PORT TOWNSEND — The 25th Port Townsend Film Festival will bring more than 60 films to the Peninsula this weekend.
Attendees can choose from a number of film genres, whether they’re interested in feature or shot films, narrative or documentary.
For ticket and schedule details, visit ptfilm.org.
A number of ticketing options are available, including full weekend passes, those including three or six tickets, or individual screenings.
Persons with limited resources can contact organizers at info@ptfilm.org to request a free six-pass. Free passes are majorly funded by money made from the patron tier pass sales.
Among the festival’s many special guests will be Catherine Hardwicke, best known for directing “Twilight.”
The festival will screen her film “Thirteen” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion, 209 Monroe St.
Festival organizers will present “filmmakers of the global majority” and a “women & film” track, which participants can use to focus their schedules. Planners can visit the website to hone in on further categories, including LGBTQ+, first-time feature directors, activism films, comedies or dramas.
At 5:30 p.m. Friday, there will be a filmmakers’ parade featuring a marching band and with filmmakers arriving in classic cars. Festival organizers are working with the Rakers Classic Car Club of Port Townsend for the parade.
Films will be shown free to the public on Taylor Street from Friday through Sunday nights at 7:30 p.m., following nightly 6 p.m. dinner breaks. Taylor Street will be closed to traffic during the films.
George Lucas’ classic “American Graffiti” will play on Taylor Street on Friday night. The Saturday night outdoor movie will be Louie Schwartzberg’s “Fantastic Fungi.” Playing outside on Sunday night will be 1979’s “The Muppet Movie.”
“I would really encourage them to bring their lawn chairs and come down to Taylor Street for the free films on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night,” said Danielle McClelland, the festival’s executive director. “The weather is looking really perfect for movie watching, and there’s just really no way to describe how special it is to be seated on Taylor Street looking at this big glowing screen and have the sun setting over Port Townsend Bay while that happens.”
The festival also will offer live music in public spaces, record a live film podcast and present filmmakers’ forums to provide individuals with an opportunity to go into depth with the filmmakers on their processes and artistry.
The festival will host more than 50 filmmakers during the weekend event. Opportunities to hear them speak about their work can be researched on the website search area, which has an option called “meet the director,” which highlights every movie with filmmakers in attendance.
The festival is spread throughout downtown Port Townsend, with films showing in nine theaters through Sunday.
Weekend watchers will have an opportunity to zig-zag between the Rose Theater, the Starlight Room, Rosebud Theater, Key City Public Theater, the Pope Marine Building, American Legion, 821 WA, CoLab and the outside screen on Taylor Street.
The film festival’s opening night gala is sold out, McClelland said. Tickets were available for individual purchase and were a part of the patron tier festival pass.
Patrons passes were $750, $505 more than regular weekend passes, with the difference going to the Peter Simpson free cinema fund, which grants a free six-film pass to anyone interested who cannot afford the festival.
“Fish Wars” will be the sole film playing on Thursday night, screening both in the Starlight Room and the Rose theater.
“I’m really very excited to have that as our opening night film,” McClelland said. “It’s an opportunity for the Northwest Treaty Tribes, which are the producers of the film, to celebrate this amazing achievement of this documentary focused around the Boldt decision and all of the activism that the tribal nations in our area have been responsible for that has saved our ecosystem, not that the work is completely done.”
McClelland is generally too busy behind the scenes to sit and enjoy many entire films during the weekend, but they said they had a final decision role in selecting the films from the more than 500 submissions the festival received.
“The other thing that I’m also very excited about is the ‘Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot’” documentary,” McClelland said. “This is a documentary highlighting a little-known innovator in dance and street performance, Robert Shields, who is claimed by all kinds of hip-hop and breakdance innovators and leaders, as being the person who inspired them.”
“Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot” plays at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the American Legion and at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Key City Public Theater.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
