Articles tagged with: SIFF
On The Street »
Thank goodness for second chances. If you’re like most people who occasionally eat, sleep and shower, you’re destined to miss some of the hundreds of films screened at the annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Thankfully, however, some of the gems eventually return. One of the SIFF standouts this year was Cyrus and if you didn’t catch it last month, I highly recommend you see it once it opens July 2 at Harvard Exit and Lincoln Square Cinemas…
On The Street »
It wasn’t intentional, but I’ve seen numerous films at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival that have strong ties to the music community. The most recent example is Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields directed by Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara. I was unfamiliar with Merritt beforehand, but to the film’s credit, promptly went to Easy Street afterwards to buy some of his CDs.
Merritt isn’t a musician who is hounded by paparazzi and he won’t land the cover of Us Weekly. If that ever happened, he would probably …
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The highlight of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) so far has been Jacob Tierney’s new film “The Trotsky.” This film defies all stereotypes of independent films and showed me the real greatness of an independent film festival. “The Trotsky” is a modern-day comedy starring Jay Baruchel as Leon Bronstein, who believes himself to be the reincarnation of the historic marxist leader with the same birth name.
The performance by Jay Baruchel and writing by Jacob Tierney is what makes “The Trotsky” a comedic masterpiece. By asking the …
On The Street »
As somewhat of a journalist myself, I was intrigued and embarrassed when I discovered “Ahead of Time” at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Intrigued because I’m always interested in learning more about great journalists, but embarrassed because I had no idea who Ruth Gruber was. In “Ahead of Time”, director Bob Richman provides a whirlwind look into the life of one of the most amazing women I’ve ever heard about.
In her own words, Ruth Gruber was “Never just a journalist.” Born in 1911 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, …
On The Street »
Memorial Day weekend is over and the weather remains murky and uninspiring, but that’s no reason to spend your evening watching reruns. SIFF has barely reached its halfway point and if you’re not interested in Iron people, Sexy people or Shrek people, get off the couch and see some SIFF films!
I recently saw Some Days Are Better Than Others which originally caught my eye because it was written and directed by Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick and stars Northwest-based musicians James Mercer of the Shins and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney. Also …
On The Street »
A modern-day drama set in France, “Father of My Children” is a wonderfully engaging story of Grégoire Canvel, a film producer with a wife and three daughters. With his own company and several films in process, it’s amazing that Canvel manages to see his family at all. However, the limited time he does spend with his family show a committed husband and father who loves nothing more than being with his loved ones. But, as financial struggles mount for his business, Grégoire finds it hard to balance …
On The Street »
This film had enormous potential for a plethora of interesting story lines, instead it took the route of not having a story at all. As one can imagine, watching a film for over an hour where nothing happens can get pretty boring. I stayed in my seat to the end of the film in hopes that something would happen, but nothing ever did. The shaky hand-held cinematography and tasteless masturbation scene only poured salt in the wounds inflicted on my psyche by this film. Like most …
On The Street »
What do we really know about the people in Al-Qaeda? We know they are led by Osama bin Laden and bent on the destruction of our Western civilization. But beyond this, if you’re like me, all the details are fuzzy. We hear about terrorism all the time in the news, Bush gave us a deck of playing cards to identify the most wanted terrorists, but who wants to play poker with a bunch of terrorist photos? Film-maker Laura Poitras is helping educate the average American, ignorant …
