It’s only October and it’s already getting gloomy, what’s November going to be like? Odds are good it’s not going to be sunny and clear.

You’ll want an escape to somewhere warm and bright but we’re not all lucky enough to be able to shuffle off to the tropics whenever we want. That’s why you’re going to save airfare and do good by attending “Sip for SIFF: A Night in the Caribbean”.

Marvel as Pravda Studios becomes a tropical paradise right here in the dreary winter Northwest on lucky Friday, November 13 at 8:00 pm. Enjoy tasty Caribbean themed food and specialty rum cocktails all night long, a live steel drum band and even a late night DJ spinning Caribbean and Island dance music.

As if all that weren’t enough, the night features a raffle with prizes like an Ipod, a luxury shopping spree, tickets and passes to the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival, wine, and, oh, a trip to Cancun. (Okay, not QUITE the islands, but, really, are you going to complain? If you are going to complain just go ahead and give me your tickets because I’m not going to complain one bit.)

The best part about this fun filled festivity is that you’ll be having a good time while you are simultaneously helping SIFF raise funds for their many fine programs. (They’re not just a film festival.) Tickets are a mere $50 each, a bargain for what you’re getting. SIFF supporters get a discount and so do groups: get together a bunch of vos amis and get a ten percent discount for 10 – 24 of you, a fifteen percent discount for a group of 25 – 49 and an amazing 20 percent discount for groups of 50 or more.

For more information or to buy your tickets, check out the event page on the SIFF website

NWFF offers up an excellent evening of movie and music magic with a screening of The Saga of Gosta Berling, starring a dewy young Greta Garbo, introduced by Paul Norien and accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Murl Allen Sanders. Friday night only.

The 2009 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival kicks off this weekend at NWFF, Cinerama, Central Cinema, The Egyptian, Central Library, and The Admiral. As always, films run the gamut from beloved classics like1975’s The Naked Civil Servant about pioneering British activist Quentin Crisp, for example to the hot and new, like An Englishman in New York in which John Hurt reprises his role as Crisp, older and wiser than ever. There are a variety of excellent documentaries, features and shorts, as well as great programs like the opening, centerpiece and closing galas, not to mention the not to be missed Night with Mink Stole, hosted by Peaches Christ. Mink has appeared in over 25 films, including every one by John Waters, and is a vivacious, charming entertainer. Following a screening of Waters’ brutal Desperate Living with Stole as a middle-class murderer finding refuge from the law in a lawless village ruled by a mad queen, Ms. Stole will discuss her films, answer questions and do a post-show meet and greet.

The festival runs through October 25.

Speaking of festivals, the Festival of New Spanish Cinema plays SIFF through the 21st. Most of the films are US premieres and all of them represent the best of contemporary Spanish filmmaking. Amongst the offerings: The Sound of the Sea, an animated work about freedom, passion, and loss, and The Shame, an emotionally gripping tale of a couple who can’t handle their adopted son and contemplate “sending him back”.

Grand Illusion takes a break from all the graphic horror they’ve screened lately with 1964’s The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. Starring Tony Randall in seven distinct roles, include the titular character, Dr. Lao is a gem of film with a surprising emotional intensity as an extremely unusual circus gives the inhabitants of a small town a unique view of their own selves. Plays nightly at 7; stick around for the 9 pm screening of Jason and the Argonauts, the 1963 telling of the well-known myth that tells an interesting story and features some of classic F/X creator Ray Harryhausen’s best work including a skeleton army that is creepy to this day.

Successful crafter, photographer, blogger and writer Faythe Levine, co-founder of Flying Fish Gallery, adds filmmaker to her already extensive resume with Handmade Nation, her interesting and well-made documentary about the DIY indie craft movement. Crafting encompasses a wide variety of art forms with infinite potential for self-expression and Handmade Nation takes a loving look at many different people involved in various aspects of producing and distributing handmade works with a particular focus on what crafting means to them and what it can mean to others. Artisans of every stripe talk about how they got into making their works of art – subjects include Whitney Lee, who creates latch hook pin-ups and Jenny Hart, whose Sublime Stitching embroidery kits and patterns include pirates and zombies and tattoo style designs – and offer up their ideas on why the indie craft movement keeps growing in popularity. (One reason: people are burned out on the same old mass produced merchandise. Other reasons include sustainability and sticking it to the man.) Store and gallery owners, members of collectives and other key figures add additional insight. Levine’s film has the freewheeling do-it-yourself look and feel of the movement she portrays, effectively capturing its spirit and fun. Handmade Nation makes its Seattle premiere at NWFF on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 and 4:00; Levine will join a group of local indie crafters for post-film discussions at both 1:00 showings.

Also at NWFF, the spirit of 69 continues with Salesman, a fascinating documentary by the Maysles brothers of four hyper-aggressive door-to-door salesmen who harass poor Catholic families into buying ornate bibles. The directors took a hands off approach to filming, allowing the events to unfold the natural way they would if they weren’t being observed. Critic Vincent Canby suggested that Salesman is so “fine” and “pure” that he couldn’t ever imagine it becoming irrelevant; although much has changed in the world of sales in the 40 years since its original release, many of the issues it raises are as immediately significant as ever.

Regular readers can’t have missed my great fondness for the films of Alfred Hitchcock since I promote them every time there’s an opportunity. With good reason – the master of suspense made films that are equally great upon repeated viewings as they are for the first time. SIFF Cinema pays homage to the legendary director with a series of Hitchcock double features screened to coincide with Seattle Rep’s presentation of a stage version of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. Saturday’s features are the excellent Rear Window and Vertigo. Sunday thrill to Dial M for Murder and Strangers on a Train. Monday it’s The 39 Steps and Hitchcock’s own favorite, Shadow of a Doubt.

Sure, it’s been a while since the Supersonics left town, but you don’t just wipe away 41 years of history overnight, particularly when that history includes a pitched battle in the courts of both law and public opinion. Even if you don’t care about the Sonics or even pro basketball in general, the Sonics saga was an interesting one. Sonicsgate is a new documentary film that tells the story of how Seattle lost the Sonics and it makes its world premier at SIFF Cinema Friday night, with an exclusive attendee afterparty at Spitfire. The screening is unsurprisingly sold out but in the spirit of the subject, you could always try hanging outside with a “need extra ticket” sign. Or you could try catching it at Pacific Place on Saturday at 8pm. (Tickets through Brown Paper Tickets.

Grand Illusion gives you a double dose of Deadites with Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness, starring Bruce Campbell and a chainsaw. If these two films aren’t enough blood and guts for you, get your zombie fix on with Zombie, the 1979 Italian horrorfest late night Friday and Saturday.

Central Cinema screens a new indie film, Teenage Dirtbag, an “inspired by true events” drama about a popular high school cheerleader who develops a fragile bond with a delinquent “dirtbag” after they share a creative writing class.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

You can scroll down for my post on the Local Sightings film festival or you could just show up at NWFF and see whatever’s playing at the time you show up. Odds of randomly seeing something great are very highly in your favor. (Feel free to check the schedule in advance, too, of course.)

Can’t get enough of local filmmaking? Week 3 of Washington Grown happens at the Grand Illusion with horror short films by Calvin Reeder, Catalyst Studios, and Tyson Theroux plus late night feature The Customer, by Everett filmmaker Jonathan Holbrook who gives you the story of a man who discovers a mysterious black card that frees him from his financial worries but comes at a higher cost than even Chase or Citibank could assign.

Also at Grand Illusion: The City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs co-sponsors screenings of Rebuilding Hope on Friday and Saturday evenings as well as Saturday afternoon. Director Jen Marlow follows three young men, former refugees from Sudan, as they had back to their original homeland in hopes of learning if their families survived the brutal civil war and what they can do to help rebuild Sudan’s devastated communities. The movie also takes a look at what Sudan’s future might look like; Jen Marlowe and her three primary subjects, Gabriel Bol Deng, Koor Garang and Garang Mayoul, will be on hand for post-screening discussions. All the proceeds from this event go to health care and education projects in South Sudan.

SIFF Cinema is giving you fresh new prints of both Alien and Aliens on Friday night. You know you want to go see Sigourney Weaver kick some alien butt but can’t decide if you like the Ridley Scott original or the James Cameron sequel? Go to both.

Midnight at the Egyptian: The Graduate. A bit dated in parts, but still funny.

Midnight at the Neptune: They tell me that Paranormal Activity manages to be very, very scary with gore, an idea of which I approve, but I’m a little anxious about going to see it anyway. Because it’s very, very scary.

Central Cinema is screening one of the funniest films ever, The Pink Panther. No offense to Steve Martin, whom I like just fine,, but the original Pink Panther is so vastly superior to the later remake that they’re only just barely in the same league. Later episodes in what turned into a long-running franchise even before the remakes would prove to be less and less funny but this first entry is a non-stop laugh riot. Be careful not to choke on your pizza.

Local Sightings is the annual festival of local film now in its 12th year at NWFF.

This NW film showcase features prizes, parties, and all sorts of cool special events, plus, of course, films from Northwest filmmakers. This year’s festival includes a great variety of short and feature length fiction and documentary films and a special presentation of a historical Seattle film.

The complete schedule is online at NWFF’s Local Sightings site but here are a few of your available choices: Opening night film The Mountain, The River, and the Road by Seattle’s Michael Harring tells the story of Jeff whose journey to Austin begins with his parents kicking him out of the house. His friend Tom, who has his own issues, goes along. The trip doesn’t work out quite the way they planned it and next thing you know Jeff’s in Kernville, California, idly hanging out at a motel where he meets a woman with a chainsaw.

On Saturday, Seattle’s Jennifer Maas presents a work in progress – Wheedles Grove. Contrary to what far too many seem to believe, Seattle’s music scene didn’t start in the 1980s–it’s much older than that, dating back to long before even our oldest living citizen was even born. Along the way there have been some interesting developments of ’scene’, like back in the late 1960s when Seattle’s thriving soul scene was just inches away from bursting on the national scene with groups like Black on White Affair, The Soul Swingers and Cold, Bold & Together. Timing is everything, though, and it wasn’t great for these bands which fell back into obscurity until the early 2000s when local collector DJ Mr. Supreme approached the label Light in the Attic about releasing a compilation album.

American Collectors plays on Monday, a documentary that examines the relationships between people and the objects they collect. I have friends who are collectors–you may know some, or you may be one–and even so I’ve never entirely figured out what makes a person want to own a whole bunch of, say, KISS memorabilia or salt shakers or stuffed tarantulas or whatever it is that people collect (matchbooks, old stereo equipment, etc.) American Collectors can’t hope to provide the full answer, probably because there really isn’t a simple cut-and-dried explanation. It does, however, quite effectively tell a fascinating tale of some of the people who like to collect, what they like to collect, and even a bit of why they like to collect. It’s not just about having the things, it turns out.

Sabrina Lee from Montana considers rural American hip hop in Where You From? a movie about the hip hop scene miles and miles from its urban roots. What’s hip hop sound like when it comes from Bozeman or Livington, Montana, or Fortuna, California, instead of big cities like NYC, Chicago, LA, or even Seattle? Lee answers that question by presenting three young men for whom music is a salvation and a driving force in small towns that offer just as many mean streets as the big city.

Other events include the lively opening night party on Friday, a free program of animated works by the students of Lukas Allenbaugh’s Clay Animation Network classes on Saturday, a conversation on Sunday with Seattle historian Paul Dorpat about Seattle in 1969, a Sunday evening program (also free) of locally produced music videos, a variety of shorts programs and much more.

Check the schedule for full details.

One of my favorite movies from this year’s Seattle International Film Festival was Amreeka, writer/director Cherien Dabis’ debut feature, afilm about a single mother who leaves the tumult of the West Bank with her teenaged son in tow to reach the golden paradise of small-town Illinois. Well, okay, it’s not quite the Shangri-la that Muna imagined it to be. She’s welcomed to the United States by Customs agents who regard her home-made treats as a threat to safety and a fleeting moment of distraction wipes out her hard-earned savings, leaving her penniless. At least she has a place to go, the home of her sister and brother-in-law, whose ordinary middle class lifestyle is being threatened by all those “patriotic” Americans who suddenly can’t bear the idea of being treated by the friendly Palestinian dentist because, hey, all those Arabs are terrorists, after all.

Eager to get back on her feet, Muna looks for a job but all her skills and past experience count for nothing and the only employment she can find is working at a local White Castle, a state so embarrassing for her that she pretends to be working at the bank next door. In the meantime, her son Fadi is welcomed to his new high school by a group of kids fully willing to accept him as a potential suicide bomber. Dabis, who based the screenplay on her own family’s immigrant experience, doesn’t shy away from the bleaker aspects of being an immigrant, particularly an immigrant from the Middle East. Dabis was a teenager during the first Gulf War and her family was shunned, threatened and abused by people far too willing to believe the stereotypes fed to them by a biased media.

Despite all this, Amreeka is anything but dreary. Muna, whose character was based on Dabis’ aunt, is human enough to feel despair but has a cheerful, optimistic outlook and a strong spirit. She stumbles through her often confusing new home, a place where everyone else has mastered the unspoken rules that Muna doesn’t even know exist, but she manages to get back on her feet with her hopefulness intact. She’s not quite sure how she’s going to do it, but she is going to find her path, and if she has to flip burgers to survive, well, then, she’s going to flip burgers.

Fadi, in the meantime, not only has the face the usual tribulations of being a teenager (why do people over-sentimentalize these years as the “best days of [your] life”? Adolescence means too old to get the perks of childhood, too young to get the perks of adulthood but just the right age to get the short end of either.) but has to do it in a foreign country where people can’t even get some basic facts right – one of the most engaging scenes for me in Amreeka came when one of Fadi’s jerky classmates insists his brother might die because of [Fadi's] people and Fadi refuses to be gentle in explaining that Iraq and Palestine are hardly the same nation.

Muna and Fadi are strangers in a strange land, but they’re not alone. They have their family–Fadi’s cousin Salma has to take charge of his wardrobe to keep him from looking like a hopeless rube but she’s a genuine friend and ally and a strong voice of her own–and Muna’s warmth earns her friendship and support from a wide variety of people she encounters.

Dabis created Amreeka both as an expression of her own experiences melding two diverse cultures and as a way to counter the stereotyping and ignorance so often applied to Palestinians who are no more a homogeneous lot than are all Americans. Dabis believes that there are good and bad people everywhere–in Amreeka she gives us a look at both but it’s clear that the good people matter more.

Amreeka opens Friday night at the Neptune.

The Seattle International Latino Film Festival runs Friday through Sunday at NWFF, the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, and Cinerama presenting a variety of films that represent the vitality and diversity of Spanish-speaking communities around the world. Forget the stereotypes: these films present a broad range of Latino expression presenting multiple viewpoints and experiences. Some of the screenings include: Children of the Amazon is a documentary by Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol in which she travels a highway into the depths of the Amazon to find the Surui and Negarote children she’d photographed fifteen years ago and to document how their lives were changed when a road was built directly into the heart of the forest.

El Regalo, from Chile, is a feature about two men who try to cheer up their recently widowed friend by inviting him to the Chilean hot springs and bringing along the woman who was his first true love as a young man.

An upper-class young man from Bogota is kidnapped by a guerilla group and must struggle to hold on to his life and his soul in the midst of violent conflict in La Milagrosa.

Other films in the festival include documentaries and features both serious and comedic.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Cult sci-fi comedy adventure The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Midnight at the Neptune: Paranormal, a thriller about a couple who set up a surveillance system to gather evidence proving that their house is haunted almost universally described in reviews as one of the scariest films ever made even though (maybe because of?) its minimal gore.

SIFF hosts the MIFFF.

NWFF presents a new entry in their Live at the Film Forum series with Bridging Wounds in which artists Paris Hurley, Ezra Dickinson, Jamie Iacoli, Tilla Kuenzil, Amanda Moore and Paurl Walsh blend original movement, music, and animation to explore the connection between words and perception. Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm.

On Sunday, NWFF offers three screenings of Speaking in Tongues, a documentary that examines bilingual education in America at the level of the students enrolled in it, following two native English speaking students in a Mandarin immersion program and two ESL students who also retain their original language. A panel discussion including local academic figures follows the 3:00 pm screening.

If you missed Revanche earlier this year, or if you caught it and would like to see it again, you get your chance to see it at the Grand Illusion starting Friday. Nominated for the year’s best foreign film Oscar, Revanche is a powerful neo-noir about revenge and how a single event can connect even the most unlikely of people.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Harold and Maude, the 70s black comedy about the relationship between a fun-loving senior citizen and a suicidal young man.

The Maelstrom International Film Festival is a weekend long festival of independent and international genre films, specializing in movies of the types that can be overlooked at other festivals – animation, horror, fantasy and science fiction. It’s going on this weekend at SIFF Cinema with a number of excellent offerings.

Friday night see The Revenent, winner of the Silver Vision Award for best independent film at the Toronto After Dark festival, a feature about an ancient pestilence coming back to attack modern man. It’s paired with Death in Charge, a short film in which the Grim Reaper gets mistaken for a babysitter.

Saturday gives you the chance to see three different shorts programs: Animation and Fantasy at noon, Science Fiction at 2:30 and Horror at 6:00. Saturday night’s feature is Pig Hunt, at 8:30, a film in which hillbillies, hippies and a giant pig collide in a pot field in Northern California. Plays with a short entitled The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.

Sunday morning at 11:30 check out out a double feature of locally produced science fiction films and come back at 2:30 for a program of Fantasy shorts.

Until the Light Takes Us at 6:00 pm Sunday is afeature length documentary about the unique, often strange and sometimes violent subculture of Norwegian black metal.

The final screening of the festival comes Sunday evening with Strigoi, a Gold winner at Toronto After Dark that introduces an ancient Romanian legend: the strigoi, souls who rise from death to seek justice for having been wronged in life and now come with a thirst for human blood. The director/writer and producer will be on hand to discuss the movie.

Celebrate Northwest film with Grand Illusion’s Washington Grown festival, three whole weeks of shorts and features all created by Washington filmmakers. Week one offers up two separate line-ups playing daily: “Local Laughs” is a collection of comedy shorts from local independents and “Fringe Favorites” features the best of Seattle’s avant garde comedy.

Late night at the Grand Illusion on the 4th and 5th see the Seattle and World Premiere of Effing Brutal, the illustrated feature-length sequel to Brian Lebrecque’s short film Far Too Gone, telling the story of Josh Lowell, a crazed Tori Amos fan who thinks he is Amos. After Josh and his sidekick accidentally join a transvestite cult, Josh is kidnapped by their rivals in a skateboarding cult.

Milestones, at NWFF is a 1975 documentary about a group of idealistic American political activists struggling to express their beliefs in a stifling political environment.

Sunday, September 6, at NWFF seevacuum, local filmmaker Brent Robert’s latest work, about a vacuum cleaner salesman who gets sent on a call to a drug dealer’s house. The film is preceded by two B&W Super 8 shorts and followed by live musical performances by Maggie Brown, Aham Ohuo, Micheal Bradley & Donald Hagenlock, Via Murder and The Curious Mystery. As an added inducement, beer and wine will be available at the concession stand to go with the free cake.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Big budget dino spectacular Jurassic Park.

If you’re going to Bumbershoot this weekend, be sure to check out the One Reel Film Festival with short film programs playing all weekend.

Contemporary science fiction films typically rely very heavily on their special effects to tell their stories, effects which are often quite costly. It doesn’t take a fortune to make a good movie, though. Case in point: Ink (YouTube trailer here), the new release from Double Edge films, a story about the forces that battle for human souls through their dreams that manages to tell an intriguing story with powerful visuals every bit as stunning as you’d expect from a big ticket production from the majors even though it was shot on the usual shoestring indie budget. The benevolent Storytellers give people good dreams that inspire and give hope. The Incubi use nightmares to attack and destroy. Caught between them is a man who must face down his own demons to rescue his little girl when she is stolen away by the Incubi. This extraordinary new film screens for two nights this weekend at Northwest Film Forum, Friday and Saturday at 11 pm.

Also at NWFF: Over a hundred thousand protesters took to the streets of Burma in 2007, the start of a rebellion against government oppression. As in Iran this year, the Burmese government shut down the media and free communication in and out of the country, forcing citizens to use new technologies to make their voices heard. Members of the Democratic Voice of Burma took to the streets to film the rebellion as it was happening and then smuggled their footage into Thailand to share it with the rest of the world. Burma VJ shows you the stories they fought so hard to tell.

Much closer to home is the Columbia Basin in Southwestern Washington, an area still struggling to recover from its past as a source of plutonium production in the 1940s. Arid Lands is a thoughtful documentary about the many different perspectives and opinions on the largest environmental clean up site in the world, featuring insights from Yakama Indians, farmers, housing developers, environmental activists and radiation scientists. Also playing at NWFF.

Many a frustrated actor has tried breaking free of typecasting by taking on a completely new type of role, but few have succeeded so well as Tyrone Power in 1947’s Nightmare Alley, on screen at the Grand Illusion. Best known at the time as the lead in a series of popular romances, Powers turns to the dark side as a drifter who takes on a job as a carnival barker where he becomes fascinated by the show’s Geek, who bites the heads off of live chickens in exchange for a bottle of rotgut and a place to sleep. When he’s not watching the Geek, he’s worming his way into the arms of the widow of a mentalist, using her to learn her late husband’s tricks before deserting her for another woman. Even after achieving success with his new wife, Powers remains dissatisfied and he soon joins forces with an unethical psychiatrist who helps him bilk the wealthy by convincing them he can communicate with their deceased loved ones. He charges them plenty, but it’s him who pays the highest cost in the end.

The tough and lovely ladies of the Rat City Rollergirls are the stars of Blood on the Flat Track: The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls, an excellent locally produced documentary about the first two seasons of the popular local league. At Central Cinema.

SAM pairs a series of short films by Stan Brakhage, David Rimmer, and Yoko Ono with a screening of Two-Lane Blacktop, a cult film from 1971 in which James Taylor and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson star as a couple of disaffected young men who race their souped up ‘55 Chevy across the backroads of America. August 28 at 7:30 pm.

Midnight at the Egyptian: This is Spinal Tap. a movie that by now should require no more introduction.

It’s the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) celebrates with Taking Woodstock, a comedy inspired by the true story of young Elliott Tiber who leaves behind the happening Greenwich Village scene to help his parents run their motel in upstate New York. Hoping to get some new business for the motel, he calls the producers of some hippie rock festival who’ve just had their permit request turned down. The rest is, literally, history. At Metro Cinemas.