This morning, SIFF invited some of its media friends over to Pacific Place for light snacks, coffee, and mimosas to reveal some details of this year’s multi-week city-wide film festival. Based on this year’s trailer, the theme of this year’s festival seems to be “Acrostics!” Before we get to the nuances and highlights, some relevant logistical details. The festival runs from May 19 until June 12 at nineteen venues–ranging from the core Seattle cinemas for daily screenings, the freshly opened SIFF Film Center in the Alki Room, the bar at Boom Noodle, and as far away as the performing arts centers of Everett, Kirkland, and IKEA. Passes have been available for a while, tickets for some special events are already on sale, but you’ll have to wait until May 5 to see the full schedule and start buying tickets to individual films.
The festival opens at McCaw Hall with a screening of The First Grader, the true story of an octogenerian Mau Mau fighter turned farmer who cashes in on a Kenyan government initiative to claim the primary education that he missed while, I don’t know, rebelling against British occupation. Stick around after the misunderstandings, controversy, hijinks, tears, cute kids, inspirational teacher, general power of the human spirit, and other heartwarming hijinks ensue for a gala at a glamorized Exhibition Hall where Don Q rums and Barefoot Bubbly will be stocking the bar. Over the three-week festival, there will be hundreds of films from all over the world (this year, hotbeds of political turmoil will also be hotbeds of cinema) and galas celebrating the festival’s midpoint (Service Entrance, in which a bougie French couple hires a boisterous Spanish maid), the gays (August), new American cinema (Miranda July’s allegedly amazing The Future), and a tribute to ski and snowboarding film maven Warren Miller at Benaroya Hall. This all leads up to a closing night presentation of the Ridley (and Tony) Scott-produced Life in a Day, a hyperkinetic look at the whole camera-toting world, as enabled by YouTube.
Oh, and of course the festival wouldn’t be complete without some out-of-town guests paying a visit to Seattle. The biggest news is that Al Pacino will be making a rare appearance to talk about his life, craft, put on a show, chew the scenery, and possibly even answer your questions at the Paramount Theater on June 11 (tickets go on sale Saturday, but presale is in effect now with passcode “pacino”). Ewan McGregor will be stopping by to claim his Golden Space Needle and show new films Beginners (Mike Mills’ dramedy about a city-dwelling guy in search of love, his cute dog, and a newly-gay dad) and Perfect Sense (a science fiction take on a pandemic that robs people of their feelings), as well as old favorites The Pillow Book and Moulin Rouge.
Since the festival is so massive in scope and duration (and it might eventually compete with decent weather, maybe), the programmers have tried to help viewers navigate the program by creating “pathways” that group hundreds of films into ten categories: Love Me Do (matters of the heart); Make Me Laugh (films comedic); Thrill Me (suspenseful features); Creative Streak (A&E); Open My Eyes (revealing stories along the lines of triumphant West Indian cricketeers); Sci-Fi & Beyond (science, fictional and factual); Take Me Away (world cinema); Spellbinding Stories (long-running times); To the Extreme (taste-pushing matters like troll hunters); and Face the Music (live events and music movies). Expect to peruse all of these pathways when the festival’s free 45-page magazine-style guide (and, we hope, the latest version of their fantastic SIFFter app) hits the streets next week.
We still haven’t had a chance to digest the full program, but we did get to soak up a half hour’s worth of trailers. A poll of SunBreakers who’ve perused the offerings suggest some automatic must-sees:
Audrey: Based on description alone, I’m down for Angel of Evil, a slick and well-shot Italian crime film. A bevy of SIFF docs already got great reviews at Sundance: Being Elmo, about the Sesame Street muppet’s puppeteer; Project Nim, on the famous language-learning ape Nim Chimpsky; Tabloid, the latest clinical examination from Errol Morris; and Page One: Inside the New York Times (pretty self-explanatory). There’s also celeb rehab comedy Treatment, written and co-directed by Sean Nelson, which just had its world premiere at Tribeca. Other SIFF films with Northwest Connections include Catechism Cataclysm, The Off Hours, Without, and Late Autumn, a Korean film which shot here last year.
Josh: In addition to some of the movies already mentioned, I’m excited to hear the score that Jonny Greenwood composed for Norwegian Wood, the new adaptation of the old Murakami Novel, as well as the newish Alex “Arctic Monkey” Turner’s songs featured on the soundtrack for Richard “IT Crowd” Ayoade’s Submarine. An IMAX presentation of Tornado Alley (narrated by Bill Pullman, naturally) looks both timely and terrifying. I’m also generally interested in getting a peek at SIFF’s new home in Seattle Center as well as the freshly-renovated Neptune Theater (now part of Seattle Theater Group), which returns to the mix of regular screening venues with new seats and a new bar.
Tony: Alex de la Iglesia’s The Last Circus stirred a hornet’s nest of controversy with its bloodily, brutally allegorical tale of two circus clowns jousting violently for the affections of a beautiful trapeze artist amidst the Spanish Civil War. Quentin Tarantino’s jury at the Venice Film Festival threw the movie’s direction and screenwriting major prizes, and it’ll be interesting to see if it lives up to those hosannas. Another Earth received raves at Sundance, and looks to be the kind of mind-expanding but emotionally resonant sci-fi film that used to thrive in the early seventies. I’m an avowed fan of France’s favorite balladeer in dirty-old-man’s clothing, Serge Gainsbourg, so I’m likewise stoked that SIFF’s presenting a new documentary on this accidental music innovator. And you gotta love the notion of the silent version of The Thief of Baghdad, accompanied by select cuts (by Shadoe Stevens!) from the Electric Light Orchestra. From those, and the highlights mentioned by the programmers, it looks like we’re in for another year of obsessive moviegoing.
Thx for the heads up about Norwegian Wood! I like the pathways idea–usually you have a feeling of what kind of movie you want to see.