Low Lifes, Freaks, and Video Store Day

Our October programming features a Horrorific Locals Only, an exciting new partnership, the return of IN FOCUS!

October 13, 2026

The Seattle Film Society is fully volunteer-run. If you value what we do and would like to support our work, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

Happy October, Seattle.

October is the last bastion before we’re all subsumed by the holidays. It’s a month to enjoy the changing seasons, watch Jessica Chastain play a frightening flexible monster, and finally break out those extra layers you’ve had safely tucked away. So no matter if you’re celebrating spooky season, cozy season, festival season, or some other secret fourth thing (R-Patz Autumn, mayhaps?), we’ve got you covered.

Thank you as always to the entire SFS Team for their continued hard work in building this month’s programming slate, as well as all of our community partners, who we could not do this without.

On with the show!

Marcus Baker

SFS Creative Director

Table of Contents

SFS EVENTS

October 13th - 18th @ Tasveer Film Center

SFS is proud to be an official partner of this year’s Tasveer Film Festival!

The Tasveer Film Festival is North America’s premier South Asian film gathering and the world’s first and only Oscar qualifying South Asian film festival, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Held every October, the Tasveer Film Festival brings six days of bold cinema from across South Asia and its diaspora. South Asia encompasses Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet, and the communities that carry those stories worldwide

We will be presenting the film FLAMES on Wednesday 10/14 at 7:45pm with a Q&A to follow.

Friday, October 15th @ Northwest Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm, Film at 7.

IN FOCUS returns this October with a screening of Tyler Michael James’s 2022 thriller LOW LIFE.

LOW LIFE follows Benny, a small-time YouTube star who catches predators online, who experiences a night from hell when he lets one of them into his own home. The feature will be preceded by a screening of the film’s proof-of-concept short, and followed by a conversation about James’s work and career. This event is presented in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum. 

Thursday October 15th at the Northwest Film Forum. Doors at 6:30, Film at 7.

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Thursday, October 29th @ Northwest Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm, Films at 7.

October is for terror! On tap this month are flesh eating nightmares and unexplained disappearances, unnerving polaroid’s and weekends gone wrong. Not to mention a freak you won’t be able to unsee. For all the horror-heads out there, this one’s for you:

  • POLAROID by Joey Greene: A young man is thrust into a terrifying mystery when the Polaroid photos that he has taken reveal something that isn’t actually there. (3 Min)

  • BEST FRIEND MATERIAL by Mel McCarthy & Nathan Blanchard: A guys weekend goes wrong. (15 min)

  • ADHESION by Mel McCarthy & Nathan Blanchard: A vain party clown suffocates in her own flesh-eating nightmare. (4 min)

  • MOTHER OF NIGHT by Mohamed Abdullahi & Rayana Mohamed: After a series of unexplained disappearances, a night-shift waitress investigates a ghostly local myth and discovers the horror may be terrifyingly real. (13 Min)

  • LOOK AT THIS FREAK by Alex Furnas: A reunion of old friends is disrupted by a hated roommate and something else that's even worse. (15 Min) 

This event is presented in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum. Join us for a screening and Q&A with drinks to follow at Linda's Tavern! See ya at the movies!

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Thursday November 5th @ Northwest Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm, Film at 7

This month we’re proud to present the Kirsten Johnson elliptical and highly acclaimed doc CAMERAPERSON.

A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Through a series of episodic juxtapositions, Johnson explores the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality and crafted narrative.

This event is presented in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum and the Seattle Documentary Association.

Thursday November 5th at the Northwest Film Forum. Doors at 7, Film at 7:30.

EDUCATION

Wednesdays | Northwest Film Forum | 7pm-8:30pm

This month, we’re covering four films featuring Michael Keaton! From Batman to Birdman, Beetlejuice to Jack Frost, we’ll cover four films featuring one of Hollywood’s most enduring screen presences. The remaining list of films includes:

  • 10/14 - BATMAN (1989) @ NWFF

  • 10/21 - JACK FROST @ NWFF

  • 10/28 - BIRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) @ NWFF

All of our discussions will be IN PERSON at the Northwest Film Forum (Field Trip excepted)!

Join us there each Wednesday from 7pm - 8:30pm for fun, book-club style discussions on each of these films. RSVP’s are strongly encouraged. Hope to see ya there!

TPS Seattle Center | 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Directors Lab is a monthly event for Directors and Actors to practice working together in a friendly, judgement-free environment.

Sign ups are free for Directors and Actors. Participants are selected on a monthly basis. To help offset rental costs, we ask for an optional $10 donation from our participants. Hope to see you there!

COMMUNITY EVENTS

COMMUNITY NEWS

Molly Muse (LO #1 ,#12, #18) + Geena Pietromonaco (LO #2, #12) + Tommy Heffernan (LO #5, IF #4)+ Rachel Taggart (LO #19)

Geena Pietromonaco’s debut feature Christmas Pop-Up was recently accepted to the Austin Film Festival! Muse directs from Pietromonaco’s script, with Taggart serving as producer and Heffernan as Editor. The film will play November 1st & 5th, with more theatrical dates to follow. Congrats to the whole Christmas Pop-Up team!

Collective Power Fund - Applications Open!

Applications for the NWFF’s Collective Power Fund! The Collective Power Fund supports projects that incite public dialogue, pushes boundaries, explores genre fluidity, speaks its truth through an authentic perspective, and is often non-traditional, anti-institutional, socially responsible, or disruptive of existing structures and conventions. Applications close on Wednesday 10/21.

Drew’s short film The Mrs. Wolf Show, will screen at the Tacoma Film Festival on Saturday, October 24th at 9:45 PM in the short film program, "BEAUTIFUL, BLOODTHIRSTY & BROKEN". The film previously premiered at the Boston Underground Film Festival. Congrats Drew!

Ashley George (LO #17)

Ashley was recently at FilmQuest with three(!) projects, including her upcoming feature script Harmony. Congrats Ashley!

Haley Watson (Bumbershoot '26)

Haley was selected as a 2026 Emerging Cinematographer Awards honoree for her work on the short film Songs of Black Folk, which previously played as part of our 2026 Bumbershoot Videorama lineup. Congrats Haley!

FESTIVAL DEADLINES

RESOURCES + TOOLS

Local Resource | Moonphoto

Moonphoto is a professional photography lab that’s been in business for over 50 years. They specialize in high quality prints and scans as well as the digital restoration of old and damaged prints. We cater to both professional and amateur photographers as well as other visual artists, various professionals and the general public.

Online Resource | Filmmaker Magazine

Filmmaker Magazine is a digital and physical publication covering issues relating to the independent film industry. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. Their yearly feature, 25 New Faces of Independent Film, has featured many prominent names before they broke through to mainstream successes such as Ryan Gosling, Elliot Page, Andrew Bujalski, Anna Boden, Sasha Lane, Miranda July, Tze Chun, Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass, Azazel Jacobs, Lance Oppenheim, and many more.

Freesoundeffects.com is a vast library with 50,000 free sound effects, ready for instant download in WAV and MP3 formats. Explore, download, and create with the sounds of success at your fingertips.

SFS STAFF RECS

This month, we’ve got a Staff Rec from our Programmer, Shelby Smout:

Here’s something to add to your October itinerary: the 16th annual Video Store Day on Saturday, October 17. Specifically at Scarecrow Video!

I’ve gone for the past ten years or so, and no matter how much time you spend considering the Video Store Day deals and meeting new faces and greeting friends and fellow film fanatics, it’s all crackin’. If you’re a member, you get early access. If you’re not a member, it’s okay! You have from 12pm to 8pm to scan the super selections Scarecrow has to offer.

While poring over the shelves, I always manage to discover a couple films with gorgeous or nutty (hey, or both!) covers that hypnotize me into adding them to my stack. If I’m not unearthing glittery gems or coming across a new restoration of an esoteric flick that rocked my world when I watched it in 480p on a laptop in the early 2010s, then I’m not fully appreciating what Scarecrow and Video Store Day has to offer.

But that’s just me. However you want to partake in Video Store Day is the correct way to participate. It’s pure and simple fun, and I hope to see you there. And if we do cross paths, please share what movies you’re getting on this sacred cinematic holiday!

Thanks for reading! See you next month 😊