Welcome to our 31st edition of Reel Music. We've been on the lookout all year for new works—and timely classics—for this annual celebration of sound and image, music and culture, and the origins of sounds infused in our experience. Whether your passion is jazz, blues, rock, soul, folk, funk, or punk, we hope you find this mixture of old and new, familiar and strange, to be full of inspiration and discovery.

Overlapping, and part of, Reel Music is "The Hitchcock 9," recent restorations of all of Alfred Hitchcock's surviving early silent films, accompanied by live performance by some of Portland's finest musical talents. As always, our special thanks go to Music Millennium, Willamette Week, Oregon Music News, KINK.fm, MusicFestNW, All Classical Portland, KIND Healthy Snacks, KZME, Walker, KMHD, PDX Pipeline Yelp!, Portland Radio Project and PosterChild McMenamins for helping make it all happen. Enjoy.

PLEASE NOTE: All films at The Mission Theater are 21 and over only. The box office opens one hour prior to showtime.

Alfred Hitchcock’s (1899-1980) place among cinema’s great directors is borne out by the enduring critical and popular acclaim for the films he made in America from the 1930s into the 1970s. Everyone has a favorite among many. But much less seen and appreciated are his early British films, which now, thanks to the British Film Institute, emerge in full glory after painstaking digital restoration. By the time Hitchcock earned his first directing opportunity at age 25, he had had diverse experience as an assistant director, screenwriter, art director, and title designer. This nine-film series includes his directorial debut, THE PLEASURE GARDEN, as well as early masterworks such as the expressionistic THE LODGER and classic thriller BLACKMAIL. Taken together, these first works reveal the development of a filmmaker whose “Hitchcockian” genius manifested itself early and came to impact fellow artists and audiences like no one else.

Adding to the spirit of discovery, we are pleased to present the films with live, original musical accompaniment by some of Portland’s most talented musicians, including Three Leg Torso, Mark Orton, The Bill Marsh Ensemble, Tara Jane O’Neil, David Goldblatt and Superjazzers, Joshua Pearl, Battle Hymns and Gardens, Tres Gone, Gideon Freudmann, and the 1939 Ensemble. Thanks to Courtney Von Drehle for organizing the performers.

Thanks to the British Film Institute, Rialto Films, Rialto Pictures/Studiocanal, and Park Circus/ITV for their preservation work and for organizing the series. Presentation of the series is made possible in part by the sponsorship of Portland State University’s English Department, Portland Center for Public Humanities, and School of Theatre & Film.

Admission $15, Silver Screen Club members $10. A series pass is available for purchase, granting admission to any Hitchcock 9 film screening.

Japanese cinema’s most enduring genre continues to entertain and inspire audiences and filmmakers internationally. Whether chanbara (action-oriented sword-fight films) or the historical jidaigeki films, the genre focuses on the mythologized samurai warriors of the 12th to 16th centuries. Like American westerns, the samurai film celebrates tales of loyalty, revenge, romance, fighting prowess, and the decline of a traditional way of life. This eclectic selection—seven Japanese films and four Western reinterpretations—spans six decades of cinema history and reveals the eternal romance of the quest of the hero. Co-sponsored by the Portland Art Museum and presented in conjunction with the exhibition Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection, admission is free for exhibition ticket holders during museum gallery hours.

While cinema provides entertainment and escape, for many filmmakers and viewers it is a vital portal into reality—a medium of engagement with the world and a powerful tool for social action. Tackling wide-ranging, thought-provoking issues, activist filmmakers bring attention to injustice, the values of dignity and equality, and the price of commitment, as they tell stories of struggle and triumph. We hope that the films presented in this year’s series, many of them showcased in the Human Rights Watch Film Festivals in New York and London, broaden understanding and stimulate involvement as they reveal the inspiration and courage of individuals whose hearts and minds are focused on our many shared challenges. Our special thanks go to Human Rights Watch, Portland Center for Public Humanities at Portland State University, World Affairs Council of Oregon, The Portland Alliance, City Club of Portland, and other organizations worldwide that help bring important events, issues, and the work of citizen activists to light.

The ongoing Northwest Tracking series focuses a spotlight on the work of independent filmmakers living across the Northwest—Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington—whose films reflect the vibrant media arts culture in the region.