CUTS is a sensitive, probing investigation of the interlocking relationships between man’s need to produce, his technologies, and the earth from which he takes his resources. Set in the mill communities of the Pacific Northwest, it is the workers’ voices that carry the narrative; the furious pace of men and machines that power the film; the ever-present reality of the blade, the inevitability of injury, that provide its somber power. Controlled and understated, the interviews and portrayals of working conditions, homes, and taverns project a powerful sadness and bitterness. (38 mins.)

Featured at the 8th Northwest Film & Video Festival in 1981.

FOLLOWED BY

NATURAL TIMBER COUNTRY
DIRECTOR: RON FINNE
EUGENE, 1972
VISITING ARTIST—Tracing the history of logging in the Pacific Northwest from the second half of the 19th century to the coming of the diesel engine, Ron Finne’s film explores the relationship of old-time loggers to the woods, to their communities, and to each other. Through interviews, recordings, tales, and songs, the film provides insight into the changing culture and environmental values of people for whom the forest was home, playground, and workplace. (50 mins.)

Ron Finne will be in attendance.

Professor Stephen Beckman of Lewis and Clark College will discuss the film and talk about life in the early logging camps.

ADMISSION: PAY WHAT YOU WILL (by contribution at the door)

Seattle film guru Warren Etheredge loves short films. Through programming hundreds of works for such showcases as One Reel Film Festival at Bumbershoot, teaching at The Film School in Seattle, and hosting the television interview series “The High Bar,” he knows a thing or two about what makes films work. As at our past Northwest Filmmakers’ Festivals, tonight he’ll deliver his insightful and sometimes hilarious commentary on short films offered up for appraisal by brave filmmakers. After a look at the first five minutes or so of each work submitted, Etheredge will offer his wickedly honest insights—with quick wit and good will—then solicit audience response to the cases at hand. This is a unique feedback forum for filmmakers who want to make their films better and gain honest insight into what real audiences (and film festival programmers) see that they might not. Even if you are not a filmmaker, you’ll enjoy and learn from the conversation. Submit your film by contacting Regional Services Manager Thomas Phillipson at thomas@nwfilm.org, or just come for the entertaining and illuminating show. (120 mins.)

FREE ADMISSION

VISITING ARTISTS—Each year, following the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, the Film Center assembles a program of Festival highlights—award winners, audience and critical favorites—and sends it out on tour across the region and beyond to find new audiences. Tonight the tour stops in Portland—a chance to see these great films again or for the first time if you missed their Festival screenings. The program includes Kurtis Hough’s MOSSGROVE, which looks like the National Geographic on LSD; Jin Ryu and Yi-Fan’s CAMERON’S BOOKS, an ode to the legendary independent bookseller; Rob Tyler’s STRANDS, A MUSIC VIDEO, a visual celebration of the ghosts of mix tapes past; David Geiss’ BASIN, a portrait of the pristine landscape of northern Alberta scarred by industrialization; Barbara Tetenbaum and Marilyn Zornado’s OLD-TIME FILM, featuring antique letterpress engravings set to a fiddle tune; Antoine Bourges’ WOMAN WAITING, a portrait of a middle-aged
woman on the edge of homelessness; Ben Popp’s LÁSZLÓ LASSÚ, an animated love story across space; John Waller’s TREEVERSE, which follows a canopy trek through an old growth Oregon white oak forest; and Don Hamilton’s THE BIG SAYONARA, in which a former Wall Street employee hits rock bottom in rural Rosalia, Wash. (80 mins.)

Several of the films’ directors will be in attendace.

VISITING ARTIST—Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick’s new film is inspired by—and recreates—a 3,200-mile road trip made in 1958 by four Seattle women who recorded their journey in an elaborate scrapbook of photos, postcards, brochures, and receipts. Fifty years later, McCormick found the scrapbook in a thrift store and, charmed, set out to re-trace their route, searching out every stop that the ladies had so lovingly documented five decades earlier. The resulting film juxtaposes the land and landmarks then and now, a double portrait capturing the eternal and the new. “Like McCormick’s other quasi-documentary film projects, THE GREAT NORTHWEST is notable for the sheer visual pleasure that it offers viewers. McCormick is very patient with his camera and he draws on a talented photographic eye to deliver prolonged shots that can’t be described as anything other than lovely.”—Megan Driscoll, Portlandart.net (70 mins.)

Matt McCormick will be in attendance.

VISITING ARTISTS—The first Portland-produced television entertainment special, CYCLING THROUGH CHINA took a host of American entertainers—among them television stars Kate Jackson, Ben Vereen, Lindsay Bloom, Mayf Nutter, and Lorne Green—on a three-week bicycle trip through China. Cycling and performing their way through the countryside, the troupe provided many of the delighted Chinese with their first contact with Westerners and in the process afforded a rare glimpse into a country of increasing fascination. Harry Dawson’s beautiful cinematography and Paul Horn’s exotic soundtrack enhance the excitement and discovery of a most unusual journey. Produced by World Pacific Pictures in association with Guang Dong Television of China, this pioneering effort by Oregon producers was the first contemporary American television program to be broadcast in China and premiered at our 10th Northwest Film & Video Festival in 1983. (90 mins.)

Director John Ripper, producer Charles Jennings, and special guests will be in attendance.

ADMISSION: PAY WHAT YOU WILL (by contribution at the door)

VISITING ARTIST—Tonight we welcome Portland filmmaker Kelley Baker for an evening of film clips, conversation, and a book signing celebrating his new book THE ANGRY FILMMAKER SURVIVAL GUIDE PART TWO: SOUND CONVERSATIONS WITH (un)SOUND PEOPLE. The book debunks many production myths and gives filmmakers and audiences a rare behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a great audio track. In addition to directing many features (BIRDDOG, THE GAS CAFE, KICKING BIRD) and shorts, Baker has worked as a sound designer on films such as MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, GOOD WILL HUNTING, FINDING FORRESTER, FAR FROM HEAVEN, and THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN. Along with excerpts from his own films, the evening will feature clips from classic works by Hitchcock, Welles, Spielberg, and many others that illustrate the importance of the relationship between sound and image. (80 mins.)

With Kelley Baker in attendance.

Thanks to promotional partner Powell's Books.

To show off just how far sound takes you in a film, Kelley (at Room 529 in the Hotel Modera) put together a scene–one scene with several different scenarios, divulging just how critical sound is to our understanding of story. Check out “Faux Play.”

Tonight the screen is yours. We throw open the doors of the Whitsell Auditorium and invite you to show your new short work. If you have something you’re proud of, sign up by contacting Thomas Phillipson by May 9 at thomas@nwfilm.org. First come, first served as time allows, with preference given to works under ten minutes. Invite your friends—admission is free!

VISITING ARTIST—Tonight we welcome Seattle filmmaker Tess Martin to present a collection of short animated films that explore inter-actions—actions between each frame of motion as well as between each subject onscreen. Made individually by twelve members of SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team), these thought-provoking films explore themes of love, faith, and murder. This special screening includes live narration of Stefan Gruber's short film BOTH WORLDS, accompanied by live music from Magic Caves. Other shorts in the program include: Britta Johnson’s TWO DOTS, in which marbles illustrate the subtle math of a relationship; Drew Christie’s THE MAN WHO SHOT THE MAN WHO SHOT LINCOLN, an interpretation of the bizarre life of the man who killed John Wilkes Booth; Aaron Wendel’s DWELLINGS, in which two houses slowly destroy each other; Tess Martin’s PLAIN FACE, in which a stranger arrives and is the subject of prejudice, violence, and love; Amanda Moore’s BRIDGING WOUNDS, a whimsical exploration of the lives of strangers told through silhouette puppet animation; Davis Limnbach’s LOOPFORMS, in which a dance of energy of spirit is expressed in “maximized loops”; Sara Jane Lapp’s CHRONICLES OF A PROFESSIONAL EULOGIST, the story of a professional eulogist in training; Clyde Peterson’s DIRTY STREET, featuring recut footage projected and re-photographed using the “Hipstamatic” app for iPhone; Webster Crowell's PARASOL, a short, quick revenge film about bicycles, dancing, and speed; Salise Hughes’ SOMEWHERE, in which two lovers meet in a world somewhere between a sock hop and the Wild West; and Bruce Bickford’s THE COMIC THAT FRENCHES YOUR MIND, your mind on eggs. (74 mins.)

Tess Martin will present the program.

VISITING ARTIST—Sandy Wilson won six Canadian Genies (Oscars), including Best Picture and Best Director, for her first feature, drawn from her experiences growing up on Paradise Ranch on the shores of Lake Okanagan. Set in the summer of 1959, an era of rock and roll, Brylcreem, and bobby sox, about-to-be-teenage Sandy comes of age with the arrival of her American cousin Butch, sixteen and behind the wheel of a bright red Cadillac convertible. Her unforgettable summer provides a story full of charm and universal recognition. (95 mins)

Featured at the 12th Northwest Film & Video Festival in 1985.

Sandy Wilson will be in attendance.

ADMISSION: PAY WHAT YOU WILL (by contribution at the door)

VISITING ARTIST—For 25 years, Portland filmmaker Chel White’s work has been strongly influenced by dreams and the subconscious. Tonight we present a cross-section of his award-winning shorts (we recently screened his first feature, BUCKSVILLE, in the 38th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival) accompanied by his personal insights into building a film career in Portland. The program includes: CHOREOGRAPHY FOR COPY MACHINE a.k.a. PHOTOCOPY CHA CHA (1991), in which body parts merge and disperse in a dance macabre performed on/by a copy machine; DIRT (1998), in which a man’s obsession with dirt starts as a game and enters the surreal; SOULMATE (2000), a bold and unsettling confrontation with sexual loneliness; PASSAGE (2001), which involves haunting underwater portraits juxtaposed with archival films; ECLIPSE (2003), an enigmatic meditation on grief; MAGDA (2004), the story of a love affair turned sour between a contortionist and her devoted fan; A PAINFUL GLIMPSE INTO MY WRITING PROCESS (2005), a noir-ish ode to a prose writer’s problems; HARROWDOWN HILL (2006), a music video for Thom Yorke; WIND (2007), a short film on climate change; and BIRD OF FLAMES (2012), the premiere of a new experimental music video for David Lynch and Chrysta Bell. (80 mins.)

Chel White will be in attendance.

VISITING ARTIST—In 2010, there were 1,759 breweries in America—1,716 of them small craft producers. Yet despite the explosion, brewing is still largely a man’s world. In the Northwest, however, women are fighting their way toward being some of the most influential people in the brewing community. From the farm to the consumer, Northwest women are setting new standards for brewing and changing the way the nation looks at women and beer. Featuring Sarah Pederson, owner of Saraveza; Tonya Cornett, brew master at Bend Brewing; and many other pioneers, THE LOVE OF BEER tells the inspiring stories of women who have had to fight discrimination and make sacrifices for the sake of their craft. While their struggles are opening doors for females everywhere, we learn that they are not doing it for feminism or equality so much as for the love of beer. (72 mins.)

Alison Grayson will be in attendance.