Like I was saying, I find the lineup very exciting, with adventurous programs and a host of well-respected filmmakers coming to town. One example is Kucharama, which brings both George and Mike Kuchar to town. Now, not everybody is going to recognize these names, but they are a big deal in the world of independent film. They were a couple of the first to use home movie cameras to make and distribute rooftop and basement melodramas, and their influence can be seen in John Waters down through Richard Linklater's early work. You'll be able to see the joy they bring to filmmaking when they screen new short films on Saturday, September 11, but the showing will take place at Consolidated Works instead of at the new space. This show is highly recommended.
Since we're rounding the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center during an election year, a host of political films will crowd our alternative cinema screens. On the second screen of the NW Film Forum, they'll be showing Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, a documentary about the political academic narrated by Matt Damon, starting September 16. Meanwhile, on September 11, a host of neighborhood libraries will be showing a couple of political docs: Poetry in Wartime talks about war through the images and words of poets, and will screen at the Central Library, the West Seattle Branch, and the Capitol Hill Branch; meanwhile, 11'09"01: September 11, which is a compilation of 11 short films by world-class filmmakers, will play at the Green Lake Branch. On Monday, September 13, Town Hall is hosting a screening of American Jobs, a doc by Greg Spotts about the effects of globalization on U.S. and Mexican workers.
It's not all politics, however. The Rendezvous will have Music and Animated Films on Saturday, September 11, and fun-lovers can leave the early Kucharama to catch the organic, often gooey animation of local filmmaker Thomas Edward, along with a couple of indie bands. Then, on Wednesday, September 15, the Rendezvous will be showing the amazing 1925 migration doc Grass with a new score by Seattle's Climax Golden Twin. Plenty of stuff, both with politics and without.
