39th Portland International Film Festival by NWFC

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S.POSTAGE

PAID PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO.664

The Festival Program Welcome to the Northwest Film Center’s 39th Portland International Film Festival. This Festival program is arranged alphabetically by film title followed by the shorts programs, with showtimes and locations listed at the end of each film description. Our short films programs follow the feature listings.

Festival Venues Advance Ticket Outlet

Regal Fox Tower 10

1119 SW Park Avenue at Main (inside the Portland Art Museum’s Mark Building)

846 SW Park Avenue at Taylor

Cinema 21

Empirical Theater at OMSI

616 NW 21st Avenue at Hoyt

1945 SE Water Ave

World Trade Center Theater 121 SW Salmon Street at 1st Avenue (Building 2, upstairs)

Moreland Theatre 6712 SE Milwaukie Ave near Bybee

Roseway Theatre 7229 NE Sandy Blvd near Fremont

Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium 1219 SW Park Avenue at Madison (inside the Portland Art Museum)

Tickets General: $12, PAM Members Student/Senior (65+): $11, Silver Screen Club Friend: $9, Ticket Package: 10 films for $100. Tickets on sale February 1-27. Online: nwfilm.org. Walk-up: daily noon-6pm at the Advance Ticket Outlet. Phone: daily noon-6pm at 503-276-4310. Day-of-show: If tickets are still available, tickets can be purchased at the Advance Ticket Outlet until three hours prior to showtime, then at the theater’s box office beginning 30 minutes prior to the screening. Even if advance tickets are sold out, rush tickets are offered a few minutes prior to showtime.

To purchase tickets or learn more about the Festival details visit the Advance Ticket Outlet or at: nwfilm.org

PIFF After Dark

Animated Worlds

Documentary Views

Films for Families

For the cinematically adventurous, and for the nocturnally inclined, PIFF After Dark offers special treats for devotees of genre films that push boundaries.

In addition to the 20 animated shorts, our Festival presents four animated features that have charmed audiences and critics worldwide.

This year’s festival boasts 17 fresh perspectives on the world we live in and the fascinating people and stories that surround us.

Film lovers of all ages will be charmed by these films suitable for younger viewers.

Sponsored by Hotel Eastlund.

2/21 7:00 | Roseway Theater 2/24 8:30 | Cinema 21 Portland.

My Golden Days

Nahid

Nawara

No Home Movie

ARNAUD DESPLECHIN | FRANCE

IDA PANAHANDEH | IRAN

HALA KHALIL | EGYPT

An intoxicating ode to romance and youthful coming-of-age, My Golden Days is a prequel to Desplechin’s debut, My Sex

Panahandeh depicts the near impossibility of finding security and happiness within Iran’s strictures of socially enforced respectability. Nahid, an impoverished young divorcée, is allowed to live with her teenage son, but only on the condition that she does not remarry. Hoping to move in with the man she loves, Nahid considers an option called “temporary marriage,” a legality that allows short-term domiciles and perhaps won’t jeopardize her custody. But is this legal loophole a salvation or a curse? Starring A Separation’s Sareh Bayat, Nahid weighs the rewards of domestic security against the sacrifices of personal freedoms. Winner, Un Certain Regard Prix de l’Avenir (debut film) at the Cannes Film Festival. (105 mins.)

Nawara works as a housemaid for a family closely linked to the Mubarak regime. On the eve of the 2011 revolution the family decides, for safety, to leave the country temporarily and ask her to look after the villa. Flush with cash for expenses, Nawara calls her fiancé Mustafa and the two are soon enjoying a taste of life at the top. But a travel ban and property seizure order are soon issued against the owner and when the police arrive they confiscate Nawara’s money because she can’t prove it belongs to her. She and Mustafa are left with nothing. “Brims over with uncomfortable truths and irony, boldly questioning the outcome of the revolution.”—The Hollywood Reporter. (122 mins.)

CHANTAL AKERMAN | BELGIUM/FRANCE

Life… Or How I Got into an Argument

(1996). When Paul Dédalus returns to France after living in Tajikistan for several years, he is detained at the airport and questioned by the police. It transpires that a Russian with the same name died in Australia. This news provokes a recollection of three memories from Paul’s youth—his childhood with his eccentric mother who died young and his apathetic father; an eventful school trip to Russia with a secret; and, most passionately, his first love, Esther—all of which resonate with the present. (123 mins.) 2/25 5:45 | Cinema 21 2/27 5:45 | Whitsell Auditorium Sponsored by TV5MONDE.

2/14 1:00 | Moreland Theater 2/24 8:30 | Fox Tower

2/18 6:00 | Moreland Theater 2/24 6:00 | Roseway Theater

“At the center of Akerman’s enormous body of work is her mother, a Holocaust survivor who married and raised a family in Brussels. In recent years, the filmmaker has explicitly depicted, in videos, books, and installation works, her mother’s life and their own intense connection to each other. No Home Movie is a portrait [of Akerman’s mother] in the last years of her life. It is an extremely intimate film but also one of great formal precision and beauty, one of the rare works of art that is both personal and universal, and as much a masterpiece as her careerdefining Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.”—New York Film Festival. (115 mins.) 2/14 4:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/16 5:45 | World Trade Center

Office

One Floor Below

Open Your Eyes

The Other Side

JOHNNIE TO | HONG KONG/CHINA

RADU MUNTEAN | ROMANIA

IRENE TAYLOR BRODSKY | PORTLAND

ROBERTO MINERVINI | ITALY/FRANCE/US

Living under the Himalayan sun, their eyes have slowly gone milky white. Manisara and Durga have cataracts, and their mountain home in Nepal has become a warren of darkness. Shot over three days, Open Your Eyes follows their extraordinary journey down the mountain for a chance to see again. (34 mins.)

“By turns tender and disturbing, Minervini’s powerful docu-fiction hybrid profiles people living on the fringes of society. While they essentially play themselves, he clearly intervenes to create situations rather than observe them. Following his superb Texas-based Stop the Pounding Heart [PIFF 38], Minervini moves to Louisiana, where we come face-to-face with a group of people who seem to have stepped out of Deliverance. Faces carry the lines and scars of hard living, clothes are tattered, living conditions are chaotic. Some are addicts; others are libertarian fanatics. Yet Minervini finds a compassion and tenderness behind their gruff exteriors as he peers into corners that many Americans choose to ignore.”—Toronto Film Festival. In English. Adult. (92 mins.)

A nimble takedown of corporate corruption and greed, Office tells its story as a witty musical extravaganza. Featuring superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Sylvia Chang, the story is set amidst the initial public offering of a billion dollar company in the wake of the global financial collapse of 2008. Poised to make millions, the company’s executives scramble to cover their scheming tracks during an audit. Johnnie To, past master of breathtakingly inventive action choreography, turns to dance and an inventive set to create his lavish spectacle, “At once sharp and exceedingly playful … a nimble political soft shoe with filmmaking dazzle.”—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times. (120 mins.)

Muntean’s understated fable about morality in the modern world centers on Sandu, a middle-aged businessman, father, and upright citizen who leads a normal life. Overhearing a neighbor couple in an angry fight, he soon after encounters the man on the apartment stairs. Then the woman is found dead. Sandu suspects the man must be involved, but unsure, says nothing to the police as he wrestles with the right course of action—if there is one. Meanwhile, the man, wondering what Sandu is thinking and if he might implicate him, starts to casually insinuate himself into Sandu’s family’s life, his constant presence escalating a crisis of conscience and a tense game of speculation and checkmate. (93 mins.)

2/18 5:45 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/20 12:45 | Cinema 21

2/20 8:30 | Roseway Theater 2/23 8:30 | OMSI

WITH

50 Feet from Syria SKYE FITZGERALD | PORTLAND For Dr. Hisham Bismar, a successful hand surgeon in the United States, images of wounded Syrian refugees flowing across international borders compels action. Hisham’s journey serves as a portal into a tragic conflict and remarkable people working to save lives at great personal risk. (39 min.)

Sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco.

2/21 3:30 | Whitsell Auditorium

2/12 8:30 | Moreland Theater 2/15 6:00 | Fox Tower

The Pearl Button

The Project of the Century

Rams

Right Now, Wrong Then

PATRICIO GUZMÁN | CHILE, FRANCE, SPAIN

CARLOS MACHADO QUINTELA | CUBA

GRÍMUR HÁKONARSON | ICELAND

HONG SANG-SOO | SOUTH KOREA

A poetic meditation on the history of brutal colonization and devastation throughout Chile’s history, Guzmán elegantly builds an argument for the importance of preserving memory when all culture is lost. Devastated by foreign conquest, indigenous culture has little left than cherished memory. That genocide is contrasted by the more recent tragedy of Pinochet dictatorship, when thousands of political prisoners were murdered or disappeared, many of whose bodies were dumped into the sea. Using water and Chile’s 2,670 miles of coastline as the entry point to pull diverse experience and ideas together, Guzmán finds the memory and voice that bind a culture. (82 mins.) Age 15+

The Electro-Nuclear City was once part of an ambitious Soviet/Cuban venture to build the first nuclear power station the Caribbean. But the fall of the Soviet Union brought the project to a halt, leaving dismal blocks of worker’s apartments in the shadow of reminding enormous dome towers. Drifting effortlessly between raw psychological realism and dreamy surrealism and loaded with unique Cuban archive footage, Quintela portrays three generations of Cubans left to carry on waiting for “the project of the century.” (100 mins.)

Funny, moving and stunningly shot, Rams was awarded the top prize of Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In a secluded valley, brothers Gummi and Kiddi live side by side, tending to their sheep. Their ancestral stock is considered one of the country’s best. But although they share the land and a way of life, the two have not spoken to each other in over 40 years. Their world is upended, however, when the valley comes under threat from infection. While others abandon their land, Gummi and Kiddi don’t give up so easily, and each brother tries to stave off disaster in his own fashion. As the authorities close in, the brothers will need to come together to save the special breed passed down for generations—and themselves—from extinction. (93 min.)

Film director Ham arrives in Suwon a day early for a screening and speaking engagement. Roaming about, he meets a much younger artist named Yoon and they spend the day together in conversation, winding up at a café where things turn awkward. Hong then rewinds the story, telling it again with subtle differences and a different outcome, playfully playing with the alluring possibility of love going down two different paths, one bitter, one sweet. Winner of the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, Hong’s meditation on male behavior, social graces, and the complexity of communication provides compelling viewing. (121 mins.)

2/17 8:30 | Moreland Theater 2/21 4:15 | Fox Tower

2/13 8:45 | World Trade Center 2/20 6:00 | World Trade Center

2/13 4:00 | Fox Tower 2/17 6:00 | Whitsell Auditorium

Sponsored by Nathan Cogan, and The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project at Portland State University.

Road to La Paz FRANCISCO VARONE | ARGENTINA Varone’s warm and funny South American road trip opens up a world of understanding between two strangers. Unemployed and adrift, Sebas decides to become a private driver almost on a whim. When an elderly client, Jalil, offers him a large sum to drive him to La Paz, Sebas can’t refuse and the two set off on an epic 2,000 mile, life-changing journey. Jalil is a devout Muslim, something that initially makes Sebas very uncomfortable, but little by little life on the road brings the two men closer together. (92 mins.) 2/14 7:00 | Fox Tower 2/21 1:30 | Cinema 21

2/18 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/21 4:15 | Cinema 21

Sponsored by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.

Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy HAYDN REISS | US Poet Robert Bly stands out even among the celebrated, revolutionary generation of American artists who burst forth in the 1950s, and Haydn Reiss charts his singular path from second son to taciturn father on a wintry Minnesota farm to radical antiVietnam War activist to wild man of the 1990s men’s movement. The bespectacled, white-haired Bly is every inch the politically and spiritually engaged mystic, seeking each moment’s fervid heart as well as the eternal, intuitive bedrock beneath our cultivated ideologies and “personas.” A confounding whirling dervish, Bly’s life embodies the quest for personal honesty and shared truth. (81 mins.) 2/13 4:00 | World Trade Center 2/14 4:00 | World Trade Center

Schneider vs. Bax

Sivas

ALEX VAN WARMERDAM | NETHERLANDS

KAAN MÜJDECI | TURKEY

The twists and turns surprise in this unsparing, deadpan, black comedy. Schneider, a contract killer, gets a phone call from Mertens who has a rush job for Schneider. The killer refuses to take it; it’s his birthday and he has promised his wife to help with the celebratory dinner. Mertens stresses that it is important and needs to be done that day. “It’s Ramon Bax, a writer over sixty. He lives on his own on a lake. He’s got no neighbors. It’s an easy job, you’ll be back before lunchtime.” Reluctantly, Schneider agrees, but the easy job turns out to have its complications...(96 mins.)

where Aslan, a troubled 11-year-old boy, rescues and adopts a shepherd dog who has been injured and left to die after a vicious, illegal dog fight. Sivas is at first just an impressive weapon in Aslan’s fight for the affection of his classmate Ayşe, but the potential for the animal to return to a more brutal and cruelly competitive world is always simmering below the surface. Müjdeci doesn’t try to make a comment about the macho culture of fighting dogs, but instead paints a portrait of a boy trying to make his way into manhood despite societal constraints and the harsh Anatolian landscape. (97 mins.)

2/19 8:30 | World Trade Center 2/22 8:30 | Cinema 21

2/24 8:30 | OMSI 2/26 6:00 | Fox Tower

Sivas is set in remote, eastern Anatolia,

The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes are not Brothers BEN RIVERS | UK/MOROCCO “A labyrinthine and epic film that moves between documentary, fantasy, and fable, shot against the staggering beauty of the Moroccan landscape, from the rugged terrain of the Atlas Mountains to the stark and surreal emptiness of the Moroccan Sahara, with its encroaching sands and abandoned film sets. Rivers’ work contains multiple narratives, the major strand being an adaptation of ‘A Distant Episode,’ the savage short story by Paul Bowles. The film also features the enigmatic young film director Oliver Laxe, whose on-screen presence becomes interwoven with the multiple narratives that co-exist amid the various settings of Rivers’ cinematic exploration.”—New York Film Festival. (100 mins.)

Sleeping Giant

Songs from the North

Sonita

ANDREW CIVIDINO | CANADA

SOON-MI YOO | SOUTH KOREA/US

ROKHSAREH GHAEM MAGHAMI | IRAN/ GERMANY/SWITZERLAND

Teenager Adam is spending his summer vacation with his parents on rugged Lake Superior. His dull routine is shattered when he befriends Riley and Nate, smart aleck cousins who pass their ample free time with wit, debauchery, and recklessness. The revelation of a hurtful secret triggers Adam to set in motion a series of irreversible events that will change the boys forever. Cividino conjures a vivid and emotionally rich universe filled with equal measures of euphoria and pain as his young protagonists grapple with friendship, betrayal, masculinity, perceptions of love and sexuality, and death. Best Canadian First Feature Film, Toronto International Film Festival. (89 mins.)

An intimate essay, Songs from the North provides a deep look at the enigma of North Korea. Bypassing and decoding the country’s jingoistic propaganda, as well as derisive satire from the West, Soon-Mi Yoo interweaves footage from three visits to North Korea with songs, spectacle, popular cinema, and archival footage to understand, on their own terms, the psychology and popular imagery of the North Korean people and the political ideology of absolute love. “Rare and extraordinary… profoundly strange, immediate, and real.”–The Village Voice. Best First Feature at both the Locarno International Film Festival and Bueos Aires International Film Festival. (75 mins.)

2/12 6:15 | Moreland Theater 2/16 6:15 | Cinema 21

2/15 6:15 | World Trade Center 2/19 6:30 | World Trade Center

If 18-year old Sonita had a say in things, Michael Jackson would be her father and Rihanna her mother, and she captures her dream of being a famous rapper in her scrapbook. For the time being, her only fans are the other teenage girls in a Tehran shelter. There, Sonita, a refugee from Afghanistan, gets counseling for the traumas she has suffered and receives guidance in shaping her future. Despite Sonita’s dreams of fame, her family has a very different future planned for her: as a bride she’s worth $9,000. What’s more, women aren’t allowed to sing in Iran. How can Sonita still succeed in making her dreams come true? (90 mins.) 2/14 1:00 | World Trade Center 2/15 3:30 | World Trade Center

2/17 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/20 3:30 | Whitsell Auditorium

Sunset Song

Sworn Virgin

The Thin Yellow Line

The Throne

TERENCE DAVIES | UK

LAURA BISPURI | ALBANIA/GERMANY ITALY/KOSOVO/SWITZERLAND

CELSO GARCÍA | MEXICO

LEE JOON-IK | SOUTH KOREA

Winner of the Audience Award at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, The Thin Yellow Line is the buddy-comedy story of five financially strapped men hired to paint the center stripe of a lonely rural road that connects two villages. While the crew makes their own fun in the middle of nowhere, their foreman (Damián Alcázar) promises to impart the reward of a hard day’s work. “As in the best road movies, the journey of the workers changes their way of seeing and understanding life. For them and us, the line they paint comes to symbolize the thin line between right and wrong, laughter and tears, and life and death.” —Variety. (95 mins.)

“There are kings who have killed their own brothers and nephews to preserve the dynasty.” These words are spoken by the 16th-century Korean monarch Yeongjo, unaware of the grave irony that he will one day have his own son put to death in The Throne, an outstandingly crafted period drama that recounts a famous historical outrage with a sense of empathy as potent and measured as its anger. Led by a towering performance from Song Kang-ho, but well cast down to the last courtier and concubine, this is a gripping return to Joseon-dynasty intrigue . . .stranding two men on opposite sides of an emotional and ideological divide that will ultimately exact payment in blood.”—Variety. (125 mins.)

“Davies exquisite treatment of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel gives him a broad canvas of rain-lashed farmland on which to apply his knack for literary adaptation. It’s the early 20th-century in rural Scotland and Chris Guthrie is a young woman with plans. Excelling at her schooling and in possession of a burgeoning independent streak, she seems destined for a job in teaching. But as the constellation of her family shifts around her and romance comes calling, Chris grows into womanhood just as the First World War begins to devastate a generation. A true Scottish epic, Sunset Song laments the devastation of war and pays fine tribute to the endurance of the land.”—London Film Festival. (135 mins.) 2/13 8:45 | Cinema 21 2/15 6:00 | Moreland Theater

A memorable telling of a fascinating and little-known Albanian custom, Sworn Virgin features a remarkable performance by Alba Rohrwacher as a woman who lives her life as a man. While still a girl, Hana decides to escape fate as a wife and servant in the mountains. She takes an oath of eternal virginity, which gives women the chance to pick up a rifle and live free as a man. For everybody in the village Hana becomes Mark, a ‘sworn virgin’. But as years of solitude pass, Mark begins to question his choice and sets out on a journey of discovery, exchanging Albania for Italy, past for present, masculine for feminine. New Director Prize, San Francisco International Film Festival. In Albanian and Italian with English subtitles. (90 mins.)

2/20 8:30 | World Trade Center 2/21 7:00 | Fox Tower 2/23 8:30 | Cinema 21

2/24 6:15 | Fox Tower 2/26 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorum

2/14 4:00 | Fox Tower 2/19 5:45 | Whitsell Auditorium

Sponsored by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.

Northwest, San Francisco.

Thru You Princess Presenting Princess Shaw IDO HAAR | ISRAEL The Israeli musician and artist Kutiman rose to fame with his “Thru You” project, which mashes up samples from You Tube clips featuring amateur musicians. Samantha, a nurse in New Orleans, uploads her songs and candid video diaries, hoping for an audience. Director Ido Haar documents her attempt to make it in the music scene in her hometown and mixes these scenes with footage of Kutiman at home on a kibbutz, watching Samantha online, singing her a cappella vocals and sampling them in a video. Samantha couldn’t possibly imagine that halfway around the world, there’s someone who is about to expand her audience to numbers beyond her wildest dreams. (80 mins.) 2/20 3:30 | Fox Tower 2/21 4:30 | Roseway Theater

Viva

A War

The Wave

PADDY BREATHNACH | IRELAND

TOBIAS LINDHOLM | DENMARK

ROAR UTHAUG | NORWAY

Jesus does hair and make up for the drag queens at a bar in Havana. Wanting to be a performer himself, he finally gets his chance on stage, but only to be greeted by a punch in the face from a stranger. It’s his father, Angel, a former boxer, who has been absent from his life for 15 years. Furious about his son’s sexuality, Angel forbids Jesus from performing. Unwillingly giving up his dream to reconnect with his father, the two clash over their opposing expectations of one other as they struggle to become family again. “Confidently mixing melodrama, fairy tale, and gritty realism. . .[an] ingenious and hugely entertaining crowd-pleaser.”—Telluride Film Festival. In Spanish with English subtitles. (100 mins.)

Examining the moral complexities of split– second decision-making, Lindholm’s film follows Danish commander Claus Pedersen as he does his best to keep his troops safe and morale high on their deployment in Afghanistan. During a routine mission, the soldiers come under heavy fire, and Pederson must make an impossible decision to save his men, one that will bring grave consequences. “Retaining the structural simplicity and procedural meticulousness of Lindholm’s superb thriller A Hijacking [PIFF 36], A War doesn’t seek to break new ground in the ongoing cinematic investigation of the Afghanistan conflict; rather, it scrutinizes the ground on which it stands with consummate sensitivity and detail.” –Variety. (115 mins.)

Kristian, an experienced geologist, has accepted a job offer that will require moving from the town of Geiranger. While getting his family ready to go, he and his colleagues record small movements in the earth that indicate that disaster is imminent. With less than ten minutes to react, it becomes a race against time in order to save as many people as possible, including his own family. Uthaug’s gripping tsunami-peril thriller will resonate with anyone who has contemplated the inevitability of shifting plates beneath us. (104 mins.)

2/15 6:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/20 8:30 | OMSI

2/12 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/16 8:30 | World Trade Center Sponsored by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.

2/25 5:45 | Roseway Theater 2/27 8:30 | Fox Tower

Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific

We Are Young, We Are Strong

Wedding Doll

What We Become

When a Tree Falls

NITZAN GILADY | ISRAEL

BO MIKKELSEN | DENMARK

ASIER ALTUNA IZA | SPAIN

BURHAN QURBANI | GERMANY

Winner of the Best Israeli Debut Feature and Best Actress (Assi Levi) at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Wedding Doll is set in a small town in southern Israel’s Negev desert. Hagit, a young woman with a mild mental disability, works in a toilet paper factory and lives with her mother, Sarah, a divorcée who has given up her life for her daughter. Hagit is obsessed with romantic fantasies and spends her evenings making bridal gowns from paper she gets at the factory. Hungering for a life on her own, when Hagit embarks on her first romantic relationship she tries to keep it a secret from her mother. (82 mins.)

Idyllic suburban life is shattered when news spreads of a viral infection at a neighboring rest home. Soon enough, the military rolls in, placing the entire town under quarantine. As the virus spreads, the strictures of quiet family life begin to break down under the pressures of impending danger. Mikkelsen’s debut is a tense and clever take on the zombie genre and far more compelling than any season of The Walking Dead. “It’s the kind of noirish horror that is rapidly becoming extinct.”—Peter Martin, Twitch Film. (85 mins.)

A film about the passing of Basque rural culture, When A Tree Falls lyrically explores spirit of place, ancestry and the inevitability of change. Gaizka is the eldest son in the family, but refuses to take over the caserio—the farm that has been with the family for generations. His sister Amaia is the one who must deal with the protest from their stubborn, oldfashioned father. He insists that the farm represents a way of life and values that must be upheld. Amaia finds herself torn between tradition and her life in the modern world, but she cannot leave her old parents and grandmother to take care the farm by themselves. (103 mins.)

The gripping true story of one night in August 1992 in the East German town of Rostock, when a racist mob, watched by around 3,000 onlookers, attacked an apartment building containing over 100 Vietnamese men, women, and children. This so-called “Night of the Fire” became synonymous with German xenophobia in the newly united country and highlighted the inherent political failings of local government. Told from the point of view of three very different characters—a Vietnamese woman, a young rioting German, and the boy’s father, a politican trapped in a dilemma—We Are Young is a compelling and astute study of disaffected youth and civic disgrace. (127 mins.)

PRECEEDED BY: Invaders, Jason Kupfer | US. A home invasion attempt goes horribly and hilariously awry. (7 mins.)

2/20 6:00 | OMSI 2/22 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorium

2/21 10:00 | Cinema 21

2/24 5:45 | Cinema 21 2/25 8:30 | Roseway Theater

Sponsored by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.

2/15 3:30 | Moreland Theater 2/23 6:00 | Roseway Theater Thanks to PRAGDA, Spain Arts and Culture, Accíon Cultura Española (AC/E), and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

Short Cuts I: International Ties

2/13 1:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/16 6:15 | Fox Tower Total running time: 80 mins.

My Home

August

Ave Maria

Two Dosas

PHUONG MAI NGUYEN | FRANCE

TOMEK ŚLESICKI | POLAND

BASIL KHALIL | PALESTINE

SARMAD MASUD | UK

A poignant animated film about a boy who struggles to come to terms with someone— or something—new living in his house. (12 mins.)

A film about first love and the things we do for it. (13 mins.)

The silent routine of five nuns living in the West Bank wilderness is disturbed when an Israeli settler family breaks down right outside the convent just as the Sabbath comes into effect. (15 mins.)

A date in an Indian restaurant goes off menu. (16 mins.)

Contrapelo

Carface CLAUDE CLOUTIER | CANADA Is this the future? (4 mins., animation)

GARETH DUNNET-ALCOCER | US/MEXICO A proud Mexican barber is forced to shave the leader of a drug cartel. By the end of the shave, he will find out that he and the Capo are not so different. (19 mins.) Two Dosas

Car Face

Short Cuts II: Animated Worlds

2/14 1:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/15 3:30 | Whitsell Auditorium Total running time: 105 mins. LAIKA’s Mark Shapiro attends animation events from Annecy to Zagreb. Here is a hand-picked collection of beautiful works—witty to heartbreaking— evoking sparkling creativity and the soul and personality of their makers.

My Dad

MARCUS ARMITAGE | UK Inherited opinions. Inherited isolation. A father’s influence on his young son’s life tears away at a world of opportunity and experience. (6 mins.)

Cyclopèdes

The Ballad of Holland Island House LYNN TOMLINSON | US Made with an innovative clay-painting technique, Tomlinson tells the true story of the last house on a sinking island in the Chesapeake Bay. (5 mins.)

Cyclopèdes

Road Trip

Butter Ya’Self

MATHIEU EPINEY | SWITZERLAND

XAVER XYLOPHON | GERMANY

JULIAN PETSCHEK | US

Two Friends

With its subtitles and pianola music, Cyclopèdes references the aesthetic of early films and shows how a bicycle race might have looked at the time. (5 mins.)

A hand-drawn film about failure, insomnia, a red motorbike, pretty bargirls, the desolateness of Berlin (even in summer), and waterproof socks. (20 mins.)

A banana and a hot dog bun are famous. (3 mins)

NATALIA CHERNYSHEVA | FRANCE

The Five Minute Museum

Guida

PAUL BUSH | UK/SWITZERLAND

ROSANA URBES | BRAZIL

A romp through museums in which the objects on display come to life and reveal the stories of their creation. (7 mins.)

Guida sees a newspaper ad about life drawing classes and finds inspiration and transformation (13 mins.)

World of Tomorrow DON HERTZFELDT | US A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future. (16 mins.)

Never Steady, Never Still KATHLEEN HEPBURN | CANADA Overwhelmed by his past mistakes, a young man retreats to his isolated hometown and finds he is not alone in his struggle. (19 mins.) 15

Even the best of friends can have trouble understanding each other when they are from two different worlds. (4 mins.)

Luminaris JUAN PABLO ZARAMELLA | ARGENTINA The fantastical story of a man who works in a factory making light bulbs but yearns for something more. (6 mins.)

Short Cuts III: International Ties

2/18 8:30 | Moreland Theater 2/21 7:00 | OMSI Total running time: 86 mins.

Sanjay’s Super Team

Overpass

Day One

Never Steady, Never Still

SANJAY PATEL | US

PATRICE LALIBERTÉ | CANADA

HENRY HUGHES | US

KATHLEEN HEPBURN | CANADA

Will Sanjay leave his comics and cartoons behind and take the world a little more seriously? (7 mins., animated)

Police chase Mathieu after he scrawls graffiti on an overpass, but the teenager’s midnight marauding has a purpose that only he understands. (19 mins.)

On her first day in Afghanistan, an interpreter for the US Army is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bombmaker. (25 mins.)

Overwhelmed by his past mistakes, a young man retreats to his isolated hometown and finds he is not alone in his struggle. (19 mins.)

Balmoral Hotel WAYNE WAPEEMUKWA | CANADA The life story of a First Nations sex worker is conveyed via a ragged daytime dance through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. (10 mins.)

Prologue

Day One

RICHARD WILLIAMS | UK In the Spartan-Athenian wars 2,400 years ago, a small girl bears witness as warriors battle to death. (6 mins.) Balmoral Hotel

Short Cuts IV: International Ties

2/19 6:00 | Roseway Theater 2/26 6:00 | OMSI Total running time: 85 mins.

We Can’t Live Without Cosmos

The Atom Station

Maman(s)

Over

NICK JORDAN | UK

MAÏMOUNA DOUCOURÉ | FRANCE

JÖRN THRELFALL | UK

KONSTANTIN BRONZIT | RUSSIA

Iceland’s dramatic and volatile landscape—natural and manmade— through the eyes of poet W. H. Auden and environmental activist Ómar Ragnarsson. (13 mins.)

The family of eight-year-old Aida is thrown into chaos when her father returns from Senegal with young Rama, whom he introduces as his second wife. (21 mins.)

A dead body has appeared in a suburban street, and in reverse order, we learn how it got there. (14 mins.)

Two cosmonauts, two friends, try to do their best in their everyday training life to make their common dream a reality, but this animated story is not only about the dream. (15 mins., animated)

The Loneliest Stoplight BILL PLYMPTON | US The life and times of a neglected stoplight. (6 mins., animated)

Dissonance TILL NOWAK | GERMANY A psychotic street musician has to leave his mental world to deal with the real one. (15 mins.)

Dissonance

The Atom Station

Short Cuts V: Made In Oregon

2/20 1:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/22 6:00 | Roseway Theater Total running time: 88 mins.

One Week ROLLYN STAFFORD | PORTLAND A young woman devises a plan to free herself from her deceptively pleasant living situation. (5 mins.)

Dude in the Headlights

Le Tram

Peace in the Valley

Sista in the Brotherhood

Num Nums

DONAL MOSHER, MICHAEL PALMIERI | PORTLAND

DAWN JONES REDSTONE | PORTLAND

In Eureka Springs, Arkansas the vote on LGBT civil rights meets the town’s religious tourism boosters. (15 mins.)

Laneice’s first day at a male-dominated job site is met with harassment and contempt as she fights to prove herself. (20 mins.)

SEAN AND MICHAEL FARRIS | SILVERTON

Hers Is Where Yours Begins

Le Tram

JANET MCINTYRE | PORTLAND

Jazz-like rhythms and foggy notions as a salesman contemplates his surroundings and existence. (19 mins.)

Memory and emotion swell as the director revisits the death of her mother when she was a teenager. (5 mins.)

Ralpete has trouble waking up from a nightmare world filled with “handmade” stop-motion creatures and tasty candies. (5 mins.)

Dude in the Headlights

HOWARD MITCHELL | PORTLAND

Short Cuts VI: International Ties

Num Nums

Waking the Green Sound: A Dance Film for Trees YULIA ARAKELYAN, ERIK FERGUSON | PORTLAND The performance art troupe Wobbly transforms their bodies and spirits as they move through fantastical and dreamlike landscapes. (15 mins.) Presented by Oregon Cultural Trust.

TIM WADE | SALEM Animals are humans too, so be careful out on the road. (2 mins.)

2/21 1:00 | Whitsell Auditorium 2/25 8:30 | Cinema 21 Total running time: 85 mins.

Interview with a Free Man NICOLAS LÉVESQUE | CANADA

Bear Story

Bear Story GABRIEL OSORIO | CHILE An old, melancholy bear tells his life story through a mechanical diorama. (11 mins., animated)

Three men are interviewed for a job that might offer them a new start in life, and as the questions grow more pointed, their answers become increasingly revealing. (9 mins.)

Interview with a Free Man

Love in the Time of March Madness

Discipline

MELISSA JOHNSON, ROBERTINO ZAMBRANO | AUSTRALIA

CHRISTOPHE M. SABER | SWITZERLAND In a moment of anger in a grocery store, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. As shocked customers intervene, the discussion gradually gets out of hand. (11 mins.)

The awkward misadventures of a 6’4’’ tall woman who is a star on the basketball court but struggles to find true love. (9 mins.)

How I Didn’t Become a Piano Player TOMMASO PITTA | UK Nine-year-old Ted can’t find anything he’s really good at until his father comes home with an old piano. Suddenly it’s clear: he’ll become the next Mozart. (18 mins.)

Ramona ANDREI CRETULESCU | ROMANIA One girl. One car. One night. No coincidence. (25 mins.)

Short Cuts VII: Space Time Being

2/23 8:30 | Whitsell Auditorium Total running time: 94 mins. Parallel universes, bi-location, autohypnosis, alternate dimensions, and past lives: this program of new experimental films, programmed and introduced by Cinema Project, follows the idea that mental movement between imagined, physical, or psychological spaces is also at the core of the cinematic experience.

Towards the Possible Film

Deep Sleep

SHEZAD DAWOOD | MOROCCO/UK

BASMA ALSHARIF | GREECE/MALTA/ PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

A study in parallel universes set as a hazy golden dream in which blue-skinned astronauts emerge from the ocean waves on the beaches of Sidi Ifni, Morocco. (20 mins.)

MAKINO TAKASHI | JAPAN

RYAN FERKO, PARASTOO ANOUSHAHPOUR, FARAZ ANOUSHAHPOUR | CANADA/GERMANY

Mad Ladders

Through a flood of images and impressions, and weaving together the temporal realities of two separate vacations, a narrator attempts to recall a family holiday. (6 mins.)

A Distant Episode

MICHAEL ROBINSON | US

A hypnosis-inducing, pan-geographic shuttle built on brainwave-generating binaural beats that take us on a journey through the sound waves of Gaza to travel between different sights of modern ruin. (13 mins.)

Short Cuts VIII: International Ties

Bunte Kuh

Inspired by the techniques of musique concrète, Takashi forms abstract images made from concrete ones visualized as a shimmering portal of gradually changing colors. (25 mins.)

Deep Sleep

Cinema Concret

Heavily processed video footage from 1980s and early 1990s awards ceremonies are blended beneath the prophetic ramblings of an unseen narrator. (10 mins.)

BEN RIVERS | UK A meditation on the illusion of filmmaking, shot behind-the-scenes on a film being made on the otherworldly beaches of Sidi Ifni, Morocco. (18 mins.)

2/24 8:30 | Roseway Theater 2/27 12:45 | Whitsell Auditorium Total running time: 82 mins.

Pa KAPITOLINA TSEVETKOVA-PLOTNIKOVA | RUSSIA/UK Everyone is unique and has their natural talent. Sometimes it really has to be discovered, because it needs you... Or she. (6 mins., animated)

Loop Ring Chop Drink NICOLAS MÉNARD | UK The mundane story of a heartbroken man, an online gambling addict, an alcoholic kleptomaniac, and an anxious loner living in the same apartment building. (10 mins., animated)

I Thought I Told You to Shut Up!! CHARLIE TYRELL | US In 1977, David Boswell created the comic book anti-hero Reid Fleming, the World’s Toughest Milkman. More than 30 years later, the planned big screen Hollywood adaptation remains in contractual limbo. (13 mins.)

Nina

Nina HALIMA ELKHATABI | CANADA

Waves ‘98

Sixteen-year-old Nina, lacking the ability to grasp the implications of her actions, tries to escape the demands of teen motherhood. (15 mins.)

ELY DAGHER | LEBANON Disillusioned with his life in the suburbs of segregated Beirut, Omar’s discovery lures him into the depth of the city and a world so close yet so isolated from his reality. (15 mins.)

Shok

Shok JAMIE DONOUGHUE | US The friendship of two boys is tested to its limits as they battle for survival during the Kosovo war. (21 mins.)

facebook.com/nwfilmcenter @nwfilmcenter @nwfilmcenter Northwest Film Center The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts organization founded to encourage the study, appreciation, and utilization of the moving image arts, to foster their artistic and professional excellence, and to help create a climate in which they may flourish. Founded in 1971, the Film Center provides a variety of activities and services primarily directed to the residents of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. The Film Center presents a wide-ranging, year-round film exhibition program and offers a number of outreach programs and activities serving the region.These include circulation of outstanding work by regional artists; sponsorship of special festivals, including the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (November), Reel Music Festival (January), Portland Jewish Film Festival (June), Fresh Film Northwest (November), and Portland International Film Festival (February); a School of Film

offering diverse education classes and workshops for children and adults, including a Certificate Program in film production; the statewide Young Filmmakers outreach residency program; public access to film and video production facilities; and a variety of information and publication programs. The Film Center is funded in part by grants from The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Ted R.Gamble Film Endowment, The Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, Henry Lea Hillman Jr. Foundation, and the support of numerous corporate program sponsors, Silver Screen Club members, exhibition series donors and friends.

Northwest Film Center Staff & Faculty DIRECTOR: BILL FOSTER EDUCATION DIRECTOR: ELLEN THOMAS FILMMAKER SERVICES MANAGER: BEN POPP

EDUCATION PROGRAM ASSISTANTS: NATALIE CARROLL, ERIK HOOFNAGLE, FELISHA LEDESMA, HAZEL MALONE, ZSUZANNA MANGU, MARIANA URBAN

EXHIBITION PROGRAM MANAGER & PROGRAMMER: MORGEN RUFF

HEAD PROJECTIONIST: ARIKA OGLESBEE

PR AND MARKETING MANAGER: BENNA GOTTFRIED

THEATER MANAGER: MICAH VANDERHOOF

PUBLICITY AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER: NICK BRUNO

THEATER STAFF: KATIE BURKART, ERIK MCCLANAHAN, TONY OLSEN-CARDELLO, ILANA SOL, LISA TRAN, VERONICA VICHITVADAKAN, LARISA ZIMMERMAN, ROSE HOLDORF, MITCHELL GLIDDEN

EDUCATION PROGRAMS MANAGER: MIA FERM DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: RACHEL RECORD EQUIPMENT & FACILITIES MANAGER: DAVE HANAGAN MEMBERSHIP AND INDIVIDUAL GIVING COORDINATOR: BAILEY CAIN ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR: SEAN GROSSHANS

ALESHA JUDD, DUSTIN KRCATOVICH, GREG LEMIEUX, KATHRYN MACCRATE, MICK MANGOLD, EMILY MERCER, ADAM NEVE, HANNAH NUTTER, TRILLIUM SHANNON, MARIANNA SMITH, MEGAN HATTIE STAHL, MEGAN TORGERSON, CHRISTEN VALENTINE, MICHAEL TOM VASSALLO, AMANDA ZOGBY

EDUCATION SERVICES COORDINATORS: STEPHANIE HOUGH, ANDREW PRICE, MILES SPRIETSMA

FACULTY: DAN ACKERMAN, KYLE ALDRICH, BUSHRA AZZOUZ, SCOTT BALLARD, RICHARD BLAKESLEE, ANDY BLUBAUGH, STEVE DOUGHTON, MARK EIFERT, MARIO FALSETTO, BETH FEDERICI, BRENDA GRELL, PAUL HARROD, COURTNEY HERMAN, EMILEROSE KALIN, ALAIN LETOURNEAU, BRIAN LINDSTROM, MADDIE LOFTESNES, PAMELA MINTY, GARY NOLTON, AMY O’BRIEN, MARK ORTON, DAN SCHAEFER, DAVE SLAY, JEAN MARGARET THOMAS, MELISSA TVETAN, WILL VINTON, WAYNE WOODS

PIFF THEATER STAFF: NICOLE BAKER, SCOTT BALLARD, CASEA BETTS, SAMANTHA COHEN, ZOE COHEN, REBECCA COLE, NIKKI CORMACI, CHRISTINE DAVIS, CORSER DU PONT, JADEN FOOKS, GEORGE GIBSON, DANIEL GRIFFIN, NEVADA GRIFFIN, WILHELMINA HAYWARD,

OFFICE INTERNS & VOLUNTEERS: JOHN CLAYTON LEE, HANNAH EIGEMAN, HANNAH FLEMING, NOAH HALE, PAUL HANSON, SHANNON NEALE, BIANCA SINFIELD, IAN WESTMORLAND, BRETT WRIGHT, COLIN ZEAL

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM BOARD OF TRUSTEES: CHAIR: JANET GEARY, VICE CHAIR: RICHARD LOUIS BROWN, SECRETARY: LAURA MEIER, TREASURER: PAT RITZ NW FILM CENTER COMMITTEE: LINDA ANDREWS, CHAIR MARK FRANDSEN, ALIX MEIER, YALE POPOWICH, BOB WARREN, ALICE WIEWEL, DON VAN WART PORTLAND ART MUSEUM MARILYN H & DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. DIRECTOR: BRIAN FERRISO identification Statement Publication Title: Northwest Film Center Portland International Film Festival Issue Date: February, 2016 Statement of Frequency: Published six times per year Authorized Organization Name and Address: Portland Art Museum, Northwest Film Center 1219 SW Park Ave. Portland, Oregon 97205 Issue Number: Volume 44, Issue 2

The Festival Fine Print

The 10 Minute Rule

Festival Passes

Seats for advance ticket and pass holders are held until 10 minutes before showtime, at which time any unfilled seats are released to the public. Thus, advance tickets or passes ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee a seat in the case of arrival after the 10-minute window has begun. Your early arrival also helps get screenings started promptly. We appreciate your understanding. Advance ticket holders who arrive within the 10-minute window but are not seated may exchange their tickets for another screening at the Advance Ticket Outlet or obtain a cash refund at the theater. There are no refunds or exchanges for late arrivals or for missed screenings.

An allotment of seats is reserved at every screening for passholders. Passholders are guaranteed admission until 10 minutes prior to showtime or until the passholder allotment has been reached. Early arrival is recommended. In exceedingly rare circumstances, passholders may not always be able to attend a film at their first choice of screening times. Passes are available as a benefit of Silver Screen Club Membership with the Northwest Film Center at the Director level and above.

Festival Vouchers

Rush Tickets

Please be aware that a voucher may not be used at a theater for admission. It must be redeemed–in person at the Advance Ticket Outlet–for a specific film screening at least one day in advance of the screening date, and tickets are subject to availability. Exchanging vouchers early is recommended.

After advance tickets are no longer on sale, rush tickets will be available at each theater’s box office as soon as the number of unoccupied passholders seats has been determined— typically a few minutes before showtime. The rush line may start anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour prior to the screening.