PREVIEW: Northwest Film Center to Host 43rd Portland International Film Festival

Portland, OR. The Northwest Film Center will showcase and celebrate its 43rd international and regional storytelling through film. The 10-day festival will take place on March 6-15, 2020 at various locations. Some goals of the Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) are, “to gather film lovers and makers, have people be open to new ways of creative expression, and shine a spotlight on artists who go against the status quo.” Disney Pixar’s Onward will have a free community screening at noon on February 7th. (More info below.)

A three-film opening night program on Friday, March 6th will feature an off-beat indie buddy film called The Climb. Below is a look at the film’s trailer:

Portland International Film Festival organizers hope that patrons will embrace the idea of Cinema Unbound for the first time. Through this concept, PIFF aims to challenge how cinematic stories are told. 2020 also features renowned visiting curators, esteemed guests, industry leaders, and jury members in attendance—all of whom represent major film festivals, museums, and distribution companies around the globe.

Here’s information about the festival from Northwest Film Center:

Ticket information listed below:

Advance Tickets: The Northwest Film Center, 934 SW Salmon St, Portland, OR 97205 Opens March 1 — daily from 12 noon – 6 p.m. Advance tickets by phone at (503) 276-4310

Festival Passes: Currently available for sale here

Members of the Northwest Film Center’s Silver Screen Club get discounts or free entry (at the Director level and above) to Festival screenings. To learn more about membership click here

Admission prices: $14 General; $12 Portland Art Museum Members, Students, Seniors; $10 children (12 years and younger); $9 Silver Screen Club Friends, Supporters, and New Wave.

Opening Night Film and Party: $25 general; $20 Silver Screen Friends, Supporters, and New Wave. PLEASE NOTE: Attendees can purchase tickets to Opening Night for either the Whitsell Auditorium or Cinema 21 location. Opening Night party to follow in the Portland Art Museum’s Fred & Suzanne Fields (Sunken) Ballroom.

Tickets to individual screenings will be available on February 7, 2020

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Eyeslicer Season Two by Dan Schoenbrun and Vanessa McDonnell

United States | 2019

7 p.m. | Whitsell Auditorium | 90 mins

11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Northwest Film Center

11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Movie Madness Miniplex

Recently featured in GQ’s Time Capsule for the 2010s, this bonkers-yet-thoughtful 13-episode TV show blends the boldest new American filmmaking into mind-expanding, mixtape-style episodes that feature work from over 70 filmmakers.

 

Friday, March 6, 2020 Opening Night

Three-film Opening Night program features The Climb, as well as shorts America and The Giverny Document (Single Channel). One ticket includes all
screenings, which will screen back-to-back at both venues. Attendees are welcome to come to one, or stay for all three!

PIFF 43 Opening Night radically presents varying perspectives on what it means to be alive at this moment while reflecting on the past that’s shaped us. This multi-perspective Opening Night panorama dives deep into unexpected places, expounding upon notions of race, gender, time, and nowness. Funny, painful, powerful, and electric in equal measure, PIFF 43 Opening Night subverts the notion that any one film is worthy of “Opening Night” attention. Instead, we embrace the interplay between these three storytellers and their collaborators.

America Directed by Garrett Bradley

United States | 2019 | 29 mins.

A cinematic omnibus rooted in New Orleans, challenging the idea of black cinema as a “wave” or “movement in time,” proposing instead a continuous thread of achievement.

The Giverny Document (Single Channel) Directed by Ja’Tovia Gary

United States | 2019 | 45 mins.

Filmed on location in Harlem and in Monet’s historic gardens in Giverny, this multi-textured cinematic poem meditates on the bodily integrity and creative virtuosity of black women.

5:00 p.m. – Whitsell Auditorium & Cinema 21

The Climb Directed by Michael Angelo Covino

United States | 2020 | 94 mins.

7:00 p.m. – Cinema 21

7:15 p.m. – Whitsell Auditorium

This buddy comedy starts with a simple premise—two lifelong pals struggle to bike up a French mountaintop—but what comes next is anyone’s guess. With incredible cinematic reinvention, ambitious long-takes, dramatic time-leaps, and a cappella interludes, the audience
is invited along for the ride, no matter where it leads.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Disney Pixar’s Onward Directed by Dan Scanlon

United States | 2020 | 91 mins.

12:00 noon – Whitsell Auditorium – Free Community Screening

5:00 p.m. – Hollywood Theatre – Silver Screen Club member presale until February 7, 2020.

Set in a suburban fantasy world, Disney and Pixar’s Onward introduces two teenage elf brothers (voices of Chris Pratt and Tom Holland) who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there. Pixar Animation Studios’ all-new original feature film is directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae—the team behind Monsters University. Onward releases in theaters on March 6, 2020.

Trailer:

 

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Anthem: Homunculus Live Listening Party by John Cameron Mitchell

Time & Location: TBA

A creative, multi-media feast featuring a tangled story of visits to other planets, talking tumors, and song-filled telethons pitched to save the life of the protagonist, Ceann. This game-changing, audio-based story—performed LIVE—is based on Mitchell’s genre-busting
podcast by the same name and defies all conventions and expectations, with audiences experiencing a wild, 6.5-hour extravaganza of over 30 songs ranging from indie-rock to dream pop to avant-garde.

Featuring the vocal talent of Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti LuPone, Denis O’Hare, Mari Moriarty, Alan Mandell, Ben Foster and Shalewa Sharpe.

Creator and star John Cameron Mitchell and guests in attendance.

Presented by Luminary.

Thursday, March 12, 2020

The Armory Presents: Off-Center Stage

9 p.m. – 1 a.m.

Off-Center Stage is a series of late-night programming that will feature unconventional performances from musicians, visual artists, comedians, dance, and open-format shows for the 21-and-over crowd. Each show will take place on the stages and other communal spaces in
the historic surroundings of The Armory.

PERFORMANCES AND PRESENTATIONS:

Reese Bowes — light/sound design and video projections

Auvie Sinclair — instrumental hip hop producer/beatmaker

Just Pretend — a live band featuring Darian Patrick, band member for Hedwig & The Angry Inch and In The Heights.

Disco Montana — live band fusing elements of pop, disco, country, and folk

Monday, March 9, 2020 | 7 p.m.

The Cinema Unbound Awards

Kridel Grand Ballroom, Portland Art Museum, 1119 SW Park Avenue

The Cinema Unbound Awards celebrates artists who are trying new things, thinking bigger, and pushing forward to transform filmmaking—and the world. We’ve assembled a small-but-mighty band of internationally renowned artists, creatives, and curators working against
traditional constraints of cinema.

Honoring:

Astonishing Auteur Todd Haynes (Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning writer and director; Carol, Far from Heaven, Mildred Pierce)

Creative Powerhouse John Cameron Mitchell (Tony Award-winning writer, director, and actor; Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Anthem: Homunculus, Hulu’s Shrill)

Documentary Doyenne Julie Goldman (Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning producer of over 50 feature documentaries, including Life, Animated, Buck, Weiner)

Immersive Maestro Michel Reilhac (Filmmaker, Experiential Artist and Head of VR, Venice Biennale)

Animation Arts Wizard Rose Bond (Internationally-recognized, large-scale, site-specific animations)

Curatorial Mastermind Rajendra Roy (The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA)

Costume Designer Extraordinaire Amanda Needham (Emmy-winning costume designer; Portlandia, Shrill)

Friday, March 13, 2020

PIFF 43 Closing Weekend centerpiece film First Cow

Directed by Kelly Reichardt

United States | 2020 | 121 mins

8:00 p.m. – Whitsell Auditorium

Returning to the Oregon wilderness for her seventh feature, Kelly Reichardt continues her examination of the American expansionist myth via the Western genre. John Magaro stars as a loner cook who teams up with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) to create a new business—one
that is dependent on a wealthy landowner’s prize milk cow, but without his knowledge.
First Cow will open in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, March 20.

Trailer:

 

Saturday, March 14, 2020

The Personal History of David Copperfield

Directed by Armando Iannucci

United States | 2020 | 119 mins

6 p.m. – Cinema 21

The Personal History of David Copperfield re-imagines Charles Dickens’ classic ode to grit and perseverance through the comedic lens of its award-winning filmmakers—giving the Dickensian tale new life for a cosmopolitan age with a diverse ensemble cast of stage and screen actors from across the world. Emmy® winners and Oscar® nominees Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, The Death of Stalin, HBO’s Veep) and Simon Blackwell (In the Loop,
HBO’s Succession) lend their wry yet heart-filled storytelling style to revisiting Dickens’ iconic hero on his quirky journey from impoverished orphan to a burgeoning writer in Victorian England.

 

March 14-16, 2020

Berio’s Sinfonia by Rose Bond | IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OREGON SYMPHONY

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Animator and Cinema Unbound Award honoree Rose Bond presents a program of eye-popping experiential animation set to and illustrating Luciano Bario’s monumental musical-cultural portrait of New York in the late 1960s. An incredible visual and sound experience for cinema-goers,
animators, experiential designers, and music lovers alike.

Tickets available to the March 14, 15 & 16 shows via Oregon Symphony.

PANELS AND WORKSHOPS

Over the course of the two weekends, PIFF will host eight panels, three workshops, and one special
un-conference.  PIFF will also host multi-day happy hour networking events with industry professionals to provide assistance and services to independent filmmakers. Date, Time and Location TBA.

Docs on the Rise — Cinema Unbound Award honoree Julie Goldman and Academy Award nominee and Portland documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky discuss opportunities for expanded creativity in emerging marketplaces.

The Sustainability and Ethics Un-Conference — A participatory town hall about fostering an inclusive and ethically conscious media-making community, with breakout sessions on topics such as power dynamics on-set, setting contractual boundaries, and practicing empathy in production.

Beyond Cancel Culture — Cinema Unbound Award honoree
Rajendra Roy and curatorial colleagues discuss approaches to critically engaging with problematic narratives.

Interactive Media Performance by Reese Bowes

An evening of multi-format audio and visual experiences courtesy of guest curator Reese Bowes. who will also present two short film works by Portland-based filmmakers: Remembrance, by Sabina Haque, and Spooky Girls, by The Hand and The Shadow production company.

Date, Time and Location TBA.

Why I Love and Fear VR

Presented by Guest Curator, Cinema Unbound Award honoree, and Head of Venice Biennale XR Michel Reilhac

Date, time & location: TBA

Guest curator Gina Duncan (BAMcinématek) presents:

Prince’s Purple Rain (1984) date, time and Location: TBA

About the Northwest Film Center:

The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts organization offering a variety of exhibitions, education programs, and artist services throughout the region. The Center presents a program of foreign, classic, experimental, and independent works year-round at the Whitsell Auditorium, located in
the Portland Art Museum. For more information, visit www.nwfilm.org.

About the Portland Art Museum

The seventh oldest museum in the United States, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of more than 45,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum devotes 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection.

The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of more than 22,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503-226-2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org.

The Portland Art Museum welcomes all visitors and affirms its commitment to making its programs and collections accessible to everyone. The Museum offers a variety of programs and services to ensure a quality experience and a safe, inclusive environment for every member of our diverse community. Learn more at portlandartmuseum.org/access.