WHAT TO SEE: SOUND UNSEEN

[September 7th, 2005] Back in January, I was lucky enough to spend time in Park City, Utah, at the Slamdance and Sundance film festivals. Shivering from the crisp cold and gasping for air in the high elevation, I was on a mission to find stuff to show at the Longbaugh Film Festival a few months later. And while I was able to acquire some great films for Longbaugh, I failed to bring two of the better films I had seen in Park City.

When the good people at MusicfestNW (which is co-sponsored by WW) suggested a film component be added to the traditionally frenzied weekend of musical mayhem, my first thoughts were, "Sounds cool to me-as long as I don't have to do it." But when I thought about two films I had seen at Slamdance-Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story and Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth-I started thinking about how cool it would be to give audiences in Portland a chance to see such great work (although, lucky us, Stranger did screen at the Northwest Film Center, and Malfunkshun opened at the Clinton Street Theater last week). Suddenly, the thought of a film program at MFNW really did seem cool. I just didn't want to do the extra work.

This is where the wonderful folks at Sound Unseen came to the rescue. The Minneapolis-based film festival showcases music-related films and, more important, it actually puts together a traveling version of its larger festival. Now, in case the significance of this is lost on any of you, here's what it means: MFNW will get the film offshoot it wanted, I barely had to do any work, and audiences in Portland get a chance to see some excellent films. In some circles, we'd call this a win-win situation.

In addition to what I've already mentioned, there's more good stuff this weekend at the Clinton Street Theater and Cinema 21. One of my personal favorites is Venus of Mars-Emily Goldberg's fascinating documentary on Minneapolis glam-rock star Venus, the transgender singer of All the Pretty Horses-which I saw earlier this year at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Other great films showing include Derailroaded, Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (see page 71), Favela Rising and Tragedy.

Along with the Sound Unseen collection, there will also be local work showcased, including Small City, Big Hip-Hop and Monday Night Gig. And thanks to Food Chain Films, many of the movies will be accompanied by locally produced music videos, including Matt McCormick's video for Sleater-Kinney's "Jumpers," and the Dandy Warhols' "We Used to Be Friends," which I'm not ashamed to admit I really like.

With so much cool stuff going on this weekend, it can be difficult to know what to take in and what to skip. But if you skip Sound Unseen at MFNW, you'll be missing one of the best tickets in town.