In-Person: Sep. 15 at 7pm
Online: Sep. 15–24
Opening Feature: Fantasy A Gets A Mattress 
(David Norman Lewis & Noah Zoltan Sofian, Seattle, WA, 2023, 80 min, in English)
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Local Sightings alum Fantasy A returns as our guest of honor for opening night! Last we saw the local legend, in 2017’s Fantasy A Gets Jacked, his dreams of a perfect birthday were being thwarted at every turn by rival rappers and all-around a-holes. In 2023, after being kicked out of one group home after another, he sets his sights on an equally precious and personal goal: getting a mattress–all while achieving superstardom. 

Join us for this ode to the hustling strivers of our city, with a zany cast of characters that includes a scheming loanster, a wannabe martial arts master, and the jilted cousin of a rap sensation. This ensemble comedy filmed entirely on-location does for Seattle what Do the Right Thing did for Brooklyn.

Fantasy A will play a live set and kick off the festival with a screening of Fantasy A Gets A Mattress on September 15th.

Dress code: Wear your funkiest color-block attire! Mattress optional. 

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In-Person: Sep. 16 at 6:30pm
Online: Sep. 15–24
Even Hell Has Its Heroes
(Clyde Petersen, WA, 2022, 109 min)
Trailer>

Earth, the slowest metal band on the planet, has been conjuring tectonic changes in music since 1989. The band created a glacially paced subgenre of metal and played a pivotal role in the popularization of grunge, all while visionary frontman Dylan Carlson was battling small-town boredom, heroin addiction, and the tragic death of his roommate and best friend, Kurt Cobain.

Despite the decibel level of its beloved and beautiful drone metal, Earth has rarely had much to say for itself. Clyde Petersen’s Even Hell Has Its Heroes is a moving saga that traces Earth’s could-have-been-tragic trajectory for the first time, with equal respect for the music, the ragtag eccentrics who channel it, and the surreal majesty of the Pacific Northwest that shaped the band’s sound.

A deep portrait of a slow band that changes everything it touches.
 

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In-Person: Sep. 23 at 4pm
Online: Sep. 15–24
Local Haunts (Short Film Program)
(76 min TRT)
These love letters to the people and places of the PNW profile the community gathering places – dive bars, video stores, bookstores, and queer co-ops from the San Juans to Hilltop – that make our region special.

Header photo credit: Vanishing Seattle Presents: We Are Reckless, dir. Drew Highlands & CJ Fernandez

Vanishing Seattle Presents: We Are Reckless
(Drew Highlands & CJ Fernandez, Seattle, WA, 2023, 12 min)
World premiere!
Vanishing Seattle Presents: We Are Reckless intimately documents the bittersweet final month of the last family-owned video store in Seattle, Reckless Video. Through poignant interviews with the former owner, employees, and loyal customers, the documentary captures the deep love and appreciation for the store, physical media, and the vibrant sense of community it fostered.

Neighborhood
(Theodore Calhoun, Tacoma, WA, 2021, 9 min) Seattle premiere!
Neighborhood explores the connections between gentrification and settler colonialism in the historically Black neighborhood of Hilltop in Tacoma, WA. Trailer >

I Empower As A Mother
(Inder Nirwan & Dani Barker, Vancouver, BC, 2022, 10 min)
An activist, a bookshop owner, a mother reflecting on the challenges of modern living in Vancouver during these unprecedented times. Trailer >

This is concrete
(Alice Gosti & June Zandona, Seattle, WA, 2022, 14 min)
The body becomes architecture in the iconic abandoned military bunkers of Fort Worden National Park as personal and geographical histories are interwoven in this genre-bending dance.

Vanishing Seattle: Queer the Land
(Netsanet Tjirongo, Seattle, WA, 2023, 14 min)
After witnessing countless friends and family lose everything to gentrification and displacement, a group of longtime Seattle activists form an organization dedicated to creating community and affordable housing for Queer and Trans People of Color. Four years later, and in the midst of a global pandemic and historic racial reckoning, Queer the Land is finally able to realize their goal with the purchase of a home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood; but soon discover the myriad barriers that lie in their wake.

Vanishing Seattle: Queer the Land is the story of a changing neighborhood, a tenacious community, and an unwavering dream.

Hi Crime - "Barefoot Pretender"
(Dylan Randolph, Mitch Etter & Brielle Rutledge, Seattle, WA, 2023, 6 min, in English) World premiere!
A folk rock mini-odyssey, the music video for Seattle band Hi Crime’s Barefoot Pretender follows the band as they traverse woods, streams, and the Salish Sea before arriving at a grandiose stone structure which transports them to somewhere unknown.

Good Night and Good Duck
(Colbe Schicatano, Seattle, WA, 2023, 12 min, in English) Seattle premiere!
On the night of its ten-year anniversary and closing party, patrons and staff of Seattle dive Speckled and Drake reminisce on the good times they shared and what made their spot special.
 

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In-Person: Sep. 24 at 7pm
Online: Sep. 15–24
Sacred Places: Indigenous Shorts 
(47 min TRT)

Two documentaries show how deeply linked environmental stewardship and family are for their indigenous subjects. Discussions of spirituality, political advocacy, and heritage all flow together in both films, creating a comprehensive call to action to present and future generations of ecological protectors. 

Header photo credit: Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum (Salmon People), dir. Katie Campbell

Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum (Salmon People)
(Katie Campbell, WA/OR, 2022, 26 min, in English)
When the salmon are running up the Columbia River, Native people are there with them. They live, eat and sleep at the river. Their children grow up at the river. They catch salmon for subsistence, for ceremonies and for their living. This is the life of the Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum, the Salmon People. It is a life Columbia River tribal people have lived for generations and have fought for decades to protect.

Over the last century and a half, they have watched as restrictions to their access to salmon have rapidly increased. Treaties displaced them from their traditional fishing areas; dams massively reduced the numbers of salmon that swam in the waters; environmental contamination made salmon habitats unviable. And now, as climate change threatens the salmon throughout its life, the stakes of that fight are existential. Trailer >

Tuhaymani'chi Pal Waniqa (The Water Flows Always)
(Nils Cowan & Gina Milanovich, Seattle, WA, 2023, 20 min, in English, Cahuilla, Ute-Southern Paiute-Chemehuevi with English subtitles)
A father seeks to reconnect his daughter with her indigenous roots and with the ancient springs of the Mojave Desert, just as a new water-mining project threatens their very existence.
 

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