The Grand Illusion

Free screening in honor of Native American Heritage Month! Seattle theatrical premiere!

REEL INJUN journeys through a century of cinema to set the record straight about Hollywood's depiction of Native Americans. Traveling through the heartland of the U.S., to the Black Hills and Monument Valley, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond examines how the myth of the movie "Injun" has influenced the world's understanding—and misunderstanding—of Natives. Through clips from hundreds of classic and recent films, it documents the shift from nuanced silent-era heroes to the Western's "noble savage" stereotype, leading up to the burgeoning Native independent scene of SMOKE SIGNALS and THE FAST RUNNER.

Featuring candid interviews with celebrated filmmakers, actors and activists, it is an insightful and essential compendium for understanding the racial politics of Hollywood and the continuing artistic vibrancy of Native peoples.

“Impeccably well researched and crafted, Reel Injun neatly walks the line between Michael Moore-style personality driven doc and the more traditional talking head, educational style. And appropriately so, because [director Diamond] walks the exact same line in balancing entertainment and education. Reel Injun succeeds magnificently at both.” Todd Brown, ScreenAnarchy

This screening is co-presented with Xa?Xa? Indigenous Birth Justice. Xa?Xa? honors ancestral wisdom and to works to create nurturing, culturally-affirming birth experiences that promote the health and well-being of Indigenous mothers, babies, and families. Executive Director Faith Zacherle will speak about their programs before the screening.

We ask that you support Xa?Xa? Indigenous Birth Justice with a donation this month and you can donate directly to them at their website or in-person at the screening.

RSVP via the “Buy Tickets” button.

Set over the course of one explosive night, BEST PANCAKES IN THE COUNTY transforms an unassuming small-town diner into the epicenter of a deadly standoff involving rogue federal agents, a fast-talking con man with a dangerous past and a waitress harboring secrets of her own. As loyalties blur and tensions erupt, survival depends on who can outthink — and outgun — everyone else.

Starring Justin Long, Shelley Hennig, and Nicolas Cage as “The Sonofabitch” (in a delightfully over-the-top performance the kind of which Cage does best). Also featuring Lauren German and Sadie Scott (of Annapurna Sriram’s F*CKTOYS).

15th anniversary of David Fincher's coldly captivating adaptation of Stieg Larsson's international bestseller.

Forty years after the mysterious disappearance of teenaged Harriet Vanger, the grand-uncle of the missing girl (Christopher Plummer) recruits investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to reopen the cold case, and, after teaming with a glowering, gothy hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), who’s freshly wriggled out from under the thumb of her sexually abusive legal guardian, Blomkvist’s search will uncover psychopathic CEOs, unreformed Nazi sympathizers, and a rot spreading through the highest echelons of Swedish society.

In Fincher’s steady hands, Larsson’s posthumously published bestseller becomes a coolly elegant thriller made with almost surgical precision, entrancing from the viscous nightmare of its title sequence onward.

“This is a bleak but mesmerizing piece of filmmaking; it offers a glancing, chilled view of a world in which brief moments of loyalty flicker between repeated acts of betrayal.” David Denby, The New Yorker

“[Fincher] has made The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo into an electrifying movie by turning the audience into addicts of the forbidden, looking for the sick and twisted things we can’t see.” Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Highly-prolific HK action auteur Johnnie To (ELECTION, DRUG WAR, THE MISSION) is also known for a plethora of romantic melodramas. This subgenre is an East Asian cinematic staple, and ROMANCING IN THIN AIR is one of the very best in its class: touching, sweet, and deeply melancholic; a powerful and moving meditation on loss, grief, and the power of cinema itself. Presented in a new HD digital transfer.

Movie star icon Michael (Louis Koo) sinks into a depression after being publicly dumped at the altar by his former fiancée. After embarking on a drunken bender, he is found in a mountain forest, lost and barely responsive, by Sue (Sammi Cheng Sau-Man), who runs the local guesthouse and is still grieving the loss of her husband, who mysteriously disappeared in the woods several years prior. As Sue slowly nurses Michael back to health and the pair learn more about their shared pasts, they embark on a journey to find catharsis in each other.

In Cantonese and Mandarin 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.

“One of the unsung, under-seen, great films of 2012… Romancing in Thin Air is memorable for its balancing of a commercial surface with the sort of dark side that used to beg to be discovered in the work of classical Hollywood greats like Douglas Sirk.” Adam Cook, MUBI

Thirty-first encore screening. Northwoods Christmas edition! They see you when you’re sleeping. They gnaw when you’re awake.

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

First-ever U.S. theatrical release! Merry REX-mas!

One of the most expensive Japanese films at the time of its release, REX: A DINOSAUR’S STORY, directed by storied industry mogul Haruki Kadokawa, follows Chie (Yumi Adachi), the young daughter of a paleontologist who befriends an adorable T-Rex. The pair soon find themselves on the run from everyone seeking to exploit the dino-discovery for profit—forcing Rex to act and model in endless advertisements for merchandise (that were part of the actual film’s promotion, in an ingenious media-mix promotional strategy spanning toys, manga and song… even helping to usher in Kentucky Fried Chicken as a de facto Christmas tradition in Japan!).

With expressive creature FX by Carlo Rambaldi (Alien, E.T., Possession), often beautiful cinematography, chase scenes by carriage, snowmobile and hot air balloon, in-camera height jokes, suit-mation effects and delightful Christmas imagery, REX is as adorable as it is unhinged by Western standards; a Holiday crowd pleaser for the whole family and a cult film in the making.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

“Rex: A Dinosaur’s Story could become a new Christmas movie tradition… Kadokawa’s direction is always dynamic. [He] films nature and constructed sets alike with genuine wonder… Rex retains a beating heart, never condescending to its intended audience of children while likely to please adults.” Steve Erickson, Screen Slate