PORT GAMBLE — The Port Townsend Film Festival will host a sneak-peek event on Saturday in anticipation of its 25th annual festival next month.
The event will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Port Gamble Theater, 4839 View Drive NE. Tickets can be purchased online at https://ptff2024.eventive.org/ schedule/66a7d9cd97b436006ef2df3d.
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this, in recent history anyway,” said Keith Hitchcock, marketing and development director for the festival. “It’s a sneak preview of our main event of the year.
“We’ve partnered with Port Gamble and we’re gonna be in their historic theater, which is gonna be a super fun blend of the past meets contemporary film.”
The Port Gamble preview will screen eight short films, which also will be a part of the main festival, either as part of a shorts event or shown before feature films, Hitchcock said.
“It will be kind of a taster plate of what’s to come at the festival,” he said.
On the schedule for Saturday are “Last Stand: Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests,” “The Path” and “Tina.”
“Last Stand: Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests,” directed by Dan Herz, is a documentary following a group of conservation agencies and their attempts to block the harvest of an ecologically sensitive forest in the Elwha watershed, by whatever legal means possible.
“The Path” is a short animated poem written, directed and animated by Michelle Hagewood, a mixed-media artist who lives in Port Townsend.
“Tina,” directed by Laura Sweeney, tells the story of two people on an apparent first date who discover that they share a history.
Other short films to be screened on Saturday include “Clean Bill of Health,” “Love Photosynthesis,” “The Storyteller,” “Lichtblick — Glimmer of Hope” and “Julian.”
Organizers also will play a number of trailers for films set to be screened at the festival Sept. 19-22 in Port Townsend, Hitchcock said.
The festival will screen more than 50 films from all over the world.
It also will offer workshops, panels and a film podcast recording featuring Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight and Lords of Dogtown. Hardwicke’s film “13” will play at the festival.
“We spend so much time curating these movies,” Hitchcock said. “We get hundreds of submissions. This year we had a team of 30 volunteers reviewing these films. At the same time, our program managers are seeking other films that are, say, ‘making a splash’ at Sundance or Tribeca or other film festivals.
“These films are coming at us from different angles and we whittle them down to essentially the best 60-plus films that are available in the world right now. Really you can’t go wrong with any of the offerings.”
Ticket information for the Port Townsend Film Festival can be found at https://ptff2024.eventive.org/passes/buy.
The full festival lineup, announced today, can be found at https://ptff2024.eventive.org/films. View the schedule at https://ptff2024.eventive.org/schedule?date=2024-09-20.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
