The First One

Greetings Everyone! 👋

January 13, 2025

JANUARY ‘25 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the first-ever Seattle Film Society Newsletter!

Available on a monthly basis, here you’ll find updates on upcoming SFS events, local happenings, broader film industry news, staff recs, resources, and so much more. Our goal with this newsletter is to keep you plugged into the film industry- both locally and beyond. We aim to connect you to information and resources that can help you improve your craft, achieve your goals, and build your career as a filmmaker here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Before we get into it, I’d like to make sure to give a special thanks to our Marketing Director Quentin Lebeau, and our Digital Director Mike Clarke for their time and effort in getting this project off the ground. This truly would not exist without them so if you see them at an event, be sure to tip your cap!

So without further ado, let's get cookin’, shall we?

Marcus Baker

SFS Artistic Director

SCREENINGS

Thursday, January 30th | 18th & Union Arts Space @ 7pm

Our flagship screening event continues on Thursday, January 30th at 7pm! Join us for another night of cinema and friendship where we’ll be screening four delightful locally made shorts:

Doors at 7, Films at 7:30! Come hang!

Thursday, February 6th | Northwest Film Forum @ 6pm

The first of our new screening events kicks off on Thursday, February 6th at the Northwest Film Forum. In partnership with the Northwest Film Forum and the Seattle Documentary Association, we’ll be hosting a new monthly documentary screening series called TRUTH TO FICTION. The first film in our series will be the unflinching 2024 Palestinian documentary From Ground Zero. 

Tuesday, February 11th | 18th & Union Arts Space @ 7pm

We’re excited to kick off our newest screening event next month! OPEN SCREEN is our “open mic night” for Washington Filmmakers. Need feedback on your latest masterpiece? Want to share some embarrassing home videos from your youth? Come on out! Any film (10 minutes or less) goes up. Please bring videos on a standard Windows or Mac-compatible thumb drive. Films will be screened on a first-come first-screen basis so be sure to arrive early!

Doors at 7PM and screening from 7:30PM to 9PM. Afters to follow.

EDUCATION

Wednesdays | SFS Discord

Our Weekly Film Discussion Group returns with a four-film series titled Paul Schrader Presents: The End of the World. This series will be hosted by SFS Programming Director Tommy Meisel. We’ll be meeting on the SFS Discord each Wednesday night from 7:00pm-8:30pm.

1st + 3rd Tuesdays | SFS Discord

Our Screenwriting Group continues to meet on first and third Tuesdays! Meetings are held on our Discord channel at 7:30 pm, and we are always looking for new submissions! Scripts can be submitted through our web form. Next sessions:

  • Tuesday, January 21st | A Slaughter of Crows by Washington Laws

  • Tuesday, February 4th | Reading TBD

SELECTED LOCAL EVENTS

ALUMNI NEWS

Matthew Rush | February ‘24 LO + Justin Robert Vinall | November ‘24 IF

Writer/Director Matthew Rush’s most recent short film CHICKEN BOY was recently selected for the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival. The film will play as part of the festival’s inaugural Los Angeles event which runs February 20th-26th. The film was also produced by In Focus recipient Justin Robert Vinall.

Amanda and Nathan recently dropped the music video for “The New Loud” for their band Babes in Canyon. Check it out here.

Brandon Foy | September ‘24 LO

Brandon recently completed and released his holiday short NUTS NUTS, which is described as being about “a man, a nutcracker, and the art of moving forward.” You can watch the film for free on his Youtube channel.

THE BUSINESS OF FILM

Ahead of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker Magazine took a look at six feature films that premiered in Park City this past year to gauge the temperature of independent film distribution. The results range (mostly positive) but perhaps more fascinating than the results is how thorough the case studies themselves are. Each study takes you through each step of getting the film made: financing, packaging, production, post-production, festivals, and distribution. Each section is accented with notes on the successes and failures the teams behind the films encountered in bringing their films to Park City and beyond. The result is a perfect encapsulation and demystification of the film release process:

“If the old way was to slowly open the film and play for six months, now you open in a wider way, make an impression, hang on to theaters where there is traction for as long as you possibly can, and then if you have great word of mouth, you come back. Distribution has become a bit like an accordion,” he explains. “You start big, then you go small, then you go out again.” 

The films covered for the case study include Ghostlight, Thelma, Sugarcane, Between the Temples, Union, and Good One.

RESOURCES + TOOLS

Local Resource | 18th & Union Arts Space

18th & Union is a performance space in Seattle's Central District that serves as a home for portable performance and visual art. Their mission is to sustain an affordable, inclusive, and intimate space that nurtures art and community. Their vision is a city where everyone has equitable access to art and community collaboration.

Online Resource | The Distribution Playbook

The Distribution Playbook is a free collaboratively-created resource produced by Seed&Spark and Kinema. It’s intended as an entry point into the world of film distribution, and a launching pad for building a custom strategy that works for your film. It exists as a collaborative living document designed for filmmakers, video creators, funders, and co-collaborators to take the lead in their distribution. If I were to describe this thing in a word, it would be comprehensive. Or maybe exhaustive. Based on nearly a decade of research, The Distribution Playbook is designed to give you an evolving understanding on an ever-changing landscape. 

Free Tool | Canva

Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

Got a tool or resource you’d like to suggest? Drop us a line at [email protected]

SFS STAFF RECS

This month, we’ve got recommendations from the three newest additions to our programming team: Harlie Sullivan, Champ Ensminger, and Shelby Smout.

HARLIE SULLIVAN

“2024 was a great year for identity horror - from I Saw The TV Glow to The Substance to A Different Man - all dealing with the connection with one’s own self and appearance. The one that stood out most for me (and what seems like a majority) is The Substance. What I like about The Substance is that it shows no matter how much you change, the most important thing is that you love yourself. Coralie Fargeat uses some of my favorite story telling devices - glitter and gore! The Substance is gruesome, disgusting, hilarious, and STUNNING 🤩 I. Ate. It. Up.”

CHAMP ENSMINGER

“This Korean horror feature written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun was a surprise favorite this year. A “Ghostbusters” style team of Korean shamans exhume a grave, unwittingly unleashing a supernatural evil. The film is a slow burn at first, teasing but never revealing its most supernatural elements. At the midpoint it does a FULL SEND of the supernatural, and without spoilers, it’s awesome.”

SHELBY SMOUT

"When ringing in 2024, I declared it would be my year of peace, and reading All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks assisted me on this quest. It’s easy to ascertain what the topic of Hooks’ book explores from the title, but it really, truly covers all aspects of love, including what it means to be loving. It’s an enlightening read as a creative too, as it undoubtedly readjusted my perspective when it comes to ingesting and digesting art."

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

This month: crickets

In this section, you can respond with questions, thoughts, or ideas about the film industry (local or otherwise) and we’ll do our best to answer/speak to them. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but in the spirit of community building, we’ll do our best to provide links, resources, or advice to whoever is asking. 

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]