I’ll be heading off to Orcas Island Film Festival for the weekend. Make the trip to Eastsound and soak up some of the year’s finest films; passes are sold out but individual tickets are still on sale.
Closer to home, Seattle Queer Film Festival launches tonight and runs through October 20. The Opening Night gala features Stephen Kijak Sid & Judy, a documentary about Judy Garland as revealed by her third husband Sid Luft. (This could make for an interesting double-feature with Judy, the Renée Zellweger biopic making a go of it in multiplexes.) After the movie, head over to the Rainier Chapter House for a swank party complete with cocktails, snacks, and a dance party with DJ Paco.
On Oct 13, the festival spotlights Daniel KarslakeFor The Know Not What They Do, an investigation of a dozen years of conservative Christian efforts to undermine LGBTQ+ rights, as the festival’s Documentary Centerpiece. Later, October 16’s “Narrative Centerpiece” brings Lucio Castro’s End of the Century, which finds a thirtysomething Argentinian poet and a brawny Spaniard crossing paths in Barcelona with chance encounters that culminate in a revelatory one-night stand. While you’re browsing the rest of the lineup, don’t hesitate to to grab a ticket to Closing Night presentation of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Sunday October 20). The sensuous historical romance won the Queer Palm and the Best Screenplay prizes at the 2019 Cannes and was a highlight of my Labor Day weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. What better opportunity to get an early look at it than with a fantastic crowd and a fancy party?
Finally, SIFF has something of a Bong Joon-ho retrospective including family monster movieThe Hostand post-apocalyptic train terror Snowpiercer this week. This is all a lead-up to their upcoming sneak preview of Parasite(yet another of my Telluride highlights) on October 19. Get your tickets now.
