After last night’s opening, the 38th annual Seattle International Film Festival is officially up and running. Before you dash off to your first screening of the festival year, be sure to check the SIFF updates page to see which films are already sold out or are selling fast. Individual tickets for most films cost $11 for the public and $9 for SIFF members. Matinees are a bit cheaper ($8/$7) and those who are more willing to commit can consider all sorts of passes still for sale as well as slightly discounted packs of tickets in bundles of 6 or 20.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the SIFF films that we’re most looking forward to seeing over the next couple days. You can’t see it all, so let’s hit some of the highlights!
Trishna Director Michael Winterbottom takes on a few genres at once, transplanting Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel Tess of the D’Ubervilles to contemporary Rajasthan. Starring the luminous actress Freida Pinto. (Friday 6:30 p.m., Sunday 3:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)
Polisse looks to be France’s take on Law & Order SVU meets The Wire, with ripped-from-the-headline stories of cops and cases in the Parisian Child Protection Unit. (Friday 9 p.m., Sunday 2:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry This documentary looks at China’s most famous dissident, who has turned his protests into performance art–or vice versa. Director Alison Klayman is scheduled to attend both SIFF screenings. (Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. @ Pacific Place)
Starry Starry Night is a magical Taiwanese coming-of-age film about young love that features some spectacular Van Gogh-inspired CGI effects. (Saturday 6 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown; Sunday 4 p.m., Wednesday 9:30 p.m. @ Pacific Place)
Eden Local filmmaker Megan Griffiths latest drama won an Audience Award at SXSW for its portrayal of a young woman who gets abducted into a Las Vegas human trafficking ring. (Saturday 9:15 p.m. @ the Egyptian; Monday 4:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)
Guess what, left-wing pacifist Europhile latte-sipping “film” lovers? The rest of the world loves sports! True, sports are meaningless, but if you think of them–like biologist and evolution shit-stirrer E.O. Wilson does–as a much-belated rerouting of our innate tribalism, think of how many lives are saved when people cheer for different soccer teams instead of spearing each other!
Human obsession with sports has not escaped the notice of our planet’s budding Bunuels. Seven feature films at SIFF 2012 deal principally with athletic competition.
MUST-SEE
The Other Dream Team The story of the Lithuanian national basketball team’s run through the 1992 Olympics. “Improbable” doesn’t really capture it; the country was three years removed from Soviet domination, and the team was only able to travel to Olympic qualifying tournaments because Jerry Garcia footed the bill. Seeing the team’s tie-dye warmups on a big screen will be worth the price of admission alone. And guess what Communist country Lithuania ended up playing in the medal round? Featuring interviews with Bill Walton, Jim Lampley, and team member (and former Sonic) Sarunas Marciulionis. Not embedding the trailer, it gives too much of the story away! Friday, May 25, 8:30 pm, Harvard Exit
Sunday, May 27, 3 pm, Harvard Exit
Thursday, May 31, 9 pm, Harvard Exit
King Curling The film snobs at SIFF want to tell you that this Norwegian curling movie is inspired by The Big Lebowski and The Royal Tenenbaums, but from watching the trailer my girlfriend and I agree that it looks a lot more like Dodgeball. This is not a putdown, Dodgeball was friggin’ awesome! King Curling looks quirky and funny, and, I mean–curling. What’s not to love? Wednesday, May 23, 9:30 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Saturday, May 26, 9:45 pm, Egyptian
Wednesday, May 30, 4:30 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
The Beautiful Game
Soccer is huge in Africa, which you probably knew, but have you ever seen an African soccer match (I haven’t), or heard a from African soccer fans (nope)? The trailer promises some beautiful cinematography and a fascinating window to the everyday life of folks who, like you, have an irrational love for sports. Featuring Desmond Tutu, who points out that the world has more soccer fans than Christians. Thursday, May 31, 7 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Saturday, June 2, 12:30 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
COULD VERY WELL BE AWESOME
Bunohan: Return To Murder Underground kickboxing action! A kickboxer runs up debt and flees, soon he’s being chased by an assassin who, it turns out, is his brother. Looks to be extremely violent and full of dark, odd symbolism. Friday, June 1, 9:30 pm, Pacific Place
Sunday, June 3, 11:30 am, SIFF Cinema Uptown
MEH
The Do-Deca-Pentathlon
As kids, two brothers invented a 25-event athletic competition called the Do-Deca-Pentathlon. Now they are old and fat and decide to do the competition again–on the sly, since one guy’s wife doesn’t approve. From Jay and Mark Duplass, who made Cyrus, SIFF alerts us that this movie is “improvisational, awkwardly funny, and low-budget.” So, if you’re into that… Friday, May 18, 7 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Tuesday, May 22, 4:30 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Free Throw
Documentary concerning a free throw competition for Compton High kids devised by an L.A. ad executive. Top prize–a $40,000 college scholarship! SIFF promises that the movie “illustrates their hopes, dreams and obstacles, while illuminating the South Central community that produced them, in both its positive and negative aspects.” Friday, June 1, 7 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Saturday, June 2, 2:30 pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Otelo Burning
Young blacks striving for freedom in late 80s South Africa find it–by surfing. They become stars on the surf competition circuit, but the realities of their time create tension and violence. Neat-looking surfing scenes! Sunday, May 27, 6 pm, Everett Performing Arts Center
Friday, June 8, 3:30 pm, Pacific Place
Saturday, June 9, 6:30 pm, Pacific Place
Are you ready for some SIFFage? The 38th annual Seattle International Film Festival kicks off tonight and runs through June 10. This year, both opening and closing night films are Seattle-made, which is a nice local touch. This evening marks the Your Sister’s Sister. Starring Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt, and Rosemarie DeWitt, the feature was filmed in the San Juans and shows off all that typically lovely Puget Sound scenery we all know so well: the trees, the water, the sun, the fog.
I don’t want to say too much–no spoilers!–so I’ll just speak about Your Sister’s Sister in vagueries. It’s a little film that’s about big things, like family, friendship, love, loss, and tequila. It looks and feels intimate–most of the film just consists of interactions between the three leads–but don’t miss the opening party scene which includes such Seattle Notables as Evan Mosher and Dusty Warren, as well as fellow SIFF filmmaker Mike Birbiglia.
Including Your Sister’s Sister, this year’s SIFF consists of a total of 273 features and 187 shorts, representing 75 countries in this year’s fest. All together, there are 24 world, 25 North American, and 16 U.S. feature premieres, as well as 56 short film premieres. The latest update (yesterday) to the SIFF iPhone app fixed login bugs, so now that SIFFter 2012 is up and working, start planning your schedule for the next twenty-five days. Ready or not, here SIFF comes!
The Seattle International Film Festival has a number of ways you can “interface” with it–obviously, watching a film in a theater tops the list–but the most indispensable combo for the hardcore filmgoer is an iPhone with the SIFF mobile app on it.
Refreshed for 2012, the app allows you to buy tickets, enjoy a mobile SIFFTER experience (“you are currently viewing 447 films”), and build a list of films you want to see (or went to see, for when things get bleary in week three). There’s also a search function, useful for hunting down movies when all you know is a director’s or actor’s name.
Best of all is the Now Playing screen, which you can use to quickly scan screenings while on the go. Is that movie you were planning to see already full? BLAMMO! Now Playing has your back, with a list of what else is about to start.
For people who haven’t committed all of SIFF’s venues to memory, there’s a full list, with maps and directions from wherever you are to whichever movie theater you want to attend. All that’s missing is Uber integration.
Naturally, you can also annoy all your friends on Facebook with reviews of every single film you go see, and follow @SIFFNews, while scanning the #SIFF hashtag.
The only thing that doesn’t seem to be on the app is SiffTV, and the app appears to be only for iPhone, yet again. (#droiddoesn’t) Oddly, no one seems to have sponsored the thing. Talk about a captured audience! Anyway, it’s currently free, and ad-free, for your enjoyment. Let the downloads begin!
Depending on the resiliency of your browser’s cache, the all-new, but still-familiar SIFF 2012 Festival website started appearing on various local internets sometime before Thursday’s lunch hour, complete with a festival calendar, film descriptions, trailers, and all sorts of other bells and whistles including MvB’s beloved “screw the site, all I want is SIFFTER!”
Yes, the flashy film sorter seems to be updated with this year’s lineup to help you narrow the choices to your favorite Martial Arts Erotic Coming of Age Detective stories. But, alas, the pocketable, insanely useful iPhone version iSIFF still seems to be stuck in 2011 (why it doesn’t exist as a year-round resource for SIFF’s year-round programming remains among Seattle’s enduring mysteries). And one last question, if we may: Why is the SIFF Lounge conveniently located near no other festival venues (closest one Cinerama) at Henry & Oscar’s, aka Belltown middle of nowhere?
But all that being said, let’s get ready to festival! Like some rough beast, its hour come round at last, the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival is snuffling at our door. Are you ready for 460 films from 75 countries (273 features, 64 documentaries, 187 short films)? Are you prepared to take in 61 world premieres, 36 North American premieres, and 24 U.S. premieres? Of course not! Don’t be ridiculous.
That’s why in the coming weeks we’ll be hivemindmelding to help you figure out what…tenth, let’s say, of this festival is best worth your time. And really, if you see half of those, you’ll feel it in your flattened tuchus by the end. [Full disclosure: The SunBreak is a media sponsor of the festival, which means we get listed in tiny, tiny type somewhere on their site, and get to give you free tickets–ed.]. If you can’t wait for our crystal ball readings, but know that you like, for instance, to laugh, be scared witless, see the future, or find yourself horribly depressed by the bleak state of the environment/familial betrayals/human rights/the economy, SIFF re-upped last year’s experiment of organizing the festival into user-friendly Pathways.
Let’s hash through the details (and DEFINITELY reacquaint yourself with last year’s pro-tips): Get yer series passes here. The Opening Night film is local gal Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister, this Thursday, May 17 @ McCaw Hall. Here’s the gala tix, and here’s the even-fancier SIFF 2012 Red Carpet Experience.
In terms of in-city programming, this year’s map is a little more compact with most regular screenings taking place downtown at Pacific Place, in Capitol Hill at the Egyptian and both Harvard Exit screens, and on SIFF’s home turf in lower Queen Anne with three screens at the Uptown and one at the Film Center. Once again, the festival will take the show on the road to Renton, Everett, and Kirkland, but we have enough trouble catching everything in Seattle and don’t expect to venture beyond city limits.
ALL OF THE GALAS:
In addition to the opening and closing night soirees, the festival is packed with parties. As a Saturday Gala (a gala because of the day of the week?), there’s Robot and Frank, May 19 @ Pacific Place Cinemas, even though EW totally reviewed it last June. There’s a second (another?) Saturday Gala: As Luck Would Have It, May 26 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown and the locally-shot Friday Gala (forget it) the Details, June 8 @ Egyptian Theatre. The film at the Centerpiece Gala (now THAT’s a real gala) for the tres French the Chef, June 2 @ Egyptian Theatre and at the Gay-La, it’s the appropriately titled Gayby, June 6 @ Egyptian Theatre. Locally-filmed Grassroots, an adaptation of the true Seattle story of monorail evangelizing Grant Cogswell’s ill-fated campaign for city council, closes the festival with a gala screening at SIFF Cinema Uptown followed by a boozy party at the Grand Hyatt. For extra credit, use the existing monorail to get from the Queen Anne screening to the downtown party. PRO TIP.
But wait, there’s more. Some presentations are more special than others:
Brave, see Pixar’s latest on June 10 @ Pacific Place, a few days before it goes into wide release.
Diaz – Don’t Clean Up This Blood fictionally recreates the clashes at the 2001 G8 summit (timely!) June 1 & 2 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown; June 5 @ Harvard Exit
The Last Reef 3D, takes you on a 40 minute underwater voyage, no SCUBA certification required on June 3 & 4 @ Pacific Science Center IMAX
People Like Us finds young Captain Kirk and Effie Trinket dealing with earthbound family drama on June 4 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown; June 5@ Egyptian Theatre
Trishna brings Tess of the D’Ubervilles into contemporary Rajasthan, India by way of Michael Winterbottom. May 18 & 20 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
And this year, SIFF also pays tribute to a couple of film legends, bringing them into the company of film lovers for the right price. But don’t hold your breath, as these are cancellation-prone:
An Evening with Sissy Spacek feat. Badlands, June 7 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
An Evening with William Friedkin feat. Killer Joe, June 9 @ Egyptian Theatre
LIVE PERFORMANCES
Live music is scaled back this year compared to the past few. Personally I’m a little scared of Emerald City Visions: A Hip-Hop Reinterpretation of The Wiz, curated by Larry Mizell, Jr and staring rising stars of Northwest hip-hop June 1 @ The Triple Door, but these things usually turn out to be memorable.
Can’t wait? “Enjoy” and start decoding the SIFF 2012 official “trailer” (which, as clever as it is in squeezing so many film references into two and a half frenetic minutes, you will quickly grow to hate once you see it in front of six or so films):
