Northwest Film Forum: Highlights!

 

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FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL Northwest Film Forum July 17, 2024 – Programming Overview Screener requests can be directed to Paul Siple. QUICK-LOOK HIGHLIGHTS: July 17–19, 21 Critically lauded, Lily Gladstone-starring, Lynn Shelton "Of a Certain Age" Grant-receiving, all-around gem of a film Fancy Dance! July 10 – Aug. 4 Four films from Ukrainian-born Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko, master craftsman of folkloric fantasy film and Zeman-esque special effects wizard July 20 & 21 With gratitude to Jonathan Marlow, Canyon Cinema, Glenn Fox, and Interbay Cinema Society: A rare opportunity to see Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler's films in Seattle! Twenty-five shorts, spread across five screenings in two days, shown on beautiful 16mm at 18fps (for maximum hypnotic effect). Each of the five programs features one additional guest filmmaker's work: Margaret Rorison, Sophie Michaels, Christopher Harris, Paul Clipson and Maïa Cybelle Carpenter. July 24 at 7pm The People's Joker returns for one night only, with a special ceremony celebrating the marriage of director Vera Drew and The Joker. Aug. 3 & 4 A documentary screening about + performance by (twice! both nights!) the perpetually inspiring audiovisual technocollage artists Negativland and SUE-C. Negativland is a nearly 50-year project at this point; they've been deconstructing the concept of exclusive ownership in our increasingly complex multimediaverse since 1978. Aug. 10 & 11 The Seattle Arab Film Festival returns to NWFF with ten remarkable films for the price of one, highlighting stories from the Arab world and the US, with a particular emphasis on Palestine. July 10 – Aug. 4 Four Fantasy Films from Aleksandr Ptushko, 1956-1972 For over a century, Russia has embraced the creative challenges of some of the most visually rich genres in cinema – science fiction, fantasy, and horror – producing stunningly beautiful, entertaining movies whose remarkable special effects often preceded their American equivalents. Director Aleksandr Ptushko (1900-1973) was a pioneer in this tradition who began his career in the 1930s. With singular artistic inventiveness, Ptushko became a Soviet foil to Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Mario Bava as he created dazzling, bejeweled fantasies including such groundbreaking films as The Stone Flower, Sadko, Sampo, and Ruslan & Ludmila. Through the collaboration of Mosfilm, Deaf Crocodile, and Seagull Films, these four classics from Ptushko have been recently restored and released in the U.S. as a Blu-ray box set. July 10–14 | The Sword and the Dragon (Ilya Muromets) July 17–21 | The Day the Earth Froze (Sampo) July 26–28 | The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Skazka o Tsare Saltane) Aug. 2–4 | Ruslan and Ludmila (Ruslan i Lyudmila) Saturday & Sunday, Aug. 3 & 4 6:45pm | Stand by for Failure: A Documentary About Negativland 9pm | Negativland & SUE-C live: "We Can Really Feel Like We're Here" Documentary screening + live performance ABOUT THE SHOW: Legendary sound collage group Negativland and “real-time cinema” visual artist SUE-C collaborate to bring you their latest audio-visual performance about our minds, our realities, and the evolving forms of media and technology that orchestrate our perceptions as we head into our next election: WE CAN REALLY FEEL LIKE WE’RE HERE. Negativland performs with video designed and produced by SUE-C, who appears virtually. “An urgent show by Negativland and artist SUE-C calls time on a tech dystopia that is as malevolent as it is stupid … to meet the terrifying contemporary moment … as the world slides incrementally into meltdown.” – Wire Magazine “Negativland have made a rewarding career out of being prodigious consumers of media who then digest it and recontextualize it, emphasizing mediated reality’s crazy-making absurdity and the infinite malleability of perception and truth.” – Dave Segal, The Stranger ABOUT THE FILM: Stand by for Failure: A Documentary About Negativland (Ryan Worsley, US, 2022, 99 min, in English) Everything people want is true even if it isn’t. In 1978 David “The Weatherman” Wills, Richard Lyons and Mark Hosler formed Negativland, which quickly became an absurd and noisy multimedia world without boundaries, ownership or privacy. Negativland’s complex chaos of plunderphonics poses both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, technology, control, propaganda, power and perception in the global village. Negativland continue to be pioneers of art in the electric age, and the medium reveals that any message is all in our heads. REMAINING DATES: July 17-19, 21 Fancy Dance [In-Person Only] (Erica Tremblay, US, 2023, 92 min, in English & Cayuga with English subtitles) Since her sister’s disappearance, Jax (Lily Gladstone) has cared for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of Jax losing custody to Roki’s grandfather, Frank (Shea Whigham), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. What begins as a search gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world while at the mercy of a failed justice system. NWFF CALENDAR July 17-21 The Day the Earth Froze (Sampo) [In-Person Only] (Aleksandr Ptushko, Finland & USSR, 1959, 91 min, in Finnish with English subtitles) Based on the Finnish national epic “Kalevala,” director Aleksandr Ptushko’s ravishing, mystical fantasy tells the story of a sinister witch Louhi who covets the Sampo, a magical, rainbow-colored mill that can produce endless salt, grain, and gold. When the hero Lemminkäinen attempts to stop her, Louhi steals the sun, plunging the world into eternal darkness. A Finnish/Soviet co-production and shot like its predecessor Ilya Muromets in gorgeous CinemaScope, Sampo features some of Ptushko’s most surreal and fantastical imagery: a glowing red horse plowing a field of vipers; a boat of fire with a stag’s head; a weeping mother literally walking across the sea to find her lost son. With its witch’s incantations and repeated scenes of forging magical items – “Give me fire for the furnace from the nave of the sky!” – there ids a Macbeth-like occult force to the film as well, underscored by the raging blue-gray seas and rock-strewn landscapes. July 20 & 21 PARACME presents LUMINOUS ALCHEMY: the films of Jerome Hiler and Nathaniel Dorsky [In-Person Only] [with related selections from Margaret Rorison, Sophie Michaels, Christopher Harris, Paul Clipson and Maïa Cybelle Carpenter] * Presented with support from Interbay Cinema Society * For more than six decades, Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler have created extraordinary works which evoke entrancement and fascination. Shortly after they met—at a mid-1960s New York screening of Dorsky's INGREEN—their lives became inexorably entwined. They relocated together from the opposite coast to the Bay Area in the early-1970s (where they have lived and worked ever-after). Their distinctive filmmaking practices proceeded independently, yet in parallel, with intermittent screenings of their own shorts and others within their respective homes for themselves and, less frequently, a handful of assorted friends. LUMINOUS ALCHEMY, in essence and intention, is inspired by those intimate occasions. For the uninitiated, the films of Hiler and Dorsky are miniature masterworks of cinematic transmutation, summoning ideal avenues for deep-viewing. Each short, generally twenty minutes or less in duration, is a visual expedition through collocated scenes of intuitive interconnection. The filmmakers both exhibit their work devoid of a soundtrack and at a speed slightly out-of-step with perception, decelerated to eighteen frames-per-second. Therein, their films propose far more than mere representation, constructing a collage of intumescent imagery that transcends the limitations of our perceivable world. Their transcendent work becomes a temporary gateway into an illusory realm. While their films are often exhibited in individual programs dedicated to either one or the other, this quasi-retrospective intermingles the works of Dorsky and Hiler into five concise programs, each with an interrelated faux-prologue by Sophie Michaels (Program I), Margaret Rorison (II), Christopher Harris (III), Maïa Cybelle Carpenter (IV) and Paul Clipson (V). Twenty-five films in all! Many screening in Seattle for the first—and potentially only—time and nearly all (with one or two exceptions) unavailable online! Each exhibited on the format of its creation: 16mm. Presented in absolute gratitude for the persuasive enthusiasm and generous support of longtime NWFF member Glenn Fox and with genuine appreciation to the associated filmmakers and the illustrious Canyon Cinema Foundation July 24 at 7pm The Wedding of Vera Drew and The Joker [In-Person Only] (Vera Drew, US, 2022, 92 min, in English) * YOU'RE INVITED to the wedding of Vera Drew and The Joker, followed by a screening of The People's Joker! * A LOVE STORY TO BEHOLD: We invite you to join us for this heartwarming and historic one-night-only event on July 24th! Witness the bond of eternal love and the fair use defense, as indie darling Vera Drew legally ties the knot with The Clown Prince of Crime himself, The Joker. As everyone knows for the past 4 years, Vera Drew and the Joker have been romantically and creatively involved with many describing them as “the dynamic duo of love, laughter, and (parody) law.” Now, the two lovebirds are ready to make it official in a house of God and before the eyes of the world. Guests from afar can join us online via Eventive (links forthcoming), but if a cinematic venue is accessible to you… as, indeed, the Forum is… GO, and bring lots of friends! STRICT DRESS CODE: Dress to impress! That means clown makeup, any form of cosplay, scanty outfits, pajamas, or dysphoria hoodies. July 26–28 Wakamusha [In-Person Only] (Ryutaro Ninomiya, Japan, 2023, 103 min, in Japanese with English subtitles) Following up on his 2017 film Sweating the Small Stuff, which made its North American Premiere at the Dryden last fall, writer-director Ryutaro Ninomiya returns with another small-scale drama of disaffected youth in Japan. Three young men live and work in a nearly-deserted Japanese city. Eiji is the loud-mouth, looking for trouble and causing mischief with unsuspecting bystanders; Wataru is the quiet one, whose blank exterior belies a troubled past and a roiling rage; Mitsunori is in between, adopting the worldview of whoever he is with. The three wander the streets, ruminating on the pointlessness of life in the modern age, never quite living up to the deeds of a fallen friend, until one of them goes too far and permanently fractures their relationship. Aug. 2–4 In Our Day (우리의 하루) [In-Person Only] (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2023, 84 min, in English & Korean with English subtitles) * Closing Night Film – Cannes Film Festival – Directors’ Fortnight * Sangwon, an actress recently returned to South Korea, is temporarily staying with her friend, Jungsoo, and her cat, Us. Elsewhere in the city, the aging poet Uiju lives alone, his cat having recently passed away. On this ordinary day, each of them has a visitor: Sangwon is visited by her cousin, Jisoo and Uiju, by a young actor, Jaewon. Each of them wants to learn about a career in the arts. But they also have bigger questions. Both Sangwon and Uiju have ramyun noodles for lunch and they both add hot pepper paste to their ramyun noodles, not a very common thing to do. As our friends talk and drink the day away, similarities between these encounters multiply and we begin to realize they may be more than just mere coincidence. With his 30th feature film, Hong demonstrates a new level of mastery of his art, using long, deceptively elaborate shots to articulate the simplest of pleasures: an inter-species encounter, the discovery of a new drink, a game of rock paper scissors. Kim and Ki lead an outstanding cast of the most natural of performers. In Our Day is a film to drink of deeply, to share with friends, and afterward, to reflect on what matters most. Aug. 8 & 14–18 Lyd [In-Person Only] (Rami Younis & Sarah Ema Friedland, Palestine, United Kingdom & US, 2023, 79 min, in Arabic & Hebrew with English subtitles) Featuring a panel discussion; time and details TBA! Lyd is a feature-length, speculative documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd (alternatively Lod, as it is now called), a 5,000-year-old metropolis that was a bustling Palestinian town, until it was taken over by the state of Israel. As the film unfolds, residents create a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and exemplify the trauma left by the 1948 massacre and expulsion. Vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same people live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. Using never-before-seen archival footage of Israeli soldiers who carried out the massacre and expulsion, the personified city explains that these events were so devastating that they fractured reality, and now there are two Lyds — one occupied and one free. As the film cuts between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning which future should prevail. Lyd dares to ask the question: what would the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened? Aug. 8 at 1pm RE-COLLECT [In-Person Only] (project directors: Anya Cloud & Karen Schaffman, documentation director: Tara Knight, US, 2024, 33 min, in English) * $5-25 sliding scale admission; free for participants in Velocity's Research Week. Followed by a discussion with artists involved in the film's creation! * RE-COLLECT is an experimental dance documentary that traces an embodied exchange of intergenerational dance artists. Recorded in 2022 at a research symposium called Think Gravity Dance Tank: Celebrating & Reckoning with Contact Improvisation and Performance, RE-COLLECT honors and interrogates the revolutionary dance form Contact Improvisation. The film serves as a time capsule during a pivotal moment at the intersection of COVID-19 and racial justice uprisings in the United States. Considering the gravity of these times, RE-COLLECT questions Contact Improvisation's historical narrative and brings unspoken histories to the forefront to invite a more inclusive future of the form. Aug. 9–11 Coconut Head Generation [In-Person Only] (Alain Kassanda, France & Nigeria, 2023, 89 min, in English, Pidgin, Yoruba & French with English subtitles) The term “coconut head generation” originated as an insult targeting today’s Nigerian twenty-somethings, who have been sweepingly mischaracterized as lazy and apathetic. Reclaiming the term as an ironic self-moniker, a growing number of the nation’s youth are instead proving themselves to be politically and morally engaged. In this invigorating observational documentary, Kinshasa-born, French-raised filmmaker Alain Kassanda captures the words and emotions of students at the University of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria. The country’s first university, it was founded in 1948 and is still reckoning with its colonial British legacy. Here, students have begun a weekly film club, where screenings of work by such directors as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, John Akomfrah, and Med Hondo instigate intellectual conversation. Immersing himself with students engaged in spirited debates over contemporary Nigerian society’s ever-present power imbalances and sometimes heated discussions around ethnicity, feminism, and gender, Kassanda proves to be a forceful new voice in nonfiction by ceding the floor to a vibrant new generation. Aug. 10 & 11 Seattle Arab Film Festival 2024: Love & Revolt [In-Person Only] * Ten compelling shorts from a remarkable group of emerging and established filmmakers * "Love & Revolt," the 5th edition of the Seattle Arab Film Festival (SAFF), is a celebration of the rebellious spirit of Arab stories despite the pain of oppression. To address the horrifying injustices that continue to be inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza, and the non-stop efforts to erase their narrative, SAFF will be featuring films labeled “Made in Palestine,” including An Orange from Jaffa, recipient of the Grand Prize at the 2024 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival and The Key, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival. The screenings will be divided in two sections – “Parallel Time” and “A Place Without A Door,” both titles inspired by the work of the late Palestinian author Walid Daqqa – separated by a brief intermission. Each film program is a similar balance of themes: From Egypt to New York, young people experiment with gender roles and their sexual desires despite gatekeepers, while in Algeria and Morocco, estranged families and angry couples are brought together by the sea. The lineup consists of a total of ten short films from the US and the Arab world, both live-action and animation, and featuring themes of love, family and exile. Aug. 14–18 It's Such a Beautiful Day + ME by Don Hertzfeldt [In-Person Only] (Don Hertzfeldt, US, 2012 & 2024, TRT 91 min, in English) Back in theaters for the first time since 2012, Don Hertzfeldt's celebrated mixed-media animation opus It's Such a Beautiful Day will play alongside his new short film ME, a 22-minute musical odyssey. ME (Don Hertzfeldt, US, 2024, 22 min, in English) Don Hertzfeldt’s newest animated film ME is a 22-minute musical odyssey about trauma, technology, and the retreat of humanity into itself. IndieWire has described it as “soul-shaking” and “a triumph”. It's Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt, US, 2012, 62 min, in English) Returning to theaters for the first time since 2012, It’s Such a Beautiful Day has been hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best animated films of all time. Originally released as three short films over the course of six years, the picture was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand. Built in the 1940s and used by Hertzfeldt on all of his animated films since 1999, it was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world, indispensable in creating the story's unique images and visual effects. It's Such a Beautiful Day painstakingly blended traditional hand-drawn animation and experimental optical effects with new digital hybrids, printed out one frame at time and placed under the camera. "One of the great outsider artworks of the modern era, at once sympathetic and shocking, beautiful and horrifying, angry and hilarious, uplifting and almost unbearably sad." Tom Huddleston, Time Out New York Aug. 17, Oct. 19, Dec. 7 6:30pm doors; 7pm showtime! The Disabled List Presents: Live Comedy [In-Person Only] * Open captions; this event features automated captioning with voice recognition projected on the screen * The Disabled List presents bi-monthly live standup at NWFF! Featured artists in the next three editions will be announced as they are confirmed. Aug. 23–25 Bubble Bath (Habfürdö) [In-Person Only] (György Kovásznai, Hungary, 1980, 69 min, in Hungarian with English subtitles) Hungarian director György Kovásznai’s wildly idiosyncratic animated musical is one of the most indescribably strange, personal and totally irresistible cartoon features ever made. A walking ball of anxieties, shop window decorator Zsolt bursts into the apartment of his fiancée’s best friend Anikó, paralyzed with fear at his impending marriage. Zsolt is like a stoned hippie alleycat, or an Eastern European Frank Zappa in a tux; medical student Anikó a more curvaceous and leggy post-modern Betty Boop – and both unsure of their attraction to each other, of the choices they’ve made, of what life has in store for them. A truly insane mash-up of styles, from 1920s Art Deco to 1960s Psychedelia to late 1970s louche Roxy Music decadence, Bubble Bath is incredibly restless and creative, the bohemian love-child of Bill Plympton’s off-kilter individualism and Ralph Bakshi’s wonderfully warped, rubbery visual style. In other words: it’s not quite like any animated film you’ve ever seen before. Sadly, this was director and animator Kovásznai’s only feature film – he died of leukemia in 1983. Aug. 23–25 Torrey Pines [In-Person Only] (Clyde Petersen, US, 2016, 60 min, mostly nonverbal + in English) Torrey Pines is a stop-motion animated feature film by director Clyde Petersen. Based on a true story, the film is a queer punk coming-of-age tale, taking place in Southern California in the early 1990’s. Raised by a schizophrenic single mother, Petersen’s life story unfolds in a series of baffling and hallucinated events. With a mother fueled by hallucinations of political conspiracy and family dysfunction, twelve-year-old Petersen is taken on a cross-country adventure that will forever alter the family as they know it. Aug. 30 – Sep. 1 Querelle Screening + Medusa of the Roses Book Release [In-Person Only] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1982, 108 min, in English) * Author Navid Sinaki in attendance for screenings on Aug. 30 and Sep. 1 at 7pm! * The lurid romanticism of French author Jean Genet has inspired the work of countless queer writers and filmmakers for over eighty years. In the realm of literature, author and artist Navid Sinaki’s debut novel Medusa of the Roses is one such work, suffused with Genet’s sensibility. To celebrate its publication by Grove Atlantic, we’ll be hosting Sinaki in person for special screenings of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film, Querelle (1982), an adaptation of a Genet novel. In Medusa of the Roses, queer love blossoms and brutalizes in modern-day Tehran, where homosexuality is criminalized but still electrifies the Persian underground. Tawdry and tantalizing, with a sun-stained theatricality, Querelle also centers on extremes of love forced to the fringes of society. In both Fassbinder’s film and Sinaki’s novel, queerness breeds the sensual and the sordid, mythology and mayhem. Aug. 30 – Sep. 1 20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas) [In-Person Only] (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Spain, 2023, 125 min, in Spanish, Basque & French with English subtitles) * Winner of Best Film at the 2023 Málaga Film Festival! * In a small, sleepy village in the Basque Country, a sculptor named Ane and her three children arrive at her mother Lita's home for summer vacation where they are surrounded by extended family and nosy neighbors. Ane and her mother's relationship is strained — Lita disapproves of her daughter's frayed marriage, career as an artist, and the way she parents her obstinate and mischievous children. Chief among them is eight-year-old Aitor, nicknamed Coco after it becomes clear that being referred to by the Aitor elicits feelings of distress in the child. Born biologically male, neither birth name nor the genderless nickname feel quite right, and Ane’s concern for her child grows as Coco becomes more withdrawn. The child’s only respite lies in the Basque hills, where Ane's aunt Lourdes tends to the family's beekeeping farm. Among the peaceful humming of bees and Lourdes' open-minded guardianship, Coco slowly begins to confide in family and friends her discomfort in her body, eventually voicing a desire to be treated as a girl. As Coco explores her own developing identity over the summer, Ane and the rest of her family in turn must learn to accept the child as she is. Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s assured debut feature is a wonderfully sensitive work carried by the Berlinale Silver Bear-winning lead performance of newcomer Sofía Otero. An authentic and heart-wrenching story of transition, 20,000 Species of Bees is "a landmark in the filmic discussion of gender, sexuality and identity," (Film Verdict). Sep. 6–8 The Triplets of Belleville (Les triplettes de Belleville) [In-Person Only] (Sylvain Chomet, France, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, Latvia & South Korea, 2003, 80 min, in English, French & Portuguese with English subtitles) * Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature! * When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters – an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire – to rescue him. Sep. 6–8 The Secret Life of Plants [In-Person Only] (Walon Green, US, 1979, 97 min, in English & French with English subtitles) Supported by Stevie Wonder's exuberant and sometimes haunting soundtrack, this documentary conveys the pain and joy plants experience and how they communicate it. Sep. 13–15 Staff Picks – Your Fat Friend [In-Person Only] (Jeanie Finlay, US, 2023, 96 min, in English) * Nico's pick! * A film about fatness, family, the complexities of change, and the messy feelings we hold about our bodies. Trailer > Acclaimed director Janie Finlay charts the rise of Aubrey Gordon. Shot over six years, we see Aubrey go from anonymous blogger yrfatfriend to New York Times best-seller and beloved podcaster with an audience of millions. Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way that we view fat people and the fat on our own bodies. But while the world may be listening, but her family have a way to go in understanding her work. Save the date: Sep. 20–29 Local Sightings Film Festival 2024 [Hybrid] * A full week of great films from your own PNW backyard: WA, OR, BC, MT, AK, and YT! * Northwest Film Forum’s annual Local Sightings Film Festival showcases the growing complexity of creative communities in the Pacific Northwest. Featuring a competitive selection of curated shorts and feature film programs, Local Sightings invites regional artists to experiment, break, and remake popular conceptions around filmmaking and film exhibition. Oct. 19–20, 25–27, Nov. 1–3 We're All Going to the World's Fair [In-Person Only] (Jane Schoenbrun, US, 2022, 85 min, in English) * Tickets on sale soon! * Alone in her attic bedroom, teenager Casey becomes immersed in an online role-playing horror game, wherein she begins to document the changes that may or may not be happening to her. Oct. 20 – The Craft Jan. 12, 2025 – Showgirls Mourning Sickness [In-Person Only] Monday Mourning returns to present a new slate of camp classics, presented with all the tawdry trimmin's! Co-presented with Northwest Film Forum, Mourning Sickness is a quarterly showcase of essential cult and camp classics, dusted off and brought back to the silver screen with pre-show drag entertainment that puts you face to face with camp. Turn off your brains, grab some popcorn and enjoy the sickness – it’s showtime! Oct. 20 at 8pm Mourning Sickness Vol. 3 – The Craft [In-Person Only] (Andrew Fleming, US, 1996, 101 min, in English) “WE ARE THE WEIRDOS, MISTER.“ Summon the coven as Mourning Sickness invokes the spirit of Halloween with a spellbound tale of witchcraft and ’90s teen angst. This nostalgic cult classic casts a spell of four teen outcast witches who wield their newfound powers for love, revenge, and liberation, bringing them face to face with the exhilarating yet perilous potential of their craft. Just don’t let the popcorn hex your black lipstick. Jan. 12 at 8pm Mourning Sickness Vol. 3 – Showgirls Annual Screening [In-Person Only] (Paul Verhoeven, US & France, 1995, 128 min, in English) “I LIKE HAVING NICE TITS.“ The cornerstone of cult cinema makes its GRAND RETURN to Mourning Sickness for its ANNUAL SCREENING! Dive into the neon-lit, over-the-top world of gritty Las Vegas strip clubs and glitzy hotel shows in this audacious masterpiece that twirls a piqué turn between camp and cult. Elizabeth Berkley radiates as Nomi Malone, embodying ambition and resilience in a role that’s as infamous as it is controversial. Amid the dark underbelly of Las Vegas entertainment, her relentless pursuit of success, fueled by a cutthroat rivalry and an insatiable appetite for the limelight (and Doggy Chow), craft a journey where everything that glitters isn’t gold – but it’s undeniably Versayce. About Northwest Film Forum An independent film and arts nonprofit located in Seattle, Northwest Film Forum incites public dialogue and creative action through collective cinematic experiences. Each year the Forum presents hundreds of films, festivals, community events, multidisciplinary performances, and public discussions. A comprehensive visual media organization, the Forum offers educational workshops and artist services for film and media makers at all stages of their development. More information is available at nwfilmforum.org #### FULL NWFF CALENDAR

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