries: the military, entertainment and religion. Hitting upon everything from Satanism to Scientology, the Beats to the jets (propulsion, that is), Baldwin revs up his characteristic stock footage remixes with live-action scenes of his own, adding an over-the-top pulp flair to the proceedings. Arising with demonic force from the detritus of the twentieth century, the film surveys “the repurposing of the popular imagination in postwar California,” according to Baldwin, tracing the “simultaneous rise and convergence of New Age religious cults, the military/aerospace industrial complex and modern-day myths from Disney to certain sci-fi overlords.”

Take a workshop with Craig Baldwin!

AUGUST 18, Monday at 8pm

TUBS FILM CHALLENGE

After our successful Actress(es) Film Challenge, in which we asked local filmmakers to all use the same actresses in their films, we’ve decided to ask what would happen if all of Seattle’s filmmakers used the same location for a film. Enter DK Pan, a former Northwest Film Forum volunteer and local artist, who has taken up residence in the former Tubs building in the U-District. Stripped bare of its sparkling acrylic spas and hydro-therapy jets, the setting is perfect - whether you’re looking to conjure images of its steamy past, or use the barren empty space as an apocalyptic setting for the future. Our only request is that your film be shot in this location and last no longer than 5 minutes! To reserve the space contact Adam Sekuler at adams@nwfilmforum.org. Submissions can be made on DVD, super-8, 16mm, or 35mm and are due to NWFF on August 4.

AUGUST 19 - 20, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9:30pm

HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES

BEING THERE

(Hal Ashby, USA, 1979, 35mm, 130 min)

In 1971, Jerzy Kosinski published the novel BEING THERE. Soon afterwards he received a telegram from its lead character, Chance the Gardener: "Available in my garden or outside of it." A telephone number followed and when Kosinski dialed it Peter Sellers answered. For years afterwards, Sellers would try to get this film made. "That's me!" he would tell people of the Chance character. Finally in 1979, with the clout he had gained from the Pink Panther series, he was able to fulfill his dream. What followed was the culmination of Peter Sellers' career, a masterpiece of double-edged satire on politics and television. But Kosinki's screenplay goes deeper than that. What he and director Hal Ashby expose is a self-serving and self-deceived society. Through the innocence of the Chance character, all the schemes and manipulations of the world are laid bare for what they are: pure folly. For those who hunger for the truths in life, this is a film that will satisfy your appetite.

Hal Ashby series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general

August 21, Thursday at 8pm

FILM SALOON: ADAPTATIONS & REVISIONS

This evening we call attention to film artists who draw from the creative wellspring of those that have come before them. Cinema has a long history of making visual adaptations to novels, plays, comic books, operas, etc. But muses sometimes speak in tongues! Cinema is also strewn with controversial successes and failures as directors re-imagine their source material to challenge traditional fans and engage with new ones by turning familiar material on its ear.

Tonight, we sit down with some of Seattle's own filmmakers who have chosen to make work based in part or in full on someone else's previous work. Some filmmakers attempt to remain faithful to the original text and illustrate by supplying images to the text (or sounds) from the author. Others choose to reinterpret the source material to fit an alternative or more modern perspective of a well-traveled work. This panel discussion will feature a bevy of local film artists, showing clips of their work and discussing the topic, led by our inimitable moderator, Andy Spletzer. Come with your own opinions and decide for yourself if these artists are walking in the footsteps of greats or merely stomping on graves.

AUGUST 22 - 24, Friday - Sunday at 7, 9:15pm

SUMMER OF '68 REVISITED

MEDIUM COOL

(Haskell Wexler, USA, 1969, 35mm, 110 min)

Talk about WILD IN THE STREETS! Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, BOUND FOR GLORY) produced, directed, wrote and shot this very cool, very radical end-of-the-60s artifact, a cinéma vérité-style drama set against — and actually filmed during — the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, where hippies, Yippies and other anti-Vietnam War protestors engaged police in bloody battle on the city streets. Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN, MULHOLLAND DRIVE) plays a detached TV news cameraman who becomes conscious of the political and ethical ramifications of his work when the FBI begins using his footage to identity militants.

“One of the most devastating and technically sophisticated anti-establishment films ever made. Taking its title almost straight from the mouth of media guru Marshall McLuhan…[MEDIUM COOL] remains a landmark of political cinema and an insightful essay on the ‘cool medium.'” -James Monaco, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM

AUGUST 22 - 28, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9pm (plus Sat & Sun at 3:30, 5pm)

GREEN SCREEN PRESENTS

TO THE LIMIT

(Pepe Danquart, Germany/Austria, 2006, 35mm, 95 min)

TO THE LIMIT is a visually breathtaking essay about daredevils hooked on the thrill of speed rock-climbing. World-class mountain climbers Thomas and Alexander Huber share an extraordinary depth of trust that has been forged by shared experiences scaling heights for as long as the brothers can remember. TO THE LIMIT captures their challenges in Patagonia and California, focusing on their attempt at breaking the speed record for climbing “The Nose” of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. The 3,000-foot ascent takes most mortals three days to complete; these guys aim to scamper up in 2 1⁄2 hours. The camera crew delivers epic landscapes and extreme sport climbing action, propelled by rock-solid determination and the exhilaration of reaching for a dream, overcoming fear and performing at the limit.

AUGUST 23 - 24, Saturday - Sunday at 3, 5pm

SUMMER OF '68 REVISITED

SUMMER '68

(Norman Fruchter and John Douglas, 1969, BETA, 60 min)

Fruchter and Douglas craft a compelling document of the events leading up to the volatile 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Focusing specifically on the growth of the radical movement in the U.S., the film presents the struggle for students and activists to find a proper medium for their message.

SUMMER ’68 will screen with a variety of television political announcements, commercials, and news reports from '68, which will help illuminate sentiments present in mass media and American culture at large.

AUGUST 26 - 27, Tuesday - Wednesday at 6:30, 9pm

FAMILY FRAMES PRESENTS
DREAM SCREEN: THREE BY MIYAZAKI

SPIRITED AWAY

Sponsored by Izilla Toys
(Hayao Miyazaki, 2001, 35mm, 124 min)

SPIRITED AWAY, winner of a variety of international awards including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, is Hayao Miyazaki’s best-known work. Drawing heavily on Japanese cultural influences and fairy-tale motifs, as well as children’s literature classics including "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz," this astonishing film tells the tale of a young girl, Chihiro, who is trapped with her parents in a strange world of spirits. Chihiro must summon all her intelligence, strength, courage and compassion to break the spell and return to the world of humans.

"Miyazaki is the Pied Piper – see SPIRITED AWAY and you'll follow him anywhere." -Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE