Notes From The Program Director | Week of January 12th, 2024

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Notes From The Program Director

Week of January 12th, 2024

Melissa Tamminga

Rich Text

January 12-18, 2023

Hello, everyone!

You, our dear Pickford patrons, have spoken, and so that means two things for this week: 1) new Pickford favorite, Poor Things (and now the winner of two Golden Globes), will continue for another week, and 2) The Boys in the Boat has arrived!

While there has been some disappointment that The Boys in the Boat director George Clooney chose to shoot a Washington-based movie in the U.K., it’s inevitable that we locals would thrill to the idea of our local history and the story of our homegrown Husky heroes up on the big screen. It’s a history that many across the nation first became familiar with, with the 2013 #1 New York Times-bestseller The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics--humble boys from logging and fishing towns, an underdog team, beating the odds, trouncing their wealthy collegiate rivals, and going on to make the nation proud in Germany in 1936. But it’s a history that many Washingtonians were proud of long before the book splashed onto the national scene. And indeed, many of us perhaps have family or friends who have rowed for the UW team, or who call UW alma mater, or who have visited the storied ASUW Shell House and have seen Joe Rantz’s rowing seat on display there.

Photos courtesy of The Daily of UW

The Boys in the Boat is the kind of story meant for the big screen, and while I did long for a stronger and more unique directorial and cinematic vision from Clooney in this case, it is a film that is hard to resist, due to the sheer power of the true, and truly inspiring, story he depicts. And if you are like me, I suspect you won’t be able to resist a stray tear or two stealing down your cheek at the height of the most emotional and triumphant moments, just like the best underdog sports movies can always effect. Except this isn’t just any old sports movie -- it’s our own Northwest Washington one -- and the delight of that alone is worth the price of admission.

We also have three special events gracing our screens this week from three of our most-beloved film series: Third Eye’s Clerks, Rocket Sci Fi’s Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Cinema East’s Return to Dust.

When Kevin Smith’s Clerks burst on the indie film scene 30 years ago, it became an instant cult classic. It changed, for many, the idea of what kind of movies could be made and how they could be made, and it inspired a whole new generation of filmmakers. At this 30-year mark, it is, thus, the perfect time to revisit such an icon of indie movies, and we’re pleased to have Pickford projectionist Brock, this month’s Third Eye curator, on hand to introduce the film for us. Join us on Saturday, January 13, at 10 pm, to rewatch Clerks -- or to perhaps watch it for the first time.

Our Rocket Sci Fi selection this month, curated by projectionist Steve Meyers, is the delightfully bonkers horror-sci-fi film from 1958 Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman. It’s about -- what else? -- an unhappy heiress and intruders from outer space who change her life -- and her size -- forever. Join us on Sunday, January 14 at 1:45 for the film and an introduction from Steve!

Finally, Cinema East returns this month with Return to Dust, the 2022 film from Chinese filmmaker Ruijun Li. Watch out for the Sunday newsletter from Cinema East curator Jeff Purdue to offer us some introductory details about the film, and we’ll have the pleasure of a guest speaker, Roger Thompson, Professor of Chinese History at WWU, to introduce the film on the evening of the screening. In the meantime, I’ll be pondering what made Return to Dust so subversive or potentially threatening to the Chinese government, as critic Wendy Ide indicates it was, in her capsule review of the film for The Guardian:

“It’s an arranged marriage of convenience – other people’s convenience. Browbeaten Cao (Hai-Qing) is offloaded by her brother on to Ma (Wu Renlin), the humblest of peasants, with little more than a donkey to his name. But against all expectations, a tender bond develops between them. Together, they eke out a life governed by the rhythms of the natural world, finding in their marriage a solicitude and comfort that had been denied them both until now. It’s a gorgeous, quietly affecting film that finds an unassuming beauty in this simple life in rural China, but which doesn’t shy away from the extreme hardships faced by the very poorest. A sleeper hit domestically, [it was] unceremoniously pulled from Chinese streaming services, a victim, it is suggested, of a tightening official control over unflattering depictions of Chinese life.”

I am intrigued! I hope you are, too, and we’ll look forward to seeing you here on Tuesday, January 16, 7:45 pm.

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa