The Seattle International Film Festival

373 Films.  Three weeks and three days.  Seven main venues.  Shorts.  Features.  Documentaries.  And Edward Norton.

The 36th Annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) starts a week from last night and ends on June 13th.  I will be there, volunteering.  I will be there, watching.  I will be there, at my first film festival, soaking everything in.

The more I look at the movie guide, the more movies I want to see.  Much depends on how long my census job lasts, since its hours interfere with times I can volunteer and times I can watch movies.  Even so, I am planning on watching a lot of movies.  Movies like City of Life and Death, I Am Love, Winter's Bone, Leaves of Grass (followed by a Q&A session), Ondine, and Last Train Home.  In addition, I may catch The 25th Hour, part of SIFF's tribute to Edward Norton, and Animation for Adults, a collection of short animated films.

And then there are silent films with live orchestral accompaniment, a focus on New Spanish Cinema, galas, parties, a New Directors Showcase, the works of three emerging masters (Mohamed Al-Daradji from Iraq, Ana Kokkinos from Australia, and Valery Todorovsky from Russia), films for families, and alternate cinema (RoboGeisha is worth a look for the title alone).

Now, since I am simultaneously teaching, enumerating, volunteering, and SIFF-attending, my blogs will probably follow the format of the Far-Flung Correspondents who blogged about Ebertfest: they will cram several movies into each post, and they will be late. ;-)

My solution?  To be revealed in an upcoming post.  Until then, click here for the entire SIFF lineup, and try not to salivate too much. ;-)