seattle jewish film festival Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last week, our Monday Morning Poll topic was on the upcoming 9/11 films -- United 93, which comes out this month, and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage, which opens August 11. At the same time we asked that poll question (and we're certainly not the only film site asking ourselves and our readers if it's too soon for a film about 9/11) -- the Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival (SAIFF) was running here in Seattle. It's a small festival, without the furious deal-making and hot "scene" of Sundance or the red carpets and brouhaha surrounding Cannes, or even the mild fervor that will be generated in Seattle at the end of May with the opening of the Seattle International Film Festival.

Yet now, perhaps more than ever before, smaller film fests -- especially the culture-centric fests like SAIFF, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, which ran here recently, and lots of other smaller fests around the country -- matter. They matter because it is at these smaller fests that hundreds of seeds of social conscience and cultural understanding are sown. Hopefully some of those seeds will get picked up and scattered around at the larger fests where they'll get more press and attention, but even for those that don't score large play on the festival circuit, much less the Holy Grail of indie film, distribution, small film festivals give their voices a chance to be heard.

It's cold and rainy here in blustery Seattle, so why not go catch a movie? Here's a roundup of some of the film offerings around the Emerald City:

FREE MOVIES IN SEATTLE! 

Sure, you can listen to your fave radio station to find out about those nifty free preview screenings.  But if you're really a movie buff, you might want to check out Janet's Film Club at Janet Wainwright PR. They'll send you passes to get in free to lots of preview screenings! The only catch? Use 'em or lose 'em.

UW Film Club 

Japenese Film Series - Supermarket Woman (1996, Itami Juzo). Japanese comedy about a woman (Miyamoto Nobuko) hired to remake a small grocery store to compete against a large chain. Thursday, March 9 @ 7:30PM, UW Savery 239

A Moveable Feast  - Check out a rough cut of this film, by a former UW student. And it's free! At the Ethnic Cultural Center, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE.

Seattle Jewish Film Festival March 5-19 - This year marks the 11th year of the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, and they have a fantastic lineup. This year's fest runs at three venues: Seattle's Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), AMC Pacific Place, and Majestic Bay Theaters in Ballard. The festival really kicks into high gear this week, with an interesting lineup of films:

March 11 - The opening night film is Live and Become, which you can have with dessert at the 7PM showing (for passholders special ticket holders only), or without at 9:50PM. The film, which won the audience award at the 2005 Berlinale, tells the story of a young Ethiopian boy in the 1980s whose mother places him with a group of Ethiopian Jewish refugees to save him from the famine. As he grows from a boy into a man under his assumed identity, the lie under which he has lived begins to take its toll.

Check out the full lineup to see when other films are playing.