the 41st northwest filmmakers' festival press book

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WELCOME

Each fall The Northwest Film Center eagerly anticipates this opportunity to share the bounty of outstanding work that is being produced by filmmakers living in our corner of North America. The 41st Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival is chock-full of stellar examples of the creative voices in our community and we are pleased to offer this best of the best to you. Helping us bring this treasure trove to the community are many longtime sponsors who share our support of the region’s dynamic media arts community and are doing their part to ensure that it continues to thrive. This year a special shout-out to the Regional Arts & Culture Council for their contribution to the Northwest Filmmakers’ Un-conference, a now annual event that brings the filmmakers together to share inspiration and information maker to maker. We are doubly excited to extend the Film Center’s ongoing Global Classroom venture—where we fill our theater with local high school students eager to experience compelling international cinema—and give it a regional turn during the Festival as we offer a program of Northwest-made films examining the theme of homelessness. The Festival has a tradition of bringing a distinguished filmmaker, critic or programmer—usually from outside the region—to generously offer his or her eye in selecting the short film program and prizewinners. This year we asked an esteemed visual artist—Portland photographer, Blue Sky Gallery founder and curator, and passionate filmgoer Christopher Rauschenberg—to appraise the state of the field. We offer Chris our appreciative thanks for sharing his curatorial expertise and his love of the moving, and still image. As is with the Film Center’s year-round Northwest Tracking programs, we hope that whether you are a filmmaker, film lover, or just curious about our creative community and life around us, you’ll dig into the many worlds woven into the schedule—the screenings, the workshops, the Un-conference, the parties—to meet the makers and see what truly independent filmmaking looks like. Thomas Phillipson, Festival Manager Bill Foster, Director, Northwest Film Center

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41st NW Filmmakers’ Festival Judge Christopher Rauschenberg

JUDGE’S STATEMENT

When Bill Foster asked me to judge this year’s Northwest shorts, he told me that they’d like to end up with three programs (c. four and a half hours), but that if I only liked one and a half hours worth of film, that would be okay too. I had the opposite (non) problem. Cutting the hours down wasn’t just about trimming the fat—alas, there are a lot of good and meaty shorts being left on the cutting room floor. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that what you’re seeing is what excited me as the best of the best.

I found no predominant Northwest style among these films, although perhaps I saw more can-do joie-de-vivre and less gloom and doom than the cinematic average. The Northwest is lucky to be flowering with such a wealth of filmmaking talent in every style, from the most professionally slick to the most funkily handmade, from the most sincere documentaries to the most eccentrically personal creations, plunging into explorations from our own backyard to the far corners of the world (and to worlds beyond). We have great theaters too—Portland alone has the Northwest Film Center, Cinema 21, Hollywood, Clinton Street, Living Room, Cinema Project, Fifth Avenue, and more. Go to those theaters, watch lots of independent cinema, pitch in to those Kickstarter campaigns, pull out your phone, and start filming. There are great things afoot here, and it’s rewarding and fun to be part of it.

JUDGE’S BIOGRAPHY

With a B.A. in photography from The Evergreen State College, Christopher Rauschenberg has been a photographer since 1973. Along with over 100 solo shows around the world, he has been a central figure in the regional arts community, co-founding Portland photography festival Photolucida, Blue Sky Gallery, and co-op Nine Gallery. Along the way, he has been involved in curating over 700 photography exhibitions and competitions and edited and produced over 50 art and photography publications. The winner of numerous awards and recognitions, his work is in the collections of 11 major museums. He is also a voracious lover of films of all persuasions.

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JUDGE’S AWARDS

THE SERIOUS JUICE OF LIFE AWARD: REZ CARZ We all know what is meant by “if these walls could talk” but really, how much narrative juice is a wall going to bring to its storytelling? Now, “if these cars could talk” starts to really bring the juice—and when “these cars” are cars from the Native American Rez, we’ve hit the jackpot. This movie makes me glad to be alive.

THE AESTHETIC GHOST AWARD: BEYOND MURDER This true story is a tawdry tale of the banality of evil. Instead of “telling” us that story, though, this film shows it to us through the somewhat uncomprehending eyes of one of the many available ghosts. Watch it for the transcendence; you can look up the banality of evil part on Wikipedia. (I did.)

THE JOHN CAGE SYNESTHESIA AWARD: COMMUTE The term “experimental film” usually conjures up an expectation of impulsively dense wild creative abandon. A scientist will tell you, though, that the way to run an experiment is to set an initial condition that you are interested in, then take your hands off the wheel and just let it run. COMMUTE does this beautifully and simply. This film made me jealous that I didn’t make it myself.

THE DELICIOUS MEDICINE AWARD: LAYOVER We’re used to the seeing massive amounts of toxins pour out of a smokestack. It surely is the best medicine to see the inverse—great masses of beautiful swifts pouring into a smokestack. Vanessa is a shaman who knows her business. (Now it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s turn to be jealous.)

THE GIANT ANIMATION AWARD: A TALE OF MOMENTUM & INERTIA It’s hard to think of a better way to spend seventy seconds than this. Enjoy.

THE LET IT COOK HONORABLE MENTION: A LOVE STORY This is a great movie about what love is (and how it can bloom where red staters wouldn’t imagine). It spends eight minutes packing a huge amount of emotion into its powerful, heartfelt, and soulful climax, but cuts that climax off well before the full two minutes and forty five seconds it earned. It’s got us all marinated and spiced just right but could use another two minutes to let Sam Cooke cook us all the way through.

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PAST FESTIVAL JUDGES

Michael Almereyda

Freude Bartlett Ellen Bartow

James Benning Phil Borsos

Ernest Callenbach John Cooper Karen Cooper

Jo Ann Danzker Steve Dejarnett

Gill Dennis Sam Green

Matt Groening Andrea Grover Todd Haynes Jim Hoberman

Dan Ireland Heike Kuehn Edith Kramer Stan Lawder Ted Mahar

Leonard Maltin David Milholland Marv Newland

Pat O’Neill Mike Plante Bill Plympton

Kelly Reichardt B. Ruby Rich

Rachael Rosen Norie Sato Steve Seid

Maureen Selwood Jill Sprecher Amy Taubin

Kenneth Turan Christine Vachon

Gus Van Sant Jane Veeder Carmen Vigil Melinda Ward

Gene Youngblood

41ST FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Oregon Arts Commission

Pro Photo Supply

McMenamin’s Crystal Hotel

Regional Arts & Culture Council

The Jackson Foundation

The Portland Mercury

Potboiler Story Company

North By Northwest

Laika

Metro

Kind Healthy Snacks

Chipotle

Mission Control

Sierra Nevada

Funnelbox

Koerner Cameras

Oregon Governor’s Office of Film &

Television

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EVENTS

FRI, NOV 7, 9 PM THE 41ST NORTHWEST FILMMAKERS’ FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT PARTY NORTHWEST FILM CENTER SCHOOL OF FILM We are throwing open the doors of the Film Center’s School of Film and taking over the classrooms and halls for a celebration of Northwest Filmmakers that will launch this ten day feast for the curious. Grab a drink at the cash bar and dig into conversation with the many filmmakers around you. FREE ADMISSION. AGES 21+ ONLY. Sponsored by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and North by Northwest Winery. SAT, NOV 8, 10 AM-4 PM NORTHWEST FILMMAKERS’ UN-CONFERENCE MILLER GALLERY, MARK BUILDING, PORTLAND ART MUSEUM 1119 SW PARK AVENUE The Northwest Filmmakers’ Un-Conference is a Barcamp-style event organized by filmmakers/participants for filmmakers/participants. The process begins before the Festival, when participants come together online to introduce themselves, suggest topics, and explore discussion ideas. Past sessions have included conversations on self-distribution, archiving work, navigating festivals, building social communities, and more. This is an event where novice filmmakers might meet their next crew and accomplished filmmakers might meet their inspiration. The Northwest has a wealth of filmmaking resources—none as invaluable as the filmmakers themselves—so pull up a chair and take part. Breakfast provided by KIND Healthy Snacks; lunch vouchers offered by Chipotle Mexican Grill. Lunch vouchers offered by Chipotle Mexican Grill. Contact Festival Manager Thomas Phillipson at [email protected] to connect with your comrades-in-film. Sponsored by The Regional Arts and Culture Council. Free admission. SAT, NOV 8, 4 PM WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? MILLER GALLERY, MARK BUILDILNG, PORTLAND ART MUSEUM 1119 SW PARK AVENUE HOSTED BY WARREN ETHEREDGE So, you worked hard and bled a little but your film isn’t exactly burning up the festival circuit. Is it you? Is it them? Is it something that might be easily fixed? You may have had plenty of unsolicited advice to go along with the rejection letters, but how about some straightforward advice from a cinematic sage? We’ve invited Seattle film guru Warren Etheredge back to the Festival to take a look at the first few minutes of brave filmmakers’ films and offer his (brutally honest) insight, delivered with his trademark wit and good will. (90 mins.) Free admission.

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SUN, NOV 9, 2-4 PM WORKSHOP: DEVELOPING THE DOC-MAKER’S EAR FOR STORY SCHOOL OF FILM, 934 SW SALMON STREET Tuition: $15 IRENE TAYLOR BRODSKY Interesting people, compelling social issues, and heroic tales can all tug on our filmmaking hearts crying out to be THE story that wins over our blood, sweat, and tears for the next weeks, months, and even years. Of all the possible stories that intrigue and inspire, how do you know which ones have the potential to blossom into artistic and critical success? In her two decades of documentary filmmaking, Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, producer, writer, and cinematographer, Irene Taylor Brodsky has followed her heart to develop a sharp ear, and perhaps a bit of a third eye, for character-driven stories that offer new perspectives on who we are and how we think. This afternoon Brodsky will discuss her strategies and film projects in detail, commenting on the critical interplay of story selection and collaboration with other filmmakers in achieving success. Tuition includes admission to The Emmy Award- winning ONE LAST HUG (...AND A FEW SMOOCHES): THREE DAYS AT GRIEF CAMP, which immediately follows the workshop. FRI, NOV 14, AFTER 5 PM MUSEUM $5 FRIDAYS Each Friday after 5 pm, enjoy $5 admission to the Portland Art Museum (The Northwest Film Center’s sister organization). Tonight, the Festival will be screening LUCINDA PARKER: WATER AND CLOUDS at 5 pm and 6 pm with a Q&A with director Michael Annus between shows. Admission is free with ticket to the Portland Art Museum. SAT, NOV 15, 10 AM-3 PM WORKSHOP: INSIDE THE WORLD OF FILM COMPOSING SCHOOL OF FILM, 934 SW SALMON STREET Tuition: $45 MARK ORTON This workshop delves into the business of writing original music for film and focuses on how the film director can best communicate with a composer. Starting with an overview of the instructor’s film palette and style, it will discuss such topics as: the types of film scores (original, licensed, public domain, live captured, sound design); film music budgeting; what happens before a composer is hired (the temp score, the cue sheet, demos, typical contracts, and budgets); how to work with a composer (the spotting session, what a composer needs technically, the adjusted cue sheet, giving notes, film music vocabulary, filing a finalized cue sheet, the illusive locked picture); and different types of music licenses and rights scenarios. MARK ORTON, founding member of the genre-bending acoustic chamber ensemble Tin Hat, has written original scores or contributed music to numerous films including MY OLD LADY, NEBRASKA, SWEET LAND, BOXTROLLS, THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN, BUCK, THE REVISIONARIES, Fernando Meirelles’s 360, Ken Burns’s THE ROOSEVELTS, and DRYLAND (see p. 12), which screens at 3:30 PM following the workshop.

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FESTIVAL PASSES

Pass to all Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival screenings and parties: $40

TICKETS GENERAL: $9

PAM MEMBERS, STUDENTS & SENIORS: $8 SILVER SCREEN CLUB FRIENDS: $6

CHILDREN (12 and under): $6

Screening Venue

Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium located inside the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue

WORKSHOPS & EVENTS:

School of Film, 934 SW Salmon Street Miller Gallery, 1119 SW Park Avenue

BECOME A MEMBER

SILVER SCREEN CLUB FRIENDS receive discounted admission. DIRECTOR,

PRODUCER, BENEFACTOR, and SUSTAINER members receive free admission with their valid Silver Screen Club cards. Join online at nwfilm.org.

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Official Selections

EXP=Experimental ANI=Animation NAR=Narrative

DOC=Documentary

Print sources available at nwfilm.org.

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A LOVE STORY DIRECTOR: BRANDY SVENDSON / VANCOUVER, BC

SHORTS III: SUN, NOV 9, 6:30 PM | FRI, NOV 14, 7 PM

(DOC) This moving story of loss in the early days of the AIDS epidemic celebrates the timelessness and universal qualities of love. (9 mins.)

FILMMAKER'S BIOGRAPHY:

Brandy Svendson is a creative director and producer with over 15 years of experience including campaign development, photography, and film/video direction and production. She is a creative force who is extremely passionate about telling stories and creating conversations with her viewers. She is driven and connected, making her the perfect leader for any team. Her first foray into short film was in 2000, for the 48-hour film festival—she was a part of the winning film, DARK LIGHT. The following year she directed and starred in another 48-hour film festival film, Harry’s Dinner. In 2009, Brandy founded a non-profit, does HIV Look Like Me? International. The organization works globally to reduce the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS by producing national video campaigns featuring peopling living with HIV. She has been a part of producing and directing campaigns in Swaziland, South Africa, the US and Canada. She is currently the CEO and Creative Director at Be the Change Group, and most recently she directed and edited 37 people in 4 days to create 31 videos that chronicle the history of HIV in Vancouver through stories told by the people who were there from the beginning. Her work (3030.aidsvancouver.org) has been nominated for a 2014 AccolAID. Last year she worked in New York directing Mark Ruffalo for a short animated film commissioned by the United Nations.

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A TALE OF MOMENTUM & INERTIA

DIRECTOR: KIRK KELLEY, KAMERON GATES / PORTLAND, OR

SHORTS II: SAT, NOV 8, 6 PM | THURS, NOV 13, 7 PM

(ANI) Rock Giant holds the fate of a small coastal village in his hands. (1 min.)


Kameron Gates: Kameron Gates is a multi-talented artist primarily working in three dimensional mediums, both digital and practical. As a designer, sculptor, makeup artist and director, Kameron enjoys working in multiple disciplines because there’s always something new to learn. A veteran of the film and television industry, he’s most definitely behind some of your favorite shows and movies. Kirk Kelley: Kirk’s a big-gun Director, and not just because he’s a Texan. A multi-talented designer, storyteller and restaurateur, Kirk has directed and supervised many of our premier ad campaigns since 1995. Kirk is Supervising Creative Director for our fleet of M&M’S content, winning awards and accolades in festivals and annual industry “Best of’s” heralding the long-standing appeal of the beloved character icons. He has also generated attention in recent years for his visually and technically innovative campaigns collaborating with agencies including TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Media Arts Lab, Amalgamated and BBDO Worldwide. His acclaimed experimental short film DIA DE LOS MUERTOS combines stop-motion and CG characters, backgrounds and effects to create mysterious imagery that blurs the boundaries separating the living from the dead. Kirk holds advanced degrees in visualization sciences and architectural design and an undergraduate degree in engineering. He is the co-owner of Podnah’s Pit, a Texas-style barbecue restaurant in Portland, and La Taq, a Tex Mex bar next to Podnah’s.

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ANXIOUS OSWALD GREENE

DIRECTOR: MARSHALL AXANI / VANCOUVER, BC

SHORTS I: FRI, NOV 7, 7 PM | WED, NOV 12, 8:30 PM

(NAR) Oswald Greene visits a fantastical clinic to address his crippling anxiety and his fate falls into the hands of a blind nurse, a talking fly, and an eccentric doctor with a knack for rhyming. (15 mins.)


Marshall Axani is a versatile and highly ambitious storyteller with strength in energetic, emotionally engaging narrative films. As the recipient of some of Canada’s top short film grants, Marshall has worked with frequent collaborators to create a series of highly praised films, including the winner of several Best Picture awards: LIGHT OF FAMILY BURNAM (2008), THE VESSEL (2012) and ANXIOUS OSWALD GREENE (2013). These shorts have played internationally, garnering over thirty awards, the latter film recently taking home a record breaking thirteen Leo Awards. He is currently working with his team to bring their first feature to the big screen. http://www.cureoswald.com/

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BALING BALING DIRECTOR: LAWRENCE JOHNSON / PORTLAND, OR


(DOC) In rice fields of the Indonesian island of Bali, farmers keep the birds away with rhythmic noisemakers, plastic bags, and scarecrows. (5 mins.)


Lawrence Johnson has been making films and videos professionally since 1983. For the last ten years he has written and produced several programs about Native Americans and produced audio/visual programming for major museums across the country. He has recently completed programming for the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, and the Oregon Historical Society's exhibit Oregon, My Oregon. As a teacher, he has produced several half-hour programs in high school residencies, including the award-winning educational sci-fi fantasy Alien Invaders. His documentary HAND GAME (2000) opened the American Indian Film Festival, and played the Smithsonian's Native American Film and Video Festival and the Montreal Native film Festival in June, 2001. Video installations by Johnson have appeared in several galleries in the Portland area. He just completed a personal feature-length documentary called Stuff, about his father’s death and all the stuff he left behind. It received the Oregon Media Arts Fellowship in 2008, previewed at the Northwest Film and Video Festival and won a special jury prize at the 2011 Florida Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Talking Pictures Festival. Currently he is director of animation on MY AMERICAN WAISTLINE, a web series, and working on his next personal documentary feature, GHOST MONEY, about his experience in Vietnam 1972.

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BELLA VISTA

DIRECTOR: VERA BRENNER-SUNG / MISSOULA, MT

SAT, NOV 8, 4 PM

(NAR) Having recently moved to Missoula, Montana to teach English to a group of international students, thirty-something Doris finds herself alone. She wanders listlessly, but her students possess courage, purpose, and grounding and understand what it takes to belong. Inspired in part by director Brenner-Sung’s experience moving to Montana in 2011, BELLA VISTA is a meditation on displacement and adaptation in the contemporary American West exploring both the perils of rootlessness as well as the optimism of new beginnings. (83 mins.)


Vera Brunner-Sung is a filmmaker, educator, and writer. Her films have been presented at festivals, museums, and galleries in the U.S. and abroad, including the Torino Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Images Festival. Her first feature, BELLA VISTA, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2014. Vera’s writing on film has appeared in Sight & Sound, Moving Image Source, Cinema Scope, and Senses of Cinema. She has lectured in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego, and is adjunct faculty in Media Arts at the University of Montana. http://www.bellavistafilm.com

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BEYOND MURDER

DIRECTOR: ZACHARY T. SMITH / PORTLAND, OR


(NAR) This chilling true crime mystery reenacts the modus operandi of the oldest couple in American history to be sentenced to death. (8 mins.)


Zachary T. Smith is an aspiring filmmaker who graduated from the Portland Art Institute with a bachelor's degree in digital film and video production. He has a passion for artistic expression and also enjoys backpacking, snowboarding, and playing guitar. Having always been an imaginative individual, Smith strives to be part of the creative process. Whether it is cinematography, directing or editing, he approaches each opportunity whole-heartedly and excited to create.

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BFE

DIRECTOR: SHAWN TELFORD / SEATTLE, WA

SUN NOV 9, 8:15 PM

(NAR) In his debut feature, Seattle filmmaker Shawn Telford follows four individuals living in a small town dominated by drugs and brutality and their lasting desire to mold their lives into something more meaningful. In an attempt to escape his failing health, Grampa embarks with his grandson Ian on an adventure full of shady deals and risk taking. They meet Ellie, a troubled teenager searching for love and salvation from Zack, a young romantic whose future hinges on how he reacts to temptation. While Ellie, Zack, Grampa, Ian, and their comrades have had very different life experiences, they all need to get out of BFE. (98 mins.)


Shawn Telford is an award winning Actor/Writer/Director whose feature film BFE was one of five American films selected for US in Progress, part of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival in Paris, France. Shawn received his MFA in acting from the University of Washington's prestigious PATP (Professional Actor Training Program) and has appeared several times onstage at all of Seattle's major theaters. Shawn is also a casting assistant at Complete Casting and a professional writer.

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BREATHING IN WARTIME

DIRECTOR: CURTIS TAYLOR / SEATTLE, WA


(NAR) When wartime is a perpetual state, life goes on, but is gentrification progress? (11 mins.)


Curtis Taylor is a writer and director. In Seattle he founded a performance-storefront named Vodvil. Under that shingle he created original murder-ballad operas and film-hybrids such as Shades of Parkland, Her Phantom Limb, Sea Saw and Abstract Change Pleasure. His work has premiered at the Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, the TBA Festival, Center on Contemporary Art, New City Theater and SXSW. As a production designer in film and theater Mr. Taylor has worked with the Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, the El-Hakawati Theater of Jerusalem, composer Robin Holcomb, Britta Johnson and Book-It Repertory Theater. He has received grants and awards from 4 Culture, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and an Artist Trust Fellowship in theater. He was recently artist-in-residence at New City Theater in Seattle, which premiered his play The White Days in 2011.

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CATS

DIRECTOR: NEELY GONIODSKY / KIRKLAND, WA


(ANI) This poem by A. S. J. Tessimond receives an absurd interpretation. (2 mins.)


Neely Goniodsky, is an animator, who earned her BA in Film Animation at Concordia University, Montreal, and her MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art, London. She is interested in abstract narrative and visual experimentation. In her work she attempts to translate obscure reality into visual poetry. She explores a combination of traditional animation techniques including ink and paint on paper, cutout collage, and under the camera animation, as well as computer animation and digital compositing. http://neelygoniodsky.com/

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CHAPEL OF REST

DIRECTOR: BEN MERCER / PORTLAND, OR


(NAR) Two mischievous young brothers attending their grandfather’s wake experience the surreal ceremony of death. (8 mins.)


Ben Mercer is a filmmaker and editor originally from the UK now living and working in Portland, Oregon. His work can be seen at www.mercerlunden.com and www.benmercer.co.uk.

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COLD LIGHT DAY

DIRECTOR: DAYNA HANSON / SEATTLE, WA


(EXP) In this dreamy dance film, two men exchange cake and dance steps on a quiet marina dock. (6 mins.)


Seattle-based choreographer Dayna Hanson creates dance, film, theater and multi-disciplinary art from her home in the Pacific Northwest. Hanson's debut feature film, IMPROVEMENT CLUB, premiered in Narrative Competition at South by Southwest 2013. Her former company, 33 Fainting Spells, produced several short dance films, including MEASURE, which can be found on First Run Features' Dance for Camera DVD, Vol. 1. A recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, a 2010 United States Artist Fellowship in Dance and Artist Trust’s Arts Innovator Award in 2012, Hanson’s live performance has toured throughout North America and Europe. http://daynahanson.com/

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COMMUTE DIRECTOR: LOU WATSON / PORTLAND, OR


(EXP) Watson suggests looking sideways at the everyday to become re-enchanted with place and self. (5 mins.)


I am a multimedia artist, born and raised in the United Kingdom, but now a permanent resident of Portland, Oregon. My work is often inspired by my children, all of whom have the gift of seeing sideways and who constantly challenge me to not take things for granted, to break out of the trance of the habitual and to discover the “awe” in the seemingly ordinary. I am currently working on a body of work based on the street upon which I live (NE Sandy Boulevard, Portland Oregon). http://www.louwatson.net/

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COOPED DIRECTOR: MIKE A. SMITH / PORTLAND, OR


(ANI) Only a doorknob and a non-opposable thumb stand in the way of a housebound dog. (9 mins.)


Between growing up in rural New York State and settling in the Pacific Northwest, Mike A. Smith has moved some tons of dirt for archaeology, traveled on six continents, and filled stacks upon stacks of sketchbooks. He first started animating as a kid with a borrowed Super 8 camera and some plasticine, going on to work with everything from cutouts to painton-glass to Maya. In addition to commercial work, Mike has produced six short films: COOPED (2014), MISSIONARY (2005), HOMINID (2004), THEOLOGY (2003), LITHOS (2002), and KING DOG (2002). From 2009 to 2011, he served as president of ASIFA Portland, the Oregon chapter of the international animation society. http://tenpoundtoons.com/Cooped

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DAVE’S BEARD DIRECTOR: EVANGELINE LAROQUE / EUGENE, OR


(ANI) A catchy song elucidates the nocturnal secret life of Dave’s adventurous beard. (4 mins.)


Evangeline LaRoque is a filmmaker, stop motion animator and visual artist living in Eugene, Oregon. She has directed educational videos, music videos, and short films including DELICATE THINGS, winner of the Audience Award at the annual 72-hour Adrenaline Film Project in 2012. Dave's Beard, a stop motion animated music video/short film was made with paper, clay, toys, and found objects on evenings and weekends over the last year, and is her first fully animated project.

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DIAMOND BOX

DIRECTOR: RODRIGO VALENZUELA / SEATTLE, WA


(DOC) Valenzuela lived three years without documentation and hired day laborers from the parking lots he used to haunt for this film of stories from the migrant community. (5 mins.)


I situate my creative practice within the contradicting traditions of documentary and fiction through video, photography and installation. I construct narratives, scenes and stories which point to the tensions found between the individual and communities. I utilize autobiographical threads to inform larger universal fields of experience. Gestures of alienation and displacement are both the aesthetic and subject of much of my work. Often using desert landscapes and tableaus with day labors or myself I explore the way an image is inhabited, and the way that spaces and people are translated into images. My work serves as an expressive and intimate point of contact between the broader realms of subjectivity and political contingency. Through my videos and photographs, I make images that feel at the same time familiar yet distant, I engage the viewer in questions concerning the ways in which the formation and experience of each work is situated - how they exist in and out of place http://www.rodrigovalenzuela.com

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DRYLAND DIRECTORS: SUE ARBUTHNOT, RICHARD WILHELM / PORTLAND, OR

SAT, NOV 15, 3:30 PM

(DOC) Josh Knodel and his best friend Matt Miller helm JAWS, a tricked-out, welded up, baby blue farm combine-in-retirement in the annual farm Combine and demolition derby in Lind, Washington. This raucous and quirky barn-raising spectacle is not only great fun, it also helps build and support the struggling rural community. Family farming is in Josh’s genes, but his dream shatters when he learns the family farm can no longer support him due to advancing technology and increasingly severe climate. Filmed over a decade and set in the American West, DRYLAND traces a young man’s quest for victory in a rambunctious contest while battling to preserve a threatened way of life. (61 mins.)

FILMMAKER'S BIOGRAPHY: Sue Arbuthnot has an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a BFA in Sculpture from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. Sue founded Gracenote Productions in 1991 and Hare in the Gate Productions, LLC in 1999, and with partner Richard Wilhelm, they produce documentaries, multi-media interpretive exhibits, design, and photography. Sue has taught Film Production at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, and is a founding member and Board VP of the Portland Chapter of Women in Film. Richard Wilhelm earned his BFA and MFA in Visual Design and Photography from the University of Oregon, and then established a design studio in Seattle, which he directed for 14 years. http://www.drylandmovie.net/

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DUENDE: SUIT OF LIGHTS DIRECTOR: JEFF ROWLES / PORTLAND, OR

SAT, NOV 15, 8 PM

(NAR) After fleeing the trappings of fame, for- tune, and success in the bullfighting arena, an orphan turned beloved matador navigates the afterlife. On the advice of a mystic healer he journeys into the desert to perform a ritual of rebirth and burns his suit of lights, the traditional bull-fighting costume. Upon waking he is joined on his path through limbo by three joyful yet mischievous companions—guiding spirits in the form of rodeo clowns. As the clowns begin to tease out the matador’s secrets and ease him into his new life, they are meanwhile being closely pursued by their age-old rivals in the struggle for souls, three dark sirens who seek the matador for their own purposes. (89 mins.)


Jeff Rowles is an independent filmmaker based in Portland, OR. He has coproduced and directed music videos for The Thermals, Scout Niblett, 1939 Ensemble, and Darren Hanlon, among others. His first feature film, DUENDE: SUIT OF LIGHTS, won a "Golden Palm" from the Mexico International Film Festival and will have its world premiere this October in Oaxaca City, Mexico as part of the Oaxaca Filmfest 5. Along with developing a number of upcoming projects with his producing partners at Do Easy Films, Jeff also works as an executive assistant at filmscienceanindependent production studio whose films have been nominated for three Spirit Awards and have screened at film festivals around the world.

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FIRE SEASON

DIRECTOR: COURTNEY SAUNDERS / MISSOULA, MT


(NAR) During a dry, hot summer in a small Montana town, two sisters share a brief, intense relationship with a young man who sweeps into their lives like a forest fire. (17 mins.)


Courtney Saunders is a writer, creative director, songwriter and filmmaker. She has worked widely in fashion and the arts for clients such as the Guggenheim Museum, Coach, Edun, Target, Kate Spade and Christian Dior, among others. The short film she wrote and directed with her husband Andrew Smith, Career Opportunities in Poetry, premiered at LA Film Independent in 2008 and screened widely at national film festivals. She was Fulbright Scholar and a Michener Fellow in film and fiction writing at the University of Texas-Austin. Her first feature film screenplay Mundo Chico was a finalist for the Academy Foundation Nicholl Fellowship. FIRE SEASON is her solo directorial debut.

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FREELOAD

DIRECTOR: DANIEL T. SKAGGS / BILLINGS, MT

WED, NOV 12, 7 PM

(DOC) “Hobos to me, represent an American pastime—a story told through the lyrics of Woody Guthrie and writers from the dust Bowl era. Historically, men of The Great Depression rode trains out of necessity. I, however, had been riding freight trains for nearly a decade seeking adventure. In the summer of 2011, I hopped a freight out of Missoula, Montana. Armed with camera equipment, a pack, and a vision, I crisscrossed the nation’s railroads, encountering the characters of this documentary. This movie is about Blackbird, a lost teenager searching for the answers to life; Ponyboy and Rachel, young lovers who attempt to settle down in Texas but the freedom of the road lures them back; brothers Skrappe and Christmas—separated most of their lives—try to rekindle their distant brotherhood; and dice who will risk everything to ride the rails.”—Daniel Skaggs. (66 mins.)


Daniel Skaggs was born in Kentucky, USA. After completing a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and operating an organic vegetable farm in the Rattlesnake Valley, he co-founded Highway Goat Productions. Freeload is Skaggs' directorial debut. He currently resides in Missoula, MT, USA.

30

FRIENDSHIP

DIRECTOR: NATHANIEL BENNETT / PORTLAND, OR

SAT, NOV 8, 8 PM

(NAR) Alex, Todd, and Stephen are three hard-working friends who are content with spending their paychecks on hunting, beer, and women. Their simple life is soon disrupted when a strange band of brothers begin antagonizing them. (64 mins.)


Nathaniel Bennett is a 31-year-old filmmaker from Portland Oregon. His first film, THE TRUE BELIEVERS won an audience and jury prize at the 37th Northwest Film and Video Festival. He recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and is currently studying for the CPA exam.

31

FROM THE SKY

DIRECTOR: IAN EBRIGHT / SEATTLE, WA


(NAR) A humble father and his troubled son struggle to cope with the effect of drones in the Middle East. (18 mins.)


Ian Ebright spent his late teens and early 20s as a film critic and journalist for websites in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle before moving on to study directing, cinematography, and editing at Seattle Film Institute. During his time there, Ian co-directed a 16MM student short film. He then focused on completing multiple screenplays over several years. Ian's debut is the narrative short FROM THE SKY, which he wrote, directed and co-produced. http://fromtheskyfilm.com/

32

GLENA DIRECTOR: ALLAN LUEBKE / PORTLAND, OR

SAT, NOV 15, 1 PM

(DOC) “Glena Avila is a single mother from The Dalles who decided in her 30s to pursue a career as a mixed martial-arts fighter. Devoting herself to a grueling training regimen that puts her relationship with her boyfriend and her children at risk, and fending off a custody battle with her ex-husband and the foreclosure of her home, this 5-foot-4-inch, 115-pound dynamo never gives up in her quest for cage-match glory. Sounds like an inspirational, even sappy, Hollywood script treatment, right? Wrong. Luebke filmed Avila for more than a year and then spent three years editing the footage into this astonishing real-life saga of grit, tears, and vicious competitive combat.”— The Oregonian. (84 mins.)


Allan is an Emmy-winning filmmaker from Portland, Oregon. He produced the web series ZetamanTV, the first-ever documentary about real-life superheroes, and has produced non-fiction entertainment programs for cable including Discovery International. Allan earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon, where he won the 2006 National College Emmy for Best Short Documentary for BEHIND THESE WALLS, a revealing look at Oregon's prison inmate work programs. http://www.glenathemovie.com/

33

GODHEAD DIRECTOR: CONNOR GASTON / VICTORIA, BC


(NAR) A broken family learns to cope when their autistic son shows them everything they need without saying anything.

34

HOUSE OF LAST THINGS

DIRECTOR: MICHAEL BARTLETT / PORTLAND, OR

FRI, NOV 14, 8:45 PM

(NAR) Alan is a successful classical music critic. His wife Sarah is an obsessively grieving woman, struggling with an unspoken tragedy even after months of institutionalized therapy. The couple embarks on a recuperative trip to Italy and arranges for a house sitter, Kelly. Young and lonely, longing for commitment and the better things in life, Kelly is quickly joined by her younger brother Tim (RJ Mitte from BREAKING BAD) and her trashy boyfriend Jesse. It’s not long before the trio find themselves drawn into a web of disturbing revelations when Jesse suddenly decides to kidnap eight-year-old Adam from the supermarket. But not all is what it seems with Adam. There is nothing of him in the news, and from the moment he arrives, he seems to radiate innocent control over the house’s hapless occupants. (119 mins.)

FILMMAKER'S BIOGRAPHY: A Salinas, California native, Bartlett left Europe for Portland on the off-handed praises of Gus Van Sant who he met in Berlin and Madrid. "In the few times we met, Gus always had good things to say about Portland, and that just stuck with me until I finally moved here myself in 2004." HOUSE OF LAST THINGS was selected in 2012 for "US in Progress Paris". A sidebar to the inaugural Champs-Elysees Film Festival, one of four US indie features selected to screen before a select group of European distributors. It has since won several awards and screened at festivals in France, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and the United States. Bartlett studied at the Juilliard School in New York and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and is currently preparing two new for projects set in Portland, an indie comedy and a horror thrilller. http://www.houseoflastthings.com/

35

IN COUNTRY DIRECTORS: MIKE ATTIE AND MEGHAN O’HARA / SEATTLE, WA

TUE, NOV 11, 8:15 PM VETERANS DAY

(DOC) Weaving together vérité footage of men recreating the Vietnam War in the woods of Oregon with archival footage and observations of them going about their daily lives, IN COUNTRY blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, past and present, to tell a story about men—many combat veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan haunted by their own experiences on the frontline. “Then there’s the final jaw dropping casting of one platoon member: a Vietnamese guy who actually fought for the losing South Vietnamese Army. Why on Earth would he want to relive those experiences? The filmmakers ask him, and his answer speaks to a mix of pride, youth, nostalgia, and the sound of rain on his tent. But maybe there’s never a simple explanation for why men go to war.”—Seattle Weekly. (80 mins.)


Mike Attie: Prior to receiving his MFA from Stanford University’s Documentary Film program, Attie worked as a production assistant and assistant editor for Academy Award winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond on films for HBO and PBS. Attie received a BA in American History from Vassar College. He currently lives in Seattle, where he works as a freelance film producer and teaches at Seattle University. Meghan O’Hara is a San Francisco based filmmaker whose films have received recognition from major film festivals in the United States and abroad. O’Hara holds a MFA in Documentary Production from Stanford University and a BA in experimental film and video from Hampshire College. She currently teaches film production at California College of the Arts and The Art Institute of California San Francisco. http://incountryfilm.com/wordpress/

36

LAYOVER DIRECTOR: VANESSA RENWICK / PORTLAND, OR


(EXP) Swirling in enchanting flight, the Vaux’s Swifts layover for three weeks in Portland, Oregon each fall on their migration to South America. (6 mins.)


Vanessa Renwick is a Portland-based artist and filmmaker whose work reflects an interest in place, landscape use and transformation, and relationships between bodies and landscapes. Since 1981 she has been working in experimental and documentary forms, writing, producing films, videos, photography, sculpture and installations. In 1996 she created The Oregon Department of Kick Ass, a production company that she creates new work as director, editor, fabricator and producer, as well as curating shows of other peoples work to share with the world. Her 50 works have shown internationally at sites such as The Centre Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art, The Kitchen, Kill Your Timid Notion, International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Viennale, and The Andy Warhol Museum. http://www.odoka.org/the_work/layover/

37

LUCINDA PARKER: WATER AND CLOUDS DIRECTOR: MICHAEL ANNUS / PORTLAND, OR

SUN, NOV 9 4:30 PM | FRI, NOV 14, 5 PM & 6 PM

(DOC) during the course of three years and three sets of paintings, we enter the working world of noted Northwest painter Lucinda Parker. In part using a drywall mudder as a paintbrush, she creates athletic and poetic work that emerges in these paintings from her fascination with clouds and water. (21 mins.) This screening is free with admission to the Portland Art Museum, which is $5 after 5 PM on Fridays.


Michael Annus is a videomaker in Portland, Oregon. He produces and creates educational documentaries and videos for a living and creates experimental documentaries when he can. His films and videos have shown at festivals across North America. He has an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University and an MFA in Film and Video production form the University of Iowa.

38

MAIKARU

DIRECTOR: AMANDA HARRYMAN / EDMONDS, WA (DOC) With inspirational optimism, Maikaru doesn’t let a childhood filled with violence and human trafficking dictate his future. (7 mins.)



Amanda has always had a strong interest in cinema, though she was a late bloomer to creating it- originally thinking herself a scientist. She finds creating media is the perfect mix of technology and art. She has been a lifelong resident of Washington State, making Seattle her home for nearly two decades. She lives with her husband Daniel and beloved elderly schnauzer, Kirby. She is passionate about teaching others, constantly learning new things and telling compelling stories visually. MAIKARU is her documentary directorial debut.

39

MENDING THE LINE

DIRECTOR: JOHN WALLER / PORTLAND, OR

TUE, NOV 11, 6 PM VETERANS DAY

(DOC) Tough as nails, gentle as a poet, and determined as a badger, 90-year-old Frank Moore has always loved to fly fish. In 1944, he landed with 150,000 other troops on the beaches of Normandy, France for the D-Day invasion. Despite the war around him, he couldn’t help but notice the fishing potential of the rivers he and his fellow troops crossed as they made their way into France. Seventy years later, reflecting on his life, Moore is compelled to return to Normandy, this time armed not with a gun but with fly rod and reel. Waller’s inspirational film follows Moore on his arduous physical and emotional journey from home on the North Umpqua River to the battlefields of his youth. (40 mins.)


A native Oregonian, John Waller has dedicated his professional and personal life to exploring and discovering the natural beauty that the world has to offer. The founder of Uncage the Soul Productions, John has spent over two decades producing and directing films, from commercial shorts to award-winning adventure documentaries. Committed to giving back to his community and helping to build the future generation of creatives and explorers, he is the Board President of Photo of the Year and a regular instructor at NW Documentary. If he’s not behind the camera or in front of the editing screen he can be found exploring the Oregon backcountry, summiting a local peak or planning the next globetrotting adventure.

40

MIND ZONE

DIRECTOR: JAN HAAKEN / PORTLAND, OR

TUE, NOV 11, 6 PM VETERANS DAY

(DOC) Filmmaker/Psychologist Jan Haaken’s MIND ZONE follows therapists with the 113th Army Combat Stress Control detachment as they carry out two conflicting missions: protecting soldiers from battle fatigue and keeping these same soldiers in the fight. With psychiatric casualties mounting, the United States Army ups the deployment of mental health detachments to war zones—an undertaking on a scale previously unimaginable. As the 113th is deployed to Afghanistan and trains for their dual roles as soldiers and healers, Colonel David Rabb and his team of therapists are equipped with a wide arsenal of psychological techniques. The documentary moves between the battle zone and the home front, offering a rarely seen glimpse of heated debates within the field of psychology over diagnosis and treatment of combat conditions and the limits of using categories such as post-traumatic stress disorder to capture the psychological impacts of warfare. (50 mins.)

FILMMAKER'S BIOGRAPHY: As a professor, clinical psychologist, filmmaker, and former psychiatric nurse who worked in training hospitals in Washington, California, and Oregon, Jan Haaken brings a wealth of experience to the documentary. Haaken has produced and/or directed four feature-length documentaries focused on people and places on the social margins. Known for her sensitive skills in accessing and interviewing people in closed or restricted settings, from refugee camps and drag clubs to shelters and insane asylums, Haaken draws out the complex humanity of her subjects.

41

MISCONTRACEPTIONS

DIRECTOR: CASSIE MORIARTY / BELGRADE, MT


(DOC) Moriarty and her husband discuss the benefits of the Rhythm Method in this cleverly crafted, funny, and informative piece. (10 mins.)


Cassie Moriarty is a documentary director who focuses on women’s issues, particularly reproductive health, motherhood, and female empowerment. MISCONTRACEPTIONS is her student thesis film for Montana State University, where she earned her BFA. She looks forward to continue using film as a medium to share women’s voices in the Pacific Northwest, as well as all over the world.

42

MORNING LIGHT

DIRECTOR: ERIK ANDERSON / VICTORIA, BC


(DOC) This triptych follows the adventures of the filmmaker’s grandfather who sailed the Atlantic alone, his father, a reporter who died on Mt. Everest, and finishes with his grandmother’s recollections of both men.


Erik Anderson is an award winning filmmaker from the Canadian West Coast. His films have played in festivals around the world, including India, Scandinavia, and the United States. His debut feature, THE SECOND TIMES OF TROUBLES, was released theatrically in Montreal to glowing reviews. He holds an honors degree in Political Science from Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently an MFA candidate in Film Production at York University in Toronto. He mentors film at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School on Galiano Island in BC, and he also speaks French poorly.

43

ONE LAST HUG AND A FEW SMOOCHES: THREE DAYS AT GRIEF CAMP

DIRECTOR: IRENE TAYLOR BRODSKY / PORTLAND, OR

SUN, NOV 9, 4:30 PM

(DOC) Brodsky’s unflinching documentary profiles a unique camp where grieving children find comfort in one another to deal with their pain. (36 mins.)


Irene Taylor Brodsky's passion for documentary was born out of her interest in the people of the Himalayas, where she spent five years in her early career as a still photographer. After her return to the US in the early 90's, she worked as a producer for CBS Sunday Morning and went on to produce documentaries that have appeared on HBO, A&E, The History Channel, and Fox. These include SAVING PELICAN 895, an HBO film that won the Pare Lorentz Award for outstanding cinematography and nominated for a 2009 Academy Award and three Emmy awards; and the feature length HEAR AND NOW, which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2007 and went on to receive a Peabody Award and numerous jury prizes around the world. http://onelasthug.com/

44

ONE NIGHT IN FLORIDA DIRECTOR: TESS MARTIN / SEATTLE, WA


(ANI) Martin illustrates President Obama’s speech reacting to the case involving George Zimmerman shooting an unarmed black teenager in 2012. (1 min.)


Tess Martin is an independent animator who works with back-lit paper cut-outs, ink, paint, sand or objects. She is the recipient of three 4Culture grants, two City of Seattle grants, and numerous others in support of her films, including THE WHALE STORY, animated on a 16 foot high wall in a public park. Her most recent films are ONE NIGHT IN FLORIDA, a one minute look at the George Zimmerman acquittal and MARIO, a paint on glass film based on an Italian folk song. Her films have displayed at galleries as well as festivals worldwide. She is a member of SEAT, Seattle Experimental Animation Team, a collective of independent animators, and has curated two programs of SEAT films: Inter-Action, which screened in Seattle, Portland, New York City and toured Europe in October 2011, and Strange Creatures, which is currently touring. http://www.tessmartinart.com/

45

PAINTING JOHN DIRECTOR: AUDREY HALL / LIVINGSTON, MT


(DOC) Through the intimacy of life portraiture, a lone rancher and a wandering artist forge an improbable bond. (10 mins.)


Audrey Hall is an internationally collected photographer, known for her poignant landscapes and ethereal equine images. Her first trip to the American West as a young girl made a life-long impression and she keeps one toe in Montana and another in Santa Fe, considering the West home and profoundly inspiring to her personal work. Born in Brazil, Audrey grew up in a multi cultural family deeply rooted in both arts and sciences. A Rotary scholar, she studied fine art photography under Thomas Joshua Cooper at the renowned Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. The diversity of her upbringing and education continue to influence her today in both her passions for technology and tradition. Her exhibition prints are visually distinct and unique in creation - from rare, velvety platinum prints to idiosyncratic mixed-media canvases. She handles every aspect of the printing process, from concept to completion, insuring every piece is finished by hand and of highest collectible quality.

46

PROXIMITY

DIRECTOR: JOSHUA COX / PORTLAND, OR


(ANI) A Victorian gentlemen and a sixties cowgirl explore the kitschy depths of love and betrayal.


Joshua Cox is an award-winning director, graphic designer, animator, filmmaker, and producer with a passion for developing stylistic themes into compelling stories. Cox utilizes his background in painting and design to craft tangible, believable realities which he injects with a playful pliability to bend the perceptions of his audience. He has directed videos for the band STRFKR, title sequences on behalf of JWT for The One Show at the Lincoln Center, and is currently converting a screenplay into a children’s book. Joshua loves to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. http://jossua.com/PROXIMITY-1

47

RETURN OF THE RIVER DIRECTORS: JOHN GUSSMAN AND JESSICA PLUMB / PORT TOWNSEND, WA

MON, NOV 10, 8 PM

(DOC) When frontiersmen came to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to “conquer” the untamed landscape, they paid little attention to the ecological consequences on the Elwha River and even less attention to the social impact on the indigenous Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Dams were built and the river was re-routed, creating bustling new towns while destroying tribal lands and decimating the critical salmon population. With the river’s ecosystem on life support, it seemed unlikely that anything could remedy the situation. But a group of environmental advocates, scientists, politicians, and dedicated Klallam crusaders reversed the tide of public opinion and initiated the largest dam demolition in history. (70 mins.)


Jessica Plumb Directs a video production company producing educational and promotional videos for clients. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and an interdisciplinary MFA from Goddard College, and studied documentary film at 911 Media in Seattle and the New School University in New York. She moved to the Olympic Peninsula a decade ago, after starting her career in Boston and Beijing. See www.plumbproductions.com for more. John Gussman, Director and Cinematographer John Gussman is best known for landscape and time-lapse images. He was a still photographer specialized in architecture and location work before turning his attention to HD cinematography. Gussman began documenting the Elwha story consistently in early 2010, after 32 years of hiking, camping, fishing and filming the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. When dam removal was scheduled, he saw the opportunity to document this once-in-a-lifetime event and decided to focus his creative skills on witnessing the healing of this place and the people who share this land. See www.dcproductions.com for more. http://www.elwhafilm.com/

48

REZ CARZ DIRECTOR: CLANCY DENNEHY / VANCOUVER, BC


(NAR) Abandoned cars rest silently in fields for decades, still holding secret conversations within their bodies. Starring an all-native cast, Tantoo Cardinal (dances with Wolves) and Gary Farmer (dead Man) are unseen ghosts breathing life into pivotal moments of sex, birth, and death. (7 mins.)


I was born in Winnipeg, graduated from NSCAD University, Halifax, and enjoy life in Vancouver shooting and directing documentary, arts and commercial films. My film project Vancouver has screened as an ambient mix on local stages with live dance, music and performance, and broadcast nationally as a short on CTV/Bravo! I shot and directed a documentary series from Yale, B.C. for the National Film Boards new site: <GDP.NFB.ca>. I like DEADWOOD and THE WIRE, and drumming with my rock choir, Clancy’s Angels.

49

ROUGAROUING

DIRECTOR: MICHAEL PALMIERI, DONAL MOSHER / PORTLAND, OR


(DOC) Eunice, Louisiana, surely a colorful community (here shot in splendid black and white), has a raucous rural Mardi Gras celebration. (11 mins.)


Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri are the co-directors of the feature length documentary features OCTOBER COUNTRY and OFF LABEL. Donal Mosher is also an exhibiting photographer and writer. Michael Palmieri has had varied career in independent and commercial cinema and music videos. http://rougarouing.tumblr.com/

50

SHELL GAME DIRECTOR: LOU KARSEN / SEATTLE, WA


(DOC) Kathleen Flenniken grew up near, and later was an engineer at, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and is now Washington State’s Poet Laureate. (6 mins.)


Lou Karsen is a documentary filmmaker and youth media educator in Seattle, WA. A graduate of Boston University’s film program, Lou has produced three feature documentaries (RENAISSANCE VILLAGE, THE MICROLENDING PROJECT, WATER IS LIFE), with a fourth (CLEARWATER) currently in production. Lou is also a lead educator for Longhouse Media, teaching filmmaking to Native youth throughout Indian country.

51

SNARE

DIRECTOR: LISA JACKSON / VANCOUVER, BC


(EXP) Evocative and haunting, this performance captured conveys the brutality of violence against Canada’s indigenous women. (4 mins.)


With a background in documentary, including acclaimed short Suckerfish and the CTV “w5 Presents” 1-hour Reservation Soldiers, award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson expanded into fiction with Savage, which won a 2010 Genie award for Best Short Film. Playback Magazine named her one of 10 to watch in 2012 and her work has played at festivals internationally, broadcast on CBC, CTV, Bravo!, knowledge, SCN, and APTN, and is used extensively in educational and community settings. In 2011, she made the 35mm fiction short PARKDALE, as part of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab, and POW.WOW.WOW, a steampunk outerspace fancy dance music video for Cree cellist Cris Derksen. In 2013 Lisa completed four films, including HOW A PEOPLE LIVE, a 1-hour documentary on the 1964 forced relocation of BC’s Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw people and a short performance-based film Snare, the short(er) version of which premiered at imagineNATIVE in 2012. Current projects span documentary and fiction, and include her first feature script MUSH HOLE. Lisa’s films have garnered numerous awards and in 2004, she won the inaugural imagineNATIVE Alliance-Atlantis Mentorship Award, in 2005 the Vancouver Arts Award for Emerging Media Artist, and in 2012 the Reelworld Festival named her a Trailblazer. She is Anishinaabe, has a BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University, and is a popular speaker and workshop leader.

52

TACO NIGHT

DIRECTOR: KYLE EATON / PORTLAND, OR

SAT, NOV 8, 8 PM (WITH FRIENDSHIP)

(NAR) Two old friends who haven’t kept in touch drop by a party where they encounter a combative couple. (16 mins.)


Kyle Eaton is an independent filmmaker who directs & produces commercials, documentaries, short films & music videos. He has worked as an assistant director on several television series & feature films such as MEEK’S CUTOFF, C.O.G. & PORTLANDIA. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

53

THE BEAR’S PROGRESS

DIRECTOR: MALIA JENSEN / PORTLAND, OR


(EXP) An inhabited bear costume wanders in the landscape doing what bears do and do not do. (9 mins.)


Malia Jensen is known primarily as a sculptor but has created numerous videos and photo-based series, usually involving a sculptural element and a situation with nature or animals. She is the recipient of multiple public commissions through Portland's Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. Her work can be found locally at the corner of SW 6th and Alder, at Fire Station #27 on NW Skyline Road and at the Oregon Dept. of Transportation in Salem. Her monumentally scaled work Beaver Story, exhibited in a solo show entitled Animalia at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in 2000, can be seen in the lobby of the Weiden and Kennedy Building. Her video, SALTY, was shown in the 35th Portland International Film Festival in 2012. Jensen has spent most of her life in Oregon, growing up in the rural Willamette Valley before moving to Portland in her early teens and graduating from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 1989. She has recently returned to Portland after eleven years in Brooklyn, New York.

54

THE BEAST INSIDE

DIRECTOR: AMY ENSER, DREW CHRISTIE / SEATTLE, WA


(ANI) Told through spoken word rap and illustrated with hand-drawn animations, a teen in a home- less family describes his challenges and celebrates the triumph of his creative self. (4 mins.)


Amy Enser is an award‐winning filmmaker and director at Studio216, and her years of documentary experience brings an innovative eye for authenticity to her narrative and commercial work. She has been prolific in Seattle since 2004 as a freelance editor and in 2011 joined new media company Studio 216, leading their video production team. Amy is a two-time Emmy nominated editor and three-time Telly Award winning director for her documentary work. Drew Christie Was born and raised on the craggy peaks of the Cascades, and is an award-winning animator and filmmaker who has screened work at museums and festivals across the world, including the Sundance Film Festival and Ann Arbor Film Festival. He regularly contributes to The New York Times as well as Vanity Fair online, and was nominated for a Stranger Genius Award in Film. He lives on Whidbey Island.

55

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ANSE AND BHULE IN NO-MAN’S LAND

DIRECTOR: BARRY L. HUNT / PORTLAND, OR

THU, NOV 13, 8:45 PM

(NAR) Created by Portland’s award recognized Sowelu ensemble, filmed on majestic landscapes in rural Oregon and Southern Washington, and shot in a 70’s retro art-house style, ANSE AND BHULE is an original drama of two cultures that survive a cataclysm. In this post-apocalyptic love story, a group of boys living in a cave develop a unique ritual culture and language influenced by religion, childhood fears, and superstition. Through ritual vision quests, they decide to travel the earth killing diseased creatures, making the world “clean” for their brotherhood. on their way, they discover a “her”, the first woman they have seen. Though sick, she speaks to Bhule and awakens ideas about the world he has never entertained. (100 mins.)


BARRY HUNT is the founding director of Sowelu Theater in Portland, Oregon. This is Mr. Hunt’s film directing debut. He has been an actor and director for 40 years with credits on stage, film and television. Mr. Hunt has been educating young film artists over the past fifteen years. For the past 17 years Mr. Hunt has been an award winning producer and director in his role as Artistic Director of the Sowelu Theater Ensemble in Portland where, along with the Sowelu Ensemble, he developed new acting methods derived from his Meisner work, his emersion into methods of physical theater born from the psychophysical work of Michael Chekhov through Robert Ravan and theater work born from modern dance including Viewpoints and Suzuki with The SITI Company.

56

THE GREATEST GIFT: BIKING SIX KIDS TO HAPPINESS

DIRECTOR: JOE BIEL / PORTLAND, OR


(DOC) A mother gives up her car to, rather heroically, transport her six kids by bike. (16 mins.)


Joe Biel is a writer, activist, filmmaker, teacher, and founder of Microcosm Publishing and co-founder of the Portland Zine Symposium. He has directed about 70 short films and four features: $100 & A T-SHIRT: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ZINES IN PORTLAND (2004), AFTERMASS: BICYCLING IN A POST-CRITICAL MASS PORTLAND (2014), IF IT AIN’T CHEAP, IT AIN’T PUNK (2010), OF DICE & MEN (2006). He tours with his films internationally with the DinnerandBikes.com program and has been featured in Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Utne Reader, Portland Mercury, Oregonian, Broken Pencil, Readymade, Punk Planet, Spectator (Japan), G33K (Korea), and Maximum Rocknroll.

57

THE SMITHS

DIRECTOR: NEELY GONIODSKY / KIRKLAND, WA


(ANI) The story of how a family falls into and is rescued out of homelessness comes to life through hand-drawn animation, digital cutouts, and paintings. (3 mins.)


Neely Goniodsky, is an animator, who earned her BA in Film Animation at Concordia University, Montreal, and her MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art, London. She is interested in abstract narrative and visual experimentation. In her work she attempts to translate obscure reality into visual poetry. She explores a combination of traditional animation techniques including ink and paint on paper, cut-out collage, and under the camera animation, as well as computer animation and digital compositing. http://neelygoniodsky.com/

58

THE UNCLUDED ORGANS

DIRECTOR: ROB SHAW / PORTLAND, OR


(EXP) A song from the rock band The Uncluded espouses organ donation with the help of stop motion insects. (3 mins.)


Rob Shaw is a director originally from Philadelphia, PA who now lives and works in Portland, OR. After graduating from the University of the Arts with his award winning animated short DIRTY SUMMER FRIDAYS Shaw moved to the west coast to animate on various television shows, video games and music videos, always working on his own projects after hours. After five years as a professional animator, Shaw made the jump to commercial director at Bent Image Lab. There he began directing numerous animated commercials for clients like Zune, Guitar Hero, Fruity Pebbles and Verizon to name a few. He has also directed numerous music videos like They Might Be Giant's “I'm Impressed” which won a Gold Plaque at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival. In 2010 his film THE MACHINE won best animated short at the Atlanta Film Festival. Rob Shaw worked with Taxi Two on the Koodo “El Tabador” campaign which Strategy Magazine named one of five brands of the Year in 2010. Most recently Shaw has just finished up an animated segment for PORTLANDIA season three and two music videos for the band “the Uncluded.”

59

THE WINDING STREAM

DIRECTOR: BETH HARRINGTON / VANCOUVER, WA

SAT, NOV 15, 5:30 PM

(DOC) “THE WINDING STREAM begins at the source of what we know as classic country music—the original Carter Family from the Appalachian foothills. Unlikely superstars, A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter had their first success on the radio in the late 1920s. Maybelle brought up the next generation (Anita, June, and Helen) and they toured as Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters in the 1960s and ‘70s, influencing much of the folk revival. When June Carter married Johnny Cash, their combined family kept the musical legacy flourishing. George Jones, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, and many others cite the influence of what began as a small mountain stream and ended up a worldwide ocean.”—Film Society of Lincoln Center. (90 mins.)


Beth Harrington is an award-winning independent producer, director and writer, born in Boston and transplanted to the Pacific Northwest. She has been making media professionally since 1977. She most often focuses on work that explores American history, music and culture. She is a past President of Women in Film/New England and a former Vice President of Women in Film/Seattle, as well as a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She has been a media instructor at several Universities and the Northwest Film Center, as well as an artist-in-residence at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Public Communications from Syracuse University and a Master's degree in American Studies from University of Massachusetts - Boston. http://thewindingstream.com/

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