Northwest Film Forum 2013 Fall Preview

Summer may be ending, but that just means that it's time for the Northwest Film Forum to announce the various cinematic goodies they've got coming this fall. Sure, it also means we may not see the sun again for months - but that's why having such a great film resource close by is such a treasure. It's a big time for the Film Forum - they've finished their new seat campaign and are nearing the launch of a switch over to DCP digital projection thanks to a successful Kickstarter effort. Last week their fall calendar was announced including both film and workshops to get you through the fall months.

September 6th marks the launch of the new projection and they're kicking things off with a week's worth of presentation of a restored digital copy of Heaven's Gate. As proud contributor to the Kickstarter effort I'm hoping to be there for the opening night.

Even more importantly, between August 30th and September 5th they'll be screening the fabulous film Museum Hours, one of my favorites from this year's SXSW festival. It's a  beautiful, slow-motion painting of a film. A visitor to Vienna waiting on the health of a hospitalized ill relative becomes friendly with a museum guard. With little money to spend much of her time is invested in talking with him and touring the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum where he works. As they verbally explore each other's backgrounds and the city the art itself becomes a character in the story. The relationship itself isn't really anything to write home about (though I do love the non-traditional career history of Johann the aging guard). But the way we're forced to stare at the art and how the film is shot in a way to evoke comparison with the museum's grand works was pretty riveting. Don't go tired - but don't miss the opportunity to see this on a large screen.

Some other intriguing highlights you can find in their full, downloadable schedule include;

• Off Label (9/6-12) a documentary on the pharmaceutical industry with the directors in attendance some nights.
• Korean soap operas (billed as the Flower Boy Drama Club) Thursday nights between 9/26 and 11/21. 
• Local Sightings festival (starting 9/27). 
• The Institute (10/18-10/24) - Which I don't really know anything about, but the description sounded very interesting, "Enigma, wonder and mystery can be yours, courtesy of The Jejune Institute, who created a sprawling urban adventure/role-playing game that spanned not hours, but years. Thousands of participants in a San Francisco-based alternate reality game ended up getting more than they bargained for."
• Harry Dean Stanton - Partly Fiction (11/8-11/14) - Just looks fascinating and about which I heard a lot of positive things coming out of SXSW where I missed the chance to watch it earlier in the year.
• A whole awesome mess of classes to improve your technical appreciation skills.

There are actually tons and tons of other things going on that may align more with your personal taste. I highly encourage everyone to download the calendar and take a look.

The only thing on the calendar that I'd not quite recommend is The Great Hip Hop Hoax. I reviewed it when it screened at SXSW and wasn't really taken by it. Just wasn't my cup of tea. I mainly mention it to bring credibility to my earlier enthusiasm. ;-)

So check out the NW Film Forum, great people, great place. And definitely an organization worthy of your membership dollars year round.