Cinema Project needs a boost from YOU!

Local non-profit Cinema Project is nearing the final week of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign that will help keep them operational all the way through next season.  As PDX's shining star of experimental and art film exhibition, the organization is absolutely worthy of your support.

My own first encounter with Cinema Project dates back to 2008 when they were able to secure the scarcely seen short films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul for a screening at the Whitsell Auditorium.  Other notable past presentations have included Jonas Mekas' mind-blowingly epic cinematic diary Walden, the most recent work by experimental puppet theater and film director Janie Geiser and far too many other rare gems to recount here.

An excerpt from Walden (1969) by Jonas Mekas:

An excerpt from Worldly Desires (2005) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul:

Even a quick perusal of this season's schedule reveals that Cinema Project's programming is unlike anything else on offer in Portland.  We're extremely fortunate to have these folks kicking around our town, especially when one considers how few organizations like this are available on the national scene.

Here's a link to their Kickstarter page, complete with a budgetary breakdown of what operations the funds will cover.  And as of this writing, they've got about 8 days left to raise just under $2K.  As with most Kickstarter campaigns, there are "prizes" associated with the various levels of support.  Lend them a hand, if you can.  And don't forget to check out one of their upcoming screenings...the next one's on October 11th at 6p.m.


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DE DESTIERROS (UPROOTED): U.S. Premiere tomorrow (3/24) night in PDX

Even though I already posted about this topic last week on the blog's official Facebook page, it's worth mentioning that tomorrow night Portland is playing host to the U.S. premiere of De Destierros (Uprooted).  Directed by NW Film Center student Alvaro Torres, the 30+ minute long film won the documentary award at the 2010 Costa Rican Film Festival, airing on state television since having received that honor.

Thursday's screening will happen in the boardroom of the Multnomah Building at 7:30p.m.  Admission is free.  The Multnomah Building is located at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

More details can be found here.


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ALIEN BOY needs your help

Alien Boy: The Death & Life of James Chasse is the new film by Portland documentary filmmaker Brian Lindstrom.  Brian's been at the doc game for quite some time now and maybe you've heard of or seen his last full-length project, Finding Normal:

According to the official website for the film, Alien Boy examines how:

In September 2006 James Chasse was tackled by three law officers on a downtown street corner before a dozen eyewitnesses. James was not suspected of a crime, he had not committed a crime.

The officers beat him, kicked him, broke 17 ribs and his shoulder. They used a Taser on him repeatedly. He screamed for mercy.
The officers thought James was a drug dealer, a homeless person, a non-person, a ghost. They were wrong. James was a poet, a musician, he had a family which loved him, friends, neighbors, dreams and hopes. He was an artist; a small, shy, gentle person. And he was a person with schizophrenia.

James was sent by paramedics to jail. Jail nurses refused to admit him. He died en route to a hospital in a police car driven by the same officers who had earlier beaten him.

A grand jury refused to indict those officers. The City and County refused to terminate or discipline them.

Alien Boy is a feature length documentary film about the life and death of James Chasse. 


A massive amount of local PDX media coverage of the story and its continued fallout can be found here.

BUT...on to the main point of this post:  Alien Boy is in the post-production stage of its existence at this moment.  In order for the filmmakers to be able to present this important story to an audience, they need to raise additional funding for post.  Lindstrom and company have decided to take their need directly to the people via Kickstarter, the popular fundraising website that's being used for the crowd financing of so many creative projects lately.

At the moment of this posting, Alien Boy has received pledges for almost a third of it's post-production funding via this Kickstarter campaign.  More info about the film and how you can join the 70+ backers of the project via a financial donation of anywhere between $1 and $5000 (or more) can be found on the Alien Boy Kickstarter page.

More links:
The official website for the film.
The Alien Boy production blog.
Alien Boy's Facebook page.

Grand Detour and Reverse Town

This past Tuesday night (1/25), PDX' own experimental film and video exhibition group Grand Detour presented a series of shorts produced by the filmmakers of Reverse Town at the Hollywood Theater.

Reverse Town is a six-member collective of film geeks who all met while gathering skills at the NW Film Center School of Film.

The Grand Detour program consisted of eight short films, including:
Positive dir. by Liz Lewis (trailer)
Bobby Beats by Liz Lewis (full film link)
Death Walker dir. by Daniel Klockenkemper (full film link)
Rougarou dir. by Michael Roberson (full film link)
and additional work by Brian Lancaster, Mario Garza and Ian Geronimo.

Cinema Project & NW Film Center present EMPTY QUARTER

Cinema Project and the NW Film Center are banding together this coming Friday, January 28th at 7pm to present a special screening of the new 16mm film by directors Alain Letourneau and Pam Minty.  Empty Quarter is, as the film's promotional website describes it:

"...about the region of Southeast Oregon, an area populated by ranching and farming communities, in Lake, Harney, and Malheur counties. The region is roughly one-third of Oregon’s landmass yet holds less than 2% of the state’s population.

Southeast Oregon, though familiar by name is a foreign place, particularly to those who reside in urban environments. It is a landscape in the making, constantly undergoing change, being re-worked. It is a highly politicized landscape, evoking differing opinions concerning resource management and land use. It is also a landscape that is, despite some beliefs, rich with diversity, as seen by the presence of East Indian families, Japanese families, ancestors of Basque sheep herders, home to the Paiute tribes people, and to Latinos who have come to help work the land.

Empty Quarter borrows from earlier forms of documentary. Rather than subscribe to a modern form of documentary replete with talking heads and B-roll images, Empty Quarter presents stark portraits, waiting to be explored and digested by the viewer. Their meaning can be felt in the slow process of accumulation and measured response. Through a series of stationary shots, recording open landscapes and activities of local residents, Empty Quarter reflects on the character of the region. Natural areas are viewed among images of industry, various labor processes, resource management and recreation. Voices of local residents describe the history of pioneer settlement, social life of rural communities, and the struggles of small town economies."

Empty Quarter screens at the Whitsell Auditorium at 7pm this coming Friday night (1/28).  The Whitsell Auditorium is located at 1219 SW Park Ave.  Portland, OR 97205

Portland ❤ film & February is a great month for film in PDX

Hello and welcome to The Rain Falls Down on Portlandtown, a multi-topic blog focusing mainly on cinema but also on art, life and more in the little big city that is PDX, Oregon.

I've been toying with the idea of blogging for about a year now, mostly due to wanting an outlet for writing about film.  This February, I'll be working the door at one of the six screening venues for the 34th annual Portland International Film Festival (PIFF).  The gig translates, for me, as access to press screenings, etc. and it seemed like the perfect excuse/opportunity to force myself into (blogging) action.  No time like the present, eh?

The full festival schedule won't be announced until February 1st.  However, the following films have been confirmed by various local media outlets such as The Oregonian, Willamette Week and The Portland Mercury:

Certified Copy dir. Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Close-Up)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives dir. Apichatapong Weerasethakul (Syndromes and a Century, Tropical Malady)
Some Days Are Better Than Others dir. Matt McCormick (The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal)
When We Leave dir. Feo Aladag
Honey dir. Semih Kaplanoglu
How to Die in Oregon dir. Peter Richardson (Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon)
Son of Babylon dir. Mohamed Al Daradji (Dreams)
Outrage dir. "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks, Sonatine)
Potiche dir. Francois Ozon (Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Swimming Pool)
In a Better World dir. Susanne Bier (After the Wedding, Brothers)
The Revenant dir. D. Kerry Prior (Roadkill)
The Princess of Montpensier dir. Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Torchon, The Clockmaker)
Of Gods and Men dir. Xavier Beauvois (Le Petit Lieutenant)
Cold Weather dir. Aaron Katz
Flamenco, Flamenco dir. Carlos Saura (Tango, Carmen)
Mutant Girls Squad dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura (Suicide Club) and Noburu Iguchi (The Machine Girl)
Passione dir. John Turturro (Romance & Cigarettes) 
Rubber dir. Quentin Dupieux

The festival begins on the 10th and comes to a close on the 27th of February.  I'll be sure to post again as soon as the official schedule appears online.  Plus, I'll spend some time talking about films as I see them.  Thanks for taking the time to peruse this post.  Press screenings begin on Monday, so keep an eye out for updates.  And, who knows, I might find something else to blather on about before then...