The location for a number of films, including “An Officer and a Gentleman”‘ and “Enough,” Port Townsend will be the spot for screenings, discussions and even classes on the film industry this weekend.
The third annual Port Townsend Film Festival begins tonight, Friday, and continues through Sunday, Sept. 22.
Highlights of this year’s festival include:
* “A Very Special Evening with Patricia Neal.” There will be a screening of her 1963 science fiction classic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” at the Taylor Streets outdoor theater tonight, Friday, and the 1963 film, “Hud,” at the Broughton Theater at Port Townsend High School, on Saturday. Following the screening, she will be interviewed by Robert Osborne, host for the Turner Classic Movies cable channel.
* Screenwriter Stewart Stern will screen and discuss his 1968 film, “Rachel, Rachel,” at 5 p.m. at the high school, on Sunday. The movie starred Joanne Woodward and was directed by Paul Newman. Osborne will also interview Stern after the screening.
* The festival will offer its first-ever double feature within an abbreviated “director’s series” that profiles French New Wave director François Truffaut. KUOW-FM film critic Robert Horton will present “Stolen Portraits,” a documentary on Truffant followed by a screening of a newly restored print of “Day for Night,” the director’s 1973 ode to the joy and pain of filmmaking, starring Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud, on Saturday at 12:15 p.m. at the Rosebud.
Northwest premiers at the 2002 Port Townsend Film Festival will include:
* The Sundance Film Festival audience award-winning documentary, “Daughter from Danang,” in which producers Gail Dolgin and Vincente Franco follow Heidi Bub as she returns to Vietnam to reunite with her mother from whom she was taken during Operation Babylift in 1975.
* “The Man Who Sued God,” an Australian comedy starring Judy Davis and Billy Connolly. The film poses big questions with a great sense of humor when a man whose boat was destroyed by lightning takes on the insurance industry after adjusters refuse to pay on what they call “an act of God.” The question of God’s existence becomes a major questions in court. Director is Mark Joffee.
* “Mile Zero,” a riveting Canadian drama about a man struggling to come to grips with the loss of his wife and son through divorce and his slow descent into madness as he goes to extremes to keep his son. Director is Andrew Carrie.
* “Photos to Send.” Documentarian Deirdre Lynch returns to the Irelenad that photographer Dorothea Lange chronicled in the 1950s. This was winner of the best documentary prize at the 2001 Gateway Film Festival.
* “The Milk of Human Kindness,” a French drama about a young mother who, in a moment of panic and overwhelming sense of responsibility, walk away from her family. Director is Dominique Cabrera.
Dale Case, a Joyce resident and filmmaker, has two animated short films showing at the festival.
One film made several years ago, “The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam,” was nominated for an Academy Award and another current film, “The Cheese Shop,” placed Silver at the Houston International Film Festival this year.
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Full coverage appears in Peninsula Spotlight, in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News.
