Words and Pictures

  Filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest goes back well over a century, and the movies made in Oregon tend to be more experimental and quirky than the typical Hollywood fare.  Meanwhile, audiences in Oregon tend to be more supportive of their theaters than their counterparts ... Read more

  The streaming comedy series Shrill, based on the memoir by Seattleite Lindy West, tackles such hot-button issues as abortion, cancer care, and body shaming.  Filmed in Portland, and inheriting a production team from the sketch comedy series Portlandia, Shrill boasts the ... Read more

  In this freewheeling 2007 conversation from Portland's Platform Animation Festival, Bill Dodge and S.W. Conser sit down with seven-time Academy Award-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom, whose film credits include Jurassic Park, Titanic, Terminator 2, and Saving Private... Read more

  In a normal year, U.S. animation fans would have to cross the border to attend TAAFI — the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International.  But this year, thanks to the quarantine lockdown, the festival's shorts and features and workshops can be appreciated by audiences a... Read more

  The Portland International Film Festival is normally a highlight of the rainy season's arts calendar.  Thanks to the pandemic lockdown, all of this year's events are presented either online or at the Cinema Unbound Drive-In. Three local filmmakers join us to talk about t... Read more

  In this extended conversation about the 44th Portland International Film Festival, we spend an extra 20 minutes with three local filmmakers whose new projects are highlights of the festival lineup.   Dawn Jones Redstone has teamed up with Artists Repertory Theatre to cre... Read more

  For the past 30 years, the Cascade Festival of African Films has brought African films and African filmmakers to Portland, with screenings and events at Portland Community College, the Kennedy School, and the Hollywood Theatre.  But with the Covid-19 shutdown, the festiv... Read more

  Writer David F Walker is known for his work on such comics titles as Shaft, Luke Cage, and Power Man & Iron Fist.  In Portland, he covered the film scene for Willamette Week as well as his self-published blaxploitation zine BadAzzMoFo, and curated the Longbaugh Film Fest... Read more

  Animator Nina Paley is one of the most independent of filmmakers.  Her two feature films, Sita Sings the Blues and Seder Masochism, tackle patriarchal themes in religious narratives, and reimagine them from a feminist point of view. A fierce advocate of copyright abolit... Read more