We're Hiring!

Learn more about joining our team + everything going on in July + early August!

July 08, 2025

Heyyyy everybody! Hope your July is treating you right. We’ve got your usual grab bag of film-centric goodies coming right up but first, a little housekeeping: We’re hiring!

Okay, hiring might be a bit strong since we’re all volunteers around here, but we’re still looking to add people to the SFS team! More specifically, we’re looking to fill two new positions on our Board:

We're searching for people who care about supporting local filmmaking and want to help guide our organization as we continue to grow. No experience is required. If you feel passionate about our mission and believe you can contribute, we want to hear from you!

Applications will close on Friday 7/18. Learn more and apply at the link below:

Board Application — Seattle Film Society

www.seattlefilmsociety.com/board-application

Lets dig in!

Marcus Baker

SFS Creative Director

SCREENINGS

Thursday, July 17th @ NW Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm

Our IN FOCUS series returns this month with a six-film set by one of Seattle’s most prolific filmmakers. 48 HOURS WITH TOMMY HEFFERNAN’S GOLD TEAM will feature short films directed, co-directed, and produced by filmmaking polymath Tommy Heffernan and his multi-award winning 48 Hour Film collaborators, GOLD TEAM. The screening will be followed by a Q&A led by Seattle Film Critics Society President, Kathy Fennessy.

It’ll be a blast of off-the-wall energy by one of Seattle’s most distinctive and original comedic voices. This is one you won’t want to miss!

Thursday, July 31st @ NW Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm

Our July Locals Only offers a hearty sampling of genres and perspectives from five of the Seattle-area’s most exciting new voices:

  • Hold My Hair by Rachel Taggart

  • Sticky Buns, Ravioli, and White Cake by Nicole Pouchet

  • The Good Salami by Alex Gallo-Brown and Piotr Migula

  • Air Traffic Control: The Cold Open by Blake Rizzo

All five filmmakers will be in attendance for the Screening and will take part in a Q&A! Grab a pal and come check out some of the best films our city has to offer!

Doors at 6:30PM, screening from 7:00PM to 8:30PM. Afters to follow!

Thursday, August 7th @ NW Film Forum | Doors at 6:30pm

Our monthly doc screening with SeaDoc and the Northwest Film Forum continues with the legendary underground doc Shakedown. The film follows the staff and dancers of the titular black-lesbian strip joint during it’s 2002-2004 heyday. Culled from over 400 hours of footage by its director, Shakedown has been compared to foundational works such as Paris is Burning and Will You Dance With Me?

Doors at 6:30PM, screening starts at 7:00PM.

EDUCATION

Wednesdays | SFS Discord @ 7pm

This July, our Film Discussion Group will trace the cinematic evolution of everyone’s favorite big blue boy scout. THE EVOLUTION OF SUPERMAN will cover five different on-screen portrayals of the character, including the upcoming James Gunn-directed reboot:

  • Wed. July 2nd | Superman (1978)

  • Wed. July 9th | Superman Returns (2006)

  • Wed. July 16th | Superman vs. The Elite (2012)

  • Wed. June 23rd | Man of Steel (2013)

  • Wed. July 30th | Superman (2025) - Field Trip! (Theater TBD)

Wednesday nights, 7pm-8:30. All meetings (with the exception of the last one) will take place on the Seattle Film Society Discord server.

1st + 3rd Tuesdays | SFS Discord @ 7:30pm

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

SELECTED LOCAL EVENTS

ALUMNI NEWS

Molly Muse | November ‘23 Locals Only (LO #1) + Geena Pietromonaco | January ‘24 Locals Only (LO #2)

Geena and Molly have recently launched financing for their upcoming feature film Christmas Pop Up, which is set to shoot here in the PNW early next year. If you or someone you know may be interested in becoming an investor in the project, you can contact Geena here.

Matthew Rush | January ‘24 Locals Only (LO #2) + Justin Robert Vinall | November ‘24 IF

Matthew Rush’s short film “Chickenboy” continues to find success on the festival circuit. After playing Slamdance earlier this year, the film has most recently played the Chattanooga Film Festival, and is currently prepping to play SXSW Sydney in October.

Clayton McDougall | February ‘24 Locals Only (LO #3)

Clayton has recently returned to his hometown of Kallispell, MT and set up a summer movie series comprised of films all made in Montana. You can learn more about the project here.

Drew Highlands | March ‘24 Locals Only (LO #4)

Drew’s upcoming project “One. Four. Three.” was recently selected to be part of Washington Filmworks Small Budget Production Initiative. The SBPI supports emerging Washington State Filmmaker by offering funding assitance for projects with budgets between $20k-$1m. Congrats Drew!

Nate Fieldson | September‘24 Locals Only (LO #10)

Nate’s newest short film “Private Party” was selected for the 2025 West Sound Film Festival. The film will premiere on August 2nd.

Michael Rognlie | October ‘24 Locals Only (LO #11)

Michael recently wrapped principal photography on his newest short film, a horror comedy titled “Dotted Line.” Michael co-directed the project with E.E. Tallent and filmed at Harbor Island Studios.

THE BUSINESS OF FILM

We all see those “30 under 30” and “___ Most Important People” lists that come out of various corners of Hollywood a couple times a year. It’s easy to see those lists and feel bad about yourself and your place in the spectrum of things- hell, depending on the list, it’s sort of the point. Rarely do we get a peek into how those lists are made.

Thankfully, Nothing Bogus recently interviewed Filmmaker Magazine’s Scott Macaulay to discuss not only how they make their famed 25 New Faces of Independent Film, but to dig into the how’s and why’s of their list as well as what they actually intend to accomplish with their list. The resulting interview is a thoughtful discussion about discovery, filmmaking trends, and the future of filmmaking.

The early years of the magazine, we would just canvas a lot of colleagues. As part of the job we look at a lot of work each year. It probably started with a smaller group of recommenders, and now I blast maybe 200 people asking for recommendations. And then the other thing is we all keep a running list of work we see throughout the year. 

The reason we chose "25 new faces" rather than the "25 best new filmmakers" was because we wanted to avoid that kind of bombast. Hopefully there's a kind of modesty built into the title. We're a small team and we're not canvasing the whole world. That's why it's very American independent focused. 

-Scott Macaulay, Editor of "Filmmaker Magazine”

RESOURCES + TOOLS

The Seattle Film Critics Society is Seattle’s premier film criticism body. They strive to strengthen the bonds of critical dialogue and share their love of cinema by supporting local productions, festivals, and public education, and highlighting the best films produced each year.

Online Resource | Nothing Bogus Newsletter

Nothing Bogus is a newsletter covering topics and services directly related to Indie Filmmaking. They aim to spotlight subjects that larger publications are inclined to overlook. Whether it’s interviewing filmmakers, sharing production diaries, or examining common filmmaking challenges, Nothing Bogus provides an ongoing range of insights into the world of independent filmmaking.

Free Tool | Peerspace

Peerspace is a free-to-use database of rentable creative spaces. From photo studios to meeting rooms to outdoor space, users are able to find and rent a wide variety of spaces for personal and professional use.

SFS STAFF RECS

This month, we’ve got not one, but TWO recommendations from SFS Digital Coordinator Mike Clarke:

Author: Christopher Brown

If, like me, you were hoping for more from Alex Garland’s Civil War, then author Christopher Brown is your answer. His novel Tropic of Kansas, published in 2017, is set in the midst of a second American Revolution. It’s what I think of every time someone says “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.” His near-future fiction echoes the “aesthetics of ruin and rewilding,” as he puts it, that pervades his Substack (Field Notes), and his more recent nonfiction work, A Natural History of Empty Lots. As other reviewers have described it, he paints a kind of “hopeful dystopia” where the rewilding clears the way to a better future.

Tool: Sublime.app

Although I used Pocket, I’m not that sad about its demise, because it was mostly a place where I would save interesting-looking internet articles that I would never go back and read. Sublime, on the other hand, is a place where I can easily clip a sentence or two (or more) from anywhere on the web to a “card” and add it to a public or private “collection” of cards – and then find related cards from other users, and lay out cards visually on a mind-map like “canvas,” as I develop a thesis. It’s a unique tool, especially for writers as we forage for meaning and try to assemble bits of language into something of substance.

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: