Art by Zee

EMP Museum is currently in the process of entries for the seventh-annual 2012 Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF). In late January and early February of 2012, uary 2012, SFFSFF will screen 20 short films at Seattle’s historic Cinerama Theater in Washington.

If you’re a filmmaker, or aspiring filmmaker, and want to have a shot at getting your work included in the festival there are a few things you should know. The festival will accept animated or live-action submissions in science fiction (futuristic stories, space adventure, technological speculation, social experiments, utopia and dystopia), and fantasy (sword and sorcery, folklore, urban fantasy, magic, and mythic adventure). The festival will not accept horror submissions. Films must be original. In order to qualify, submitted films must have been completed after January 2007, and must not exceed fifteen-minutes.

Final deadline for entries is August 15, 2011.

A hand-selected jury comprised of science fiction professionals in film, television, and literature (Simon Cartwright, Paul Constant, Jessica Cope, Dave Goldberg, Ilona Rossman Ho, and Adam Sekuler), will award a Grand Prize, Second Place, and Third Place, as well as the Douglas Trumbull Award for Best Special Effects. SFFSFF viewers will cast their vote to determine the winner of the Audience Favorite Award.

Memorial weekend offers up unlimited opportunity for film fans: avoid the almost inevitable rain by spending time inside.

Short Film Weekend kicks off at SIFF with Friday night’s ShortsFest opening night featuring films from around the world focusing on the art of storytelling. Other excellent choices include showcases presenting alternative films, family films, animation, Tales from the Motherland, Tapas, and many more.

Full length films on Friday include the charming animated tale The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams (4:30, Admiral), an intimate look at the 2008 Ghana presidential election in An African Election (4:30, Harvard Exit), a modern Greek reinterpretation of “Romeo and Juliet” in Nobody (7:00, Pacific Place), and the biopic of a Seattle icon, Bruce Lee, My Brother (7:00, Neptune). If you’re a fan of Japanese action-adventure (and who isn’t?) be sure to get to the Egyptian for the midnight screening of Karate-Robo Zaborgar.

Saturday’s selections include the satirical Treatment (11:00, Neptune) in which a wanna be filmmaker cons his way inside a celebrity rehab in order to cast his film, historical epic Mysteries of Lisbon (1:00, Egyptian), Young Goethe in Love, a biography of the early years of the noted German writer; The Interrupters, a documentary about a group of anti-violence activists in Chicago (6:00, Harvard Exit), and the campy comedy Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (9:45, Egyptian) whose title says it all.

On Sunday study the early days of venture capitalism in Silicon Valley with Something Ventured (1:00, Admiral), go back to brutal 1975 Brooklyn with White Irish Drinkers (4:00, Harvard Exit), examine the Earth Liberation Front in documentary If a Tree Falls (6:00, Everett), follow the history of the Vietnamese people’s attempt to define their own destiny in The Empire of the Mid-South (6:00, Admiral), and discover the fascinating true history of Saartjie Baartman, the “Hottentot Princess” in Black Venus (8:30 Egyptian).

Monday move to Flamenco, Flamenco (11:00, Egyptian), a look at the fantastic art form, uncover the mysteries of the night with the lushly handpainted animated tale A Cat in Paris (1:00, Everett), explore the venerable newspaper in Page One: Inside the New York Times (3:30, Everett), and get hooked on fast-paced Russian thriller Hooked (1:45, Neptune).

For full festival schedule, be sure to visit the SIFF site.

It’s a busy time for musicians Thao and Mirah. The two finally got their chance to record an album together – their self-titled album was just released on Kill Rock Stars (head over to RCRD LBL to download “Folks”) and they’ve also released a “New, Improved” live stuiod session which include versions of three songs from their album and a special take on Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield.” All four songs are available for free download at TheBayBridged.com, where three session videos are also available for viewing.

They’re also taking their show on the road, playing in the Northwest on May 6 at WWU up in Bellingham, May 7 at the Croc in Seattle, May 8 at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, and May 9 at Northern in Oly before heading eastward for a series of shows across the US and in Canada that culminate in a June 23 show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

As if that’s not enough, Thao and Mirah contributed music to the soundtrack of American Teacher, a documentary that chronicle four teachers in four different settings across the country, taking an unflinching look at answers to the question so many teachers face: Can I afford to continue to teach? American Teacher screens in May in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, with a Chicago screening in June, for more info about the film and the work of The Teacher Salary Project, check out their website.

Opening in Seattle Friday, May 6, at Metro Cinemas, Queen to Play is French director and screenwriter Caroline Bottaro’s debut film and features features Kevin Kline (in his first French-speaking role) and Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond, La Cérémonie) in the story of a quietly intelligent French chambermaid who discovers she has a knack for chess, a talent which sends her on a life-changing quest guided in part by a reclusive American doctor who becomes her tutor in the game.

Also opening locally Friday is Louder Than a Bomb, a documentary by director Jon Siskel about a unique event – a youth poetry slam based on a team model. Instead of pitting individuals against each other, “Louder Than a Bomb” uses a collaborative system which allows young poets to learn from each other and change lives, even their own. Louder Than a Bomb screens at SIFF Cinema from May 6 through May 12; director Jon Siskel and poet Lamar Jordan are expected at the Friday and Saturday screenings; also there will be local poets performing before the 7:30 showings on May 6 and May 7.

Northwest Film Forum continues its Lionel Rogosin series with Come Back, Africa, a film that combines fictional elements with facts in a story shot illicitly on the streets of Johannesberg back in 1960 about a family struggling to survive the racism of their daily lives in the big city slums. The film marks the onscreen debut of African singer Miriam Makebu. Screens May 6 through May 12.

The Grand Illusion offers up Breath (Soom), a Korean love story between a death row inmate played by Chang Chen (Eros, Red Cliff) and the woman who decorates his prison cell (Park ji-Ah).

Late night at the Grand Illusion: Get Crazy

Midnight at The Egyptian: Back to the Future.

The true story of an 84-year old Kenyan man determined to get the education he never could afford, The First Grader has played to acclaim at the London Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, and the Toronto Film Festival where it came in second to The King’s Speech. This remarkable story makes its way to the screen at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall where it opens SIFF 2011. Written by Emmy-winning Ann Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia), the film stars Oliver Litondo and Naomie Harris and is directed by Justin Chadwick who will be an Opening Night special guest.

The Opening Night Gala will immediately follow the film next door at the Exhibition Hall with drinks provided by Don Q Rums, Stella Artois and Barefoot Wines and Bubbly. Appetizers and desserts will be provided by the Festival’s catering partners @ The Peak Café, Blue Moon Burgers, Buca di Beppo, Cupcake Royale, Dilettante, Ivar’s Seafood, Joey Restaurants, Plum Bistro, Salumi, Sweet Iron Waffles, Tidbit Bistro and Zatz a Better Bagel with Red Carpet Experience catering provided by Savor.

Tickets for the gala are available now – tickets are $50 (SIFF Members $45), with premium tickets available for $100 (SIFF Members $90) and a Red Carpet Opening Night Experience package – including valet parking, a private pre-screening reception, access to the post-screening VIP Lounge and a gift bag – available for $200. Purchase tickets online at SIFF.

SIFF has also announced this year’s festival venues: SIFF Cinema, IMAX at Pacific Science Center, Pacific Place Cinemas, Benaroya Hall, Admiral Theater, Neptune Theatre, Harvard Exit Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, SIFF Lounge at Boom Noodle, Triple Door, with the Closing Gala and Reception to be held at Cinerama. Metro area venues outside of downtown Seattle are Everett Performing Arts Center, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center, and Kirkland Performance Center.

Portland native Matt McCormick’s debut feature film, Some Days Are Better Than Others, makes its Seattle premiere on Friday, April 15 at NW Film Forum. Starring Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney) and James Mercer (The Shins, Broken Bells), Some Days Are Better Than Others is “a sad valentine to the forgotten discards of a throwaway society, and a story about knowing when to hold on, and when to let go.”

McCormick will be in attendance Friday night with his film and with actor Renee Roman Nose; the movie screens continues through April 21.

SIFF Cinema honors the enduring legacy of one of the best known and most loved icons in film history with a selection of the films of Charlie Chaplin screening April 15 – 21.

At one time considered the most famous man in the world, Chaplin continues to be a star even long after his death. His films were funny, fearless, and inventive, always well crafted and filled with life. Chaplin was a master storyteller and a hilarious comedian with a sophisticated taste in humor that still left room for some slapstick hijinks.

The series begins Friday night, April 15 at 7:30 pm with a presentation of City Lights, a nearly silent (it has music and sound effects) film in which Chaplin’s famed character, The Tramp, serves time as a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire, all for the sake of getting money to restore sight to the blind flower girl he adores.

Saturday afternoon catch a double feature of The Gold Rush at 2:00 pm and The Kid at 4:00 pm. Saturday evening see Chaplin skewer fascism in the sensitive comedy The Dictator at 7:30 pm.

Sunday’s double feature pairs a series of shorts with The Circus. Modern Times screen at 6:30.

The series continues on Monday with Limelight, on Tuesday with A King in New York, on Wednesday with Monsieur Verdoux (described by Chaplin himself as: “the cleverest, most brilliant film of my career”), and concludes Thursday with a drama directed by Chaplin and starring Edna Purviance and Adolphe Menjou, A Woman of Paris.

Silent Movie Mondays return to Seattle’s Paramount Theatre tonight with a celebration of New York City during the Silent Era. Four classic films provide excitement, enterainment, and a flashback look at what it meant to be one of the largest cities in the world nearly a century ago. Once again Jim Riggs is behind the mighty Wurlitzer organ, lending a live soundtrack that transforms the film experience to magic.

April 4 – It

Clarence G. Badger, USA, 1927, 72 min.

The 1927 masterpiece, It, stars Clara Bow as Betty Lou Spence, a poor sales girl at a large department store. In this straight-forward Cinderella-esk story, Betty sets her sights on winning the love of the rich owner’s son, Cyrus Walthm Jr. (Antonio Moreno). Her smoldering glances grab the attention of Cyrus and she convinces him to take her on a date. Betty introduces him to the proletarian pleasures of life, taking him to early day Coney Island for rollercoasters, hot dogs and a grand old time. Then, drama strikes with lies, assumptions, wedding proposals and near-death-experiences. Will love conquer early New York social class barriers, or will both leave heartbroken?

This spring’s silent film series, I Love New York, is accompanied by live music from the historic Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, one of the last three remaining organs of its kind to reside in its original environment, played by critically acclaimed organist Jim Riggs.

Other films in the series include:

April 11 – Speedy

Harold Lloyd, USA, 1928, 86 min.

Speedy was both Harold Lloyd’s last silent film as well as his only film to get an Oscar nomination. A fine example of why Lloyd was even more popular than Chaplain or Keaton at the end of the silent era. This fast paced dramatic comedy explores the theme of modernization, pitting the last horse drawn trolley in the city against the evil forces of the transit monopoly. Filmed on location in New York, the film features the most extensive shots of Manhattan of its time. Many of the historically interesting sites include Coney Island’s Luna Park, Columbus Circle and Wall Street. Baseball legend Babe Ruth has a cameo role as a very harassed fare when Speedy is working as a cabbie. Their wild ride ends at the old Yankee Stadium, and the film captures one of the Bambino’s record-setting 60 home runs from the 1927 campaign.

April 18 – The Crowd

King Vidor, USA, 1928, 100 min.

This realistic, bittersweet drama of the day-to-day existence of an ordinary American is as relevant today as it was in 1928, just before the great stock market crash. In director King Vidor’s Academy Award nominated timeless silent masterpiece we see James Murray, an everyman white-collar worker, trying to make it with his wife in the big city of New York. Here Murray copes with cramped living conditions, a boring job, and a limited life of regret. Released on the eve of the Great Depression, Vidor’s sharp social commentary raises questions about both the dominance of industrialization and the rise of the modern metropolis. Although strongly influenced by the German Expressionist works of Murnau and Lang, The Crowd is notable for its extensive location shooting in New York City and its naturalistic visual style, both of which produce a vivid portrait of the city and its social stratification.

April 25 – The Cameraman

Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton, USA, 1928, 67 Min.

The first film he made after moving to MGM, The Cameraman is arguably Buster Keaton’s last truly great work before the studio system stifled him. Here “The Great Stone Face” is cast as an aspiring, but lousy, newsreel cameraman in quest of the perfect shot, and, of course, the requisite pretty but oblivious Keaton ingénue. Buster keeps missing the great shot, but we never do – the Tong War, the Yankee Stadium solitary baseball routine, the Coney Island sequence – these are all vintage Keaton and vintage New York.

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth, NFFTY (pronounced “Nifty”, because it is) is the largest and most influential festival for young filmmakers out there today. Young filmmakers from all over the world submit feature-length and short films in narrative, documentary, animation, music video, experimental, and international categories in order to share their world view and learn from one another. NFFTY helps filmmakers aged 22 and younger come together with their global peers and gives them a special opportunity find their own voice.

NFFTY also gives audiences of all ages the opportunity to see great film from artists who are shaping the future today. The movies they are create are thoughtful, fun, silly, serious, scary, provocative, challenging, creative…just like the films made by more experienced filmmakers but with the special resonance that youth and discovery bring.

The festival runs in Seattle from April 28 – to May 1; schedule is available on the NFFTY website.

The Moisture Festival is a three week festival of live comedy/ variete performance. That is, it’s a collection of shows where anything might happen when artists are given the stage with a live band so that they can perform pretty much anything they can both imagine and make concrete. There are aerialists, can can dancers, rope acts, clowns, jugglers, and a long list of everything else.

The festival begins on March 17 with an opening night show at Hales Palladium and continues until April 10 with shows at the Palladium, ACT Theatre, Open Space on Vashon, and the Georgetown Ballroom. There are four burleseque shows over the weekend of March 25 – 26 and Variete shows as often as four or five times a week until festival end.