School of Film Reunion
Thursday, August 26, 8 p.m.
Hotel deLuxe (SW 15th & Yamhill)

If you are among the 20,000 individuals who have enrolled in a Northwest Film Center class, workshop, or visiting artist seminar since they first began in the early 1970s, come on out for this special night in the TOP DOWN film series. The evening begins at 8 p.m. with a little live music, spectacular city views, mingling with faculty, staff, and interns, and spirited casual conversation about the meaning of life as a student of the cinema (past or present). Gracie’s Restaurant will offer easy-to-juggle meals, snacks, and cocktails, and additional beverages will be available from TAZO Tea and MacTarnahan’s Brewing. What better way to reflect on the growth and maturation of the Portland film community than to join other alums for a rooftop screening of Gus Van Sant’s TO DIE FOR, which starts as the sun sets (9-9:30 p.m.). Bring your stories, reflections, and favorite portable chair or blanket, but please, no pets or outside food or drink.

FREE FOR ENROLLED STUDENTS; $8 GENERAL ADMISSION

School of Film Open House
Wednesday, September 1, 7 p.m.
934 SW Salmon Street

Prospective students are invited to attend this informative evening program about the School of Film and the opportunities it presents for hands-on learning, coursework toward a college degree (in partnership with our higher education partners), and exposure to regional and national independent filmmakers and visiting artists affiliated with the Film Center’s year-round exhibition program. Hear from faculty advisors, cooperative program representatives, and registration specialists, and see some short films made by School of Film students. Receive further information on Fall Term offerings before registering. Parents are also welcome. Participation is by pre-registration only. Please call 503-221-1156 to reserve a space.

FREE

Drop-in Tours
Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. + Every Thursday, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
934 SW Salmon Street

Want to explore what the Film Center has to offer, but at a time other than the Open House on September 1. Our education staff welcomes visitors at the above times for a walk-through of the facility, discussion about our course offerings and Certificate Program opportunities, cross-enrollment with higher education institutions, and advice on specific class listings. Drop in or phone ahead (503-221-1156) to say you’re coming. Parents are welcome, as are prospective students at all levels.

FREE

Sisters in Cinema
Monday, September 13, 6:30 p.m.
934 SW Salmon Street

Women filmmakers of all experience levels, genres, and specialties are invited to these informal evenings hosted by the Film Center School of Film. Bring a story to share, a completed work or work-in-progress to show (clips for longer works, please), or just sit back and listen as experiences and observations are freely shared and connections are made among kindred souls. Those with work to show should contact Pam by 5 p.m., Friday, September 10 (classes@nwfilm.org, 503-221-1156 x25).

FREE

Faculty Hosted Screening
Thursday, September 16, 8 p.m.

FACULTY PRESENTER: BUSHRA AZZOUZ
SANS SOLEIL
FRANCE, 1982
DIRECTOR: CHRIS MARKER

A complex journey into time and memory, Marker’s free-form travelogue roams from Africa to Japan, guided by fluid associative editing and an unnamed narrator. One of cinema’s most compelling essayists, Marker’s dizzying juxtapositions bounce around the globe like a pinball: a woman’s smile on the Cape Verde Islands, guerilla warfare in Guinea Bissau, a volcanic eruption in Iceland, a recherché of Hitchcock’s VERTIGO locations in San Francisco... Marker dissolves the distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, his “documentary” constantly verging off into a dream state full of dislocated cultures.

Tonight we welcome School of Film faculty member Bushra Azzouz to share her perspective on one of the classics of personal cinema. “I have always been deeply moved by the film’s exploration of the experiential poetics of being, culture, and cinema—how its images and sounds reconstitute themselves into new relationships, layers, and meanings.”—BA. (100 mins.)

Sponsored by Willamette International Travel.

Faculty Hosted Screening
Sunday, September 19, 7 p.m.

FACULTY PRESENTER: ANDY BLUBAUGH
CAMERA BUFF
POLAND, 1979
DIRECTOR: KRZYSTOF KIESLOWSKI

Tonight we welcome School of Film instructor and filmmaker Andy Blubaugh (HELLO THANKS, SCAREDYCAT) to introduce one of his favorite films, which happens to be about filmmaking. “Filip (Jerzy Stuhl), a factory worker, purchases a movie camera to film his wife and daughter. But when he instead turns his lens on the greater world around him, he earns a modicum of acclaim as a filmmaker that threatens the very life he sought to document for posterity. In light of the tangled storylines and obtuse themes of Kieslowki’s later THREE COLORS TRILOGY, CAMERA BUFF appears quaintly simple, and the theme of the film—that an artist’s obligations to his art and to the people he loves are often in direct opposition—is nothing new. But set against the bleak backdrop of Communist Poland, the exhilaration that Filip sees in the potential of his future—as new father and then as filmmaker—is especially palpable, as is his heartbreak when that future begins to crumble.”—AB. (117 mins.)

Sponsored by Pro Photo Supply.

Faculty Hosted Screening
Wednesday, September 22, 7 p.m.

FACULTY PRESENTER: SUE ARBUTHNOT
BADLANDS
US, 1973
DIRECTOR: TERRENCE MALICK

Tonight we welcome School of Film faculty member Sue Arbuthnot to introduce one of her favorite films. “Modeled loosely on mass murderer Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Fugate’s 1950s shooting spree across the Midwest, Malick’s stark, unsettling, yet poetic rendering offers a meditation on mid-century love and crime with a droll, existential twist. Malick paints a spare, unsentimental, yet gorgeous visual world, through which Kit and Holly (Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek) meet and flee after Kit kills Holly’s disapproving father. What might not be expected, and what is rarely noted, is that Malick’s first-film masterpiece is often very funny, thanks to brilliant writing and acting. As with later work, such as DAYS OF HEAVEN and THE THIN RED LINE, Malick combines lyricism and violence and creates precisely drawn, often alienated characters. The timeless BADLANDS is far more daydream than morality play and leaves a lingering, satisfying impression.”—SA. (94 mins.)

The Young People's Film Festival Presents: Short Films by and for Kids
Sunday, September 26, 1 p.m.
Whitsell Auditorium

For nearly 35 years, the Film Center’s annual Young People’s Film Festival has celebrated the next generation of regional filmmakers—children and teens in grades K-12 from throughout the Northwest states—by showcasing their work on the big and small screen. The program features this year’s show-stoppers produced by kids 12 and under, gleaned from hundreds of entries by a jury of media artists and educators. As inspiration to budding artists of all ages and in recognition of the rich resources of the Northwest film community, the program also includes short films created specifically for young audiences and families by Northwest filmmakers. MAKE WOW is supported in part by the Oregon Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. (60 mins.)

FREE

Certifiably Yours: New Films from the School of Film
Sunday, October 24, 7 p.m.
Whitsell Auditorium

Join us as we screen and celebrate the achievements of this year’s matriculating School of Film Certificate Program students and acknowledge the faculty, staff, family, and friends who have supported them. Advised by faculty members Bushra Azzouz and Sue Arbuthnot, the filmmakers will present the short films created as the culminating effort of their studies in the School of Film. The works include Luke Zettler’s THE PROJECTIONISTS, a documentary of today’s film exhibitors as they become the obsolete milkmen of tomorrow; Liz Lewis’ JOANNE & ALLAN, a story of love and abortion; Evan Stroum’s ASTRAY, about the unintended effects of GPS navigation; Diane Michael’s TEACHER TIME, a meditation on teachers’ relation to the demands of time; Jared Liebenau’s FLOATERS, a story of life changes after a bad case of vision spots; Jeffrey Richardson’s DRILL, a documentary about the Oregon National Guard preparing for the unimaginable, one weekend per month; Scott Braucht’s MEL & KATE, a story of letting go and starting over again; and Charles Calabria’s MOMENT TO MOMENT, the profile of a concentration camp survivor and his antidote for hard times. (100 mins.)

FREE