A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
Tomorrow begins one of my favorite mini-festivals in Seattle: SIFF’s annual DocFest. It’s a week-long festival celebrating some of the best new-ish documentaries out there (and in true Seattle fashion, this week goes from Thursday to Thursday, so it is actually eight days long).
Jungkook (JK) may be a member of arguably one of the most famous bands that exists today, BTS, but over the last couple years he’s also been making headlines under his own name. JK set his sights on solo work last year following in the footsteps of his fellow bandmates who have all dropped at least a single of their own if not full-length work. With the pending release of his all-English album Golden and planned stint in the South Korean military looming (a requirement for all Korean men), 2023 was a chaotic time for the up-and-coming artist. Between April and November, he recorded tracks, filmed music videos, released the record and went on a quick promotional tour. No wonder “I’m tired” was a phrase he uttered throughout the film. I Am Still has him reflecting on that time both in interviews and unreleased footage as he rushed head-first through the process.
There’s something remarkable about the opening scene of Copa 71. Brandi Chastain, hero of the winning American team of the 1991 Women’s World Cup, is given a tablet and shown footage of the 1971 Copa tournament, a massive women’s soccer competition in Mexico City two decades earlier than the first official FIFA Women’s World Cup. She had no idea it even existed. I suspect many other diehard women’s sports fans didn’t either (I certainly didn’t).
I believe most writers, especially those of us who cover the arts, have a small “dream interview” list, people that we’d love to talk to, should the stars align. High on my shortlist for about a decade has been documentarian Penny Lane. She’s directed some of the most unique and memorable documentaries in recent years, full of vivid characters. Some of her most notable films include Our Nixon, Nuts!, Hail Satan?, and Listening to Kenny G. She’s like a Gen X Errol Morris and she’s amazing.
While I didn’t get to dig into as many as I wanted, there were still a few that caught my attention. Funny enough, they were mostly in the horror genre… not exactly my cup of tea most of the time, but they were quirky and fun and I happily hopped out of my comfort zone. Check out my reviews below!
Despite not making out to the physical festival, I have access to a scrumptiously large number of short films this year from every genre. I’m excited to get back to my niche in The Sunbreak universe and share with you some of the best from this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival. So lets get on with it!
Joe and Nick are also pranksters and their pranks are often hilarious. They created characters who have been successful in duping local TV news programs. Programmers desperate for time to fill on the air, but no time for a quick Google search, have been a ripe target for them. Hilarity ensues when TV anchors try to maintain professionalism when talking to a yoyo master who doesn’t know any yoyo tricks or chefs that don’t actually know how to cook. But it was the characters of “Chop and Steele” that landed them in some trouble
When PyeongChang, South Korea was named hosts for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the nation was automatically given a spot to compete for the gold medal in ice hockey. Between the time of the announcement and the actual Olympics, South Korea had four years to field a respectable team. Not exactly a hockey juggernaut, the host nation had to basically start from scratch to field a team.
After a successful debut last year, the people at SIFF are doing another DocFest and it has a pretty impressive lineup. It …
When asked how he sees the movie of his life, Russian opposition presidential candidate Alexei Navalny bristles at the suggestion that his real-life story be depicted as a dry historic drama. It’s a thriller, Navalny asserts. And with that proclamation by its subject, filmmaker Daniel Roher literally opens the curtain on what turns out to be one hell of a thriller—and much more.
