Engauge 2024 – Tell No Tales [In-Person Only]
INDIVIDUAL FILM PROGRAM TICKETS:
- $14 General Admission
- $10 Student/Child/Senior
- $7 NWFF/SIFF/GI/PCNW member
FULL-DAY PASSES:
(two film programs + one special event; for either Friday or Saturday)
- $40 General
- $30 Student/Child/Senior
- $20 NWFF/SIFF/GI/PCNW member
FULL FESTIVAL PASSES:
(includes Lori Goldston & Friends Performance!)
- $60 General
- $50 Student/Child/Senior
- $40 NWFF/SIFF/GI/PCNW member
On Film
Screening on film!
About
As an experimental filmmaker, how do you approach story? history? memory? Thankfully, there are any number of ways to do so—from more straightforward diaristic approaches to those that are wildly impressionistic or abstract. This program brings together filmmakers for whom “story”—broadly defined—is central in some way. Three films in this program will be shown as 16mm prints.
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum’s ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. All doors in Northwest Film Forum are non-motorized, and may require staff assistance to open. Our upstairs workshop room is not wheelchair accessible.
We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter. Also available at the front desk is a Sensory Kit you can borrow, which includes a Communication Card, noise-reducing headphones, and fidget toys.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at cris@nwfilmforum.org. Our phone number (206-329-2629) is voicemail-only, but we check it often.
Made possible due to a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Sensory Access, our Sensory Access document presents a visual and descriptive walk-through of the NWFF space. View it in advance of attending an in-person event at bit.ly/nwffsocialnarrativepdf, in order to prepare yourself for the experience.
NWFF patrons will be strongly encouraged to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.
Read more about NWFF’s policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.
- Purchase your ticket through Brown Paper Tickets; come to the show!
- You can also purchase a ticket on the day of the screening at Northwest Film Forum’s box office (1515 12th Ave, Seattle).
- If you have purchased a Full Festival Pass or Full Day Pass, we’ll be able to look you up at Will Call by the name you purchased under.
- Film programs in the 2024 edition of Engauge will not be available for virtual viewing.
Films in this program:
That Bolex Thing
(Paul Echeverria | 3:30 | USA | color | sound | 16mm to digital | 2024)
In addition to its iconic status, the Bolex contains a recurring and noticeable quirk. In order to initiate the filming process, the hand-cranked camera relies on a complex harmony of mechanical design. As the gears get up to speed, the internal transport mechanism ramps and fluctuates. This technical operation produces a distinctive oscillation that is imprinted on the film plane. For the span of several seconds, the film captures an ethereal canvas of color and light. Through this process, the Bolex successfully envisions the crystallization (and decrystallization) of the motion image. “That Bolex Thing” highlights this fleeting occurrence of visual abstraction. The source footage is composed of brief instances containing the filmic “thing”. Within this tapestry, the subject matter offers a contrast between new and former devices of image capture. Undoubtedly, modern camera technology provides unprecedented levels of efficiency and convenience. However, amidst the dependence on new technology, the Bolex maintains a timeless allure and magnetism. This glorious machine provides a genuine reminder that technological progress is underscored by nostalgic obsolescence. Ultimately, “That Bolex Thing” contextualizes the ongoing interplay between innovation and tradition.
Tell No Tales
(Sarah Sanchez-Kelley | 8:14 | USA | color | sound | Super 8mm to digital | 2023)
A young woman returns to her hometown to settle her late estranged father’s affairs.
A desalambrar / To Unwire
(Martín Baus | 13:46 | Chile | color | sound | 35mm found footage to 8mm to digital | 2024)
An essay film about the havoc authoritarianism can wreck in an erstwhile democracy.
Refrigerator hum
(Jade Wong | 8:35 | USA | color | sound | 16mm to digital | 2023)
Experiments in reanimating intergenerational, embodied knowledge passed between my grandmother, mother, and me.
Data, Data, Dada
(DK Odessa | 4:44 | USA | b + w | sound | 16mm to digital | 2023)
Before the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) was coined, the field and its concepts went by various other names and were associated with broader or slightly variant disciplines. The foundational ideas of AI can be traced back to myths, stories, and speculative thought. Decades old, recovered footage from the archives of the “Autonomous Reasoning Institute” reconstruct one such vision and revision of the future.
The Flower Cult of Amelia Earhart
(Rebecca Barten | 5:45 | USA | color | sound | 35mm to digital | 2024)
A synaptic celluloid requiem, propelling the High Priestess Aviator Earhart through far-sighted passages of flora, fauna, air, fire and water.
Walgreen’s Parking Lot
(Allan Brown | 5:10 | Canada | Color | sound | Super 8mm to digital | 2023)
Technology fails while cryptic-nostalgia prevails.
Hey, Sweet Pea
(Alee Peoples | 11:00 | USA | color | sound | 16mm | 2023)
Parental aging and an existential wave collide together in funny ways. “Hey Sweet Pea” borrows scenes from the 1984 children’s sci-fi movie The Neverending Story to process our collective grief.
A Message From Humboldt
(Matt Feldman | 6:40 | USA | b + w | sound | 16mm | 2023)
Glances at an emptied apartment in Milwaukee drift into a psychodrama confronting fears of death and loneliness. Through the use of in-camera experiments, fractured imagery inquires into the hauntings and mysteries of the everyday.
Floods Recede to Luxury
(Kathy Rugh | 4:00 | USA | color | sound | 16mm | 2024)
Ten years after Hurricane Sandy flooded the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, new luxury housing is built ever closer to the water’s edge, poised to ignore the risks of future storm surges. Using in-camera layered exposures the film examines the neighborhood in this time of transition and imagines what may still come.
