Some dread an election year, but 2008 marks a capstone for the Olympia Film Society. This month members celebrate the 25th run of the society’s popular film festival. What better way to commemorate the event’s present success than with a throwback to cinema’s past?
The Olympia Film Festival kicks off Friday, Nov. 7, outside the historic Capitol Theater with the unveiling of a glittery roaring ’20s themed marquee. Inside, music from local guitarist Vince Brown will accompany Buster Keaton’s silent antics from his comedic classic Steamboat Bill, Jr.
“The 25th anniversary is a silver anniversary,” notes festival director Colleen Dixon, “and we’re celebrating our love of the silver screen.”
The society deserves to feel festive. What began almost three decades ago with a small group of cinephiles projecting 35 mm prints on the walls of the old Washington School has steadily swelled to community-wide proportions. The Olympia Film Society now boasts around 2,000 members with dozens lending hands in the festival’s operations.
The annual event couldn’t function without volunteers. Laura Northrup, serving this year as director of programming, describes her work as “a pretty rewarding experience … . It’s really cool to see how dedicated people are and how much pride they take in their own work.” Be they high school students, retired couples or just pure lovers of cinema, “everyone’s getting something different out of it,” Northrup says.
A strong focus on community is one of the ways Olympia Film Festival stands out from other festivals. Only local businesses make up the list of sponsors, thereby eliminating the need for corporate backing and providing organizers greater freedom to choose the screening lineup. In return,
As an example, socially conscious documentaries such as Great Speeches from a Dying World (which screened at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year) tap into the city’s ongoing fight against homelessness. Though filmed in
Though the festival devotes a good deal of time to filmmakers, the primary emphasis rests on a movie’s end result — how viewers respond to its message. Northrup believes in the power of that viewing experience; she praises films for “totally taking you into such an intense emotional state … . It’s amazing to let yourself feel that.”
Such a philosophy runs counter to those seen in other markets, but
With the pressure to stack one’s work against rivals left out, audiences can freely revel in the eight days of films in store for them. Several hundred submissions have been whittled down to several dozen worthy works that reflect a menagerie of styles and tastes.
For foreign flick aficionados
New or old, distant or local, short or feature, shot on film or digital, OFF has something for everyone. With a unique attitude on film, OFF definitely has it going on.
[25th Annual
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