Student Shorts, Free Screenings, and The History of Concrete

Our September programming features a collection of Student Shorts, Looney Tunes, two Sundance features fresh off their festival runs

September 11, 2026

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Happy September, Seattle.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Fall Festival Season. There’s magic everywhere you turn. Industry trades are breathlessly speculating on Oscar Campaigns. A24 is angling to make awards season history. And we’re staring down the barrel of another packed fall full of fascinating new work from a constellation of the world’s best (and most idiosyncratic) filmmakers. Oh, and there’s that movie about a guy getting eaten by a whale.

We’re doing our part too. On September 18th, we’re proud to present a FREE community screening of the Sundance pic If I Go Will They Miss Me. The film is boasting its own buzzy awards narrative, drawing comparisons to Barry Jenkin’s 2016 classic Moonlight. This is in addition to a (sold out!) screening of John Wilson’s The History of Concrete as well as a Student-led edition of Locals Only.

It’s wall to wall good stuff this month and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. Lets get into it.

Marcus Baker

SFS Creative Director

Table of Contents

SFS EVENTS

Friday, September 18th @ Tasveer Film Center | Doors at 7pm, Film at 7:30

SFS is proud to announce a FREE community screening of the new film If I Go Will They Miss Me for SFS Subscribers!

Expanded from an award-winning Sundance short, IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME follows twelve-year-old Lil Ant who idolizes his father "Big Ant" (J. Alphonse Nicholson), a recent prison returnee. Viewing his son as too soft for life’s disappointments- including those resulting from his own flaws- Big Ant distances himself from his sensitive son. Meanwhile, weary Lorita (Danielle Brooks) strives to maintain her dignity and keep the family together.

Locally produced, the film was a selection of this year’s Sundance Film Festival (as well as our very own SIFF). The film is tinged with lyricism and elements of Greek mythology, and has been compared to Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight for its showcasing of Black performers, both actors and non-actors. This sophomore narrative feature by Director Walter Thompson-Hernández marks him as a distinct voice in contemporary cinema, presenting an empathic exploration of familial bonds, intergenerational trauma, and the complex relationship between a boy and his imperfect father. 

This screening is presented in partnership with If I Go They Will Miss Me & the Tasveer Film Center. 

Thursday, September 24th @ Tasveer Film Center | Doors at 7pm, Films at 7:30.

In honor of back to school month, September’s event is a Student Showcase! From Satire to Sci Fi, Fantasy to Documentary, these four shorts focus on the exciting work being made by the next generation of local filmmakers:

  • LABYRINTH by Brandon Mattesich: When she wakes up in the forest, the forest wakes up around her. Join her as she tries to find a way out. (3 min)

  • STELLANS by Kai Monear: In a future world dominated by an advanced species known as machina stellans, two homo sapiens who have infiltrated a prep school are discovered and must escape the sprawling campus. (10 min)

  • a small city called Taishan by Jordan Wu: A person who lived in the states for his entire life returns to his family’s hometown, searching for whether his hometown feels like a foreign place or home. (15 min)

  • EXTRA BUTTER by T.C. Sheahan: A contemptuous moviegoer is determined to get enough butter on their popcorn. (3 min)

This event is presented in partnership with the Tasveer Film Center. Join us for a screening and Q&A with drinks to follow at Flying Lion Brewing! See ya at the movies!

Thursday October 1st @ Northwest Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm, Film at 7 - SOLD OUT

This month we’re proud to present the Seattle Premiere of John Wilson’s THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE!

Following the finale of his acclaimed HBO series How To with John Wilson, NYC documentarian John Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New York City for inspiration and structure. Concrete, the world’s most widely used building material, appears as an ever-present life force, and John sets out to make the definitive documentary on the matter. After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, he decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie’s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble—literally and figuratively—as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry. Synopsis courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

This event is presented in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum and the Seattle Documentary Association. We will have a VERY SPECIAL GIVEAWAY prior to the screening!

Thursday October 1st at the Northwest Film Forum. Doors at 6:30, Film at 7

EDUCATION

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

This month we’re covering LOONEY TUNES films with discussions centering on all the anvil-laden, rabbit-huntin’ madcap madness. The full list of films includes:

  • 9/16 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

  • 9/23 - Looney Tunes: Back in Action

  • 9/30 - The Day the Earth Blew Up

We’re also excited to announce that our discussions are now IN PERSON at the Northwest Film Forum! Our field trips will be the first week of each month, with in-person discussions to follow the remaining Wednesdays of each month.

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

Justin Robert Vinall (IF #1, LO #5, #7, LO #30) - Crew needed!

Justin Robert Vinall is seek an additional producer for an upcoming short filming 9/19 & 9/20. He is also on the hunt for two PA’s for additional production support. To learn more and get involved, email him at [email protected].

Social Justice Film Festival - Screeners Needed!

Social Justice Film Festival is seeking judges and screeners for their 2027 festival! To apply, please email [email protected].

Kat Hennessey (LO #28)

Kat Hennessey’s short film Festival Child is set to screen at She/Her Fest later this month. The screening will take place at SIFF on September 19th at 12pm. Tickets can be found here.

Mother’s Nest - Crew Needed!

Mother’s Nest follows 16-year-old Bisola as she uncovers long-buried family secrets, told through the perspective of her mother, Damilola. Combining mystery with cultural memory, the film explores food as a bridge and mirror, and how identity is shaped by the stories we inherit and uncover. The film shoots on back to back weekends, September 19th, 20th, 26th and 27th. They are currently seeking a MUA for the 26th & 27th (Paid) and an Editor (Paid). To get involved with this project, please reach out to [email protected].

Carter Suire - Short Film Cast & Crew Needed!

Carter Suire is currently seeking cast and crew for their project Revelations 14:13 shooting later this month. The film follows the leader of a commune who decides to extricate themselves from their role. If you’re interesting in joining the project, please contact the film by email at [email protected].

FESTIVAL DEADLINES

RESOURCES + TOOLS

Local Resource | 48 Hour Film Project

The 48 Hour Film Project is an organization that facilitates a semi-regular filmmaking competitions where teams compete to make a short film in only a weekend! Teams draw genres out of a hat and receive only the required elements for their films. Following the Sunday night submission deadline, all films will take part in screenings at notable local theaters with awards and prizes. The Seattle 48 Hour FP Chapter features an active Facebook Group for organizing and joining teams for upcoming events, including their upcoming 48 Hour Horror event.

Antigravity Academy is the Emmy-winning creative home for emerging storytellers behind films like Didi and Free Keiko. Each month their Satellite Sessions team hosts a free online filmmaking panel with the top filmmakers, producers, agents, and more. They also host free Sunday Sessions where instructors and leading industry guests will dive into the why and how behind every facet of a filmmaker's artistic practice. Topics covered range from finding representation to writers rooms to demystifying Sundance and more. All of their panels are recorded and available to listen to via their website.

Knights of the Editing Table is a library of Adobe Premiere editing plugins and tools finely crafted to optimize your workflow and bestow the gift of reclaimed hours. While the project is no longer in active development, many of the plugins maintain their usefulness and are still accessible via the website.

SFS STAFF RECS

This month, we’ve got a Staff Rec from our Programmer, Patrick McFarland:

Book Series | Discworld

I love Discworld so much. I started reading last year and I’ve already read nearly 20 of them. Discworld is a fantasy series that takes place in the titular Discworld, a flat disc carried through space on the back of four elephants that are riding on the back of a giant turtle. The series deliberately moves away from the serialized nature of most fantasy series that require reading every book in order; Discworld is episodic and can be read in any order. Nearly every book has a conclusive beginning, middle, and end, and different books can feature entirely different casts of characters and locations. There are over 40 of them, but most of them are 300-400 pages and can be blown through quickly, and the Seattle Public Library has physical and e-book copies of all of them. You can look up Discworld reading guides that have great recommendations on where to start.

Tonally, Discworld is very comedic and feels like fantasy’s answer to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The series begins as a pure parody of pulpy 80s fantasy, but as it goes on, Pratchett begins to flex his genre knowledge and incorporate more and more of his humanist philosophy, leftist societal critique (look up the “boots theory”), and explorations into the nature of storytelling itself. There are actually subseries within the series that focus on specific groups of characters and play with different genre tropes, so if you want a humorous take on detective and crime novels, you could just read the City Watch books. My favorite subseries follows Death, a Grim Reaper-type figure who whisks the recently deceased off to the afterlife. One of my favorite books is Hogfather, where Death has to step in and take over as the Discworld equivalent of Santa Claus. It’s both a hilarious Christmas story and a treatise about myths and their importance in how we understand larger ideas like justice and morality. For a book about a giant skeleton wearing a Santa outfit, it’s really ponderous and touching.

Pratchett is most known otherwise for cowriting Good Omens, but he does not carry the same baggage as his coauthor. And because this also must be said, considering his contemporaries in British fantasy: Terry Pratchett was a staunch ally of trans people.

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].