NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
Japanese Currents Wordstock: Film to Page Looking, Really Looking! The Films of Chantal Akerman plus... friday film club special screenings northwest tracking
Love & Peace
details at nwfilm.org
WINTER CLASSES & WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS Hands-On Learning for Creatives & Community Members Registration opens November 10. Classes begin January 16. Art of Filmmaking I
Digital Editing
(12 weeks)
(two days)
The basics of Final Cut Pro X
Basic Lighting
iFilmmaking Basics
(half day)
(one day)
Primer on our rental light kits
Shoot and edit on your iDevice
Canon XA-10 Camera Operation
Screenwriting for New Media
(half day)
(10 weeks)
Primer on our rental cameras
Storytelling in new media platforms
Digital Cinematography
Sound Recording
(9 weeks)
(two days)
In-depth shooting techniques
How to record high quality audio
FILM CAMPS FOR KIDS + TEENS
WINTER BREAK 2016
Hands-On Learning for Grades 4–12 Digital Moviemaking for 4th-6th Grade
Digital Moviemaking for 6th-8th Grade
December 19–23, 9 am–3 pm
December 26–30, 9 am–3 pm
Have fun with creative storytelling techniques
Stop Motion Animation for 4th-6th Grade Bring your drawings and characters to life
December 26–30, 9 am–3 pm
Make a sci-fi-inspired drama as a film crew
Digital Editing for Teens
Create remixes and mashups with Final Cut Pro
December 19–23, 1–5 pm
Cléo from 5 to 7
Friday Film Club: Still Life
Our third Friday Film Club reflects on the concept of the still life through the lens of works that use compressed or real-time temporal storytelling strategies. Each film is fascinating in its narrative economy and focus on the small details that make up our day-to-day lives. Friday Film Club screenings are presented monthly when the Portland Art Museum’s galleries are open late on Friday evenings. Each screening is accompanied by a post-film discussion led by Film Center staff and Art Museum docents, in which a work from the Art Museum galleries is utilized to spark dialogue and debate about the film. Special Admission: $5. Friday, November 18, 5:30 pm Cléo from 5 to 7, France, 1962
Dir. Agnès Varda (90 mins., Drama, DCP)
An elegiac, feminist tale of a young Parisian singer on the verge of death—and a poignant look into the mood of Algerian-warera France.
Friday, December 9, 5:30 pm Rope, US, 1948
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (80 mins., Thriller, 35mm)
Taut, "single-shot" thriller from the Master of Suspense about a cocktail party gone horribly awry in the wake of the "perfect crime."
1219 SW PARK AVE. PORTLAND, OR 97205
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FILM DESCRIPTIONS AND TRAILERS AT NWFILM.ORG
Japanese Currents
The Shell Collector
Like Japanese fashion and pop culture, the cinema of Japan remains in the international vanguard, blending traditional genres and classical forms with cutting-edge technology and dazzling imagery. This year’s 10th annual Japanese Currents series highlights recent noteworthy Nipponese films, ranging from anime to jidaigeki, documentary to comedy, all while exploring issues important to contemporary Japanese society. Collectively, these selections offer a fresh take on Japanese culture and showcase the wealth of creative invention at work in Japan today. Select screenings feature a paired short film. Please see our website for further details. Special thanks to the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles with additional support from Biwa Izakawa and Noraneko Ramen, Lane Powell PC, the Portland-Sapporo Sister City the Consular Office of Japan in Portland. AAssociation, Tale of Love andand Darkness All screenings with English subtitles
Friday, December 2, 7 pm Harmonium, Japan, 2016
dir. Kôji Fukuda (118 mins., Drama, DCP)
Unearthed secrets and familial rifts are subtly exposed when a mysterious man returns from prison and begins working with a former partner-in-crime. Winner of the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Saturday, December 3, 5 pm The Shell Collector, Japan, 2016
dir. Yoshifumi Tsubota (87 mins., Drama, DCP)
A deeply beautiful tone poem following a solitary blind professor whose only connection to the outside world is apocalyptic radio broadcasts—until a mysterious woman washes ashore near his beachfront home.
Saturday, December 3, 7 pm Oyster Factory, Japan, 2015
dir. Kazuhiro Sôda (145 mins., Documentary, DCP)
A complex observational portrait of the Oyster farming community of Ushimado (on “Japan’s Aegean Sea”) deep in the grips of recession, with globalization creeping in as the first foreign workers in the community’s history arrive.
Sunday, December 4, 4:30 pm The Sion Sono, Japan, 2016
dir. Arata Oshima (97 mins., Documentary, DCP)
An honest and searching documentary about the legendary filmmaker Sion Sono, who got his start with low-budget 8mm filmmaking in the 80s and has been extremely prolific, stylistically varied, and highly resourceful ever since.
Sunday, December 4, 7 pm The Whispering Star, Japan, 2015
dir. Sion Sono (100 mins., Sci-Fi, DCP)
A space-bound android is tasked with delivering seemingly inconsequential packages to far-flung humans across the galaxy in a post-apocalyptic, inter-planetary landscape devoid of much life.
Wednesday, December 7, 7 pm Love & Peace, Japan, 2016
Friday, December 9, 8 pm Creepy, Japan, 2016
dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa (130 mins., Thriller, DCP)
In Kurosawa’s return to genre filmmaking, a broken ex-detective seeks to unlock the mystery of a missing family while navigating his relationship with the oddly disconcerting man who lives next door.
Saturday, December 10, 1 pm Happy Hour, Japan, 2015
dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (317 mins., Drama, DCP)
Four 30-something female friends navigate daily life—and complicated questions we all face—in this subtly affecting, deeply riveting slice-of-life portrait of average women at a crossroads.
Saturday, December 10, 7 pm Lowlife Love, Japan, 2015
dir. Eiji Uchida (110 mins., Comedy, DCP)
Scathing, at times deeply disturbing, yet often hilarious depiction of the inner workings of the Japanese independent film production scene, focused on a selfcentered director and those revolving around him in the search for fleeing fame.
Saturday, December 10, 9:15 pm Wet Woman in the Wind, Japan, 2016
dir. Akihiko Shiota (77 mins., Erotic Drama, DCP)
Exceedingly physical yet light-hearted sex romp in the “Roman Porno” tradition concerning a back-to-the-land writer who meets—under baffling circumstances—an enigmatic local woman.
Sunday, December 11, 2 pm The Case of Hana & Alice, Japan, 2015
In collaboration with Literary Arts’ Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival—November 5 at the Portland Art Museum—we present four screenings with nationally-renowned writers discussing films that have influenced their work over the years and represent a diverse array of cinematic styles and literary concerns. All screenings will feature an introduction by the author and be followed by a wide-ranging dialogue with a member of the literary community. Thursday, November 3, 7:30 pm Gas Food Lodging, US, 1992
Saturday, November 5, 7:30 pm Close-Up, Iran, 1990
Selected by novelist Alexis Smith (Marrow Island) in conversation with Fiona McCann. Small-town New Mexico daughters Shade (Fairuza Balk) and Trudi (Ione Skye) long to escape the day-to-day drudgery, but doing so is tougher than either of them realize—for very different reasons.
Selected by poet Solmaz Sharif (Look) in conversation with John Freeman. Kiarostami’s path-breaking, true-or-false examination of an average Iranian man who impersonates a famous film director, intruding on a family’s solitude.
dir. Allison Anders (101 mins., Drama, 35mm)
Friday, November 4, 7:30 pm Dead Ringers, Canada, 1988
dir. David Cronenberg (116 mins., Thriller, 35mm)
Selected by novelist and essayist Jonathan Lethem (A Gambler’s Anatomy) in conversation with Casey Jarman. No director is better with body horror than Cronenberg, and Dead Ringers is one of his most effective creations. Here, Jeremy Irons plays twin female fertility doctors who engage in nefarious partner-swapping, with disastrous results.
Sunday, December 11, 4:30 pm Assassination Classroom, Japan, 2015
dir. Eiichirô Hasumi (110 mins., Action Comedy, Blu-ray)
Thursday, December 8, 7 pm The Actor, Japan, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 7 pm After the Storm, Japan, 2016
Bit-part actor Takuji Kameoka (Ken Yasuda) silently toils on the margins, but when a major offer comes along, it might be his chance to break out—of alcoholism, of selfloathing, of loneliness, and of the vicious cycles of control that pervade our day-to-day lives.
In Koreeda’s latest domestic drama, a novelist who struck it big with his first tome struggles to come to terms with being estranged from his wife and child, a gambling addiction, and the fact that he’s not finishing his second book.
dir. Hirokazu Koreeda (117 mins., Drama, DCP)
dir. Abbas Kiarostami (98 mins., Drama, 35mm)
Sunday, November 6, 7 pm Contact, US, 1997
dir. Robert Zemeckis (149 mins., Sci-Fi, 35mm)
Selected by novelist Lily Brooks-Dalton (Good Morning, Midnight) in conversation with Dan DeWeese. Jodie Foster memorably stars as an extraterrestrial researcher thrust into space—terrifyingly alone—when alien life forms contact Earth and provide instructions for an initial meeting.
All screenings will feature a visiting artist Gas Food Lodging
Exploring themes of hikikomori (social withdrawal) and teen friendship and featuring a highly inventive animation style, this “detective” story follows new transfer student Alice’s (voiced by Tetsuko Arisugawa) investigation into a student’s mysterious disappearance.
An unassuming man and his pet baby turtle team up to conquer the world through rock ‘n’ roll after he’s bullied by his soul-sucking-corporate-job co-workers.
dir. Satoko Yokohama (123 mins., Comedy-Drama, DCP)
Wordstock: Film to Page
dir. Shunji Iwai (100 mins., Animated Drama, Blu-ray)
A junior high school class is mentored in the art of assassination by a tentacled, smiley-faced creature responsible for destroying three-quarters of the moon. Their homework: eliminate their teacher before the year is up or his next target will be the earth.
dir. Sion Sono (117 mins., Comedy, DCP)
Lowlife Love
Dead Ringers
Special Screenings
Northwest Tracking
All screenings will feature a visiting artist
Thursday, December 1, 7 pm Historias de Objetos, Portland, 2011
dir. Various (38 mins., Documentary, Digital) preceded by
Heroes Magnificos, Portland, 2016
dir. Various (34 mins., Documentary, Digital)
Kate Plays Christine
Sunday, November 20, 4:30 pm The Commissar, Russia, 1967
dir. Aleksandr Askoldov (110 mins., Drama, DCP)
One of the most important and compelling films of the Soviet cinema, long banned, it tells of a female Red Army commissar who is forced to stay with a Jewish family near the frontlines of the 1920s battle between the Red and White Armies. Introduced by Reed college professor Marat Grinberg. Co-sponsored by the Portland Jewish Film Festival.
Tuesday, December 13, 7:30 pm Color Correction, US, 2015
dir. Margaret Honda (101 mins., Experimental, 35mm)
Created entirely from color-timing tapes—the unseen shadow of a release print—of an unnamed Hollywood studio film, Color Correction is both a meditation on what can be used or reused as source material for a feature film and an exploration of our personal relationship to color in film. Night one of Interaction of Formats; co-presented with Cinema Project.
Sunday, November 20, 7:30 pm The Anonymous People, US, 2013
Thursday, December 15, 7:30 pm Color Aid, US, 1971
Williams’ deeply humane and tender documentary focuses on some of the more than 23 million Americans in long-term recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, offering an honest and hopeful portrait. Co-presented with the Mental Health Association of Portland.
Color Without Colour, US, 1999
dir. Greg D. Williams (88 mins., Documentary, DCP)
Monday, November 21, 7 pm Generation Found, US, 2014
dir. Jeff Reilly (85 mins., Documentary, DCP)
Focused on alternative methods to teen drug addiction and recovery in Houston, Generation Found offers a roadmap for communities looking to engage with these issues beyond the simplicity and brutality of the “War on Drugs.” Co-presented with the Mental Health Association of Portland, the Alano Club of Portland, and 4th Dimension Recovery Center.
Tuesday, November 22, 7 pm Wednesday, November 23, 7pm Sunday, November 27, 3:30 pm Kate Plays Christine, US, 2016
dir. Robert Greene (112 mins., Thriller, DCP)
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Greene’s film is a cinematic mystery that forces us to question everything we see and everything we’re led to believe.
Friday, November 25, 7 pm Saturday, November 26, 4:30 & 7 pm Tampopo, Japan, 1986 dir. Juzo Itami (118 mins., Comedy, DCP)
Spaghetti Western…think foodie Ramen Western.
Sunday, November 27, 6 pm Intolerance, US, 1916
dir. Richard Serra (36 mins., Experimental, 16mm)
dir. Phyllis Baldino (19 mins., Experimental, Video)
American Colour, US, 2011
2001 Colors Andy Never Thought of, US, 2015 dir. George Barber (6 mins., Experimental, digital)
Employing stop motion animation, Peterson’s autobiographical, queer, punk coming-of-age tale recounts growing up in Southern California in the early 1990s. Raised by a schizophrenic single mother, his life unfolds in a series of baffling and hallucinated events fueled by visions of political conspiracy, family dysfunction, and being kidnapped at the age of 12 and taken on a cross-country adventure that forever altered his family. The film will be presented with a live score by musicians Zach Burba, Jacob Jaffe, and Clyde Petersen.
Sunday, December 18, 7 pm Time and Tide: Portraits of Place, Portland,
2016 dir. Alain LeTourneau (23 mins., Documentary, Digital)
LeTourneau’s observational film focuses on North Portland’s Kelley Point Park at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia. Here, man, nature, and industry coexist in delicate balance. with
Nihon Kyuukei, Portland 2016
dir. Nick Peterson (37 mins., Documentary, Digital)
Peterson’s film offers a cinematic gaze at nine locations in the Kanto prefecture of Japan. Like Kelley Point in style and theme, it seeks to explore a notion of place and the intersection of man and nature, work, and play. Filmmakers will be present for a Q&A post film.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Friday, December 16, 6 pm Saturday, December 17, 7 pm Sunday, December 18, 4 pm Don’t Blink: Robert Frank, US, 2015
dir. Laura Israel (82 mins., Documentary Portrait, DCP) A portrait of legendary photographer and filmmaker.
Friday, December 16, 8 pm Saturday, December 17, 4:30 & 9 pm La Notte, Italy/France, 1961
dir. Michelangelo Antonioni (121 mins., Drama, DCP)
Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau star as a novelist and his frustrated wife, who confront their alienation from each other and the empty bourgeois circles in which they travel.
Wednesday, December 21, 7 pm Thursday, December 22, 7 pm Friday, December 23, 7 pm L’Argent, France, 1983
dir. Robert Bresson (85 mins., Drama, DCP)
Wednesday, November 30, 7 pm Bellissima, Italy, 1951
Tuesday, December 27, 7 pm Friday, December 30, 7 pm The Red Shoes, United Kingdom, 1948
dir. Luchino Visconti (138 mins., Comedy, 35mm)
dir. Clyde Petersen (65 mins., Animation, Digital, Live Score)
Four kindred films with colo(u)r as their focus, featuring a student of color theorist Josef Albers (Serra), an homage to Kodachrome film stock (since expired), an exploration of Achromatopsia (inability to see color), and a remixing of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe prints. Night two of Interaction of Formats; co-presented with Cinema Project.
An innocent man forced to become the criminal he is falsely accused of being.
Portland film critic and author Shawn Levy debuts his new book Dolce Vita Confidential and introduces an Italian film classic.
Monday, December 12, 7 pm Torrey Pines, Seattle, 2016
dir. Joshua Bonetta (25 mins., Experimental, Digital)
dir. D.W. Griffith (170 mins., Cinema Classic, DCP)
D.W. Griffith’s epic silent masterpiece still resonates.
Portland Latino teens and artists reflect on the everyday heroes and precious objects in their lives in these documentaries collaboratively produced by Milagro Theatre Group and the Northwest Film Center School of Film. Historias de Objetos examines the long and rich tradition of personal objects in the Latino community as told through the eyes of such local Latino artists as Lise Flores, Marisa Bevington, Nathan Alvarez, Ivonne Saed, Mateo Bevington, and Gerardo Calderon. Marta Mecado’s molcajete, Gustavo Rapoport’s cameras, Carlosalexis Cruz’s masks, and Rose Quintana’s exvotos are among the subjects and objects profiled. Heroes Magnificos brings the voices of Latino teens living in North Portland/St. Johns and Rockwood to the screen as they talk about the friends, mentors, activists, and parents who inspire them on a daily basis. Through both projects, Latino community members had the opportunity to learn the craft of filmmaking from Film Center faculty, and then created these original productions as a service to the community. Our thanks to the Metlife Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, Multnomah County Library and other community supporters who made these projects possible.
New work by regional filmmakers
dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger (133 mins., Drama/Musical, DCP)
In one of the classics of British cinema, romantic and artistic obsession play out in spectacular dance and music.
Looking, Really Looking! The Films of Chantal Akerman
Looking, Really Looking! The Films of Chantal Akerman surveys the work of the influential, groundbreaking Belgian/French filmmaker and places it within a conceptual, thematic, and historical context at the intersection of film and contemporary art. Presenting us with a deeply autobiographical filmography that spans forty years—typically portrayed in long takes within the modest aesthetics of everyday life and often revolving around her personal family history, identity, memory, and displacement—Akerman (1950-2015) is often placed within feminist, queer, Jewish, and avant-garde circles, yet her expansive oeuvre freely moves across genres from the documentary/essay to the musical, psychodrama, structural film, and multi-media installation. Akerman, fiercely independent and always working outside established production systems, was “a paradoxical personality, at once rootless and deeply rooted,” and, in the end, “arguably the most important European film director of her generation.”—J. Hoberman. Looking, Really Looking!, a film and performative program, is presented by the Northwest Film Center and Zena Zezza, a Portlandbased contemporary art project, and is curated by Sandra Percival and Morgen Ruff. Following these screenings, the program will pick up again in March 2017, continuing through May. All screenings with English subtitles. All films directed by Chantal Akerman.
Friday, November 18, 8 pm Rue Mallet-Stevens, France/Belgium, 1986
Saturday, November 19, 7 pm Saute ma ville, Belgium, 1968
Hôtel Monterey, Belgium/US, 1972
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Belgium, 1975
Wednesday, December 28, 7 pm Thursday, December 29, 7 pm The Tales of Hoffman, United Kingdom, 1951
(7 mins., Digital)
“The perfect combination of music, dance, song, acting, design and beautiful women.”—Michael Powell.
A trio of Akerman’s most musical films, two featuring longtime collaborator Sonia Wieder-Atherton.
dirs. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger (138 mins., Musical, DCP)
(65 mins., DCP)
(13 mins., DCP)
Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher, France, 1989 (201 mins., 35mm) (12 mins., Digital)
Two of Akerman’s most groundbreaking works: her first film, made at 18, and her legendary feminist treatise on the politics, realities, and psychology of domestic labor.
Don’t Blink: Robert Frank
MISSION. The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts resource and service organization founded to encourage the study, appreciation and utilization of the moving image arts; to foster their artistic and professional excellence; and to help build a climate in which they flourish. WATCH. Through year-round LEARN. Individuals find and cultivate MAKE. Regional filmmakers are exhibition programs surveying cinema past their personal voices as storytellers through supported as artists, educators, mentors, and present, audiences and filmmakers education programs and innovative connectors, and leaders, strengthening come together to explore our region and the collaborations which advance media literacy cinema's place in the creative, social and world through the moving image arts. and engage the next generation. economic sectors of the community. The Northwest Film Center is funded in part by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, The Ted R. Gamble Film Fund, the Citizens of Portland through the Arts and Education Access Fund, and the support of numerous sponsors, members, and friends.
NWFILM.ORG
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 SUNDAY
MONDAY
northwest tracking
friday film club—$5
subtitles
visiting artist
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4 pm A Face in the Crowd 7 pm Contact
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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november 3
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7:30 pm Gas Food Lodging
7:30 pm Dead Ringers
7:30 pm Close-Up
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The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
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5:30 pm Cléo from 5 to 7
7 pm Saute ma ville & Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080, Bruxelles
December 9—Rope
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6:30 pm Modern Times 8:30 pm Letters Home
VOTE!
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WATCH LEARN MAKE PARTY
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The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
The 43rd Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
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7 pm Generation Found
7 pm Kate Plays Christine
7 pm Kate Plays Christine
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4:30 pm The Commissar
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8 pm Rue Mallet-Stevens & Hotel Monterey & Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher
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7 pm Tampopo
4:30 pm Tampopo 7 pm Tampopo
december 1
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7 pm Bellissima
7 pm Historias de Objetos preceded by Heroes Magnificos
7 pm Harmonium
5 pm The Shell Collector 7 pm Oyster Factory
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7 pm Love & Peace
7 pm The Actor
5:30 pm Rope 8 pm Creepy
1 pm Happy Hour 7 pm Lowlife Love 9:15 pm Wet Woman in the Wind
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7:30 pm Color Aid & Color Without Color & American Colour & 2001 Colors Andy Never Thought of
6 pm Don't Blink: Robert Frank 8 pm La Notte
4:30 pm La Notte 7 pm Don't Blink: Robert Frank 9 pm La Notte
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7 pm L'Argent
7 pm L'Argent
7 pm L'Argent
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7 pm The Red Shoes
7 pm The Tales of Hoffman
7 pm The Tales of Hoffman
7 pm The Red Shoes
7:30 pm The Anonymous People
27 3:30 pm Kate Plays Christine 6 pm Intolerance
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4:30 pm The Sion Sono 7 pm The Whispering Star
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GIVE THE GIFT OF FILM
Silver Screen Club memberships are the perfect holiday gift for the movie lover in your life! Starting at just $75. Join online at nwfilm.org or call 503-221-1156 x19
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2 pm The Case of Hana & Alice 4:30 pm Assassination Classroom 7 pm After the Storm
7 pm Torrey Pines
7:30 pm Color Correction
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4 pm Don't Blink: Robert Frank 7 pm Time and Tide: Portraits of Place with Nihon Kyuukei
25 November 6—Contact
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November 18—Hôtel Monterey December 10—Happy Hour
Celebrate the Northwest Film Center's 45th Anniversary by contributing to our SCHOLARSHIP FUND—
empowering Northwest Filmmakers of all ages to share their stories through film!
Now through the end of December, donations can be made at nwfilm.org or through the Willamette Week Give!Guide.
Unless otherwise noted, all films screen at the Northwest Film Center—Whitsell Auditorium located inside the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue $9 General Admission
$8 PAM Members, Students, Seniors
$6 Silver Screen Club Friends, Children
5 03 - 2 21-115 6 • 934 S W SA LMON STREET • FILM DESCRIPTIONS AN D T R AI L ER S AT N WF I L M .O RG