Port Townsend Film Festival set for Sept. 23-25

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The Port Townsend Film Festival screens 97 films in its walkable, National Historic District, over three days, Sept. 23-25.

More than 42 feature films are screened each day in eight theaters, including the restored vaudeville-era Rose Theatre and crystal-chandeliered Starlight Room.

Punchy short films are “paired like wine and cheese,” with feature films, executive director Janette Force says. “They enhance each other.”

Shorts, some only one minute long, shine with brilliance but are rarely, if ever, screened in commercial theaters.

In its 17th year, the annual fest is known as “the best festival for both introverts and extroverts.” Introverts can skip the parties, duck into a dark theater and lose themselves in a film. Extroverts may buy a pass (Director or Patron level) that gives them concierge service to all films and admittance into parties with the filmmakers; the Patron Pass includes a private Saturday afternoon cocktail party to meet the festival’s headliner guests.

Actress Karen Allen, named as one of the most beautiful women in the world in the 1980s, last appeared at the festival in 2013. She returns again this year for Q&A after two screenings of her new film, “Year by the Sea,” based on the best-selling memoir by Joan Anderson.

Allen will be accompanied by Alexander Janko, who wrote the screenplay, composed the music and directed “Year by the Sea.” A classically trained cellist, he has orchestrated and composed music for over 65 films. He won the BMI Film Music Award for his original score for “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Actor Andrew Perez, a lauded young actor, appears with two of his films: “Bastards y Diablos” and “My Scientology Movie.” He both stars in, and wrote the screenplay, for “Bastards,” filmed in Colombia.

“My Scientology Movie” is a coup for the festival, screening here just prior to its release into national distribution. It was praised by a Daily Telegraph reviewer as “all wickedly tendentious mischief … gloriously funny.” Critic Guy Lodge said the film delivered “penetrating insights into the fiercely guarded administration of the church … and a witty essay on the politics of surveillance.”

Charlie Soap, director of “The Cherokee Word for Water,” will appear with his film which screens twice during the festival. Soap, a full-blood Cherokee who speaks his native language fluently, is the husband of Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller. When the festival brought him to five towns on the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas last January, he filled all theaters to standing room only.

Also appearing are David Tart (animator or animation director for “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo” and “Monsters Inc.”); film editor Doug Blush (“20 Feet From Stardom,” “The Music of Strangers: YoYo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble”) and Bill Borden, Emmy award-winning executive producer of more than 30 films. He was last in Port Townsend 35 years ago as location manager for “An Officer and a Gentleman,” filmed downtown and at Fort Worden.

For a complete schedule of films and their trailers, special events, and to buy passes online, see www.ptfilmfest.com. Passes also may be purchased by calling PTFF’s box office at 360-379-1333.