La Dolce Vita
This is yet another good week for our city's Fellini fanatics as the Felliniana comes to a head. On Sunday and Monday (Oct 26-27), the Seattle Art Museum will be showing two classic (they're all classics, aren't they?) Fellini films. Sunday is Donald Sutherland in Casanova, and Monday is the filmmaker's tribute to old-school Hollywood, Ginger and Fred. On Tuesday evening (Oct 28), there's a free screening of Intervista at the UW's HUB Auditorium, introduced by scriptwriter Gianfranco Angelucci and composer Nicola Piovani.
If that were all the Fellini stuff going on it would be a lot, but there's still plenty more. On Wednesday (Oct 29) at Meany Hall, there's an "Opening Celebration" that includes tributes to Fellini from director Jane Campion and actress Barbara Steele, performances of music composed for his films, and appearances by the previously mentioned composer and scriptwriter. Students can get into that for $6, but it'll cost the rest of us $25. The next night (Oct 30), the Henry Art Gallery gets into the action with a screening of The Lost Ending, a documentary about the making of 8 1/2, introduced by the director. Finally, the wealthier Fellini fans among us will want to kick out $75 for a private Halloween screening of 8 1/2 (at the Big Picture) that will include the opportunity to rub shoulders (figuratively) with Barbara Steele, star of the picture.
There's another filmmaker coming to town this weekend over at Consolidated Works. You'll have to forgive me for mentioning it because for the last year I've been the film programmer at ConWorks, and if I had any sort of journalistic ethics I wouldn't write about it at all, but this is the space to mention visiting filmmakers and, um, so there. Nothing So Strange is a fictional documentary (not a mockumentary, thank God) about an activist group trying to uncover the conspiracies surrounding the 1999 assassination of Bill Gates. Not only will director Brian Flemming introduce the movie at every screening, he has agreed to hang out in the ConBar afterward to chat with rabble like you. Friday night (Oct 24) is opening night, however, and as a special treat DJ Charles Mudede will be spinning music from his laptop's hard drive. Heck, even if you don't want to see the movie you can still hang out in the bar.
There are a couple of other festivals happening around town, like the Hi/Lo Film Festival on Friday (Oct 24) at 911 Media Arts. They're pitching the fest as high-concept, low-budget media for adventuresome audiences, and it includes flying hot dogs singing Air Supply, animated LEGOs, and Hunter Dawson's audition tape for Blind Date. The Northwest Asian American Film Festival takes place at Theatre Off Jackson Thursday-Sunday (Oct 23-26).
Before I completely run out of room, though, I want to mention a script reading by local politico Grant Cogswell on Tuesday (Oct 28) at the Double Header bar (Second Ave and Washington St). Cthulhu is an erotic political thriller based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and if anyone can pull that off, Grant can.
