SHOWING THIS WEEK:

Guild Theatre: 829 SW 9th Ave. (Corner of 9th and Taylor). Get Directions

Whitsell Auditorium: 1219 SW Park Ave. Get Directions

Admission Prices: $6.50 General, $5.50 Members, Students, Seniors

A limited number of advance tickets available for select Northwest Film Center programs. For information on ticket availability, please call (503) 221-1156.Tickets may be purchased at the Community Box Office in the lobby of the Portland Art Museum's North Wing (1119 SW Park Avenue at Madison), 10 am - 5 pm, Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 5pm, Sundays. There is a flat $3 per order handling charge for phone orders. No phone orders on the day of the show- Ticket Office: (503) 226-0973.

NORTHWEST TRACKING
APRIL 4
FRI 7:30 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
NORTHWEST FILM CENTER SCHOOL OF FILM FACULTY EXHIBITION
Tonight we welcome some of the Film Center’s faculty for a group show of recent work. The program includes:

THREE POSSIBLE SCENES
DIRECTOR: LAWRENCE JOHNSON
One hallway of impassable darkness, a dozen alienating roses, and one very stubborn fly. THREE POSSIBLE SCENES attempts to break the cinematic language into its basic parts and communicate with the barest of means. (16 mins)

MERIDIAN DAYS
DIRECTOR: TREVOR FIFE
“’Meridian Days’ is a navigational term that refers to the phenomenon of temporally losing or gaining a day when you cross the International Dateline. The film stems from audio and visual material collected on a three-week "luxury" ship cruise taken with my 82 year-old grandmother.” (11 mins.) Grand Prize Winner, 2002 Peripheral Produce Invitational, PDX Film Festival.

THREE NOCTURNES FOR TROMBONE
DIRECTOR: KEVIN T. ALLEN
Marching band zombies play funeral dirges, a man belches smeared notes and a trombone slithers and slides its way across a room in this comic journey to the depths of band geek hell. Judges award winner, best experimental film, Northwest Film and Video Festival 2002 (8 mins.)

NO NEWS. . .
DIRECTOR BUSHRA AZZOUZ
“Having lived half of my life in the Middle East and the other half in the America, NO NEWS… is a personal response to the events of September 11 and a reflection on the cycles of violence that have plagued both regions. (13 mins.)

THE LONE RANGER
Jim Blashfield
A collaboration with Seattle Jazz guitar great Bill Frisell, Blashfield twists ordinary imagery- a rainy windshield, a lamp, a streetlight- into abstract video collage. A montage of translucency, reflection and the light at night. (8-1/2 mins.)

NEW YORK
DIRECTOR: CHEL WHITE
A poem in pictures created in response to the events of September 11th. Air is a recurring element-essential for life but also a conduit for harm. (10 mins.)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

APRIL 3 THU 7:30 p.m.
GUILD THEATRE
OPEN SCREENING
Regional film and video makers are invited to bring or send work for open screening. Admission is free and there is no charge to show work. To confirm a place in the program and insure we have the equipment you require, please call (503) 276-4264.
Free admission. PLEASE HAVE YOUR WORKS DELIVERED TO THE FILM CENTER MARCH 31.

APRIL 4 5 FRI 7 P.M., SAT 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
CHARLIE “BIRD” PARKER 1920—1955
NORWAY 1989
DIRECTOR: JAN HORNE Produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Jan Horne’s four-part documentary series on the life of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker is the definitive chronicle of his remarkable life. Divided into chronological chapters, each features film clips and interviews that bring to life his brilliant career. Part 1, “Now‘s the Time,” examines Parker’s early years in Kansas City and his impact on fellow musicians (Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Flip Phillips) after he came to New York in the 1940s. Part 2, "Just Friends," centers on the New York years and his collaborations with Red Rodney, Max Roach, Roy Haynes and others. Part 3, “What Is This Thing Called Love,” follows Parker to the West Coast and his collaborations with Chet Baker, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Part 4, “Autumn in New York,” explores his broader artistic search with the help of composer Edgar Varèse and painter Harvey Cropper and the overview of his life through the eyes of Chan Parker and others.  

NORDIC VISIONS

APRIL 4 FRI 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
ALL ABOUT MY FATHER
NORWAY 2002
DIRECTOR: EVEN BENESTAD Voted Best Documentary at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, ALL ABOUT MY FATHER is a highly personal film about Esben Benestad, a well respected doctor–who also happens to be a transvestite–from a small, very close-minded christian town in Norway. The film was directed by the one person most likely to convey the story with truth, warmth, humour and irony: Even Benestad, his son. “Contrary to my father’s idea that this film would promote him as a colourful character who uses all his time to combat conservative bureaucracy,” states the director, “I wanted to make a portrait of him where his transvestism and strong self-realisation forms the basis of the film. I could not compromise–personal confrontation was paramount in making this a genuine film.” Benestad’s documentary is a candid, moving work exploring the two extremes of his dynamic dad’s life as a doctor, author and politician juxtaposed with his identity as the exotic Esther Pirelli, sexual therapist and occasional actress. (77 mins.)

APRIL 5 SAT 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
FAMILY
DENMARK 2001
DIRECTORS: SAMI SAIF, PHIE AMBO “How can you miss someone you’ve never met? This nimble, expressive film beautifully captures both the weighty obligation and the sweet lightness of family lost and regained. Following the death of his mother and the tragic loss of his brother, Danish filmmaker Sami Saif and co-director and cinematographer Phie Ambo (also Saif’s partner at the time) decide to search for Sami’s father,who abandoned his family when Sami was a child. He has been meaning to find his father for four years, but has readily deferred to more pleasant pursuits—going to the beach, for instance.
Launching with a tour-de-force segment—a series of raw, evasive and startling phone calls in which Sami traces his father to Yemen—his journey is, as one relative quietly suggests it will be, ‘a nice surprise.’ Indeed, the storytelling here is terrific, suspenseful but unforced and, pushing beyond the personal to the universal, this absorbing documentary strikes complex and contradictory emotional chords.”—TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL.
(90 mins.)

APRIL 6 SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
TANGO CABARET
FINLAND 2001
DIRECTOR: PEKKA LEHTO Finnish icon, dancer and member of Parliament Aira Samulin wants to perform a revue which will tell her life story; a sleazy producer wants to produce a money-making cabaret. The dance between the two provides Pekka Lehto the opportunity to fashion a Fellini-esque mixture of documentary and musical revue. This fictionalized life of Aira Samulin, former Finnish beauty queen, tango dancer, and pop-culture treasure. After 50 years in the limelight and a reputation as an ambassador of joy, Aira, now a dance teacher in her 90s, is still a long legged, hip-hop lady with the spirit and beauty of a teenager. She just wants the to share some of the tragedy of her life as a war refuge and a victim of violence, not to become a mere night-club spectacle. (90 mins.)

--