Tonight: The Screen is Yours!

plus everything else going on in February and early March!

February 10, 2025

FEBRUARY ‘25 NEWSLETTER

Greetings Everyone!

February is a busy month here at SFS! Not only are we launching TWO new screening events, we’ve also got the second edition of our IN FOCUS director showcase, as well as the ongoing cadence of our Film Discussion and Screenwriting Groups. Should you be part of our Discord server, you’ll also note some changes taking place there as well. Lots of good stuff and exciting ways to connect! We look forward to seeing you at any or all of these events, and hope you'll bring a friend as well!

Marcus Baker

SFS Artistic Director

SCREENINGS

Monday, February 10th | SOAP @ 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, screening from 7:30PM to 9PM. Afters to follow.

Thursday, February 13th | Northwest Film Forum @ 7pm

Our In Focus showcase series continues this month with three films by veteran Director and Cam Op, June Zandona. THE MOVEMENTS OF JUNE ZANDONA will highlight June’s unique blend of probing character study and motion-driven narrative. Post-screening Discussion will be led by Koerner’s Meg Valliant. You won’t wanna miss it!

Thursday, February 27th | SOAP @ 7pm

Our flagship screening event continues with four locally made shorts centering love and relationship in its many forms:

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

Thursday, March 6th | Northwest Film Forum @ 7pm

Our documentary screening partnership with SeaDoc and the NWFF continues on March 6th with RAT FILM. Directed by Theo Anthony, the film uses a rat infestation in Baltimore as a starting point to explore issues of segregation, redlining, poverty, and resource allocation in U.S. cities.

EDUCATION

Wednesdays | SFS Discord @ 7pm

Our Weekly Film Discussion Group continues with a trippy set of time loop films. This series will be alternately hosted by Alexis Thornton and SFS Artistic Director Marcus Baker. We kicked off the series on Feburary 5th with a great discussion on GROUNDHOG DAY (1993), to be followed by these upcoming discussions across the rest of February:

We’ll be meeting on the SFS Discord each Wednesday night from 7-8:30pm.

1st + 3rd Tuesdays | SFS Discord

Our Screenwriting Group continues on Tuesday! Meetings are bi-weekly on our Discord channel and we are always looking for new submissions! Scripts can be submitted through our website.

  • Tuesday, February 4th | My Fat Feet, Ed Castañeda

  • Tuesday, February 18th | The Skin Collector, Thomas Scott Adams

SELECTED LOCAL EVENTS

ALUMNI NEWS

Ian Ebright | March ‘24 LO 

Writer/Director Ian Ebright’s first feature The Way We Speak was selected by Cinematography World as one of their favorite films of 2024 that were shot on Leitz lenses, putting it alongside films like The Substance, A Real Pain, and Horizon: An American Saga. The Way We Speak is available to stream on Tubi.

Geena Pietromonaco | January ‘24 LO & November ‘24 LO

Ed Castañeda | April ‘24 LO & October ‘24 LO 

Geena Pietromonaco stars in the upcoming Ed Castañeda-produced short Fire & Oak alongside Michael Munoz, which recently completed its post production. The film centers on the uneasy relationship between a sex worker and their client and is directed by George Laws, who also sits on the board of the Northwest Screenwriters Guild. The film is currently awaiting festivals.

Ty Huffer | October ‘24 LO 

Horror Writer/Director Ty Huffer was recently profiled as the featured Artist of the Week in Seattle Refined. Ty’s film Three Houses Down played at 41 festivals, won 17 awards, and was nominated for 13 more.

THE BUSINESS OF FILM

One of last year’s biggest surprises at the box office was the DIY breakout hit Hundreds of Beavers. Made for a budget of $150,000, the film went on to make over $700,000, selling out theaters across the country (including our own beloved, temporarily-departed Grand Illusion) through their road-show tour and a host of zany screenings. Filmmaker Magazine caught up with the team behind the film for their article “Ten Takeaways from the Success of Hundreds of Beavers” last year and the results are very much worth your time:

“Choose an aesthetic that will capitalize on the lack of money (i.e. period anachronisms, monochromatic color schemes, etc.). Invest meaning in everyday commonplace things – make an orange a totemic object John Ford would be proud of.” To wit, for Hundreds of Beavers Cheslik “slapp[ed] black and white and grain on everything to hide the shoddy compositing work, focusing on really strong shapes rather than high-fidelity detail or subtlety. The whole premise of the film is conceived around white negative space—having strong silhouettes against white.” And also, “We don’t believe you should emulate the look of a major Hollywood film. I like the indie game philosophy, where two guys make a whole game with pixel art and pick an aesthetic and a style that matches the scope of their budget and team.”

RESOURCES + TOOLS

Local Resource | The Shot on Film Store

The Shot on Film Store is a camera store located in Lake City. In addition to developing 35mm and Medium Format film, Shot on Film also sells a wide variety of cameras and camera accessories. Their team is always happy to provide you with in-depth, wide ranging insight into the art and technical specifications of both digital and film-based photography. They’re open Tuesday-Saturday.

Online Resource | Sundance Collab

Sundance Collab is the Sundance Institute’s year-round digital space for artists to learn, create, and grow their network. Their website offers thousands of hours of video featuring invaluable courses, panels, and masterclasses with the top minds working in all aspects of filmmaking today. It also features opportunities to work with Advisors, as well as their own separate Discord server with countless other opportunities.

Free Tool | Scriptation

Scriptation is the all-in-one script annotation app for film, television, and more. The App allows you to perform an enormous range of organizational tasks including annotating, highlighting, layering notes, tagging, inserting plans/photos/diagrams, and even features a rehearsal mode that can serve as both teleprompter AND (in a pinch) a scene partner. If you’re looking for a way to bulk up your prepro game, look no further.

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 a recommendation from SFS Social Media Manager, Ethan Herbert:

ETHAN HERBERT

Film | Still Walking (2008), Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda

There are few directors who seem to have the ability to capture the subtle idiosyncrasies of human beings the way Hirokazu Kore-eda does. And while many of his most well-known films are constantly lingering on the frayed edges of tragedy, Still Walking seems to find its footing in a sweet, sleepy nostalgia that rises from our almost meditative following of the Yokoyama family. This is not to say that the film is without melancholy (it is certainly felt, hidden in the background and occasionally making itself known), but where Still Walking differs from other pieces of Kore-eda’s work is in its effort to withdraw and ignore rather than confront. I highly recommend it to anyone who either wants to go further into the world of Kore-eda or is simply looking for a good place to start.

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]