JUDGE TODD HAYNES OPENING NIGHT CRUISE FULL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE CLOSING NIGHT
WELCOME
The Northwest Film
Center has now spent its twenty-seventh year watching an exceptional creature:
Northwest Film. And filmmakers who, from Portland, Seattle, Bozeman, Anchorage,
Vancouver, BC and all points between, have committed their time and that
of others to making films of beautiful complexity, stark simplicity, and
fierce independence.
Over three hundred works were submitted this year. Forty-three have been included in the Festival. Among them are edgy animated shorts, thoughtful and sometimes brutally touching documentaries and narratives of assured craft.
There is a complicit relationship at work here. Each year the Festival relies on our community for support and is answered by a host of organizations and individuals, public and private, who champion the Festival with an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm for the work itself. Our major sponsors, The Paul G. Allen Foundation for the Arts, McMenamins Theaters and Pubs, Hollywood Entertainment and Regal Cinemas each share our interest in recognizing a flourishing media arts community in the Northwest. We would especially like to welcome a new sponsor: The Portland Mercury, who in the past few months on our street corners has demonstrated a feisty intelligence that we hope to watch evolve.
The Film Center thanks
those of you with a taste for the raw charm of independent film:
our audience, who?as
we hold a finger to the pulse of this celluloid chimera?come to be amazed
by your neighbors down the street and across the region.
As you watch this
week reveal itself, see if you can recognize within it the hand of this
year’s Festival Judge, Todd Haynes. With a
combination of intelligence,
wit, patience and instigation, he has shaped a program that not only represents
fine film and video making, but also a passion for the medium’s possibilities
for personal expression. We thank him for his generous spirit and hope
you find his insights as provocative as his films.
And so The
Northwest Film & Video Festival begins November 2, offering an alternative
to the onslaught of commercial film, amidst likely just enough rain to
send you slouching happily to the darkness to watch this exceptional creature
that is Northwest Film.
Bill Foster, Director,
Northwest Film Center
Meagan Atiyeh, Festival
Coordinator
JUDGE’S
STATEMENT
Living in Portland
most of this year?and finding a lot more creative elbow-room than in New
York?I was curious to see what kinds of films would be coming out of this
crazily beautiful Pacific Northwest. And I guess I saw it all?from the
ravishing to the perfunctory?without too noticeable a regional stamp on
anything, save perhaps the documentaries. Whatever it was I may have expected?paeans
to grunge or Sasquatch spottings? the selections I made reflect as much
about me than they do the breadth of the work submitted. As usual I was
drawn to films in whatever category that countered that unexamined instinct
to just make product… films that surprised or challenged or ventured into
the hybrids of classification. The result, I am happy to say, is a preponderance
of experimental work and of films by women, resulting in three programs
of longer films (one dramatic feature and several docs), and three (count
‘em three) colorful and diverse programs of shorts.
Since most of the films submitted were under 30 minutes in length, I decided to limit awards in each category to short films alone. That is not to diminish in any way the quality of work in the longer programs. ROLLERCOASTER is a remarkably assured debut feature by Scott Smith concerning a group of teens on a fateful trespass, and is joined by compelling documentaries, including 30 FRAMES A SECOND, a thoughtful examination of the WTO demonstration in Seattle.
The three eclectic
programs of shorts that follow, divided loosely into films from the
heart, the spleen and?for lack of an appropriate organ? from the edge,
are sure to offer something for everyone. THE CLOUDS THAT TOUCH US OUT
OF CLEAR SKIES is a haunting, imagistic documentary about miscarriage.
FANSOM THE LIZARD is not only witty and wise, but uses digital animation
to celebrate the lost charms of projected celluloid. EULOGY, an arch little
b&w narrative, takes a sharp, witty slice at the fall of the artist,
while SOULMATE, with chilling acuity, confronts sexual loneliness?or rather,
allows it to confront us. And among the many strong and varied experimental
films?from the giddily raunchy to the serene? KNUCKLE DOWN provides some
resilient symbology,
perhaps even inventing
a new visual metaphor for non-phallic, feminine pleasure!
So here’s to the
crazily beautiful, the raunchy and the serene! I had fun. So will you.
—Todd Haynes
JUDGE’S BIO
In the late 80s,
Todd Haynes became a cult hero with SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY,
a dissection of the life of the sweet-as-pie singer who succumbed to anorexia.
“Already Haynes was learning to give voice to that most postmodern of beings,”
said the Village Voice, “the decentered subject.” Due to disputed music
rights, SUPERSTAR was sent underground, appearing at microcinemas and basements
in bootleg form. Four years later, the indie icon won the Grand Jury prize
at Sundance with POISON (1991), an equally controversial work that was
condemned by the religious right for its (NEA-funded) homosexual content
and has come to be regarded as a cornerstone of new gay cinema. Haynes
continues to shape a body of edgy, smart, and resonant films which adeptly
deconstruct our role as the modern voyeur?including his most recent extravagant
glam-rock VELVET GOLDMINE (1998) and SAFE (1995), an examination of modern
alienation and sickness that has been lauded as one of the most important
films of the last decade.
JUDGE'S AWARDS
Narrative:
Eulogy, Sarah Nagy
Soulmate, Chel White
Experimental:
Knuckle Down, Sarah Marcus & Kate
Hardy
Documentary:
The Clouds that Touch us out of Clear
Skies, Lynn Shelton
Animation:
Fansom the Lizard, Evan Mather
NOV
2 THU, 9-11 P.M.
OPENING
NIGHT
EXTRAVAGANZA
ABOARD THE
PORTLAND
SPIRIT
Join us for a floating
party on the Willamette River aboard the Portland Spirit, the perfect locale
to launch this year’s Festival. Throughout the night we will screen the
five Festival Judge’s Awards, present this year’s Oregon Arts Commission
Media Arts Fellowship Award and celebrate independent vision.
Co-sponsored by
Hollywood Video, the Portland Spirit and McMenamin’s
21 AND OVER, PLEASE
LOCATION: Board
the Portland Spirit at Salmon Springs Fountain (Waterfront Park & SW
Salmon Street).
NO LATER THAN 9:15
P.M.
SPECIAL ADMISSION:
$10
Advance Tickets
Available at The Film Center’s Guild Theatre Box Office.
NOV
3 FRI, 7 P.M.
SHORTS
I: OF THE EDGE
Magic Carpet
Ride
Phillip MJ Bacon, Matt Meagher
Galiano Island, BC
“A stop-action flick with old-world charm.”
TH
4 1/2 mins.
Toy Box
David Steven Phillips/Seattle, WA
An unloved doll is an unhappy doll.
1/2 min.
Eulogy
JUDGE’S AWARD
Sarah Nagy/Portland, OR
Josh Whitfield could be a great photographer
if only he could take a decent picture.
“A sharp, witty slice at the gall of the
artist, beautifully shot and cut.” TH
11 1/2 mins.
Satan’s Holiday
Vanessa Renwick/Portland, OR
Ms. Renwick confronts the devil. “This
could
be you.” TH
3 mins.
U-Champions
Rick Raxlen/Victoria, BC
Vintage animation lines this dada-esque
peek into a typographer’s daydream.
3 1/2 mins.
Poppa
James Yu/Portland, OR
“A frank and tender declaration despite
the things people do to protect us.” TH
4 mins.
Iron Fist of
Man: How Old Are You? & Love on the Ropes
Helen Reed, Jennifer McNeely, Megan Stanton
Galiano Island, BC
What if everyday TV violence was wrapped
up in a box for your little girl? “Two devilish treats.” TH
1 1/2 mins.
The Man from
Venus
James Diamond/Vancouver, BC
A touching dialogue on gender identity.
“It seems to come spliced from within, full of raw fidelity.” TH
4 mins.
Kristi and Tiffany’s
Spacegasmic Sexploration
Kristi Schaefer & Tiffany Danielle
Olympia, WA
Life in outer space can be hard sometimes.
Kristi and Tiffany deliver “Raunchy, space-age fun.” TH
4 1/2 mins.
Atomic Titz
Mark O’Connell/Seattle, WA
Mark O’Connell (BOY RUNS TO WINDOW, HITCHCOCK
VS. THE MARTIAN)
strikes again with his own brand of digital
warfare. “The name says it all. “ TH
4 mins.
Soulmate
JUDGE’S AWARD
Chel White/Portland, OR
A bold and unsettling film confronting
sexual loneliness and the intimate but unspoken tie
between a landlady and her young male
tenant, based on a story by National Public Radio personality Joe Frank.
14 mins.
Knuckle Down
JUDGE’S AWARD
Sarah Marcus & Kate Hardy/Portland,
OR
“A richly evocative wrestle with lesbian
desire, punctuated with smart and resonant visual metaphors.” TH
8 mins.
The Man with
the Empty Room
Todd Korgan/Portland, OR
From the director of Festival favorites
HAVE YOU SEEN PATSY WAYNE and JOHNNY BAGPIPES comes this beautiful black
and white parable. “A wry, bittersweet tale about trying to overcome loneliness.”
TH
12 mins.
DOUBLE
FEATURE
NOV
3 FRI, 9 P.M.
30
Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle
Rustin Thompson/Seattle, WA
As former freelance cameraman Rustin Thompson
steps into the fray of tear gas, sit-ins and demonstrations to make an
objective
document of the WTO protests in Seattle,
an interesting dynamic ensues: “I found it difficult to be objective,”
he says. And so Thompson soon found himself reacting to the surrounding
melee. “A fine work of memory, delicately crafted and suitably humble.
Thompson is not concerned with politics so much as he is intrigued by the
process of experiencing.”—Jamie Hook, The Stranger. “Thoughtful and reflective.”
TH
75 mins.
PRECEDED BY
The Googlie Eye
Movie
Zak Margolis/Portland, OR
In 1974, Howard Lester began obsessively
taking photographs of people wearing funny glasses known as “googlie eyes.”
The first photo in this series was of a new born baby named Zak Margolis.
25 years later, Zak returned to create this homage to an amazing collection.
10 mins.
NOV
4 SAT, 2 P.M.
YOUTHSPEAK
HEAR
OUR VOICES, WARNING..., FIGHT GIRL POISONING,
THE
LAND INSIDE, and WTO.
These titles reflect the perspective and
response of young mediamakers grades K-12 opting to speak on important
political and social issues through the video medium. Join us for
a program comprised of regional student work (including several selections
from this year’s Young People’s Film & Video Festival) that speaks
loud and clear.
60 mins. FREE ADMISSION
NOV
4 SAT, 4-5:30 P.M.
Digital
Roundtable:
To
Stream or Not To Stream?
Sponsored by PowerMacs/Apple Computers
Software, storage, hard drive size… that’s
only the beginning. What about on-line Festivals and digitally minded distributors
such as Ifilm and Atom Films? Is there a there there? The Festival invites
artists working with, or interested in, digital mediums, to come share
your insights, questions, short-cuts, frustrations, delights, knowledge
and naivete with others in this complex digital dilemma. Representatives
from Powermax will be on hand to help troubleshoot the technical side.
NOV
4 SAT, 7 P.M.
SHORTS
II: OF THE HEART
Vision Point
Stephen Arthur/Vancouver, BC
A journey through Western Canada as if
on a liberated rollercoaster, VISION POINT debuts a new form of experimental
animation that creates a surreal portrait which “captures the surreal beauty
of the Northwest” TH
1 1/2 mins.
Christmas
Serge Gregory/Seattle, WA
“An elliptical and observant adaptation
from the Nabokov story of one father’s winter.” TH
11 1/2 mins
Grand Island
David Steven Phillips/Seattle, WA
“A giddy poem to the bovine.” TH
1 min.
David Ishi Bookseller
Doug Ing/Seattle, WA
A both humble and lavish portrait of one
man as told by those he loves: the friends and books.
3 1/2 mins
The Day Stashi
Ran out of Honey
Sonia Bridge/Victoria, BC
The honesty of simple charcoal on paper
is as skillfully crafted as the story it tells. “A handsome WWII animated
memoir.” TH
5 mins.
Eating My Words
Rachel Lord /Seattle, WA
Oral fixation and regret are crafted into
a simple hymn?the girlfriend’s regret?
3 mins.
One Story
Israel Katz/Seattle, WA
A woman reflects on her life as a South
Korean child adopted at the age of three by a Washington family and the
complexity of growing up an outsider within a white world.
5 mins.
Yellow 40, Red
06
Billy Caliente/Portland, OR
“A simple, elegant piece that uses the
tableau of children to speak about color and exclusion.” TH
4 mins.
Slingshot
David Massachi /Portland, OR
“A nasty little brother delivers a patient
parable for how sadism invented cinema.” TH
18 mins.
The Clouds That
Touch us Out of Clear Skies
JUDGE’S AWARD
Lynn Shelton/Seattle, WA
“A powerfully absorbing documentary that
uses very touching personal stories and poetic imagery to unearth the virtually
inexpressible topic of miscarriage.” TH
27 mins.
NOV
4 SAT 9 P.M.
SHORTS
III:
OF
THE SPLEEN
Boar’s Head
Bruce Bickford/Seattle, WA
Surreal line animation hiding a nasty
roadhouse visual pun.
4 mins.
Deere John
Mitchell Rose and Jamey Hampton/Portland,
OR
Absurdist and elegant, heavy machinery
makes for an unlikely pas de deux.
5 mins.
Flip Foot
Paula Kinsel/Portland, OR
Found footage combines with nonsense poetry
to form a visual-linguistic gymnastics lesson.
3 mins.
Bob Appleby is
a Loser
Josh Byer/Burnaby, BC
Bob Appleby, as the title may suggest,
is a twenty-something welfare recipient whose is trying, with the help
of his best friend?a bitter, aging crack dealer? to overcome the childhood
neurosis running rampant in his head.
10 mins.
Thief of
Souls
Clancy Dennehy/Vancouver, BC
“A raw, mini-claymation gothic ode to
Hitchcock.” TH
5 mins.
I Love Mickey
Bryan Deats/Bozeman, MT
Mickey takes a gamble, skipping out on
the kids he’s supposed to be supervising in hopes of making the big time.
“Psycho absurdity.” TH
8 mins.
Surface Dive
Joanna Priestley/Portland, OR
Three layers of sublime abstract animation:
drawings on paper, glass pieces and solid sculptures, are beautifully manipulated
to form a “trippy, bulbous blend of gel, cell, and claymation.” TH
7 1/2 mins.
Pendemonium
Martin Friedman/Seattle, WA
“Fun, stylish slapstick follows one pen
through some amazing mishaps and adventures, and finally to a quirky chance
meeting.” TH
10 mins.
Destiny
Matt McCormick/Portland, OR
Disguised as a pyramid-scheme/self-help
financial video, “media manipulators get a taste of their own medicine.”
TH
4 mins.
Fansom the Lizard
JUDGE’S AWARD
Evan Mathers/Seattle, WA
“With a low-fi look and a hi-fi past,
this is smart and sophisticated animation that draws you right in.” TH
9 1/2 mins.
Watching Mrs.
Pomerantz
Steve Rosenberg/Vancouver, BC
The year is 1972 and the Pomerantz’s are
the only family in this middle class Jewish neighborhood to have a swimming
pool and mother who looks good in a swimsuit. “A sweet,
nostalgic ode to the other side of the
frame.” TH
19 mins.
Bear Necessities
Cameron Lizotte/Vancouver, BC
A bear, tired of zoo life, hatches a sadist
escape plan.
3 mins.
NOV
5 SUN 5 P.M.
NORTHWEST
DOCUMENTS
Echo
of Water Against Rocks: Remembering Celilo Falls
Ian McCluskey & Steve Mital/Eugene,
OR
On March 10th, 1957, the newly constructed
Dalles Dam closed its floodgates, backing up the Columbia River over Celilo
Falls. Regional newspapers heralded an era of hydropower, while upstream
hundreds of people paid their final respects to the passage of a 10,000
year-old way of life. Two generations later, Celilo resonates in this document
of touching empathy, through a gathering of photographs from those who
marked the occasion, and a gathering of stories passed from the Celilo
fishing families to their children and grandchildren.
13 mins.
WITH
Islas
Hermanas
Mark Dworkin & Melissa Young/Seattle,
WA
Celebrating a unique 13-year relationship
between Bainbridge Island, Washington
and Ometepe Island in Nicaragua, ISLAS
HERMANAS travels from the volcanic slopes
of Nicaragua, where the Ometepe community cultivates organic coffee beans,
to the Pegasus Coffee Company, on Bainbridge, where
volunteers roast, pack and distribute
the fair-trade commodity. But it’s more than coffee. These “sister” communities
have become a part of each other’s consciousness. Bainbridge
students raise money to send to Ometepe,
and in turn Ometepe families open their homes to the students, for whom
a visit to the village can be a priceless look into another world.
28 mins.
WITH
Conscience
and the Constitution
Frank Abe/Seattle, WA
Long before the civil rights marches of
the 1960s, another group of young Americans fought for their basic rights,
willing to go to war only for a country that recognized their rights as
citizens. From internment camps like Heart Mountain and the nine more that
housed over 120,000 west coast Japanese and American-born citizens, resisting
the draft became, for some, the last chance to protest their imprisonment.
Prosecuted by the government and ostracized as traitors by Japanese American
leaders and veterans, these protestors served two years in jail and were
written out of popular history for the next fifty years. Through home movies,
archival film and interviews, producer Frank Abe seeks, four decades later,
to answer not “why did you not resist?” but “why did you not support those
who did?”
56 mins.
DOUBLE
FEATURE
NOV
5 SUN 7 P.M.
NORTHWEST
DOCUMENTS
30
Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle,
The
Googlie Eye Movie
Please see Friday, November 3 description
NOV
6 MON 7 P.M.
NORTHWEST
DOCUMENTS
The
Last Angry Man:
Oregon’s Senator Wayne Morse
Christopher Houser, Robert Millis/Portland,
OR
Oregon’s Senator Wayne Morse remains one
of the most controversial politicians in the state’s history. In a career
that stretched from1944 to 1968—when he was finally defeated by the up-and-coming
Bob Packwood— Morse spoke his mind with rare courage, singular charisma
and, to some, raw arrogance. A legend to labor unions and a champion of
educators, Morse’s shining hour was the Vietnam War, when he was the most
outspoken, and sometimes only, Senatorial conscience calling for immediate
American withdrawal. Featuring a wealth of film clips and interviews with
many of the political leaders of the era, from Mark Hatfield, George McGovern
and Packwood to Ken Kesey, Houser and Millis’s film offers a fascinating
overview of his political genius and enigmatic public career. In a time
of increasing social activism and growing political cynicism, Morse’s legacy
of outspoken challenge to the status quo remains all the more relevant.
56 mins.
WITH
Roll
On Columbia: Woody Guthrie &
The
Bonneville Power Administration
Micheal Majdic & Denise Matthews/Eugene,
OR
In the spring of 1941, on the cusp of
the Great Depression, a 28-year old, unemployed Dust Bowl balladeer, Woodrow
Wilson Guthrie took a one-month job with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The BPA decided it needed a folksinger
to help promote the benefits of building dams on the Columbia to produce
cheap electricity for all. Guthrie, with a wife and three children, needed
the job and more than delivered, writing 26 songs in 30 days, among them
classics like “Roll on Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “Jackhammer
Blues.” Majdic and Matthews’ captivating piece of regional history documents
the most unusual convergence of a left-wing poet and a mammoth Federal
Government project, drawing on the reminiscences of son Arlo Guthrie, daughter
Nora Guthrie, Studs Terkel, Pete Seeger and many others on hand
at the time.
60 mins.
NOV
8 WED 7 P.M.
NORTHWEST
DOCUMENTS
Echo
of Water Against Rocks:
Remembering
Celilo Falls, Islas Hermanas, Conscience and the Constitution.
Please see Sun, Nov 5 Description
NOV
9 THU 6 P.M.
SHORTS
I: OF THE EDGE
Please see Fri, Nov 3 Description
DOUBLE FEATURE
NOV
9 THU 8 P.M.
Rollercoaster
Scott Smith/Vancouver BC
“One of the great things about growing
up is getting to know yourself,” says first time director Scott Smith,
“but a lot of teens fear themselves.” Rarely can a film relate the intensity
of teen alienation without passing first through the tar pit of melodrama.
But as a group of young friends first jump the fence into the starkly ornate
amusement park, ROLLERCOASTER begins a tightly strung story that feels
immediately honest. Two of the group-home-runaways plan to jump from the
top of the ancient rollercoaster at the end of the day. The vulnerability
of their world unfolds beneath expected sarcasm and pranks. “…Smith captures
the crude, archaic language of alienated teenagers with an astoundingly
acute ear.”—Stephen Holden, The New York Times. Winner of Best Narrative
Feature at SXSW, Rollercoaster first premiered at the Toronto International
Film Festival and has since been included in Festivals worldwide. “A remarkably
assured first feature-?engrossing but restrained with extraordinary performances
from its teenage actors.” TH
90 mins.
PRECEDED BY
Gauze
Cara Plouffe/Vancouver, BC
“A pensive, elegant reflection on loss.”
TH
6 1/2 mins.
NOV
10 FRI 7 P.M.
SHORTS
II:
OF
THE HEART
Please see Sat, Nov 4 Description
DOUBLE
FEATURE
SHORTS
III:
OF
THE SPLEEN
Please see Sat, Nov 4 Description
NOV
11 SAT 6:30 & 8:30 P.M.
CLOSING
NIGHT SPECIAL
LIVE PERFORMANCE
SILENCE!
At McMenamins Mission
Theatre and Pub
Gregg Lachow (SEVEN MYSTERIES OF LIFE, THE WRIGHT
BROTHERS, MONEY BUYS HAPPINESS) has long concerned himself with constructing
dreamlike realities. With SILENCE! He takes on an elaborate challenge. A multi-genre
performance co-commisioned by the Seattle International Film Festival and Northwest
Film Forum, SILENCE! fuses 35mm film of an actor and actress arriving on a 1920s
movie set with live performances by those same actors, as well as a live score.
Lachow is teamed with the amazing acting talent of his wife Megan Murphy, dialogue
penned by Matthew Stadler and Stacey Levine, and is inspired by Delmore Schwarz’s
1937 story “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.” “SILENCE! is an ambitious experiment;
a film about the creation of film, with one eye on history and the other on
the future… The multiple layers of meta-mimesis?of actors, characters, and audience
watching themselves being watched?a dream about the delights and consequences
of watching.”
—Sean Nelson, The Stranger
Co-sponsered by McMenamins and Northwest Film Forum.
SPECIAL ADMISSION: $12
FESTIVAL PASSHOLDERS: Free
LOCATION: McMenamins Mission Theatre and Pub, 1624
NW Glisan. 21 and over.
Advance Tickets Available at The Mission Theatre
and Film Center’s Guild Theatre Box Offices
Return
to Archive Page
Return to NW Film Center Home Page