The Grand Illusion

Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967.

Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, THE BLADE follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Vincent Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger. With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, THE BLADE was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“The action scenes are some of the most chaotic in Tsui’s canon, with an emphasis on rapid, almost cubist editing that seduces you with swings and strikes caught from multiple angles.” Jake Cole, Slant

“Watching [The Blade] is like sitting in the passenger seat of a feature-length, high-speed car chase sequence. It’s thrilling, it’s confusing, and you’ve never seen anything like it before. And you want to go again and again, like a rollercoaster ride through hell.” Peter Martin, ScreenAnarchy

Made in close collaboration with editor and co-writer Qutaiba Barhamji (editor of Kaouther Ben Hania's Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize-winning THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB and the Oscar-nominated FOUR DAUGHTERS), DO YOU LOVE ME is director Lana Daher's love letter to Beirut; a playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the film reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory.

In English and French & Arabic with English subtitles.

“As heartbreaking as it is celebratory, and as reflective as it is brimming with resistance.” Sarah Ward, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Critic’s Pick! “Do You Love Me serves as a coming-to-terms and as a vibrant counternarrative to the numbing closed circuit of a Lebanon enduring attacks to this day, while asserting the right to an identity outside that context… It’s a delicately wrought and tonally complex airing of shared traumas that also breathes with a sense of community.” Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times

60th anniversary screening! Presented in collaboration with the Adam West Day committee.

Holy feature film, Batman! The Dynamic Duo face off against the fiendish faction of The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman, who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.

Life-size replicas of both the Batcopter AND the Batmobile are scheduled to be on display nearby the venue before showtime, and there will be opportunities for patrons to take photos with Batman himself! The feature will also be preceded by 16mm showings of a couple of the Caped Crusader’s early adventures, straight from the vaults of the Sprocket Society.

“…postmodern cinema at its most effortlessly enjoyable.” Mark Allison, Den of Geek

Please note: Special event pricing is in place to better support the Adam West Day committee’s planning of this year’s Adam West Day celebration, taking place on Saturday, September 19th in Walla Walla, Washington.

25th anniversary screening of Takashi Miike's most controversial work, presented on Miike's birthday via a new transfer from the original master tape!

A deeply dysfunctional family is pushed to the brink when a mysterious stranger enters their home, unleashing long-suppressed tensions and laying bare their most disturbing taboos. The visitor's silent presence sets off a series of shocking transformations, compelling each family member to confront their darkest impulses.

Blending pitch-black humor with razor-sharp social commentary, VISITOR Q fearlessly explores subjects such as incest, necrophilia, and bullying, laying bare the absurdity, cruelty, and unexpected resilience of modern family life. Shot in just five days on raw MiniDV, it stands as one of Takashi Miike’s most audacious and unforgettable films.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

“In a filth epic that stands next to Salò or Pink Flamingos, Visitor Q isn’t for the faint of heart… Even when it stacks up to other films from Miike, there’s not much that can touch this.” EJ Moreno, Flickering Myth

“The craziest thing about Visitor Q is how damn fun it is to watch. Miike stages the endless succession of depravity as if it’s a Farrelly Brothers snuff film.” Matt Barone, Complex

“Once every decade or so, you get zapped with a flick that’s so cringe-inducing you start to wonder whether it was actually made by a maniac… This movie is sick, sicker and sickest. I loved it, of course.” Joe Bob Briggs

"The horror... the horror." Francis Ford Coppola's American classic, back on the big screen for one night only.

Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is assigned to track down and kill Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reportedly massacred hundreds of innocent people and set up his own fiefdom in the jungle. Willard and his crew encounter strange sights and people on their surreal journey into the heart of darkness.

Please note: We are unable to allow reserved seating for this screening.

“A must-see theatrical experience… Apocalypse Now is a life-altering voyage.” John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

“It’s a masterpiece, whichever way you slice it.” Ed Potton, The Times

For its 25th anniversary, GYPSY 83 has been completely reimagined as a brand-new Director’s Cut, restored in 4K from the 35mm camera negative. Now featuring over 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage and containing more legendary goth songs from bands like The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Cocteau Twins, Ministry, and Clan of Xymox, the Director’s Cut is sure to satiate longtime fans and create a generation of new ones.

Sandusky, Ohio is Hell on Earth for goth misfits and Stevie Nicks superfans Gypsy Vale (Sara Rue) and her younger, queer protégée Clive Webb (Birkett Turton). When they discover a New York City club is hosting a “Night of 1000 Stevies”, the pair hit the road with high hopes that Gypsy will be able to perform. Along the way, they encounter other misfits who pave the way to their salvation, all while discovering profound truths about themselves. Co-starring John Doe of the legendary punk band X and the great Karen Black as a has-been lounge singer, Todd Stephens’s cult favorite puts a queer, outsider spin on both the road movie and the coming-of-age journey, with plenty of black eyeliner to spare.

“Deserves to be discovered not only by Goth and gay crowds, but by anyone who runs screaming from all things average.” Peter Debruge, Premiere Magazine

Twenty-ninth encore screening! Beat the heat with some beaver meat!

Our friends at Central Cinema are generously helping us keep the beavers gnawing away while we search for a new home. 60% of ticket sales go to our relocation fund!

In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

“Starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable… embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distills it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.” Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

“It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.” Dennis Harvey, Variety

“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin

Two codependent best friends (Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat) living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos.

50th anniversary of Nagisa Oshima’s controversial classic, co-presented by SECS Fest!

A graphic portrayal of insatiable sexual desire, Oshima’s film, set in 1936 and based on a true incident, depicts a man and a woman (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda) consumed by a transcendent, destructive love while living in an era of ever-escalating imperialism and governmental control. Less a work of pornography than of politics, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES is a brave, taboo-breaking milestone, still censored in its own country.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

“An undeniably powerful, stylish and impressive piece of work.” David Parkinson, Empire

“This is seriously provocative cinema, a telling reminder of what it really means to be dangerous.” Trevor Johnston, Time Out

*No one under 18 admitted*

Tickets on sale Tuesday, August 18th.

From Casper Kelly, writer and director of “Too Many Cooks” and Adult Swim Yule Log.

Remember BUDDY—the bright orange unicorn and star of that classic childrens’ television show who brought joy and life lessons into your living room?

Inside the colorful world of “It’s Buddy!”, a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.

“Those on board with an experimental structure, tonal shifts, and Kelly’s darkly playful sense of humor will find this raucous yet polarizing midnighter highly entertaining.” Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

Critic’s Pick! “It gets harder and harder to find something that feels fresh enough to be truly shocking and executed competently enough to transcend its gimmicks, and we should all celebrate when we find one.” Christian Zilko, IndieWire

Strange/Found VHS presents: The First Annual 1-Year Anniversary Show!

Chicago VHS all-stars Joe Pickett (Found Footage Fest) and Scott Miller (Strange Tapes Zine) have a combined VHS collection of 16,000 tapes and will be celebrating their first year of touring their collection by showing their favorite finds from 2025 (all hand-picked VHS, nothing from the internet!). Expect workplace safety videos, poorly produced instructional tapes and some wonderfully homemade movies. Join us as we reap the finest bounty VHS has to offer!

Content note: This show will likely contain some language and nudity.

A documentary feature about the legendary psychedelic punk band, Butthole Surfers. Through archival footage, surreal animation, puppetry A documentary feature about the legendary psychedelic punk band, Butthole Surfers. Through archival footage, surreal animation, puppetry reenactments, and interviews with people like Richard Linklater, Dean Ween, Henry Rollins, Flea, Dave Grohl, Eric André, Ian MacKaye, and Steve Albini, BUTTHOLE SURFERS: THE HOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUTT unfolds in the anarchic spirit of the legendary band.

The film traces how two accounting students from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, found solidarity in their shared strangeness, gathered a tribe of like-minded outsiders — queers, weirdos, and nonconformists, including the unforgettable naked performance artist/dancer Kathleen Lynch — and launched one of the most radical and unpredictable paths in rock history. Against all odds, and with a proudly unmarketable name, they became unlikely icons, inspiring acts like Nirvana and even landing a number one hit. Their live shows were one-of-a-kind events; communal rites of passage for band and audience; the perfect antithesis of the digital isolation of our modern age.

The movie also goes deep on the personal lives behind the chaos; an intimate portrait of lead singer Gibby Haynes, guitar wizard Paul Leary, drummers Teresa Nervosa and King Coffey, and bassist Jeff Pinkus: five uncompromising originals whose lives took extraordinary turns.

“One of the best music docs ever.” Rob Reiner

“…the film creates a vibrant collage that gives audiences a sense of the creative genius that the group exhibited with each show and album… Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt is a reminder that the most punk thing an artist can do is reject conformity and simply be themselves.” Courtney Small, POV magazine

In an effort to get his buddy out of a gambling debt, Gou Fei agrees to join forces with his friend Judge in a weapons heist. The job goes bad and Judge betrays him. Gou Fei plots the ultimate revenge on Judge and his followers and sets forth a plan of violence and deceit. Starring legendary actor Chow Yun-Fat and directed by Ringo Lam (CITY ON FIRE).

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“With Full Contact, Lam takes the action genre and proceeds to not merely transcend it but explode it.” Beth Accomando, KPBS.org

Long difficult to find, Tsui Hark's DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE (aka DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND) is one of the most controversial and violent crime films from the Hong Kong New Wave of the 1980s. Now newly restored!

After a fatal hit-and-run, three high school friends flee the crime scene. They are witnessed by Pearl, a sadistic young girl who pursues the group and blackmails them into more crimes, with increasingly disastrous consequences.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“No film captures [Tsui Hark’s] early renegade style better.” Stephanie Monohan, Screen Slate

“An unflinching, nihilistic examination of juvenile delinquency in an unstable political climate, [it] still holds up more than three decades on, both as a piece of entertainment and as a cautionary tale about the dangers of a disenfranchised young generation.” James Marsh, ScreenAnarchy