We are pleased to welcome the Association of Moving Image Archivists, whose 2015 National Conference is being held in Portland from November 18-21. Join AMIA’s Conference members for these special screenings highlighting recent film preservation work. Free admission. Seating very limited.

Like Japanese fashion and pop culture, Japanese film remains in the international vanguard, blending traditional genres and classical forms with cutting-edge technology and dazzling imagery. This year’s 9th annual Japanese Currents series highlights recent noteworthy Nipponese films, ranging from anime to jidaigeki, documentary to comedy, all while exploring issues important to contemporary Japanese society. Collectively, these selections offer a fresh take on Japanese culture and showcase the wealth of creative invention at work in Japan today.

Special thanks to the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles with additional support from the Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association, Lane Powell PC, and the Consular Office of Japan in Portland.

The late film scholar Gilberto Perez referred to Orson Welles as “a director with an immediately recognizable style if there ever was one.” Perhaps no other filmmaker, with the exception of Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick, has been as globally discussed by film critics and connoisseurs. Welles’ films—many of which were made under considerable scrutiny and now precariously exist in contested multiple versions—remain enduring cinematic pleasures of the highest order.

On the occasion of his centennial year, the Northwest Film Center offers a primer of Welles’ work. While it proudly features some of his most lauded masterpieces, the series also dives deeper into some of Welles’ lesser-known work, as well as a handful of films he acted in and sometimes surreptitiously produced and directed. In grasping to capture Welles’ allure, film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s reflection speaks for many cinema lovers: “Though I wouldn’t necessarily call him my favorite, he remains the most fascinating for me, both due to the sheer size of his talent, and the ideological force of his work and his working methods...a major part of Welles’ talent as a filmmaker consisted of his refusal to repeat himself—a compulsion to keep moving creatively that consistently worked against his credentials as a ‘bankable’ director, if only because banks rely on known quantities rather than on experiments.”

Our inaugural Friday Film Club discussion series—presented monthly when the Portland Art Museum’s galleries are open late on Friday evenings—features works with implicit or explicit focus on landscape: rural and urban, physical and emotional. Presented in conjunction with the Museum’s “Seeing Nature” exhibition, on view October 10-January 8, we hope these films will spark dialogue, both between audience members and between artistic mediums. The screenings are accompanied by post-film discussions led by a Museum docent, sometimes with a short exhibition tour component. Special Admission: $5.