Pride Across the Board

Our June programming celebrates Pride and Juneteenth with two exciting local partnerships.

June 09, 2026

Hello hello hello!

Despite last night’s torrential downpour, the air of summer and celebration cannot be denied. Pride Month is here, Summer Movie season is upon us, and everyone you know is taking that big trip they’ve been planning. With summer kicking into high gear, we’ve got two partnered events this month that are sure to excite and celebrate as we lead into the warm sunlit evenings.

Before we dive in, I want to make sure and shout out the SFS Team for all of their hard work. Our incredible, all-volunteer Programming, Marketing, and Management teams do an amazing job to keep this ship running. There is no SFS without all of their hard work and support. If you see them around, be sure to say hey and give them a high five.

Lets start the show!

Marcus Baker

SFS Creative Director

Table of Contents

SFS EVENTS

Tuesday, June 16th @ Hidden Hall | Doors at 6pm

On June 16th, Three Dollar Bill Cinema, SWACE, & the Seattle Film Society are proud to partner for SEATTLE IS BURNING: A One-of-a-Kind Celebration of Queer Cinema & Ballroom Culture!

Join us as we present the winner of Three Dollar Bill’s first-ever Queer Cinema Fellowship, followed by the Northwest premiere for Georgia Krause’s Award-winning short film RAINBOW RIDER and a screening of PARIS IS BURNING.

After the film, SWACE Health will lead a special ballroom presentation and community Q&A exploring the history, impact, and current state of ballroom culture in Seattle - an opportunity to learn, connect, and celebrate the legacy and future of the scene. Then we’ll keep the energy going with a late-night party to celebrate together into the night.

Full event tickets are sold out, but after party tickets are still available!

Tuesday, June 16th at Hidden Hall. 6pm – Late. See you there!

Thursday, June 25th @ Northwest Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm

This month, the Seattle Film Society is proud to partner with the Langston & the Seattle Black Film Festival for a special Juneteenth edition of Locals Only! From visual poetry to centuries-old conspiracies, this event will showcase the breadth of talent bubbling up in Seattle's black film community:

  • WASTE TIME by LIVt: Through a series of intimate vignettes, we follow a queer couple , a Black woman and an Indian woman, as they experience the beauty and fragility of love. (8 min)

  • land.scape notes on exile by Berette S Macaulay: A poetic journey of rediscovery and return routes us through shifting landscapes. We follow the reflections of a seeker who is mystically guided by Oshun, the venerated orisha of water and destiny. (6 min)

  • GO! by Brace Evans: Daily, Maxwell is told 'GO!' by individuals and the non-speaking walk signal.  During a business trip to Berlin, a kid helps him to realize that walk signals in the United States are being used to subconsciously train and sustain a centuries old hierarchy. (9 Min)

  • SPLIT/SECOND by Lindy Boustedt: At Echo Glen High School, a juvenile detention facility in King County, WA, students examine the fragile moment between good and bad decisions while building community, as the voiceover traces one student’s early struggles with incarceration. Voiceover performed by a student at Shoreline College - a collaboration designed both to protect Echo students’ identities and to build an emotional bridge between youth who might otherwise never connect. (2 Min)

  • YOU LOOK GOOD by Bakari Hayez: A vibrant tribute to Black women, You Look Good examines the power of Black hair, beauty, and self-expression through a lens of joy, community, and cultural influence. (3 Min)

Join us for a screening and Q&A with drinks to follow at Linda's Tavern!

Thursday June 25th at the Northwest Film Forum. Doors at 6:30, Films at 7. See ya at the movies!

EDUCATION

Wednesdays | Discord | 7pm-8:30pm

This June, our Film Discussion Group will be covering PRIDE FILMS! We’ll be talking about four Queer classics, including a field trip to see BY HOOK OR BY CROOK at the NWFF on June 18th. The full list of films includes:

Our meetings take place in person every Wednesday here on the Discord from 7pm - 8:30pm (Field Trip excepted). Hope to see ya there!

June 11th @ 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 ANNOUNCEMENTS

Deadline: June 30th | SFCS Membership (Seattle Film Critics Society)

The Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) is seeking new members. SFCS members are those who screen movies in the greater Seattle area and write, broadcast, podcast, or stream reviews that express an opinion regarding a film’s quality, artistic, and technical merit. Members participate in a community of area critics in supporting local awareness and appreciation of cinema. Each year, members vote for SFCS annual awards to highlight the best films of the year (including the Pacific Northwest Filmmaking Award), attend FYC screenings, and gather at our annual awards party. Application and further information is available on the SFCS website.

Registration Open | Essentials of Filmmaking (Cascadia Media Labs)

Derek Edamura (formerly of the Northwest Film Forum) recently founded the Cascadia Media Labs, an arts organization dedicated to broadening access to film and media education through workshops, mentorship, and apprenticeships. Their first program, Essentials of Filmmaking is a nine‑week, hands‑on introduction to the craft, creativity, and collaborative spirit of filmmaking. Registration operates on a sliding scale, with scholarship opportunities available.

SELECTED EVENTS

SFS ALUMNI NEWS

Tokala Tatum is set to publish his first graphic novel, The Downwinder, later this year. The project is produced by Setting Sun Circle, an indigenous production company based out of Bellingham. Multiple release events are planned for around the state before Tatum will begin a national tour of comic cons to promote the book. You keep up with the book and tour via Instagram here.

Justin Robert Vinall (LO #5, LO #7, IF #1) 

Justin Robert Vinall continues to screen his cosmic proof of concept "STARGAZER" with it recently winning Best Short Film at the Crypticon Seattle Film Festival. He produced a genre-driven romance short film directed by Matthew Rush that screened at the Seattle International Film Festival called EMBRACE in the queer filmmaker block. He is currently preparing to direct a music video, saddling up for a 8mm film project and is beginning to cast/crew up for a new short horror film, EAT MY SIN from writer/actress Kennedy Rainer that'll be shooting in Bellingham at the end of August.

FESTIVAL DEADLINES

RESOURCES + TOOLS

Local Resource | Wheelhouse

Wheelhouse is the a statewide trade association dedicated to supporting creative workers and creative businesses. As a 501(c)(6) organization, Wheelhouse focuses on diversity, equity and inclusivity, business resources, advocacy and creative community. Wheelhouse has a partner 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that raises the value of creativity in Washington State by promoting culture and the arts, conducting research and educating others about the value of creativity, and providing resources that help build robust and flourishing creative communities.

Online Resource | The Black List

The Black List is a renowned platform dedicated to nurturing written storytelling and empowering writers to maximize their professional potential. First established in 2005 as an annual survey of Hollywood's most-liked unproduced screenplays, the Black List has since grown into a comprehensive resource for the creative industries, serving tens of thousands of writers, agents, managers, showrunners, producers, financiers, directors, actors, theater directors, and book editors.

Free Tool | Blender

Blender is a free and open-source 3D creation suite used for modeling, animation, visual effects, game design, and video editing. Developed by the Blender Foundation and its community, it supports the entire 3D pipeline, including sculpting, rigging, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking.

SFS STAFF RECS

This month, we’ve got a Staff Rec from our Graphic Design Manager, Janice Kim:

Book | CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

My recommendation goes out to all the absurdists and cynics who like to observe and laugh at the flaws and silliness of us humans and societal structures. A deeply and perfectly dark, dry, and absurd collection of satire, Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders is a gift from the angels of neither heaven or hell, but perhaps rather a sideways dimension you enter through a hole in the back wall of your crusty pantry, chewed through by a sewer rat. A place where the collective unconscious resides, the collective being the weirdest, most degenerate parts of us. Still, it's a gift that somehow manages to be poignantly beautiful in some twisted and depressing, yet meaningful way.

It’s a collection of short stories that are often told from the POV of a beta male character living in a darkly distorted reality that makes fun of society’s buffoonery by way of themes such as corporate dejection and flawed human virtues, in a non-filtered, anti-PC, blazingly self-aware, and perhaps even poetic way. Maybe akin to the works of Lanthimos, or in some ways even Lynchian, but hard to truly compare as the writing is so brilliantly unique to Saunders. If you are new to his writing, it might take a few reads of the first pages to adjust to his style, but it is so worth it, I promise

Thanks for reading! See you next month :) 

Got questions, suggestions, or news? We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at [email protected].

Don’t forget, we’re a volunteer-run project under the fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (Shun Pike) so you can always: