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The First Monday of Every Month
December 2011-November 2012

In honor of the Film Center’s 40th anniversary, we present Essential Northwest, a new monthly, pay-what-you-will film series featuring vintage classics from Northwest filmmakers. If you want to know what Northwest filmmaking is all about, these are the films you need to see. Essential Northwest kicks off on December 5, 2011 with Gus Van Sant’s first feature, MALA NOCHE, based on an autobiographical novella by Portland poet Walt Curtis and set on the rainy streets of Portland.

Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Avenue.

ADMISSION: PAY WHAT YOU WILL (tickets available at the door)

 

Monday, December 5, 7 p.m.
MALA NOCHE
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT
US, 1985

Walt (Tim Streeter) works in a convenience store selling beer and cigarettes to seedy neighborhood characters. He develops a crush on an illegal immigrant named John who, new to Portland, is willing to use Walt for food and lodging while rejecting his advances. (78 mins.)

Shot on high-contrast, black and white 16mm.

 

Monday, January 9, 7 p.m.
THE GREY FOX
DIRECTOR: PHIL BORSOS
CANADA, 1982

In 1901, after having served 33 years in San Quentin for stagecoach hold-ups, “Bill Miner was released into the 20th century.” According to legend, Canada’s most romantic outlaw went to see Edwin S. Porter’s THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and decided at age 60 to embark on a career that would make him Canada’s most notorious train robber. (93 mins.)

 

Monday, February 6, 7 p.m.
ROCKADAY RITCHIE AND THE QUEEN OF THE HOP
DIRECTOR: GEORGE HOOD
US, 1974

ROCKADAY (nationally released in 1975 as B-titled STARK RAVING MAD) is based on the infamous Starkweather-Fugate murder spree in 1958. Portland actors Russ Fast and Marcie Severson star as the pair who left a disastrous trail of carnage from Nebraska throughout the Midwest as they desperately tried to cover up one killing with another. (88 mins.)

George Hood and Don Gronquist will be in attendance.

 

Monday, March 5, 7 p.m.
ONLY A BUCK
DIRECTOR: JERRY COOK
US, 1986

This Spokane-made first feature by Jerry Cook depicts J. Jordan, a sort of ’80s Maynard G. Krebs/Rube Goldberg gadget-loving guy who quits his job as a bored and hassled local television news photographer to make a movie about a guy who quits his job to make a movie. (95 mins.)

Jerry Cook will be in attendance.