There's a great selection of films going on at the Northwest Film Forum next week (well, there's always good stuff at the NWFF, if you want to get technical about it) that we wanted to make sure you were hip to. It's called American Film Week, and it's running in the spirit of a mini- / non-festival: a series of "bold American films, offering you just one choice a night." Brilliant!

We're particularly excited about Fever Year, a documentary about the grueling of Andrew Bird's 165-date tour, and Bombay Beach, a "rich and emotional portrait of the lives of some of California's absolute poorest" with a musical score by Zach Condon {best known for directing many a Beirut video} -- but the whole week is worth a visit, so much so that we're giving away a pair of passes to the entire run of screenings.

More from the NWFF blog:

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We are always bursting with pride to count Chris Estey as a friend, let alone be honored enough to have him share his words on Three Imaginary Girls.  But today, the thunderous applause coming from the imaginary office for Chris is deafening.

This morning we heard the amazing news that there are now public screenings scheduled for Have You Ever Had a Beard?, a new film which captures the first meeting of our dear Mr. Estey (wait, should we make that the title of a new advice column?) and the King of Indie, Calvin Johnson (wiki K Records, Beat Happening, all things rad)! 

This meeting of the two mega-minds took place in the historic Columbia City Theater where Chris and Calvin chat and delve into their contrasting tones: Calvin's mysterious cosmos, mesmerizing baritone, and weighted works, with a concentration his latest solo incarnation ("he spits literary bop prosody in the form of three songs") versus Chris's torrential confessionals told with his signature unsurpassable jubilance that spills out like a spoken-word graphic novel (and inspired by Phil Ochs’ seminal Greatest Hits album).

The world premiere of the movie is at Portland's Hollywood Theatre on Friday February 24, 2012.  Calvin Johnson (who will perform a couple of songs and answer questions) (!!!!) and directors Kathy Wolf and Pat Thomas will be in attendance.

The Seattle showing is a couple weeks later, on Monday March 5th at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle at 7 pm.  Rumor has it that both Calvin Johnson and Chris Estey will be at the Seattle showing (be still my heart!!!).

Mark your calendar!!!  We'll let you know when tickets are available for advance purchase.

(photo by Kathy Wolf)

{Running 11/25 through 11/29, at the SIFF Film Center. Tickets $10, $5 for SIFF members. SIFF passes and vouchers are available at the Box Office.}

Clarence Reid was a hell of an R&B/pop rock music writer and performer, starting in 1959 and finding an apex crafting a calvalcade of passionate soul sides for Paul Kelly, KC & the Sunshine Band, Betty Wright, Ann Sexton, and Gwen McCrae in the pre-disco boom years of 1971 to 1975. Reid's own naturally powerful, from-the-gut bark-croon can be heard on many universally appealing love songs on his own records too, even after the point that he invented the "dirty rapper" supervillain persona Blowfly.

The tightly structured new biographical documentary The Weird World of Blowfly doesn't actually tell us how Reid became this nasty-ass, darkly humorous, always obscene, dressed-as-a-ghetto-wrestler, emerging (or hiding) from a promising and succesful soul-pop singer/songwriter. The expert pacing, editing, and shooting isn't about revealing much overt internal history or intentions, if any is to be gleaned. It doesn't even give us backstory on what this sort of character usually means in music either black or white (think controversial C&W iconoclast David Allan Coe wearing his mask too and singing dirty around the same time as Reid's morphing).

But it does catch us up with the 72 year-old mutant of punk and hip-hop and satirical smut, and touches many emotional bases on what may have been the psychological triggers that blew up into The Weird World of Blowfly. That's the 1971 depraved-sounding debut which viciously mocked politeness-driven soft rock and R&B with fart jokes and a whole lot of scat references, and is almost as recurrent in underground semi-pop music circles as Gil Scott-Heron, and surely as much as Tiny Tim.

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OK, maybe I'm just not keeping up with the times effectively.  It was with significant glee that I learned earlier this week about a new event at the Northwest Film Forum that I promptly (and believe accurately) labelled "brilliant."

They've decided to take their not so new beer/wine license out for a spin - hosting a monthly Happy Hour Saloon.  Meaning that every third Thursday of the month from 5-6:30pm you can stop by for a drink and some film-related conversation.  Everyone's invited: Film Forum staff members, filmmakers, and film fans. Sounds more like a salon than a saloon - but they can call it whatever they like far as I'm concerned. As it turns out, this Thursday 11/17 is the third thursday of the month. So before you head out to see the midnight screening of Breaking Dawn (with or without a bridesmaids dress) it's a chance to offset that guilty pleasure with some conversation about arguably more significant cinema...I'm sure non-Twilight fans are welcome too.

There are a lot of reasons to think this is a good idea. If you haven't been to the Film Forum before, here's a great opportunity to meet the friendly, knowledgeable staff that run it. You can checkout their upcoming schedule, learn about their great classes or just ogle their fine lobby area. Word on the street is that their new Winter calendar will be available for perusing. And if you're a strictly mercenary sort there will be drink discounts to be had ($1 off hand-selected wines and beers - resulting in $3 beer, $4 house win, and $6 wine specials). All good reasons to participate even if the Northwest Film Forum wasn't an important part of the Seattle film family.  Though of course they are.

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"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine." --Fran Lebowtiz

She is known for the bon mot given as a wicked mistress of wit. But it's really about: "A bomb just exploded!" This is how Fran Lebowitz wants New York Times articles to begin, when they're about, say, bombs exploding in the Middle East or someplace -- instead of three paragraphs of fluffy narrative, leading into human interest story pabulum. She wants urgency in getting to the facts, perhaps as much as she craves the truth. Which she herself, as she says during one of the many interviews that make up Martin Scorcese's documentary on her, may be the only one capable of delivering unbiased. Is she yanking our chain?

Maybe. But the dialogue Lebowtiz is having with us in Public Speaking actually goes pretty far in convincing me that she is a walking human bullshit detector; smoking her cigarettes, having a drink, driving her rare Checker car in of all places her beloved New York City (where few dare own an auto), yet fearing gasoline ("it can explode!"), and forever shaking her tiny fists at tourists (both physical and cultural). The cab is a subtle off-color, "that most heterosexual men simply call white."

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I really do feel so lucky every day to live in a city where film is so important. You guys, it's time for another film festival!!! Starting tomorrow, the Northwest Film Forum is hosting the 14th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival, which showcases awesome indie films made in the Northwest. 

The opening night film {Friday, 9/30 @7pm} is called The Oregonian, and it looks like a bloody horror film with Lynchian overtones from the trailer. It also stars Lindsay Pulsipher from True Blood (Jason's crazed half-cougar stalker), who I think is kind of amazing. Anyway, they had me at "70s shock horror cinema" and "screens with Vampire Hummingbirds: Pain the Nectar" (hawhaw). 

Watch the trailer after the jump...

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The Northwest Film Forum is screening Shut Up, Little Man! An Audio Misadventure, all week (9pm tonight, 7pm Tues, Weds, and Thurs). This documentary about the power of viral media rocked everyone's socks off at SIFF this year -- and hey kids, you too can learn how much power a casette tape wielded in the pre-internet world of 1987 (what). See, these two SF guys decided to record the drunken ramblings of their next-door neighbors -- a raging homophobe and his flamboyantly gay roommate -- (what. what.) and play them for people....who copied them and passed them on to other people, and so on, and so on, and so on. $6 for NWFF Members, $6.50 for seniors/students/kids, $9 for everyone else

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The final (sniffle) week of SIFF approaching portends the beginning of another annual Seattle film tradition, STIFF.  This Friday {6/3} the Seattle True Independent Film Festival opens it's doors to go mano-a-mano with their more established counterpart SIFF.  Yeah, yeah - I get that there's a tradition of counterprogrammed fests, more voices are good, yada yada yada.

When the Charlie Brown style adult voices end all I'll I've heard is that I'm gonna have to make some choices (i.e. miss some films) because the two events overlap. But that doesn't mean one should stick their head in the sand and ignore the extra bounty. STIFF is here and worth paying attention to. Focusing more on english language independent that on international fare, it's different enough to make some sense (see, I can be nice).  Plus it's hard for me to be too critical about MORE film choices. So in the spirit of hey it's here, all-access passes are only $50 (and include more films all year) parties are included and all venues serve alcohol - let's peruse the schedule together ...

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With every independent theater closure, my heart breaks for our fair city. But I'm more than grateful that we still have a bunch of great outlets for film, including the Northwest Film Forum - so I feel compelled to sway y'all to support it as much as you can.

Their annual fundraising Gala-Ga is at the Georgetown Ballroom on Friday, May 6 and features a fancy-schmancy wine reception and delectable dinner by Seattle food maestro Tom Douglas, followed by an auction - and my favorite part: an 80s dance party!

Tix are a leetle steep at $75, but considering the food & wine quotient and the fact that it all goes to a good cinematic cause, it seems more than worth the splurge. If your wallet is tight, you can show up at 10pm for the after-party dance portion and get in for a mere $10. Go! Drink! Eat! Dance! And most importantly, support our amazing NWFF.

The deets:
Friday, May 6 @Georgetown Ballroom
Festive formal attire, 80s inspired!
6pm: Wine reception
7:30pm: Dinner by Tom Douglas
8pm: Auction with special events
10pm: After-party w/80s Invasion

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{Zero Bridge opened in Seattle at the Northwest Film Forum on Friday April 22, and screens through the 28th}

Zero Bridge, the debut film by Tariq Tapa is a small, small film that punches significantly above its weight class in terms of emotional wallop. Set in Kashmir, it both introduces us to the core character's lives at a pivotal point and, without saying anything about it forces one to consider the challenges of day to day life in such a disputed region.  The film perhaps won't be winning any cinematography awards anytime soon - but the low budget digital photography fades into the background rather quickly.  And for whatever reason the low tech look of the film complements the themes.  Especially when it zooms in very close on the two subjects faces.  Director Tapa really seems to like to get in close on his leads Mohamad Imran Tapa and Taniya Khan (to the point you'll be asking yourself if this is really a mumblecore flick).  But it works as the camera loves both of them - for differing reasons.

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