July 19-26, 2006

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Below Sea Level Stories From New Orleans, once innundated by flood, a new tide of art begins to appear. This evening presents a series of short films directly addressing Katrina and its aftermath. Subjects include African Americans preparing their Mardi Gras parade float; the fate of New Orleans' many majestic oak trees; and home movies literally recovered from the flood, the film stock itself now distorted by being submerged, a new layer of memory written on the old. (NR) 911 Media Arts Center, 402 Ninth Ave. N., 206-682-6552. $5-$7. 7:30p.m. Thurs. July 20.

Black Pride Film Events Screenings will include Dani and Alice, about lesbians coping with domestic violence; see Web site for full details. (NR) Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St., Volunteer Park, 206-625-8900, www.seattleblackpride.org. $10 (two-day pass). 3 p.m. Sat. July 22. Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 17th Ave. S., 206-684-4710. Noon. Sun. July 23.

Born Into Brothels This Oscar-winning 2004 documentary is one of those films you admire more than you enjoy. Co-director Zana Briski began visiting Calcutta's red-light district as a photojournalist in 1995, then launched an initiative to make photographers out of the unloved urchins by giving them cameras of their own. Her degree of access and trust is fairly remarkable. The effect is like watching a CARE card come to life: Yes, there's unspeakable misery and suffering in the world, but Westerners aren't the ones patronizing these whorehouses.We're not implicated, despite Briski's best efforts and intentions. (R) Keystone Church, 5019 Keystone Pl. N., 206-632-6021. Free. 7 p.m. Fri. July 21.

Breakfast at Tiffany's SAM's Audrey Hepburn tribute continues with her starring as Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards' 1961 spin on the Truman Capote novel. And, boy, does she star in it. George Peppard barely registers more than the wallpaper as the kept man/aspiring writer—actually gay in the novel—who hopes to win Holly Golightly's hand. Mickey Rooney stoops to racist caricature as her Japanese neighbor upstairs, but at least Patricia Neal keeps dignity intact as Peppard's lusty employer. An Oscar went to the Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer standard-to-be, "Moon River," famously written to suit Hepburn's one-octave singing voice. (PG) Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Ave. E., 206-654-3121. $35-$39 (series), $6-$8 (individual). 7:30 p.m. Thurs. July 20.

Filmmakers Saloon Quitting is the subject of this open roundtable discussion, which addresses the perennial question facing anyone trying to forge a movie career here in Seattle: Do I have to leave town to make it in film? Leading the discussion will be Dom Zook of GadZook Films and Andrew McAllister, whose second local feature, Urban Scarecrow, recently debuted at SIFF. So maybe there's hope after all. Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380. $3-$5. 7 p.m. Wed. July 26.

Kaleidoscope Eyes: Songs for Busby Berkeley Seattle composer Chris Jeffries (Vera Wilde, The Fatty Arbuckle Spookhouse Review) sets 16 old movie choreography sequences to new music in this 75-minute program. Let's hope he has copyright clearances for his source materials (which include Gold Diggers of 1933 and Jumbo). His score is augmented by a chorus of six area vocalists. The show is directed by Ed Hawkins, with Jeffries a fellow alumnus of Annex Theatre. The program also repeats next week. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380. $12-$15. 8 p.m. Thurs. July 20-Sun. July 23.

Kaosu (Chaos) A well-tumbled jade of thriller triple-crosses and noirish iconography, Hideo Nakata's 1999 Chaos lacks the subterranean frisson of his Ring cycle but maintains their concision and fearsome ellipticality. Screened on video, Chaos begins with a simple kidnapping—an executive's lithe, ravishing wife disappears from a restaurant's front curb after lunch, and almost immediately she's hog-tied somewhere, the threatening kidnapper making a confident ransom call to the all-business hubby. Doubling back, however, we see that the wife faked the abduction. Naturally, the worm turns again and again in this demi-Hitchcockian death trap, and Nakata knows how to shoot scenes of breath-holding paranoia: from a distance, simply, in real time. However surefooted and wicked, Nakata's film may seem a trifle routine; contemporary thrillers have become so much more baroque than any real-life felony that they tend to resemble one another. (NR) MICHAEL ATKINSON Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 7 p.m. Thurs. July 20-Sun.July 23.

Maurice Hugh Grant and James Wilby play two mixed-up Cambridge students who fall in love during the last days before WWI in this 1987 Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel. Class differences, platonic ideals of love, and the cruel (cruel!) strictures of Edwardian society keep the men apart. For a while. But this is famously Forster's secret "happy ending" novel, only published after his death, a kind of wish-fulfillment project for the shyly closeted writer. As such, its modest aims and satisfying conclusion are well-suited to Merchant-Ivory's tact. And the supporting cast (Rupert Graves, Ben Kingsley, Simon Callow, Denholm Elliott, etc.) certainly doesn't hurt. Screened on video. (R) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 9:30 p.m. Wed. July 19-Sun. July 23.

Outdoor Movies at Linda's Wacky old educational films may raise dim memories from elementary school. 21 and over. (NR) Linda's Tavern, 707 E. Pine St., 206-325-1220. Free. Dusk. Wed. July 19. Expect more old shorts, oddities, and TV commercials for products you certainly can't find any more at Wal-Mart. Dusk. Wed. July 26.