Memorial Weekend Film Agenda
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.
