JULY 15 THU 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
THE SKIN HORSE
US 2003
DIRECTORs: KAREN GOODMAN-HAWK, Tyrus Coursey Writer-director Karen Goodman-Hawk's debut feature is a slick film noir that begins in familiar crime drama territory but quickly leads us into a complex character study. John Young is a depressed cop and recovering alchoholic, floating through life and suspicious that his partner and girlriend are having an affair. Among his assignments is the case of Barry Greene (deftly played by Portland filmmaker Andrew Dickson), an amateur pornographer and creator of the "Skin Horse" videos featuring sexual encounters between strangers. As his partner pursues the traditional leads, John follows his instincts. Led by Harlan, a nighclub owner and definitive collector of Green's oevre, John delves deeper into a seedy sexual underworld, eventually succumbing to his desire for one of his suspects. Under cinematographer Randall Timmermans' influence, familiar Portland landmarks are framed as noirish iconography and the architecture of the city makes a stark, beautiful background for Goodman-Hawk's dark, brooding narrative. (90 mins)

JULY 17 SAT 2 PM
GUILD THEATRE
28th ANNUAL YOUNG PEOPLE'S FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
U.S. 2002-2004
Join us for this year's Winner's Program of film and video work created by youth grades K-12 living in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Many of the young mediamakers will be present in this free public program of shorts, animation and dramas and documentaries recognized for their originality, artistic merit, technical achievement or conviction in investigation of subject matter. The program also includes presentation of the Service to Young Filmmakers Award and announcement of this year's winners of the Northwest High School Screenwriting Competition.
(120 mins.) FREE ADMISSION

JULY 22 THU 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
UMATILLA
US 2003
DIRECTOR: R.J. MCHATTON In 1962, the small Eastern Oregon town of Umatilla became home to some of the most deadly chemical agents ever created. While the U.S. Army maintains that the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot is harmless and has a spotless safetly record, it does little to calm some of the town's residents, where the elementary school routinely fails its emergency drills and local fire and police authorities concede that they are not prepared to handle a major chemical disaster. Engineers have described scenarios in which munitions stored at the depot could self-ignite. A proposed solution, incincerating the chemicals, has been criticized by environmental experts as unsafe. As the debate rages the depot remains open and, in the eyes of many, a potential terrorist target if not the scene of a horrendous accident. Bend filmmaker RJ McMatton, whose grandfather worked at the Depot before his death, brings a personal angle to this portrait of a quiet town with an unwelcome resident. (93 mins)

JULY 29 THU 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
OPEN SCREENING
Our April Open Screening featured daring new works by some of Portland's up and coming media makers, including Steve Long's touching super-8 tribute to his newborn daughter, Sara Robbin's abstract meditation on all things round and Tara Zara's (A.K.A. Slinky) simultaneously hillarious and terrifying warning about the perils of self-help. Who knows what treasures will be uncovered at tonight's cinematic potluck. If you have work you'd like to show, send an e-mail (or letter) with your name, the title of your film, the running time (no longer than 15 minutes, please) and your preferred projection format to andrew@nwfilm.org. Films will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis. Admission to the program is free admission.

AUGUST 5 THU 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
CATCHING OUT
DIRECTOR: SARAH GEORGE Seattle filmmaker Sarah George's fascinating glimpse into a vanishing hobo subculture premiered at last year's Northwest Film & Video Festival and we're pleased to have it back after having screened earning critical acclaim throughout the country. CATCHING OUT looks at the lives of people that hop freight trains for a free ride or "catchout" in an era when declining service and increased security and survelliance threaten to end the vagabond art of riding the rails from town to town. With compelling footage of trains hurtling through expansive stretches of the American landscape (much of it through the Northwest) George follows the lives of four main characters: Lee, a seasoned ecoactivist and adventurer; Jessica, a young and perennial nomad; and Switch and Baby Girl, whose wanderlust must give way to the realities of a new baby. As they and other contemporary train-hoppers navigate between the constraints of society and the freedom of the road, they provide a "sure signs that the pioneer spirit still flickers in pockets of TV-wired America. . . an absorbing, picturesque group portrait."-Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES. (88 mins.)

AUGUST 26 THU 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
REALITY AND REDEMPTION:
AN EVENING WITH
BILL DANIELS AND VANESSA RENWICK
Cornerstones of the Portland experimental film community, Daniels and Renwick's latest of cinematic collaborations offer personal perspectives of life in these times that range from the allergorical to the expository. Outside the theatre will be Daniel's PONDER YONDER (2004)—a 1965 Chevy Van altered to resemble a 2-masted gaff-rigger schooner, upon which is projected a documentary/essay on low-down survival strategies in a world of ecologic and economic collapse. Inside the theatre, Renwick will present HOPE AND PREY (2004), her 3-projector examination of life at the top of the food chain and BRITTON, SD (2003), a found-footage assemblage of depression-era home movies that won Best Experimental FIlm at the 30th Northwest Film & Video Festival. Also featured will be Travis Wilkerson's NATIONAL ARCHIVES (2003), a film composed of public domain footage of U.S. bombing runs over Vietnam. (90 mins.)