SIFF. Preview.

The Seattle International Film Festival is the biggest and longest film festival in the US, running 25 days and featuring over 230 feature-length films. It makes those of us who live in Seattle a little bit loopy and overly film literate for a concentrated period of time and provides some pretty fun and entertaining experiences in a relaxed setting (no wheeling and dealing at this audience-focused film festival). Bloody Marys one Sunday morning with Quentin Tarantino in 2001, catching Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich at the beginning of their romance in 1996, getting caught totally off guard by Takeshi Miike's Audition in 2000 and downing many, many beers with cinematographer Christopher Doyle last year are some of my festival highlights over the years. This year, SIFF is kicking off with a bit of a rerun from other festivals, but the programmers have made a spectacular choice for an opening night film ("the best opening night film in years," one esteemed local film critic wrote me) - Miranda July's Sundance hit (and Independent Film Festival of Boston closing night film) Me and You and Everyone We Know. We'll see how the Seattle audience goes for "))<>((".

With so many films to choose from, SIFF does some choosing for us by highlighting special showcases, such as the program titled ¡Viva Argentina! that will feature 13 films from the current South American cinema hot spot. Argentine director Pablo Trapero will also be featured in SIFF's Emerging Masters program, which also includes The World's Jia Zhang-ke, Denmark's Susanne Bier (Brothers) and from Hungary, Attila Janisch.

Seattle was once upon a time known for its music scene, and there are a couple of Northwest music films in the Face the Music program, a selection of twelve music documentaries, that spawn from that bygone era. The world premiere of The Gits, the story of the Seattle band that was on the cusp of success when their lead singer Mia Zapata was murdered in 1993, happens Memorial Day weekend. A documentary following Death Cab for Cutie, Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie premieres near the end of the festival and Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story, tells the story of the Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood, who died of a drug overdose before that band went on to success and evolved into Pearl Jam. Could a doc about Seattle's most famous grunge rocker be happening soon? Not likely, but that didn't stop Gus Van Sant from making Last Days, a narrative film inspired by the death of Kurt Cobain, the festival's closing night film.

There are themes to help maneuver this massive festival, but there are also stand-alone events that can't be missed. The Special Archival Presentation of Charlie Chaplin's The Circus is a must-see, while a special  event, An Evening with Peter Sarsgaard, is sure to be an in-depth forum with one of the most interesting and talented actors working today. The festival's ever-popular Secret Festival (it is just that; audience members have to sign a contractual agreement pledging to never disclose the films that they see here, films that are works-in-progress, tied up in legal battles, recovered archival prints, etc) is already sold out, as well as the screening of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, despite it having a national release date the same day as the screening. In Seattle, we prefer to read our films if we have the option, as the version screening at SIFF is presented in the original Japanese with English subtitles and the wide release version will be dubbed.

I am personally looking forward to Wong Kar-Wai's 2046, Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man and hopefully hanging with the members of the US Quad Rugby team from the documentary Murderball. From the looks of the film, they could give Christopher Doyle a run for his money.

Posted by dwhudson at May 17, 2005 1:04 PM