Northwest Film Forum's 24th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival Presented Virtually & In-Person September 16th - 26th
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 24th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest, which champions emerging and established talent, supports the regional film industry, and promotes diverse media as a critical tool for public engagement.
This year’s festival, hosted September 16 to 26, 2021, will include 11 feature film programs, listed below, alongside 15 short film blocks, workshops, and special events to come! Participating filmmakers range from as far north as British Columbia, as far south as Oregon, and as far east as Montana.
All programs will be hosted online via Eventive or in-person via our physical space on Capitol Hill, taking into account any potential COVID-19 precautions or limitations.
LOCAL SIGHTINGS 2021
FEATURE FILM SLATE
SPECIAL EVENTS
SEP. 16 @ 7PM - OPENING NIGHT: THIN SKIN
(Charles Mudede, US, 2020, 90 min)
Join us for a special evening curated by the cast and crew of Thin Skin! Final details TBA, but expect performances and a live conversation.
A struggling single dad clings to his dream of being a musician, much to the chagrin of his absent Nigerian father, until a mysterious illness throws his world into chaos. Thin Skin is a music-infused, darkly comedic true story about keeping it together when you’re falling apart, starring Ahamefule Oluo as its main character, and with support from Annette Toutonghi, Ijeoma Oluo, Dwayne Kennedy, and Hari Kondabolu.
SEP. 26 @ 6:30PM - CLOSING NIGHT: MANIFEST DESTINY JESUS
(Josh Aaseng, Daemond Arrindell, T. Geronimo Johnson, US, 2021, 40 min)
This special event features a pre-show happy hour, live Q&A with the filmmakers, and a short musical performance by Benjamin Hunter!
Dedicated to the "future memory of white supremacy," Manifest Destiny Jesus is a clever Seattle-area documentary which juxtaposes interviews with artists, religious figures, and community members to examine the links between the historically dubious representation of Jesus as white, the crucifixion, lynching, police brutality, and gentrification. It finds inspiration in a transracial family, a sermon by a Black female theologian, and a uniquely integrated Seattle congregation.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
OCCUPYING THE MEGALOPOLIS
(Jefferson Elliott, US, Mexico, 2021, 105 min)
Set on the streets of Mexico City, Occupying the Megalopolis features a broad cast of visual artists, political protesters, immigrant squatters, and charming misfits who band together against commercial interests and the state to defend their ancestral rights to public space. This richly tapestried documentary is presented primarily in Spanish and English.
NATIVE WISDOM - The Peoples of Eastern Oregon
(Tim Keenan Burgess & Lawrence Johnson, US, 2020, 56 min)
In Native Wisdom, Indigenous scientists, artists and elders from a collective of Interior Oregon tribes – including the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde – share their observations on the changing environment. The documentary highlights their environmental practices, musical and artistic traditions, and how their leadership is influencing the decisions of natural resource managers in the State of Oregon.
Screening w/ the short film, OUR CHANGING WORLDS
(Steven Thomas Davies, Canada, 2020, 9 min)
An innovative investigative documentary exploring how urban and rural Indigenous communities are coping and adapting during this time of global challenge and change associated with COVID-19.
REFLECTING ON ANTI-BIAS EDUCATION IN ACTION: The Early Years
(Filiz Efe McKinney, Seattle, WA, 2021, 48 min)
In Reflecting On Anti-Bias Education, eight West Coast pre-school teachers invite us into their classrooms to demonstrate how inclusive educational models encourage a strong sense of self and sociocultural identity in children. Interwoven throughout the documentary are classroom scenes and candid interviews with teachers that outline how the methodology has impacted their own identities, while inviting the audience to think about how they can integrate anti-bias education into their daily lives.
Screening w/ the short film, SCHOOLING DURING THE PANDEMIC
(Trey M Kingston, US, 6 min)
During a COVID-19 year, a high school senior shares her experiences with remote learning and its hurdles, along with her takeaways as a graduating senior.
SINCE I BEEN DOWN
(Gilda Sheppard, US, 2020, 105 min)
Since I Been Down shines a brilliant, harsh light on the fundamental dysfunctionality and raw corruption of America’s “criminal justice system.” The case study of Kimonti Carter, a Hilltop, Tacoma-born man sentenced to 777 years as a teenager, offers a dramatically different take on what justice can look like. The prisoner-led education program that Carter works within, T.E.A.C.H. (Taking Education and Creating History), creates a growing community of victims of the carceral state who are committed to personal growth, self-knowledge, and one another.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
A BLACK RIFT BEGINS TO YAWN 
(Matthew Wade, US, 2021, 102 min)
With a title inspired by 1936 H.P. Lovecraft's 1936 novella, The Shadow Out of Time, A Black Rift Begins to Yawn is a highly-stylized sci-fi horror film that dements time, place, and identity through a discovery made by two former classmates. As the two slowly unravel the cosmic mystery behind a set of cassette tapes, A Black Rift Begins to Yawn becomes a slow-burning sensory experience that draws viewers into a disorienting world of enticing abstraction.
CITY BY THE SOUND
(Kolby Rowland, Seattle, WA, 2021, 70 min)
Blurring the filmmaker's personal childhood experiences with mythic representations set around Seattle, City By the Sound explores the boundaries that differentiate documentary, fiction, and video essays. The film is a series of non-linear vignettes that range in complexity and duration; a ghost story, a Sasquatch sighting, an old woman's story about a tree. Around the central figure of a hiker who can see through time and space, these vignettes are woven into a strange tapestry of personal and collective memories.
Screening w/ the short film, SOUFEND
(Ruby Lee, US, 2021, 17 min)
Centering the voices and experiences of the South End community in Seattle, SOUFEND is a series of intimate moments, thoughts, and memories shared between friends as they prepare to leave their community and go to college.
MAXIE
(Jarrett Bryant, Eugene, OR, 2020, 103 min)
Set in Eugene, Oregon, Maxie follows a teen couple's life on the streets, portraying their unrelenting bond through day-to-day journeys and interactions. Despite their disparate socioeconomic backgrounds and upbringing, the two navigate the perpetual conflict between breaking free from drug addiction and the fallible steps to get to sobriety, as intensifying life experiences threaten to push them over the edge and away from one another.
REHAB CABIN
(Kate Beacom & Louis Legge, Portland, OR, 2020, 77 min)
Chloe and Dominic are close friends slowly drifting apart, but their love of Amanda Campbell, a child-star-turned-adult-wreck, is the one thread keeping them together. When the pair face an unexpected opportunity to kidnap the celebrity, their friendship is tested, secrets are revealed, and obsessions reach their hard limits. Bolstered by philosophical questions about pop culture and celebrity, Rehab Cabin is a darkly comedic narrative unearthing tough truths around codependency, substance abuse, mental health, and ultimately what it means to choose one's path.
SING TO ME SYLVIE
(Jannette Bloom, Portland, OR, 2021, 105 min)
Sylvie has given up her fast-paced LA musician lifestyle for something more domestic and financially stable. Upon unexpectedly encountering her former bandmate David, who is now working as a busker and living on the street, the formerly close friends spend three days reminiscing about their past and present realities, while confronting the life choices that led them to where they are. Their story is backed by a sweeping melodic soundtrack that mirrors the nuanced twists and turns of their complex relationship in this observant, intimate, and humanistic drama.