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NFFTY is home to the world’s largest film festival for young filmmakers, and it resides here in Seattle. Each year, the four day festival showcases over 250 remarkable films from up and coming filmmakers while also the providing tools and resources to help realize their next project. As it enters its fifteenth year, NFFTY has grown into one of the most significant, lesser known festivals in the country, and it began with someone who was once in the shoes of a young filmmaker…
Read MoreThe 2022 Seattle International Film Festival is underway and Cinema As We Know It is covering as many films as possible so you know which films to see! From April 14th and through the 24th, we’ll be regularly updating this article with capsule reviews for festival films. Check back every couple days to see whats new!
Read MoreAs my home court film festival, the Seattle International Film Festival will always hold a special place in my heart. After five years, I still come back to this festival not only for nostalgia purposes, but also to continue seeing films outside the mainstream. With 155 feature films and 107 short films at this year’s 48th incarnation, there is no shortage of films to watch. The perennial problem is which ones. Below I have compiled a handful of my recommendations for films at this year’s festival. Some I have seen at other festivals, others are total wildcards. Either way, there’s always something in the lineup for everyone. If you’re willing to “seek new cinema,” as this year’s theme suggests, you’re bound to find something.
Read MoreThe movies are back! As theaters begin to reopen and restrictions are lifted, we can begin to take our places again, seated alongside friends or strangers, and find fresh joys in the world on screen. The celebration and preservation of film and filmgoing will be ongoing, but the best reasons for returning to the theater and committing to making them as accessible as possible, with as much selection as possible, are those personal. In honor of their return, our August & September theme is all about our favorite theatrical experiences and why in the light of the big screen anything is possible.
Read MoreIn the late 1960s, the first generation of Black filmmakers at UCLA broke new ground for with their thoughtful, thorough, compassionate portrayals of the Black Americans on film, forming the cinematic movement that would eventually be known as the LA Rebellion. In honor of the retrospective at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, we sat down with cinematic legends Charles Burnett and Billy Woodberry to discuss the films that changed Black representation in cinema, the factors that influenced their work, and their enduring legacy that continues to inspire generations of filmmakers
Read MoreFor our April & May theme, we’re selecting films that focus on journalism, and more specifically print journalism. As much as the medium has shifted to online publication, there remains a special place in our hearts for ink and paper and the means with which it arrives in our hands every morning without fail. These films embody the age-old tradition of journalism — hitting the streets, getting the facts, writing the story, and breaking the news — and define the complicated relationship between the profession and the public and do so through the lens of printing presses and Sunday editions.
Read MoreFor the second year in row, we’ll be experiencing SXSW from the remote isolation of our living rooms, covering as many films as we can for the next few weeks. Before the festival kicks off on March 16th, we want to highlight a smattering of films that are on our radar and that we think should be on yours too. Whether they feature familiar faces, one-of-a-kind premises, or word-of-mouth buzz, these are the films you should check out for SXSW Online 2021.
Read MoreLike a good mix tape, a soundtrack cherry picks songs from disparate sources and strings them together to create an auditory experience all its own. The best films with soundtracks do this over and over again, playing track after track that cultivates a rhythmic liminal state of euphoria where sound and image become greater than the sum of their part. A Sonic Dream so to speak. For our February — March theme, we’re selecting our favorite film soundtracks that make us feel what cannot be rendered visually and add to the cinematic experience in ways only music can.
Read MoreYou only get one chance to make a first impression. For our November - December theme we’re focusing on directorial debuts, films that immediately left an impression and inscribed the director’s name on everyone’s watchlist. These films broke rules and gave us perspectives that only come from a fresh pair of eyes and the desire to prove your worth. Debuts that declared, “My name is ________ ________. And I have something to say.” If there’s only the one first impression, then these nine films showed themselves to be unforgettable, and part of their legacy would be us returning to them and their directors over and over again.
Read MoreTen years ago on October 1st, 2010, The Social Network was released, and anyone who’s seen it knows just how great it is. From the Aaron Sorkin script to the meticulous direction by David Fincher, it continues to stand as an ever evolving piece of art that continues to change with current events and our political climate. To celebrate the film’s 10th Anniversary, Greg Arietta, Kevin Conner, and Jamie Housen convened to create an audio commentary where they talk about final clubs, marlins & trouts, Armie Hammer, fuck you flip flops, and how drunk blogging led to the fall of democracy.
Read MoreDid you hear that? There was… a noise… a murmur emerging from across the house. Probably nothing you tell yourself. But you can never be sure of a BUMP IN THE NIGHT. For our September & October theme, we’re picking a selection of some of our favorite horror films. Slashers, creature features, home invasions, 80s camp, Cronenberg body horror, final girls, and the like find their way on this list, and while we could make this list a hundred times over, we managed to select just eight for your consideration.
Read MoreIn an extended essay, Kevin Conner writes about Michael Jordan’s lasting legacy as presented in The Last Dance and what it means for aspirational athletes documented in Hoop Dreams. If the dream is to become the greatest of all time, what’s the cost of achieving it?
Read MoreThis month’s theme is dedicated to the films that feel like summer more than anything else. On the surface, they bear the hallmarks of the summer time — endless sunshine, coastal beaches, seasonal vacations — but underneath they distill the essence of the season and capture the memories made therein. These films can take us back to simpler times when all we had to worry about were the plans for the next day and who it would be with, because even though summer comes around every year, it’ll never be the same as those Hot Summer Nights.
Read MoreRight about now we could all use a little pick me up. Staring down at the problems in front of us and looking out into the future ahead, it’s hard to stay optimistic, but if there’s anything we’ve come to know about cinema is that it has the unique ability to transplant us elsewhere. Our May and June theme is focused on films that can change the mood for the better, films that to their core inspire unrelenting joy, happiness, and elation like no other.
Read MoreAs we close out our SXSW 2020 coverage, the time has come to take stock on what we saw and highlight the best films from this year’s festival. Though the festival was unfortunately canceled and we couldn’t see some of the most anticipated films of the Spring, there were still plenty of great films from talented filmmakers, artists, and visionaries that deserve recognition.
Read MoreIn the days following SXSW’s cancellation, we sat down with two time Cannes attendee, Annie Silverstein, to talk about her latest film, Bull. In our conversation, we discussed the five year creative process going from short to feature, the influences that inspired her characters, and how the film recontextualizes the Western genre with new faces.
Read MoreThere are hundreds of feature films and shorts out there waiting to be seen at this year's SXSW festival. We passed through the schedule, narrowed down a handful that peaked our interest, and wrote about them for you to keep on your radar. Whether it’s a film from talent we know, or maybe it just has a good premise, these are the prospects that we find most promising.
Read MoreFor this month’s theme, we’re selecting films that put particular emphasis on concrete jungles, films where the city itself becomes not just a location, but also a character. We may be following the lives of protagonists on screen, but it’s place they inhabit that plays just as much an important role as they do. We hate the traffic, the loud noises, and the lingering pollution, but we’ll be damned if we ever trade the metropolitan madness for suburban life. Because it’s the city, and there’s nothing like it.
Read MoreIn the days leading up to Seattle’s Noir City at SIFF, we sat down with the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller, to discuss the festival’s history, the contemporary social underpinnings in this year’s lineup, audience’s undying fixation on the genre, and the borderless unification noir has on us all.
Read MoreOver the next nine weeks, we’re selecting films that depict younger generation rejecting conformity and igniting rambunctious rebellions at the hands of being misunderstood. Acting on your own accord, disobeying authority, and maybe busting out a hardy cry or two at the alienation felt inside, these films aren’t afraid to reject the authoritative hypocrisy felt by younger generations, because sometimes being seen means being who you are. Acting out never felt so right when you’re a Youth in Revolt.
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