Results tagged “nwff”

NUCLEAR WASTELANDS: And they're in Washington! Tonight is your last chance to see lauded local doc Arid Lands, winner of the Best Film award at the 2008 Local Sightings Festival. The film explores the economic, environmental, and social impacts of, well, Hanford, the superfund site to end all superfund sites, replete with leaking nuclear waste containers, buried train cars full of radioactive animal poo, and countless other horrors of the nuclear era.

CLEANUP IN REACTOR B: Oh Hanford. In the '40s, Southeast Washington's Columbia Basin was a burgeoning industrial center, thanks to plutonium production as part of the Manhattan Project. Spoiler alert: There are future repercussions. As the winner of Best Film at last year's Local Sightings Film Festival, Grant Aaker and Josh Wallaert's documentary Arid Lands explores the many facets of the nuclear cleanup and the myriad players--Native Americans, farmers, developers, activists, fishermen, and scientists--in the community. The film plays at the NWFF through Thursday.

WAYZGOOSE!: We swear no geese are involved (or will be harmed) during Saturday's 8th Annual Letterpress Wayzgoose, a day to creatively honor the letterpress; expect demos, shop tours, and cool designs. Make sure not to miss the Steamroller Letterpress Smackdown! There is nothing cooler than blending the letterpress traditions of the 17th century with the 21st century techniques, design, and horsepower. You'll watch design teams create a poster and then try printing it with a two-ton steamroller, used in place of the traditional printing press.

CHILEAN NIGHT FEVER: It's Santiago in 1978, and even in the suffocating midst of the oppressive Pinochet regime, all that Raul wants to do is dance. Despite being middle-aged, the main character of Pablo Larraín's second film fantasizes that he's John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and performs his disco dance moves at the local bar. But soon Raul's fantasy becomes an obsession, especially after it's announced that there will be a Tony Manero impersonation contest throughout all of Chile. Tony Manero plays at the NWFF through Thursday.

WHERE DOES CREATIVITY COME FROM?: For a city filled with a decent amount of creatives, advertising folks, and clients that always want the Big Idea, newest movie Art & Copy is a must see. The film, created by acclaimed documentary director Doug Pray (Hype!, Scratch, Big Rig), riffles through the minds of the ad industry's most creative and iconic product pushers. After tonight's 7:00 p.m. showing, select Seattle creatives and ad folks will host a discussion panel about the film.

COOLEST PARTY IN TOWN: Tonight's the night when Cap to the Hill throws their $10K party in the parking lot of Havana. To back up and explain, Creature, a Capitol Hill ad agency, had a contest last month to find someone who could throw a really awesome, $10K party to produce material for a JanSport campaign. Cap to the Hill won, and now they're having a party celebrating the old Pine St. corridor, when the Bus Stop, Bimbo's, and the Cha Cha were all destinations. That said, the party's not open to the public, just to 400 or so of Cap to the Hill's closest friends, so you can either beg them, or turn up and hope someone's got a +1 for you.

TIME WARP: Third Eye Cinema and the Northwest Film Forum present Time Machine, with Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat. The two will be traveling through the past, present, and future via spoken word, video performance, 35mm slides, and good old scratchy records. Discover Real-Time rendering, Quartz, and Max patches as Gruffat steers you through the strange world of digital and analog hyperspace. If your girlfriend or wife has been on you to go see The Time Traveler's Wife, this may be a good distraction...the book is always better anyway.

We were at the Northwest Film Forum last night--Throw Down Your Heart, the Béla Fleck banjo-across-Africa documentary ends tomorrow night--and executive director Lyall Bush came out with a tip jar, asking for $35,000. That sounds like a lot, but just a little while ago it was $70,000. So they are halfway, but August 15th is almost here. If you haven't given yet (suggested donation is actually $10, if you don't have the whole $35,000), think about donating or getting a membership.

MY LIFE IS A MUSICAL: Regular karaoke not enough of a challenge for you? Head to the Rendezvous tonight for Cineoke, in which you sing along to your favorite scenes from musicals. Warm up with some Chicago, belt out The Sound of Music, and soon you'll be Singing in the Rain. Don't forget the jazz hands. 7-9:30 p.m. // Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater // 2322 2nd Ave // $5, 21+

GUN HAPPY: Why the hell was everything so fucked up back in 1969? We ask that question every time we check out one of the films from NW Film Forum's '69 series. Tonight is your second and final chance to see the notorious Dillinger is Dead, from Italian auteur Marco Ferreri, about a man who finds a gun that allows him to act out his fantasies and escape and the soul-crushing construct of middle-class society.

PIZZA, COMEDY, AND KIDDOS: This month's Pagliacci comedy night is headlined by Derek Sheen, known for his heavy metal, pop culture, sci-fi, and comic book humor. Hellooooo, nerds! While usual host PRoK's Emmett Montgomery is enjoying his honeymoon, Paul Merrill takes over MC duties, and joining Paul on stage are his two sons Charlie (3) and James (9). Because nothing says comedy like some dude's kids. 8 p.m. // Broadway Pagliacci Pizza // 426 Broadway Ave E // free

THE ONE THAT MAKES YA FEEL ALRIGHT: We don't need to notify you that today is Crue Fest 2. Undoubtedly you are already on your way to White River, wearing your finest American flag halter top and blasting "Girls, Girls, Girls." We know you are very excited for Motley Crue (set to play Dr. Feelgood in its entirety), along with Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Theory of a Deadman, and Charm City Devils, especially if they all collaborate on a live performance of the Crue's new single "White Trash Circus." Yes, it is a rawk dream come true, and yes, the only thing better than tonight's show is the upcoming Poison and Def Leppard doubleheader. 5 p.m. // White River Amphitheatre // 40601 Auburn Enumclaw Rd SE, Auburn WA // $16.50-$95

WALKING ON THE MOON: The Northwest Film Forum keeps on 69ing with their screenings this week of Downhill Racer and Camille 2000. As a lovely coincidence, 1969 was also the year that Neil Armstrong did his giant leap for mankind. As such, the NWFF is well within their purview to show footage of the moon landing tonight as part of their 69 film series. A screening of the original television broadcast starts at 7 p.m., followed by a montage of major NASA events leading up to and including the landing, stitched together love by local filmmaker and sound artist Joe Milutis. 7 p.m. // Northwest Film Forum // 1515 12th Ave. // $9

Design geeks, jot a note on your Helvetica fonted calendar: If you didn't make the weeklong run of Objectified at the Northwest Film Forum--its last showing is at 7 p.m. tonight--you'll have another chance come August. The NWFF just announced that Gary Hustwit's documentary on how everyday items around us came to be will return for one more weekend in August. There'll be two showings a night the 14th-16th.

DESIGN GEEK HEAVEN: Early on in Gary Hustwit's documentary about design, Andrew Blauvelt reveals why Japanese-style toothpicks have those two grooves at the top. And no, it's not because they look pretty. With that, the film snagged our trivia-loving heart. Hustwit presses on to explore the psychology, philosophy, sociology, history, and several other -ys of design. It's never less than fascinating. If you ever think about the mass-produced stuff around you, don't miss Objectified. 7 p.m. & 9 p.m. // Northwest Film Forum // 1515 12th Ave. // $9

GET STIMULATED: All this week, through Saturday July 18th, it's the second annual Seattle City Stimulus, which encourages residents to spend money at small local businesses. Fill out the form to get your membership card, which affords you discounts at all kinds of establishments. Eat, drink, and shop your way around town--IT'S FOR THE ECONOMY! All week long // Participating businesses // prices vary

• For the fans who missed out on the Michael Jackson memorial, tonight at 8:00, a music video medley and tribute will be shown celebrating the King of Pop at the Northwest Film Forum. Online tickets are sold out, but there should be still a few available at the door.
• Photos have surfaced from the Fisher Building fire and power outage that knocked out KOMO, Bing Travel, and even Allrecipes.com right before the big holiday weekend. We can only imagine the panicked and pissed off home cooks without their Fourth of July recipes.

(via PubliCola) We were just reminded that French New Waver J-L Godard's tribute to The Big Sleep and sociocultural criticism, Made in the U.S.A., is half-price ($4.50) at the Northwest Film Forum tonight (7, 9 p.m.). Hard to say no to that, especially since you won't see it anywhere but in a theater. The New York Times--you wouldn't argue with an old gray lady, would you?--says, "Godard’s ultimate statement about his love/hate for the aesthetics/politics of American movies/life is an event to be savored and celebrated." (Mondays--if you were as unaware as we were until just minutes ago--are Happy Mondays at NWFF, and you can get tickets at the box office for half-price.)

HOME ALONE: Poor little Korean kids. In So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain, two sisters (Jin, 6, and Bin, 4) must take care of each other after their mother leaves them to search for their estranged father. Parents of the Year all up in this piece! In this semi-autobiographical tale (whuuuuuuut?), things move slowly and tenderly while the children are left to their own devices and struggle to adapt to the new status quo. Treeless Mountain plays twice a night at the NWFF through Thursday. 7 p.m., 9 p.m. // Northwest Film Forum // 1515 12th Ave. // $9

BURLESQUE ON THE BIG SCREEN: Northwest Film Forum will be showing A Wink and a Smile only until the 21st, so if you're interested in learning more about the lives of some of Seattle's finest burlesque dancers, we encourage you to get out and see it before it's too late! The documentary follows ten ordinary women attending Miss Indigo Blue's six-week program at the Seattle Academy of Burlesque, where they are transformed from their daily lives into beautiful bombshells who are not afraid to show off their skills and new-found empowerment.

PARTY DOWN FOR CHINATOWN: The ID Spring Roll is big food-filled fun times at the SoDo that raises money for SCIDpda, the International District's community development group. Featuring all kinds of Pan-Asian food (hello, spring-roll eating contest!), live music, martial arts, raffles/door prizes, and breakdancing care of the Massive Monkees, this ain't no boring charity event. Sign us up for at least 30 spring rolls.

Saturday, May 9th, the Northwest Film Forum teams up with 826 Seattle to present a special screening of Away We Go, the latest film by Sam Mendes. The movie will be in theaters June 5th, but this sneak-peek will be at the Harvard Exit with Dave Eggers (who wrote the screenplay along with his author wife Vendela Vida) on-hand for a post-film Q&A. Away We Go is your basic coming-of-age road-trip thing, except this time around the people coming of age are a mid-30s couple (John Krasinksi and Maya Rudolph) expecting their first child. So their misadventure-laden journey is not just about finding themselves, it's also about finding the best place for their family. What is the meaning of home? And so on and so forth.

SO HUNGRY: Head to the Northwest Film Forum for Steve McQueen (not to be confused with Steve McQueen) and his first feature Hunger (not to be confused with The Hunger). Instead of sexy vampires, the film's about the true-life hunger strike undertaken by jailed members of the Irish Republican Army, who just wanted to be treated as political prisoners rather than common criminals. While the politics of the film--does it glorify terrorists?--are debatable, McQueen's skills as a director are not; he's got a fine eye and a commendable patience with the camera. There's not much talking in the film, which leaves plenty of time for surprisingly lovely images (see the lonely inmate making friends with the fly in his cell), except for one virtuoso seventeen-minute single-take conversation/debate between a prisoner and a priest, which could've used subtitles, as we don't speak Leprechaun. Hunger runs through Thursday.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the Northwest Film Forum premieres Ashes of American Flags in advance of the film's DVD release at the end of the month. It's Wilco's first concert documentary, thereby differentiating the film from I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, the band's first near-implosion-while-making-their-most-acclaimed-album documentary. Ashes of American Flags follows the band along their 2008 tour, as they play "five quintessentially American venues: Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, The Mobile AL Civic Center, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. Between performances, we see the country’s landscapes drift by and get to know the people behind the music." As long as it features Jeff Tweedy self-deprecating and be-sweatered, we're happy.

QUEER AS...: Northwest Film Forum and Three Dollar Bill Cinema have gotten together for a new series running all April on Thursdays at the Forum: God Save the Queens, a four-week retrospective on British queer cinema. Tonight, it's , a 1964 biker movie about gay romance amongst working class Brits. Originally commissioned as a novel about a "Romeo and Romeo in the South London suburbs," the story was substantially tamed down for filming, but still violated the Hollywood Production Code (it was one of the earliest films to be screened in the U.S. despite that fact).

OINK OINK, AUUGHHHH!: The NWFF is screening Pig Hunt (an apparently awesome horror movie) today as part of the launch for a new online culture magazine called The Rumpus. That sounds like a good time all around the block, literally, because you can go drink and eat at Vermillion before and after the movie and magazine launch.

As the yearlong 69 film series soldiers on, tonight is your last chance to see one of Francis Ford Coppola's first films, The Rain People.

We disagree with both the Stranger's and Metblog's takes on Made in America. This Crips and Bloods documentary by skater-cum-filmmaker Stacy Peralta is amateurish at best, with some not-so-subtle use of graphics (a target on MLK because he's being hunted by The Man, really?) and seriously convoluted storytelling. The only section in the film that really grabbed us was the Watts Riots, where Peralta finally put all his archival footage to good use; comparatively, the Rodney King Riots were given short shrift---and don't even get us started on the final montage of people crying. After the last screenings at the Film Forum tonight, Made in America will show again, free (with RSVP) at SIFF Cinema May 2nd. So for your money's worth, we kindly direct you to one of the other films on the NWFF bill: The Wild Bunch is Peckinpah's orgy of cowboy outlaw violence, all in the name of being bestest friends ever.