SEATTLE UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
runs Oct. 4-8 at Chop Suey, Jewel Box Theater, and Little Theatre
WHILE HANNIBAL Lecter is merrily chomping his way through Red Dragon this weekend, wouldn’t you rather watch Christ as a blood-spattered killer? Our savior knows how to handle a little boy’s mean parents—chop them up and stuff their entrails in Hefty bags! (Of course, the Lord also likes to take a break during the cleanup to drag on a cigarette and lift a few brews.)
One of some 70-odd titles at the fourth annual Seattle Underground Film Festival, Timmy’s Wish screens during a short film program called “Facing the Void” (7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, Jewel Box). Other shorts are also usefully grouped during the five-day fest. Among those we’ve previewed, subjects include bickering lab animals in space (one with a human ear sprouting from his back); the lighter side of menstruation; anonymous cybersex (many, many typos ensue); and a woman possibly knitting while drowning.
That somber last work is by Seattle artist Rachel Lordkenaga, one of two locals whose films will be showcased at SUFF (the other is time-lapse filmmaker John Nonnenmacher). The fest’s likely highlight is the West Coast premiere of Michael Snow’s Corpus Callosum (9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, Chop Suey), which The New York Times called “a playful parlor trick, a departure from the performance-art films that have made this director’s reputation.”
Pioneering avant-gardists Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger are both represented with new short works, the latter’s dealing with occultist Aleister Crowley and funded by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page! (Hey, in one short doc you can even find Eddie Vedder crooning to a stadium full of deluded year-2000 Nader voters.)
There’s too much more to mention here (plus the parties!), so visit www.seattleundergroundfilm.com or call 545-SUFF for more info. Tell them Hannibal sent you.
