This year’s 44th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (NWFest44), which takes place November 1 to 5, 2017, will present sixteen features and twenty short form works in the film lineup.
Festival film highlights include Portland-based filmmaker Cornelius Swart’s PRICED OUT, a feature-length documentary exploration of the housing crisis in Portland and its disproportion impact on the African-American community; Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers’ documentary PROOF OF LOYALTY, which relays the story of Kazuo Yamane, a Japanese Nisei, born in Hawaii to Japanese-born immigrants, who, despite suffering prejudice and discrimination after Pearl Harbor, joined up to fight and valiantly serve the US in World War II ; Julie Perini’s THE GENTLEMAN BANK ROBBER: THE STORY OF BUTCH LESBIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER rita bo brown, a portrait of a white, working-class butch from rural Oregon who joined the George Jackson Brigade, a revolutionary prison abolitionist group operating in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, and became known as “The Gentleman Bank Robber”; POW WOW, Robinson Devor’s (ZOO, POLICE BEAT) documentary examining an annual country club party that takes place on former Native American land in the Coachella Valley; director SJ Chiro’s coming-of-age adventure LANE 1974, following life on a commune in Northern California, as witnessed through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl; and Matt McCormick’s BUZZ ONE FOUR, which tells the tale of the director’s grandfather and his involvement in a Cold-War era crash of an aircraft with a thermonuclear payload on board.
In addition to features, the Festival offers up three programs of short films. Shorts I: This is Here and Shorts II: Alliances, comprised of films from makers from across the Pacific Northwest, including festival alums Salise Hughes, Jodi Darby, Vanessa Renwick, Jon Behrens, and others, are joined by Ethnographic Visions: An Extended Shorts Program, which highlights longer, short films by Emily Wahl, Pam Minty, and Lynne Siefert.
Beyond the numerous screenings on offer, the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival also provides opportunities for aspiring and working filmmakers to interact directly with peers and industry professionals through events at the Northwest Filmmakers’ Summit on November 4. A day of guest speakers, panels, and tech demos, the Summit’s aim is to provide information and discussion of issues and trends in independent filmmaking with a focus on regional opportunities and resources. Subjects explored include a presentation on “The Future of Lighting” by Aputure’s Mark Mathers, a panel discussion on cameras and lenses for professional production use, and a roundtable talk on best practices for sound design, working with composers with post-production in mind.
The Summit will also host a VR presentation by Digital One and a special live filmmaking event entitled Moving Picture Oregon in which five groups of filmmakers shoot a roll of Super 8 film based on an artwork in the Portland Art Museum’s Picturing Oregon exhibit. Later that night, the band Party Killer will perform a live soundtrack to the Super 8 films shot at the Moving Picture Oregon event in the Whitsell Auditorium for an event dubbed Party Killer Vs. Kodak.
This year’s Summit also includes a panel highlighting six Trailblazing Women of Independent Animation in the Northwest. Featuring Joanna Priestley, Rose Bond, Joan Gratz, Ruth Hayes, Marilyn Zornado, and Gail Noonan, the panel directly connects to a NWFest44 showing of the participants work, which in turn serves as a preview for a series of Northwest Tracking screenings focusing on each individual participant in November and December.Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival
-
44th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival Reveals Lineup, PRICED OUT, LANE 1974, PROOF OF LOYALTY, and More..
This year’s 44th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (NWFest44), which takes place November 1 to 5, 2017, will present sixteen features and twenty short form works in the film lineup.
Festival film highlights include Portland-based filmmaker Cornelius Swart’s PRICED OUT, a feature-length documentary exploration of the housing crisis in Portland and its disproportion impact on the African-American community; Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers’ documentary PROOF OF LOYALTY, which relays the story of Kazuo Yamane, a Japanese Nisei, born in Hawaii to Japanese-born immigrants, who, despite suffering prejudice and discrimination after Pearl Harbor, joined up to fight and valiantly serve the US in World War II ; Julie Perini’s THE GENTLEMAN BANK ROBBER: THE STORY OF BUTCH LESBIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER rita bo brown, a portrait of a white, working-class butch from rural Oregon who joined the George Jackson Brigade, a revolutionary prison abolitionist group operating in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, and became known as “The Gentleman Bank Robber”; POW WOW, Robinson Devor’s (ZOO, POLICE BEAT) documentary examining an annual country club party that takes place on former Native American land in the Coachella Valley; director SJ Chiro’s coming-of-age adventure LANE 1974, following life on a commune in Northern California, as witnessed through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl; and Matt McCormick’s BUZZ ONE FOUR, which tells the tale of the director’s grandfather and his involvement in a Cold-War era crash of an aircraft with a thermonuclear payload on board.
In addition to features, the Festival offers up three programs of short films. Shorts I: This is Here and Shorts II: Alliances, comprised of films from makers from across the Pacific Northwest, including festival alums Salise Hughes, Jodi Darby, Vanessa Renwick, Jon Behrens, and others, are joined by Ethnographic Visions: An Extended Shorts Program, which highlights longer, short films by Emily Wahl, Pam Minty, and Lynne Siefert.
Beyond the numerous screenings on offer, the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival also provides opportunities for aspiring and working filmmakers to interact directly with peers and industry professionals through events at the Northwest Filmmakers’ Summit on November 4. A day of guest speakers, panels, and tech demos, the Summit’s aim is to provide information and discussion of issues and trends in independent filmmaking with a focus on regional opportunities and resources. Subjects explored include a presentation on “The Future of Lighting” by Aputure’s Mark Mathers, a panel discussion on cameras and lenses for professional production use, and a roundtable talk on best practices for sound design, working with composers with post-production in mind.
The Summit will also host a VR presentation by Digital One and a special live filmmaking event entitled Moving Picture Oregon in which five groups of filmmakers shoot a roll of Super 8 film based on an artwork in the Portland Art Museum’s Picturing Oregon exhibit. Later that night, the band Party Killer will perform a live soundtrack to the Super 8 films shot at the Moving Picture Oregon event in the Whitsell Auditorium for an event dubbed Party Killer Vs. Kodak.
This year’s Summit also includes a panel highlighting six Trailblazing Women of Independent Animation in the Northwest. Featuring Joanna Priestley, Rose Bond, Joan Gratz, Ruth Hayes, Marilyn Zornado, and Gail Noonan, the panel directly connects to a NWFest44 showing of the participants work, which in turn serves as a preview for a series of Northwest Tracking screenings focusing on each individual participant in November and December.
-
“THE TREE INSIDE” “MAKE MINE COUNTRY” Win Audience Awards at Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival
THE TREE INSIDE by Vancouver, B.C.-based filmmakers, Michelle Kim and Rob Leickner (pictured above) is the winner of the Audience Award for “Favorite Narrative Feature” and MAKE MINE COUNTRY by Portland filmmaker, Ian Berry is the winner of the Audience Award for “Favorite Documentary Feature” at the 42nd Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, which ran from November 12-18, 2015.
-
2015 Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival Reveals Lineup, incl. THE WAY WE TALK, THE SANDWICH NAZI
The 2015 Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (NWFest42) (formerly the Northwest Film & Video Festival) takes place November 12 to 18, 2015 and will present 45+ short and feature films from filmmakers across the Northwest.
Festival film highlights include director Lewis Bennett’s THE SANDWICH NAZI, a feature-length expansion of his short film, which screened at the 39th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival; Zach Weintraub’s SLACKJAW makes its Portland debut after premiering earlier this year at the Locarno Film Festival; WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS, Courtney Coulson’s involving portrait of a mobile, cross-cultural circus for children in Palestine; Michael Turner’s THE WAY WE TALK (pictured above) investigates one of medical science’s most baffling and enduring disabilities — stuttering — through the personal experience of its director; Ian Berry’s MAKE MINE COUNTRY uncovers the curious impact of classic country music on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia; Sasha Snow’s HADWIN’S JUDGEMENT focuses on the non-fiction drama behind the removal of the largest, oldest, and most valuable trees from British Columbia’s forests; and Pam Minty gently unearths her mother’s memories of landmarks remembered from before the loss of her sight in DIRECT ROUTE.
In addition to features, the Festival offers three programs of short films. Shorts I: Fantasies and Diversions— a collection of films from makers based in Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Tacoma, WA, and Vancouver, BC—will kick off the Festival on Opening Night at 7 p.m. with filmmakers in attendance. Shorts II: Tracing Space and Shorts III: Intimate Portraits are collections of films by makers throughout the NW region, ranging from the experimental to animation to narrative and non-fiction.
Beyond the numerous screenings on offer, the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival also provides opportunities for aspiring and working filmmakers to interact directly with peers and industry professionals through events such as the Northwest Filmmakers’ Un-Conference, previously BarCamp, an opportunity for the regional filmmaking community to gather together and explore the issues and challenges facing today’s independent filmmaker. Filmmakers whose work did not make it into the Festival have been invited to submit their short film into the popular program, “What’s Wrong with this Picture?,” hosted by Seattle curator Warren Etheredge for a program illuminating the pitfalls of selling your film to a programmer in 2 minutes or less.
With the exception of one film, all Festival screenings will take place at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue. MAKE MINE COUNTRY will screen at the Skype Live Studio (1210 SW 6th Avenue).
-
Over 45 Films on Lineup for Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival
RETURN OF THE RIVERThe Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon, announced the line-up for its 41st annual survey of new work by regional media artists, the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (formerly the Northwest Film & Video Festival), which takes place November 7-15, 2014. This year’s Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (NWFest41) presents 45+ short and feature films from filmmakers across the Northwest, selected by guest Festival judge Christopher Rauschenberg, much lauded photographer and co-founder of Portland’s trailblazing Blue Sky Gallery. Festival film highlights include Vera Brenner-Sung’s “meditation on displacement and adaptation in the contemporary American West,” BELLA VISTA; John Gussman and Jessica Plumb’s ecologically-minded documentary RETURN OF THE RIVER, concerning water and tribal rights on the Elwha River; Beth Harrington’s THE WINDING STREAM, an examination of the enduring impact of the original Carter Family on the musical landscape; and Sue Arbuthnot and Richard Wilhelm’s family farming doc, DRYLAND.
In addition to features, the Festival offers three programs of short films. Shorts I— a collection of films from makers based in Portland, OR, Eugene, OR, Seattle, WA, Edmonds, WA, Belgrade, MT, Livingston, MT, and Vancouver, BC—will kick off the Festival on Opening Night at 7 p.m. with filmmakers in attendance. Shorts II and Shorts III are collections of films by makers throughout the NW region, ranging from the experimental to animation to narrative and non-fiction. All three shorts programs will screen twice during the Festival.
Beyond the numerous screenings on offer, the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival also provides opportunities for aspiring and working filmmakers to interact directly with peers and industry professionals through events such as the Northwest Filmmakers’ Un-Conference, previously BarCamp, an opportunity for the regional filmmaking community to gather together and explore the issues and challenges facing today’s independent filmmaker. Filmmakers whose work did not make it into the Festival have been invited to submit their short film into the popular program, “What’s Wrong with this Picture?,” hosted by Seattle curator Warren Etheredge for a program illuminating the pitfalls of selling your film to a programmer in 2 minutes or less.
Additionally, NWFest41 will cater to makers via two participatory workshops. On Sunday, November 9 from 2-4pm, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy winning director Irene Taylor Brodsky (HEAR AND NOW) will lead an intensive on “Developing the Doc-Maker’s Ear for Story,” which will be followed immediately after by a 4:30pm screening of her film ONE LAST HUG (…AND A FEW SMOOCHES): THREE DAYS AT GRIEF CAMP. Saturday, November 15 at 10am-3pm, musician/composer Mark Orton (NEBRASKA, BOXTROLLS) will enlighten in a workshop entitled “Inside the World of Film Composing.” Both workshops will take place at the Northwest Film Center’s School of Film, located at 934 SW Salmon Street.
Festival screenings will take place at NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue.