EVERETT — A slate of nine thought-provoking films will be screening the afternoon and evening of Saturday, April 29 in the PUD Auditorium, 2320 California St. one block north of Pacific Avenue.
This year's 24th annual Everett Film Festival has a thread of reflecting on family heritage sprinkled in its animated films and documentaries.
Take "Daughter of a Lost Bird" (5:20 p.m.), a 2021 Pacific Northwest documentary directed by Brooke Pepion Swaney, in which a Lummi woman who was adopted by a white family searches for and finds her birth mother, who it turns out was also adopted to a non-Native family. The mother and daughter were part of a former governmental Indian Adoption Project where they and others were whisked away to be assimilated away from their heritage.
It's followed by a short film called "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: Honoring Our Stolen Sisters” (6:27 p.m.) and a presentation by speakers from the Museum of Northwest Art where there was a recent exhibition on the issue.
“The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam” (1 p.m.) unfolds the mystery of how the filmmaker pieced together her great grandfather’s life as a Chinese-born road magician, vaudevillian and theater impresario. “Fujitaro Kubota and His Garden” (7 p.m.), meanwhile, tells of how a man cultivated a well-recognized 20-acre garden in South Seattle and fellow caretakers gave it to the world to enjoy as a public park.
Dawn Westlake’s musical short “For the Skeptical” (2:30 p.m.) goes “pop, pop, pop” as a visually fascinating piece, festival director Teresa Henderson said. Another, “Delia 9 to 5,” (2:28 p.m.) grabs viewers to watch a pregnant woman endure living in wilderness.
How do organizers find their selections? Some are submitted. Others are finds. Henderson described it as a group looking at distributors’ lists with no agenda in mind except to pick great films.
They mix it up to ensure some flicks are lighthearted.
The short sequel to “The Biggest Little Farm” closes the festival with a tale of renewing land for agriculture.
“I really like that film,” Henderson said.
Henderson has been chairing the festival for longer than she’d like to necessarily admit, but she keeps coming back because there are so many fascinating films.
“We feel confident we’re finding ones that aren’t in theaters, and ones you won’t easily find through Netflix, either,” she said.
And, Henderson points out, even if you do, it wouldn’t be the same experience as watching among an audience. At this, you can ask the filmmaker questions in person who made a direct artistic contribution to the film.
Tickets are $45 for the whole afternoon and evening of films. Come for as long as you want. The festival has a few breaks in between. The first 200 ticket buyers get a free boxed lunch. Popcorn is constantly flowing and free.
The festival’s organizers could use more previewers to widen the workload and give some fresh eyes. When the organizers preview films, they enjoy each other’s company, she said. If interested, contact everettfilmfestival@gmail.com
Tickets are available at www.everettfilmfestival.org
