NWFF continues their spirit of ’69 series with Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie’s directorial debut. Robert Redford plays US Ski Team member determined to be the best skier ever, but his success is tempered by the difficulties he has in getting along with his team members and the team’s head coach, played by Gene Hackman. Roger Ebert once described this film as “the best movie ever made about sports – without really being about sports at all”.

Another film from 69 hits their screens with Camille 2000, a then-X-rated art film about beautiful people making love in beautiful Rome, with visually arresting set, costume, and lighting design.

Also at NWFF: the Seattle premiere of Audience of One, a documentary about San Franciscan Pentecostal pastor and movie director who got into the business after a message from God told him to start a film company.

Central Cinema shows the cheerfully mad Mars Attacks.

Grand Illusion honors the Golden Age of Sci-Fi with the 1953 film version of War of the Worlds which one two Academy Awards for its ground breaking special effects which are quite striking even today. Of the many films inspired by HG Wells’ classic tale of Martians waging war against the Earth, this quite possibly the best.

Midnight at Egyptian: David Lynch’s eerie and dark mystery of twisted passions and the seamy side of what passes for normal until closely examined, Blue Velvet, stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and a truly disturbing Dennis Hopper.

The Guild 45th screens 500 Days of Summer, an excessively twee romantic comedy that may be made bearable by the presence of the thoroughly adorable Zooey Deschanel.

Seven Gables has the exclusive local engagement of The Stoning of Soraya M, a drama developed from the true story of an Iranian woman who dared to fight back when Soroya, an innocent but inconvenient wife, is condemned to a horrible death by the corrupt village leaders.