PTFF News
Newsletter Archives
November 20, 2007
Contents- Eden is the 2007 PTFF Audience Favorite
- Second Annual Silent Film Festival Expands to Two Days
- The Envelope, Please OSCAR® TIME NEARS
- 2007 Films Ready for Checkout
- 2008 Membership Drive Underway
- Film Noir Returns
Eden is the 2007 PTFF Audience Favorite
To
no one’Äôs great surprise, the German romantic comedy with an edge, EDEN,
was chosen as the audience favorite at the 2007 Port Townsend Film Festival,
held on the two windiest days in September, the 29th and 30th. (Opening
night on the 28th boasted the festival’Äôs usual sunny, warm skies). With
director Michael Hofmann in attendance, EDEN attracted an audience of
more than 470 (plus nearly 300 volunteers who saw a preview on Thursday
night). Of a possible 4.0 points, EDEN earned a very warm 3.96 from its
audience! Other films in the top ten include:
BEYOND THE CALL 3.88
FOREVER 3.83
FACING SUDAN 3.81
FINDING KRAFTLAND 3.70
CHICAGO 10 3.68
DR. STRANGELOVE 3.67
CELLULOID BAINBRIDGE 3.67
THE UNFORESEEN 3.67
THE GEFILTE FISH CHRONICLES/6-DAY BICYCLE RACE 3.65
See article below about the availability of these films in the Port Townsend Film Festival library.
Second Annual Silent Film Festival Expands to Two Days
The Port Townsend Film Festival and the Rose Theatre will join forces again in 2008 to present the Second Annual Port Townsend Silent Film Festival, Saturday and Sunday, January 26 and 27. Two films will be presented with two screenings each. New Yorker Donald Sosin, a Port Townsend favorite, has been engaged for one of the films, and the renowned silent film accompanist Dennis James will make his Port Townsend debut with the second film. Stay tuned for details.
The Envelope, PleaseOSCAR® TIME NEARS
It’Äôs Oscar® time again! The PTFF’Äôs spectacular party and fundraiser, The Envelope Please..., arrives on the red carpet February 24th. ¬ÝThis is a great opportunity to dress up, dine, and watch the Academy Awards, live! ¬ÝLast year’Äôs party was sold out and raised a record amount of money for the Festival. ¬Ý
If you have ideas for making the 2008 party bigger (we have a new venue) and better than ever, please come to the planning meeting in the Bishop Hotel’Äôs downstairs Vancouver Room at 7 pm on Tuesday, November 20th. ¬ÝIf you have volunteered in the past, bring your experience and a friend new to the event. ¬ÝWe need fresh eyes and ideas as well as the wisdom of previous volunteers.
The 2007 Festival films are ready to check out of the PTFF library. ¬ÝExtra copies of the program are available to help you pick your favorites to watch again or find the films you missed and want to see for the first time. ¬ÝCheckout is easy; pick your film, fill out one line of information in the notebook, and it’Äôs yours for three days!
A couple of the films, most notably EDEN, are available only in the European format (known as PAL); we are attempting to have copies converted to the format compatible with American DVD players (known as NTSC) but it may take a few weeks, so bear with us.
If you are not yet a member and want to start watching Festival films, come up to the office, join the PTFF and walk out with a film. (211 Taylor Street, Suite 33, open 9-ish to 4, M ’Äì F)
Dee Dee Wrigley, a PTFF loyalist, has created her own blog http://www.mydiylife.com to review films, including festival movies. Here’Äôs her take on the mother-daughter documentary, MANHATTAN, KANSAS, and its companion father-son short, ORPHAN:
MANHATTAN, KANSAS (2006) " ’ÄòWe're both completely insane.’Äô ’ÄòI'm never going to have a mother.’Äô" Brave documentary of a mother and daughter by the latter, a first-time filmmaker. Tara Wray goes back to visit her mom after six years away, and enlists two other filmmakers ’Äì and a therapist ’Äì to help. Evie Wray ’Äì "not OK" but undiagnosed ’Äì is eccentric, wild, creative, self-centered. Tara's narration, and old photos, show the two were unusually close before their estrangement. Neither navel-gazing by some slacker kid nor abuse accusations by some self-pitying victim, a remarkably fresh and sometimes disturbingly intimate look at family.
The film was paired with Michael Jortner’Äôs 19-minute ORPHAN (2006). "Would you rather have bad parents or no parents?" This short poses that question well. Title refers to the main character's feeling like an orphan, even though his father’Äôs still living. Sections defining the story’Äôs events ’Äì "that damn dinner", "that damn e'mail", etc. ’Äì are just clever and humorous enough to keep this story from wallowing in self-pity. Instead, it’Äôs a smart, funny, sad, and shockingly (for some) honest look at a broken father-and-son relationship. Well-made and well-acted to boot. NOTE: not for the prudish or old-fashioned. Definite sexual, and homosexual, content.
2008 Membership Drive Underway
As a member of the Port Townsend Film Festival, you have exclusive use of
the PTFF’Äôs unique library of DVDs, video tapes, and books about film. Foreign
language films, documentaries, cult films, shorts, and classics compose this
fascinating collection which is based on the programming of the past eight
film festivals. You can become a member for as little as $25 a year. Several
categories of membership offer increasingly valuable benefits. See the festival
website <www.ptfilmfest.com>, click on ’Äúmemberships’Äù for details.
Last year’Äôs Peninsula College Port Townsend class in film noir, taught then by Daniel Yezbick, has expanded into a second eight-week session exploring femme fatales, flawed heroes, shadowy pasts, gin-soaked streets, crimes gone wrong, and labyrinth-like cities in films from the 1940s and 1950s. This course will be taught by Peninsula College professor, Bruce Hattendorf (shown above). The noncredit course will be held on Wednesdays, January 16 through March 5. One need not have attended last year’Äôs course to register for this one. Call 360 385-4605 to register. If you get a recording, leave a message; they will get back to you.