Filmmakers around the world will converge in Portland on Friday, when the 27th-annual Portland International Film Festival opens. Hosted by the Northwest Film Center, the festival will feature more than 60 films and 33 shorts from more than 30 countries. The films include a number of favorites from other international film festivals, such as Lars von Trier’s “Dogville,” as well as a few other lesser-known selections.
“We want to bring films to a regional audience that they couldn’t usually see,” NWFC marketing manager Thomas Phillipson said. “We want to bring in the views of other cultures.”
The festival has gained a growing respect and popularity over the years, drawing in more than 30,000 attendees a year, according to Phillipson.
Drawing from a year’s worth of screening films and checking out other film festivals, NWFC has plenty to offer its audiences. Everything from Bernardo Bertolucci’s ode to the late 1960s Paris film scene, “The Dreamers,” to “Free Radicals,” director Barbara Albert’s film about chaos theory and a small town in Austria, will make an appearance.
While the primary focus of the festival is international films, there are a few American entries, mostly in the form of documentaries. Among them are Jonathan Demme’s “The Agronomist,” a documentary about Haitian radio personality and political activist Jean Dominique, and Jehane Noujaim’s “The Control Room,” about the Arabian news channel Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the war in Iraq.
Four collections of short films will play at various times during the festival. Ranging from a few minutes in length to just more than 30 minutes long, the shorts in this year’s festival are made with a diversity of techniques, including live action, animation, CGI and stop-motion. Among the popular selections are “This Charming Man,” an Oscar-winning short from Denmark and the Japanese animated short “Mt. Head,” which played in Eugene as part of “The Animation Show” at the Bijou Art Cinemas in November.
Chel White’s “Magda” departs from the rest of the festival’s fare as the only film playing that was made in Oregon. White, who directs commercials for the Bent Image Lab in Portland, made the film over the course of five months using a volunteer crew. The animated short details a man’s love for a circus contortionist and debuted at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival. Its appearance at the Portland International Film Festival will mark its American debut.
“We usually don’t include Northwest films and most of the new ones were showcased at our Northwest Film & Video Festival in November,” NWFC director Bill Foster said. “But Chel’s film just got finished, and since this is its premiere and it has a European flavor, it felt worth the exception.”
Director White, who has had his films selected by NWFC for other festivals, said he holds the Center in high regard.
“I think we’re really lucky here in Portland to have NWFC,” White said. “It’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed here.”
The Portland International Film Festival will be showing at the Regal Broadway Cinemas, the Guild Theatre and the Whitsell Auditorium in the Portland Art Museum. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for children. For more information, contact the Festival Ticket Center at (503) 228-7433 or the Northwest Film Center at (503) 221-1156 or visit its Web site at http://www.nwfilm.org.