DESIGN FILM PRESENTS:
OPENERS: 12 THEN AND 12 NOW
MARCH 11 FRI 7 PM GUILD THEATRE — VISITING LECTURER
If the commercials are sometimes the equal of the television programs that surround them, so too are the opening title sequences for many feature films. David Peters, the founder and director of Design Film in San Francisco, has researched thousands of films to create an extensive collection of title sequences and short films on design that span the history of cinema—and tonight offers a fascinating survey of classic works from the 1960s to outstanding work from the early 1990s, including sequences by such famed designers as Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro and innovative new talents such as Imaginary Forces, Picture Mill and Blind. A rich exploration of the evolution of the art form and the creativity behind some of the most dramatic and engaging passages in the history of cinema. (120 mins.) Co-sponsored by the Portland Chapter of AIGA/The American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Special Admission: $10 general; $7 members; $5 students.

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CINEMA TROPICAL:
BOLIVAR I AM
COLOMBIA 2002 DIRECTOR: JORGE ALI TRIANA
MARCH 12 13 SAT 7 & 9 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
In this historic satire, Santiago Miranda (Robinson Díaz) is a soap opera star who portrays Simón Bolívar, the great South American general and liberator. When Santiago finds too many discrepancies between the script and reality, he storms off the show, vowing to rewrite the remaining episodes so they more accurately reflect history. Obsessed to the point of delusion, he believes that he is actually an incarnation of Bolívar himself, and attempts to complete Bolívar's unfulfilled dream of creating La Gran Colombia, a unified state of five Latin American countries. Director Jorge Alí Triana, by ironically looking to the past, reveals the conflicted Latin America of today.
(93 mins.)

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CINEMA TROPICAL:
LOCO FEVER
CHILE 2001 DIRECTOR: ANDREA WOOD
APRIL 17 18 SUN 2PM GUILD THEATRE, MON 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM (Change in Venue)
Set in a breathtaking landscape of a remote coastal town in Patagonia, LOCO FEVER tells the comical and moving story of an infectious fever that temporarily contaminates southern Chile. When the authorities briefly lift a ban on fishing the loco, a shellfish with aphrodisiac powers-divers, fishermen, dealers, businessmen and prostitutes all descend to a small fishing village in search of this endangered delicacy, which is also highly sought after by Japanese epicures. The mood of this sleepy town becomes frantic, with everyone trying to cash in on the loco catch. "A colorful, amusingly observed tale of love, lust, greed and free-trade chaos, handsomely shot in knockout locations. . .Wood's (PIFF hit MACHUCA) assured employment of the spirited ensemble of well-played characters within a vividly drawn, microscopic world (at times recalling vintage Robert Altman) keeps the earthily human comedy enjoyable." - David Rooney, VARIETY. (94 mins.)

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CINEMA TROPICAL:
SEXUAL DEPENDENCY
MAY 15 16 SUN 7 PM, MON 7 PM GUILD THEATRE
BOLIVIA/US 2003 DIRECTOR: RODRIGO BELLOTT
Five different teenagers in the U.S. and Bolivia strive to make sense of their sexuality, revealing what is universal about the human experience. These characters from diverse backgrounds—a rich stud, a poor Bolivian school girl, a Colombian boy visiting his Bolivian cousin, an African American college student and a secretly gay football player/model—have nothing in common except the desire to experience true intimacy. Their stories unfold and overlap as they become victims of their own sexual dependencies, self-perceptions and illusions. With unusual vitality and immediacy, director Rodrigo Bellott structures stories around issues of gender, rape and sexuality in which the characters struggle with their identities, reaching for ideals that represent everything they feel they are supposed to be, but are not. Winner of the Critic’s Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, this stylistically ambitious film—Bellott uses a split-screen throughout—is the first Bolivian release since 1997. “The strongest film of the AFI Fest… [it] has the passion and scope of AMORES PERROS and Y TU MAMA TAMBIÉN.”—Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES. “The Bolivian TITANIC is a courageous examination of machismo eloquently expressed.”—Ana Maria de la Fuente, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL (105 mins.)

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BEYOND THE SEA
US/CUBA 2003 DIRECTOR: LISANDRO PEREZ-REY
JUNE 11 12 SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM GUILD THEATRE
It began with a bus crashing through the gates of an embassy in Havana and unraveled into one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of human migrations. As Fidel Castro briefly allowed Cubans to leave the island, nearly 130,000 of them left their homeland in an unrelenting stream of vessels bound for America. 25 years later, the personal stories surrounding the Mariel Boatlift continue to resonate with an energy that can only be described as surreal and powerful. Weaving together these riveting stories along with rare historical images and footage from present-day Cuba, this film recreates this "explosion of 1980," a crisis that shook the very foundations of Cuban as well as American society. With unprecedented access to archival material, and numerous interviews with “murielitos,” Pérez-Rey constructs the most complete work to date on the infamous Mariel Boatlift.
“Impressive both for effectively documenting the scope of the exodus and for capturing its participants’ disparate tales, “BEYOND THE SEA manages to be at once historically elucidating and personally compelling.”—(80 mins.)

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OPEN SCREENING
MARCH 24 THUR 7 PM GUILD THEATRE
If you have a new work you’d like to share, send an email with the title, running time (15 minute max.), format and brief description to andrew@nwfilm.org and we’ll put you in the program. It is a first-come, first-screened evening. Admission is free and you never know what you might see!

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OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS
MARCH 18 19 20 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
You would have liked to have seen these films before you had to fill out your Oscar ballot. Come see what you voted for.

GUARD DOG
DIRECTOR: BILL PLYMPTON US 2004
Why do dogs bark at such innocent creature as pigeons and squirrels... what are they afraid of? This film answers that eternal question. (5 mins.)

BIRTHDAY BOY
KOREA 2004 DIRECTOR: SEJONG PARK
Too young to realize its consequences, a little Korean boy plays at war while his father fights at the front. (10 mins.)

RYAN
CANADA 2004 DIRECTOR: CHRIS LANDRETH
Ryan Larkin, one of the most influential figures in Canadian animation, now lives on skid row following years of drug and alcohol abuse. (14 mins.)

GOPHER BROKE
US 2004 DIRECTOR: JEFF FOWLER
A hungry gopher devises a scheme that he hopes will provide him with a tasty snack. (5 mins.)

TWO CARS,ONE NIGHT
NEW ZEALAND 2004 DIRECTORS: TAIKA WAITITI, AINSLEY GARDINER
As they wait for their parents in the parking lot of a motel bar, two boys and a girl begin a tentative friendship. (13 mins.)

7:35 IN THE MORNING
SPAIN 2004 DIRECTOR: NACHO VIGALONDO
A woman enters the café where she has breakfast every morning and finds that all of the other diners are staring at their plates in silence. (8 mins.)

WASP
AUSTRALIA DIRECTOR: ANDREA ARNOLD
Zoe is 23 years old and already the mother of four children. A chance meeting with an old flame offers her a temporary escape from her bleak life. (23 mins.)

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POSTMAN IN THE MOUNTAINS
CHINA 2004 DIRECTOR: JIANQI HUO
MARCH 25 26 27 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
Winner of China’s Golden Rooster Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor as well as earning Best Film at the Montréal Film Festival, POSTMAN has won over critics and audiences around the world. The unnamed postman has delivered mail all his life in the remote mountains of Hunan Province. With poor health forcing his retirement he takes his son on his final journey, the 112-mile, perilous walk provides not only a chance to impart the route and the job, but also the opportunity to forge a reflective new bond. Gorgeous cinematography and touching performances combined to tell a story of the power of family and the beauty and solitude of a striking landscape. (134 mins.)

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NOTRE MUSIQUE
FRANCE 2004 DIRECTOR: JEAN-LUC GODARD
APRIL 1 2 3 FRI 8:45 PM, SAT 8:45 PM, SUN 5 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
In his provocative new film, Godard uses Dante’s Inferno as a point of departure as he muses on the challenge of living in the madness of the contemporary world.Structuring his it as a film in three parts—Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, Notre Musique is a mixture of essay, voice-over, autobiographical asides, documentary footage and fiction arrayed in symphonic fashion. Hell is a montage of war footage augmented with quotations on truth and death; Purgatory finds Godard in Sarajevo at a literary conference, talking with an Israeli journalist, a Palestinian poet, and an assortment of Jews and Americans holding his own a masterclass on language and image; and for Paradise, Godard offers an American military base. “Hardcore Godardians will want to bring a notepad, but everyone will relish a provocative, complex film proving that Godard, in his sixth decade of film-making, has lost none of his pugnacious invention nor his formidable intellectual curiosity about the state of the world.”—London Film Festival. (80mins)

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THE LAND HAS EYES
FIJI 2003 DIRECTOR: VILSONI HERENIKO
APRIL 8 FRI 7:30 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
The first feature film set in, and directed by a native of the Fiji islands (the small island of Rotuma, population 2,500), THE LAND HAS EYES takes place in director Hereniko's childhood, just before Fiji’s 1970 independence from the United Kingdom. Viki, a poor young girl shamed by her villagers because of false criminal charges made by the British authorities against her father, is determined to clear her family name. Rejecting the prevailing colonial Christian values, her inspiration is the mythical figure of the Warrior Woman (Rena Owen, ONCE WERE WARRIORS) who gives Viki the power she needs to overcome injustice and find her own personal freedom. Hereniko’s film is rich with gentle wisdom, cultural insight and the spirit reflected in the island saying “that the land has eyes and teeth, and the land knows the truth.” (87 mins.) Tonight we welcome the producer of the film, former Portlander Jeannette Paulson.

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32nd STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS REGIONAL FINALS
APR 28 THUR 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
For 31 years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has bestowed special awards upon films produced by students. Although some of the filmmakers have just barely finished school, many of these works rival in talent and production quality anything that Hollywood has to offer. The films selected in tonight's round of judging will join finalists from the rest of the country for the final selection and awards at the Samual Goldwyn Theatre in Hollywood. An opportunity to witness the next Spike Lee, Trey Parker, and Robert Zemekis—all former Student Academy Award winners—before they hit it big. FREE ADMISSION

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THE BEST OF OTTAWA 2004
MAY 6 7 8 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
The Best of Ottawa is a rare opportunity to see outstanding new international animation. One of the premier events of its kind in the world, the Festival showcases short films, TV series and commercials, music videos, internet shorts and more. This year’s program highlights: Signal Film #1 and #3 (Éric Barbeau & Théodore Ushev, Canada), The Revolution of the Crabs (Arthur de Pins, France), Catch Me If You Can (Kuntzel & Deygas, US/UK), La Piccola Russia (Gianluigi Toccafondo, France/Italy), Saddam and Osama (David Wachtenheim, Robert Marianetti, US), Candy Venery (Sergey Aniskov, Russia/US), A Musical Shop (Sonya Kravtsova, Russia), The Shining In 30 Seconds, Re-enacted By Bunnies (Jennifer Shiman, US), Prudence ‘À Tort Ou À Raison' (Joris Clerte, France), Creature Comforts ‘Cats or Dogs?' (Richard Goleszowski, UK), Caisse D'Epargne ‘Les Triples' (Jean-Christophe Saurel, Sophie Deiss, France), A Room Nearby (Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger, US), This Land (Gregg Spiridellis & Evan Spiridellis, US), Son of Satan (JJ Villard, US). (100 mins.)

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SPIDER JOHN KOERNER
US 2005 DIRECTOR: DON MCGLYNN
MAY 13 FRI 7 PM GUILD THEATRE — VISITING ARTIST
Don McGlynn’s excellent documentaries on jazz and blues greats (Charles Mingus, Howlin’ Wolf, Dexter Gordon and Louie Prima) have been highlights of our annual Reel Music series. Tonight he premiers his latest work, a portrait of Minneapolis folk-blues legend Spider John Koerner. As fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan confirms, Koerner was not just a crony in the folk scene of the 1950s-60s, but a major inspiration whose influence extended to musicians as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, Beck, the Beatles, the Doors and the Rolling Stones. After emerging as one of the stars of the early ‘60s folk revival (with Dave Ray and Tony Glover), Koerner dedicated himself to strictly traditional folk music and in recent years has arrived at a fascinating mix of blues, folk and cosmic enlightenment. (100 mins.) Don McGlynn will introduce the film.

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THE BEST OF YOUTH
DIRECTOR: MARCO TULLIO GIORDANA
MAY 20 21 22 23 25 GUILD THEATRE
Produced for Italian television, THE BEST OF YOUTH was a major box-office hit in Italy after receiving great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival (also PIFF 27). Giordana’s extraordinary, Godfather-like, family chronicle offers a revealing and deeply touching look at 40 years (1960s–’90s) of social and political change that transformed a nation. Tracing the lives, loves and experiences of the middle-class Carati family in Rome, the film moves from labor strife in Turin to the flooding of Florence; from terrorist cells to mafia trials; from the economic boom to the revolution in mental health care. With a cast featuring many of Italy’s finest young actors, THE BEST OF YOUTH powerfully reveals the personal human dramas behind the ebb and flow of history, “with consummate skill, wit and emotion… epic, not because of its length (which flies by in a way that many two hour movies fail to do) but because of the depth and breadth of its subject matter and the scale of its achievement.”—SIGHT AND SOUND. (360 mins.) Presented in two, 3-hour parts with a 30-minute intermission.

Special Admission price: $10 (or single admission, $5). No discounted admission
Part I: Fri 4 pm, Sat 1 pm & 8 pm, Sun 4:30 pm, Mon 4 pm, wed 4 pm
Part II: fri 7:30 pm, sat 4:30 pm, sun 1 pm & 8 PM, mon 7:30 pm, wed 7:30 pm

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Cinema Project and Northwest Film Center present:
ME AND MY BROTHER
US 1965-68 DIRECTOR: ROBERT FRANCK
MAY 24 TUE 7:30 PM GUILD THEATRE
Robert Frank established himself as one of the most important figures in photography with the publication of his book The Americans (1958), and immediately following that gave up still images all together, turning to the cinema. Frank’s work in film and video explores the complexities of life and its truths, at once telling stories about the world around him while wholly exposing himself. “Me and My Brother, Frank’s first feature-length film, places documentary footage of poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Peter’s brother Julius within a fictional framework. Constantly delineating real and imaginary situations and moving back and forth between color and black and white, the film describes the inner and outer worlds of Julius, a catatonic, who silently observes the world around him.” —MFA Houston (91 mins.)

A selection of Frank’s later personal film and video, including the West Coast premiere of his newest video TRUE STORY, will screen at Cinema Project on May 25 and 26. www.cinemaproject.org.

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IN THE REALM OF THE UNREAL
US 2004 DIRECTOR: JESSICA YU
MAY 27 28 29 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
Jessica Yu's (BREATHING LESSONS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARK O'BRIEN) new film captures the haunting imprint of an extraordinary, ordinary man-legendary outsider artist Henry Darger (1892–1973). Reclusive Chicago janitor by day, visionary artist by night, Darger's left hundreds of paintings and watercolors, some 18' long, which were only discovered after he died. His"magnum opus"was a 15,000 page illustrated novel, which he worked on for 60 years, detailing the exploits of the Vivian Girls, seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against godless, child-enslaving men. Eschewing expert opinion, Yu employs vivid animation and narration to immerse us in Darger's enigmatic world, revealing extraordinary works which reverberate with universal themes: the search for meaning, control, connection, and moral direction. “Absorbing and exquisite.”—THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (81 mins.)

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LOST EMBRACE
ARGENTINA 2004 DIRECTOR: DANIEL BURMAN
MAY 27 28 29 30 FRI 7 & 9 PM, SAT 7 & 9 PM, SUN 5 & 7 PM, MON 7 PM
GUILD THEATRE
Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and this year's Argentine submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, LOST EMBRACE is set among the world of small time merchants in a Buenos Aires shopping mall. Ariel, somewhat of a slacker, works in his mother's lingerie shop in bustling community of Latin American, European, Asian and Jewish immigrants, each with a singular story and a shop full of goods for sale. Ariel's dream is to start a new life in Europe and search for the truth about his father, who never returned from the Yom Kippur War. The discovery of deep family secrets inspires a re examination of his strong immigrant roots and his relationship with his Polish songstress grandmother, seductive older mistress and his long-absentee father. Burman skillfully conjures up a world of engaging, colorful characters who pursue their humble dreams with gentle humor and an infectious generosity of spirit. "A film of unexpected, almost indescribable off-center charm that deepens as it goes on."—Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES

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MOOLAADÉ
SENEGAL 2004 DIRECTOR: OUSMANE SEMBENE
APRIL 29 30 MAY 1 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
The newest work by the octogenarian godfather of African cinema has been acclaimed as his masterpiece among a rich body of work. In a small village in West Africa, Collé is bothhonored and feared for her independent spirit. A new test comes when four little girls seek her protection after running away from the traditional salinde (circumcision ceremony). Collé, still haunted by the horrors of her own "purificiation" rites, notoriously refused to have her third daughter Asmatou circumcised. Asmatou now lives in shame as a bilakoro, an uncircumcised woman for whom marriage is a near impossibility. Collé declares moolaadé, creating an asylum in her compound that protects the girls and enters into a shocking standoff which pits female against male and progress against tradition. Sembene's gripping, courageous film ambitiously argues for the liberation of women as a basis of a progressive society. "The embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its finest."-A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES. (124 mins.)