Calendar
Hey Bartender
Seattle premiere!
Opening night happy hour at 6pm, in partnership with Small Screen and Barrio!
Jun 14 - Jun 20
(Douglas Tirola, 2013, USA, Blu-ray, 92 min)
Hey Bartender is the story of the rebirth of the bartender and the comeback of the cocktail, as two bartenders reach for their dreams. Featuring the world’s most renowned bartenders and providing access to the most exclusive bars in New York City (on screen). Interviews include Graydon Carter, Danny Meyer and Amy Sacco—but the real stars are the mixologists who make magic in a glass. Special opening night bartending demonstration and happy hour cocktails.
Old Farts and Jackasses
Live music by Jason Staczek and Garth Reeves!
Jun 20
Calling all feisty fogies and savvy whippersnappers: we're presenting a big screen rebuke to all things "new country." Sip a cool one in the lobby, then sit back and get schooled on the genius of the giants of country music past: Waylon and Willie, Johnny and June, Buck and Don, Conway and Loretta, Tammy and George and Mr. Merle Haggard.
Portrait of Jason
New 35mm print!
Jun 21 - Jun 27
(Shirley Clarke, 1967, USA, 35mm, 105 min)
Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason befriends one of the most unforgettable people you’ll never meet. The year, 1967: an African-American gay man in a fitted blazer rehearses show tunes for an act he’s never performed. Clarke builds a memorable cinematic portrait by focusing obsessively on Jason’s dreams for himself (which he chatters about constantly, to anybody listening). Smoothly defying the constraints of genre and the impersonal perspective of classic documentary filmmaking, Portrait of Jason is a legendary character study that has transformed our understanding of self-perception for over 50 years.
Just Like Being There
Director in attendance! Post screening party and The Dee Dees concert starts 9:45pm!
Jun 21
(Scout Shannon, 2012, United States, Blu-ray, 90 min)
Some of the most prized modern art isn’t hanging in a museum. You’ll find it, instead, on bedroom walls and telephone poles, burning with nostalgia for life-changing evenings. If you’ve ever gone to a concert so good that wished you could take it home with you, you’ll share director Scout Shannon’s fondness for the legends of poster design, whose lives and communities he investigates through intimate vignettes in Just Like Being There. Includes work from Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, Kevin Tong, and many others.
Money for Docs
Free event!
Jun 22
This free, public discussion features local filmmakers who have successfully raised money for their documentary projects from a broad array of funders. How did they do it? As funding gets tighter, filmmakers need to be more creative to get their projects off the ground. Each of our panelists navigated the funding maze and received money from a variety of sources, including foundations, the government and individuals. Learn how you too can crack the funding nut!
Les Blank Tribute
New 16mm prints! Pre-screening happy hour at 5pm!
Jun 22
"I only knew the man was a very very good filmmaker" says Werner Herzog when speaking of Les Blank, whose five-decade career came to close earlier this year, when this forever curious filmmaker died of cancer. During the course of his fifty years Blank made forty-two films; in this program, we are excited to present rarely-seen works from Blank’s early filmmaking years, including three films dealing with Blank's fondest subjects: music, food and people. For the first time in Seattle, we screen the restored print of Spend it All (1972), a documentary quintessentially representative of Blank's approach. The film celebrates the vitality of the Cajun lifestyle, paying special attention to the food, music and humor of the culture. Additionally, we will have Northwest premieres/restorations of the rarely-seen films Chicken Real (1970) and Christopher Tree (aka Spontaneous Sound, 1972).
Death Metal Angola
Jun 22
(Jeremy Xido, 2012, United States/Angola, Blu-ray, 83 min)
The idea of death metal sweeping a nation torn by political violence might seem absurd—or absurdly fitting—to an outsider, but that’s exactly what happens in Jeremy Xido’s lauded, hyper-real new documentary. Sonia and Wilker run an orphanage in Angola’s capital for a handful of the nation’s thousands of orphans, born into a civil tempest that calmed barely ten years ago. Into the silence that follows war, Wilker and other death metal musicians bring the release of noise, and of a nationwide musical community that comes together in a benefit concert to benefit Sonia’s orphanage.
It’s the Earth Not the Moon
Film introduction by Cinema Scope writer Jay Kuehner!
Jun 23
(Gonçalo Tocha, 2012, United States/Mexico, DVCAM, 183 min)
For anyone who laments the modern world seeming too small, filmmaker Gonçalo Tocha’s voyage to the smallest of all worlds will inspire and revolutionize. On the two-mile-long island of Corvo exists a civilization which, for 500 years, has sat adrift in the middle of the Pacific, sustaining itself independent of the world economy. Tocha arrives, with few camera crewmen to distort his narrative, documenting his hesitant integration into the community that has eluded written record for so long.
Winter, Go Away
Jun 23
(Marina Razbezhkina's School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre, 2012, Russia, Blu-ray, 79 min)
Winter, Go Away is a defiant answer not only to the injustices done by Vladimir Putin’s government, but to the mainstream media that averted its gaze as crowds of Russians protested during the elections last winter. Shot by ten young filmmakers on behalf of a liberal Russian newspaper, this unblinking look at one of the most glaring political struggles of our time must not be missed. While admirably acknowledging the dangers of solidarity, the documentary’s triumph is in its understanding of a resistance movement as complicated and unromantic—and the honesty that compels us to action.
Tectonics
Jun 24
(Peter Bo Rappmund, 2011, United States/Mexico, Blu-ray, 60 min)
While others talk, Peter Bo Rappmund watches. His sharp gaze has never been more welcome or refreshing than in Tectonics, when he visits the place that’s on most every American’s lips—our border with Mexico. Tectonics interrupts the recent deluge of immigration documentaries with a story that is visual rather than dogmatic, its stranger-than-fiction shots surveying the landscape of the border. Pitting our social images of the border against the area’s natural history, Rappmund dares us to do what is most difficult in our charged political culture: challenge the ideas and myths that affirm our nationhood.
Trash Dance
Sponsored by CleanScapes
Jun 24
(Andrew Garrison, 2012, United States, Blu-ray, 68 min)
Allison Orr’s conception of a grand dance performed by sanitation workers and garbage trucks is a thing of brilliance, but the close look that Trash Dance takes at the lives of Orr’s reluctant dancers makes the film brilliant in its own right. Andrew Garrison’s documentary spotlights what even the dance cannot reveal: the difficulty in unifying city workers’ day-to-day struggles with the ambiguities of modern art. Turning the spotlight on some of society’s least-observed, and least-appreciated workers, the film is an artistic inspiration, even as it wrestles with our assumptions about performance.
People’s Park
Jun 25
(JP Sniadecki and Libbie Cohn, 2012, China, Blu-ray, 78 min)
The thrill of the unexpected runs through all 78 minutes of this single-take journey through a Chinese city park, a panoramic celebration of urban diversity that reveals as many different attitudes about the camera as it does people. Friends, families, artists, dancers and even opera singers: the space they share is their only common feature at times, as the film imperceptibly compiles a portrait of energy. People's Park's secret genius lies in paying equal attention to each of its subjects, returning to the forgotten attitudes of medieval landscape paintings: that a view of a crowd, rather than blurring the distinctions between people, can reveal more than the sum of its parts.
Public Hearing
Jun 26
(James N. Kienitz Wilkins, 2012, United States, Blu-ray, 110 min)
When history remembers our society, how well will it read between the lines? Public Hearing, a tense and hilarious reenactment of the minutes from an American town meeting, digs for an answer. Bickering over how much space the new Wal-Mart should take up in town, citizens and governors take part in a much graver fight below the surface: a struggle for authority in this mini-model of American democracy. From its overwhelming close-up shots to its use of PowerPoint slides from the real town meeting, Public Hearing turns our civilization’s republican customs into absurdities, in a transformation whose most startling feature is its effortlessness.
The Rambler
Seattle premiere! Director in attendance opening night!
Jun 28 - Jul 04
(Calvin Reeder, 2013, USA, Blu-ray, 97 min)
If you’ve ever comforted yourself with the knowledge that the worst of America’s horrors were safely locked behind bars, The Rambler will make you think twice. A nameless prisoner is released from under lock and key and begins a search for his brother, making him an eyewitness to all that is strange and gruesome in America’s overlooked corners. As he experiences these nightmares with an unfazed and uncomplicated vision, The Rambler takes us on a once-in-a-lifetime wandering across highways and through wilderness, leaving us perplexed as to whether the film’s true subject is its hero or the people he encounters.
How to Make Money Selling Drugs
Seattle premiere! Special film introduction from Alison Holcomb, Marijuana Education Project Director at ACLU of Washington, Friday 7pm screening
Jun 28 - Jul 04
(Matthew Cooke, 2012, USA, Blu-ray, 96 min)
How ironic is the title of How to Make Money Selling Drugs? That’s for you to decide. This film compiles interviews from drug dealers, activists, artistic celebrities and prison inmates, to create a step-by-step guide to becoming the most profitable drug dealer you can be. Leaving no stone unturned, this documentary dares to explore the American drug trade from every possible social and economic standpoint, inviting the audience to use it as a “cookbook,” idiot’s guide, bizarre satire or frightening exposé. Again: you decide. Featuring 50 Cent, The Wire producer David Simon, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Eminem and Susan Sarandon, as well as infamous drug kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross.
Berberian Sound Studio
Seattle premiere!
Jul 05 - Jul 11
(Peter Strickland, UK, 2012, Blu-ray, 92 min)
It's 1976, and Berberian Sound Studio is one of the cheapest, sleaziest post-production studios in Italy. Only the most sordid horror films have their sound processed and sharpened here. Gilderoy, a naive and introverted sound engineer from England, is hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by the horror maestro Santini. Thrown from the innocent world of local documentaries into a foreign environment fueled by exploitation, Gilderoy soon finds himself caught up in a forbidding mix of bitter actresses, capricious technicians and confounding bureaucracy.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Introduced by Mayor Mike McGinn
Jul 05
(Robert Mulligan, USA, 1962, 35mm, 129 min)
Sitting mayor and former lawyer Mike McGinn introduces this beloved adaptation of Harper Lee’s heart-wrenching autobiographical novel of racial hatred in small-town 1930s Alabama. When lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) agrees to defend a black man unfairly accused of rape, he and his two young children are confronted with the reality of racial injustice in their small Alabama town. The film’s message of tolerance—told from the point of view of a child, yet never childish—hasn’t grown old.
All The President's Men
Introduced by Greenwood neighborhood activist Kate Martin
Jul 06
(Alan Pakula, USA, 1976, 35mm, 138 min)
Longtime Greenwood neighborhood activist Kate Martin's pick is the Watergate tell-all by Alan Pakula, All the President's Men. "The story of the century" gets a film noir treatment as the paranoia of Nixon's White House spreads like a disease through the shadowy streets and underground parking lots, to the suburban kitchens of Washington, DC. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star as two young Washington Post reporters, Bernstein and Woodward, who broke the floodgates on the Watergate scandal.
Papillon
Introduced by City Councilman Bruce Harrell
Jul 07
(Franklin J. Schaffner, USA, 1976, 35mm, 151 min)
Some have questioned the reliability of Henri Charriere's best-selling memoir of his miserable life on (and eventual escape from) the French penal colony, Devil's Island. But in the context of the mayoral campaign, Papillon is a bold selection by sitting city council member Bruce Harrell: the film offers a tale of suffering, endurance, and serial escape attempts, in which Steve McQueen is at his best in the title role, and Dustin Hoffman is amusingly rat-like as his best friend, Louis Dega.
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Introduced by State Senator Ed Murray
Jul 07
(Ken Loach, Ireland, 2006, 35mm, 127 min)
Ken Loach has always been committed to exploring the realities of the oppressed and disadvantaged through cinema, a great bedfellow for State Senator and Irishman Ed Murray. The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film that confronts issues of family, patriotism and liberty, is Loach's take on the struggle for Irish independence (a mirror to Murray's struggle to pass gay marriage perhaps?) at the beginning of the 20th century, and an oppositional melodrama seeking to debunk British myths surrounding the conflict.
Buddy, The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Mayor
Introduced by Peter Steinbrueck
Jul 08
(Cherry Arnold, USA, 2007, Blu-ray, 86 min)
They say all politics begins locally, and if the life of Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci proves it, so does the political career of Peter Steinbrueck, a man whose father left an indelible mark on Seattle. While they both have well-known political names, the similarities stop there, so it's interesting that Steinbrueck selects Buddy, The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Mayor, a portrait of the longest-serving mayor in modern day history.
Music Craft: Al Green
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Jul 11
In 1968, WNET NYC, began airing Soul!, a landmark televised music program. Just a few of the many artists who graced the airwaves during its 39-week run include Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael, the Delfonics, Earth, Wind & Fire, Louis Farrakhan, Nikki Giovanni (a frequent host), Patti LaBelle, Miriam Makeba, Curtis Mayfield, Toni Morrison, Tito Puente, Max Roach, Stevie Wonder. . .and a full hour with Al Green who was 26 when he recorded this concert in the Soul! studios. Part of Music Craft, our regular series featuring rare concert footage from music legends.
The History of Future Folk
Seattle premiere!
Jul 12 - Jul 18
(John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker, USA, 2012, Blu-ray, 86 min)
You’ve probably seen Bill around—at the park yesterday with his daughter, or last night playing bluegrass in that old alien costume. You have to see Future Folk, though, to start suspecting that Bill might actually be an alien, sent to find a new home for his people and won over by the beauty of Earth music. Has another of his species just arrived to get Bill back on track with his alien mission? Will the two later team up in a bluegrass band and try to save us from invasion? You’ll never know without seeing Future Folk, a hilarious and heartwarming tale lauded at film festivals from Los Angeles to New York. Screens with The Heavens, our 2012 Local Sightings short film jury winner.
The Unspeakable Act
Seattle premiere!
Jul 12 - Jul 18
(Dan Sallitt, 2013, United States, HD, 91 min)
Sometimes the only storytelling task harder than shocking an audience is normalizing the shock—or, in this case, the unspeakable. Dan Sallitt’s pensive fourth feature film follows a young woman who could be everyone’s heroine were it not for her “unspeakable” feelings for an older brother, feelings that Sallitt carefully and hauntingly picks apart using the camera-as-microscope. Featuring a groundbreaking performance from leading lady Tallie Medel, the sights and sounds of The Unspeakable Act redefine what we comfortably conceive as typical, while coloring our own typical experiences as grotesque.
Framing Pictures
Free event!
Jan 18 - Aug 16
Join us for a monthly discussion with three long-time Seattle film critics (and occasional guest commentators) who have much to say on the subject of cinephilia past, present and future. The conversation includes former Film Comment editor Richard Jameson, Everett Herald/KUOW critic Robert Horton and MSN.com critic Kathleen Murphy.
The Ghastly Love of Johnny X
Jul 19 - Jul 25
(Paul Bunnell, USA, 2012, 35mm, 106 min)
This retro-tastic, rock 'n roll, sci-fi musical (the last film ever shot on Kodak's 35mm black and white Plus X film stock) introduces us to intergalactic hoodlum Johnny X and his band of extraterrestrial juvenile delinquents, The Ghastly Ones. Starring Creed Bratton (from The Office), Kate Maberly (from The Secret Garden), singer-songwriter Paul Williams, and the last performance of the late Kevin McCarthy (from Invasion of the Body Snatchers)! An enjoyably wild and surprisingly slick-looking adventure that is worth a look, especially if you’re a fan of over-the-top genre filmmaking.
Free The Mind
Seattle premiere!
Jul 26 - Aug 01
(Phie Ambo, Denmark, 2012, Blu-ray, 80 min)
In 1992 Professor Richard J. Davidson (one of the world’s leading neuroscientists) met the Dalai Lama, who encouraged him to apply the same rigorous methods he used to study depression and anxiety to the study of compassion and kindness. Dr. Davidson, who was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2006, did just that: the results of his studies at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds are portrayed in this fascinating new documentary about the science behind meditation. The film poses two questions: What is consciousness, and how does it manifest in the brain and body? Is it actually possible to change the brain physically through mental practices alone?
Post Tenebras Lux
Seattle premiere!
Jul 26 - Aug 01
(Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2012, Blu-ray, 115 min)
A blend of memoir, observations of Mexican life and a paean to the country’s beautiful landscape Post Tenebras Lux is bold, visually arresting and arguably the only film to ever feature the devil (all red luminescence) in such a dramatic manner. Reygadas has once again created a complex work that may initially confound, but is also, like its predecessor, richly rewarding.
The Fearless Freaks
Live introduction by Wayne Coyne!
Jul 28
(Bradley Beeseley, USA, 2005, Blu-ray, 100 min)
What better way to get your groove on for the finale of the Capitol Hill Block Party than a matinee of The Fearless Freaks? This documentary about The Flaming Lips, 15 years in the making, follows the group as they go from Norman, Oklahoma punk band to free-floating rock and roll circus act, complete with blasting confetti canons and man-sized plastic bubble for front man Wayne Coyne.
Revenge of the Pearl Queen
Aug 02
(Toshio Shimura, 1956, 90 min, Digital)
When Shintoho's voluptuous new "discovery" Michiko Maeda undressed for Revenge of the Pearl Queen, she hit the screens with a seismic force, A new star was born; not only that, but a new genre too—the female pearl diver film. The film’s central plotline is based on the true story of 19 Japanese men who were discovered on Anatahan, in the Marianas Islands, in 1951. Refusing to accept Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, they had been scraping out a bare existence while scheming and fighting over the one woman in their midst.
Flesh Pier
Part of our Double Feature: Sold Into Prostitution!
Aug 03 - Aug 04
(Teruo Ishii, Japan, 1958, Blu-ray, 75 min)
Yoshioka, an undercover cop, has been assigned to unveil a dubious Tokyo flesh ring. While working undercover he reunites with his old flame – Rumi. Fashion clubs, nude modeling, and matchmaking businesses are all part of the conspiracy, but who is running the show? With Rumi’s passion rekindled by Yoshioka’s presence, he becomes the focus of secret eyes in the club. It’s only a matter of time before his cover is blown.
Yellow Line
Part of our Double Feature: Sold Into Prostitution!
Aug 03 - Aug 04
(Teruo Ishii, Japan, 1960, Blu-ray, 70 min)
A hitman is hired to take out a Tokyo Customs Officer, but his employer betrays him and sends the cops. Seeking cover, he grabs Emi from a telephone booth and makes her his “newlywed” in order to board a train to Kobe. Born in a prison and raised in an orphanage, the woman hating-hitman blends into the seedy Casbah of Kobe easily (although Emi, his female prisoner, stands out like a diamond in the rough). As the hitman hunts for the employer that betrayed him, Emi leaves clues for her boyfriend in hopes of finding help. But being in the hitman’s grasp might be safer than she thinks... help isn’t what it seems, when you’re on the Yellow Line.
Ghost Story of Yotsuya
Part of our Double Feature: Tainted Love Rises from the Dead!
Aug 05 - Aug 06
(Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan, 1959, Blu-ray, 78 min)
Heated passion is the downfall of Lemon, the shunned samurai of Ghost Story. After being refused marriage to his love Iwa, his sword spills blood in a fit of rage. The servant Naoske quickly comes to Lemon’s aid, helping him cover up the murders that he witnessed. But good deeds come with a price – Naoske would like some blood spilt himself, so that he can acquire Iwa’s sister, Sode.
Ghost Cat of Otama Pond
Part of our Double Feature: Tainted Love Rises from the Dead!
Aug 05 - Aug 06
(Yoshihiro Ishikawa, Japan, 1960, Blu-ray 75 min)
The engaged couple Sagawa and Keiko find themselves lost at Otama Pond, a place where Sagawa grew up. While trying to find shelter for the night, Keiko is cursed with the mark of death by a cat. With exorcism his only option, Sagawa tries to make sense of all that is happening. Soon we discover that both Sagawa and Keiko are part of a long-feuding bloodline, whose tragic end all began with a young couple in love who were forbidden to be together. This Romeo & Juliet tale takes a spooky turn as the dead rise up for vengeance.
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
U.S. premiere!
Aug 02 - Aug 08
(Tinatin Gurchiani, Georgia, 2012, Blu-ray, 101 min)
A Georgian director wants to make a film about growing up in her home country, and puts out a casting call for young adults, aged 15 to 23. She travels through cities and villages interviewing the candidates who responded and filming their daily lives, looking for commonalities across social and ethnic lines. Together, their tales weave a kaleidoscopic tapestry of war and love, wealth and poverty, creating an extraordinarily complex vision of a modern society that still echoes with its Soviet past.
Death Row Woman
Part of our Double Feature: Busting Out of Bars!
Aug 07 - Aug 08
(Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan, 1960, Blu-ray, 78 min)
During a heated argument with her father, Kyoko defies his wishes for her to marry Aiko, and instead informs him she is having a child out of wedlock with Siochi. After refusing to leave when he orders her gone, she leaves him to simmer; the next day he is dead. With all evidence pointing to Kyoko, she is quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. Desperate to see her baby and prove her innocence, Kyoko escapes from prison with a cellmate, after narrowly escaping rape at the hands of another female prisoner. With the police hot on her trail and her emotions on full throttle, Kyoko’s trust in who to rely on falters. Will she be able to find her father’s killer before she is captured?
The Horizon Glitters
Part of our Double Feature: Busting Out of Bars!
Aug 07 - Aug 08
(Michiyoshi Doi, Japan, 1961, Blu-ray, 89 min)
This black comedy about a prison break gone wrong was unlike anything else Shintoho made. Released just before the studio’s collapse, The Horizon Glitters is a brilliant one-off that doesn’t fit in the usual genre boxes, made with a freedom and an energy that verges on the anarchic. A motor-mouthed proto-punk breaks out of prison with his cellmates, in search of a large cache of diamonds. Director Michiyoshi Doi spices the journey with incidents and antics that are a mix of slapstick and surreal.
Music Craft: Miles Davis
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5
Aug 08
Join us for four rare filmed performances by Miles Davis spanning decades, from a 1959 NYC television recording to a 1991 Parisian gig (Miles died three months after filming). Part of Music Craft, our regular series featuring rare concert footage from music legends.
Vampire Bride
Aug 09
(Kyotaro Namiki, Japan, 1960, Blu-ray, 80 min)
Fujiko, a dance student with a horrific facial scar, seeks help from a sorceress in the mountains, who ultimately transforms her into a powerful monster. After undergoing a ritual that results in her temporary death, she returns to life as a fanged, hairy beast. Vampire Bride is a deeply odd take on the vampire theme, with a suitably deranged performance by young actress Ikeuchi Junko.
André Gregory: Before and After Dinner
Seattle premiere!
Aug 09 - Aug 15
(Cindy Kleine, 2013, United States, Blu-ray, 101 min)
Lampooned, adored and destined to land on every movie lover’s walk of fame, André Gregory's furious philosophical pronouncements made the director a mystery to all who know him. Now his fellow director and wife, Cindy Kleine, takes a loving and hilarious look at the storyteller’s own story, from his upbringing in a Russian-Jewish household to his decades-long friendship with funnyman Wallace Shawn. Injected with moments of Gregory’s own dramatic narrative style, this portrait is a wild ride that gives new meaning to the romance between author and creation.
My Dinner With André
Aug 09 - Aug 15
(Louis Malle, 1981, USA, 35mm, 110 min)
Playwright/actor Wallace Shawn sits across the table from avant-garde theatre figure Andre Gregory in a chic SoHo restaurant, circa 1981. They talk over dinner. And talk and talk and talk. But the whirlwind dialogue of ideas about art, life, New York, humanity and the impending doom of civilization keeps the film exciting. Screenwriter/stars Shawn and Gregory make this a one-of-a-kind exchange of ideologies that will keep your noggin on its toes.
Gustafer Yellowgold
Sponsored by See Kai Run
Aug 11
Back by popular demand, a little guy who hails from the sun is set to return to Seattle for another out-of-this-world, multimedia family show at Northwest Film Forum. Groovy Gustafer is the creation of illustrator/songwriter/performer Morgan Taylor, who has created a show that is equal parts pop rock concert and hand-drawn animated film. Perfect for the pint-sized set as well as their larger guardians, Gustafer Yellowgold is a blissful blend of pop music, lyrical poignancy and cartoon absurdity. This show will feature sweet new songs from the newest Gustafer DVD as well as award-winners and favorites from past DVDs. All this, plus a chance to meet the newest character in the show, Gustafer's buddy Rock Melon!
Un Flic
New 35mm print!
Aug 16 - Aug 18
(Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1972, 35mm, 98 min)
A swan song from the great Jean-Pierre Melville (mostly famous for his noir gangster films), who was dubbed by Godard the ‘godfather’ of the New Wave, for the stylish existential nature expressed in all his films. Melville’s aura of cool is generally derived from extended sequences of silent action where the audience has to find out what’s going on as the characters perform their tasks. It’s also derived from a collision of noir and modern style – worn fedoras, trenchcoats and faces; a generally muted color scheme; and slow pacing that emphasizes process.
The Pirogue
Seattle premiere!
Aug 16 - Aug 22
(Moussa Toure, Senegal / France / Germany, 2012, Blu-ray, 87 min)
In Moussa Toure’s powerful, epic fiction film, a group of 30 men sail to Europe in a pirogue, facing the sea—and the possibility of never reaching their destination—in exchange for the myth of a better life in Europe.
Sign Painters
Seattle premiere!
Aug 19 - Aug 22
(Faythe Levine and Sam Macon, USA, 2013, Blu-ray)
As recently as the 1980s, storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of "quicker and cheaper." The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.
Seattle Bike-In
Co-presented with The Vera Project Movie at dusk!
Aug 24
Named as one of the reasons that Pike/Pine is considered “Top 12 Art Places in America," the Seattle Bike-In has become a staple of the summer outdoor movie calendar. This 8th annual celebration of green transportation, our urban community and summer nights encourages you to grab your bike and grab your friends for our annual event in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill! The event includes live music and DJs, film and a fair from local cycling organizations and merchants.