Local Members Featured at Film Fest

By Rachel Glass
Local Board Member

The Pacific Northwest is still aglow as the much-celebrated Seattle International Film Festival recently came to a close, concluding its 40th milestone year. This year, SIFF outdid itself, boasting a total of 435 films, including 198 live-action and animated features, 60 documentaries, 163 shorts and 14 archival films. SIFF attracted submissions from around the world, including 44 world premieres, 13 U.S. premieres and 24 Northwest premieres.

Thousands of enthusiastic filmgoers from Seattle and across the globe packed the nine venues in Seattle, Bellevue, Renton and Kirkland. In addition to the films, participants could attend special forums on various aspects of the cinema and meet celebrities and movie stars at special tribute events. There were also galas and parties for opening and closing nights, as well as in between.

Members of the board of directors and staff of the SAG-AFTRA Seattle Local came out in force to not only show their support for the festival, but to serve as ambassadors for the union by attending 145-plus films and events (that’s fully a third of all the films shown over the course of the 24-day festival). They spoke to hundreds of attendees about the union and its benefits.

SAG-AFTRA Seattle Local Board President Steve Reeder enjoyed meeting and chatting with Richard Linklater, writer-director of Boyhood, winner of this year's Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress; he also met Chris Messina, the first-time director and co-star of Alex of Venice; first-time director Alan Hicks and Justin Kauflin, pianist-protagonist of the excellent documentary Keep on Keepin' on; and, notably, Yusup Razykov, the director of the Russian picture, Shame.

SAG-AFTRA Seattle Local Board member Jagger Gravning attended screenings of many of our locally made films, which were also chock full of local union talent such as Tony Doupe, Russell Hodgkinson and Conner Marx. At the premiere of Megan Griffiths’ Lucky Them, Gravning and I had the chance to speak with Tony Fulgham, co-founder of local production company World Famous. Fulgham shot the marvelous SIFF “cinescape”-themed intros utilizing SAG-AFTRA’s own Wonder Russell and Lisa Coronado. Says Gravning, “SIFF is a key engine for promoting productions featuring local union talent, and additionally, getting to know SIFF’s programmers, board members and staff is one of the great benefits of attending screenings during the fest, along with the opportunities for meeting directors and producers.”

One of the highlights of the festival for me was getting to meet Caroll Spinney at the screening of I Am Big Bird. This sweet, gentle man, who is now 80 and still playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street, had the audience in the palm of his hand. Most amazing fact: Spinney was supposed to go up into space on the ill-fated mission of the space shuttle Challenger, but was taken off the mission at the last minute because the Big Bird costume was too large to fit in the shuttle!

I also got to meet and chat with Keith Miller, the director of the raw and emotional Five Star; Hellion director Kat Candler; Sara Colangelo, director of the very gripping Little Accidents; and Justin Simien, director and writer of the excellent Dear White People, which won a 2014 Grand Jury Prize for Best FutureWave Feature. I was also thrilled to see and congratulate fellow colleagues/union members Hans Altweis, SAG-AFTRA Seattle Local Board member Abby Dylan and PUP Kelsey Packwood, co-stars of BFE, written and directed by local filmmaker and actor Shawn Telford. I also want to give big kudos to the locally produced My Last Year with the Nuns (director Bret Fetzer, starring SAG-AFTRA member Matt Smith), which garnered the 2014 Best of SIFF honors.

This item was originally featured in the July 2014 local newsletter.