The North Bend Film Festival is proud to enter into our second edition August 15th to the 18th, returning once again to the historic town of North Bend, WA, – the destination of the original shooting location for cult sensation Twin Peaks, and still featuring many of the iconic landmarks.
Celebrating avant-garde, art house, and all things weird, The North Bend Film Festival brings together the perfect mix of mind-bending films, cutting-edge VR, immersive experiences, and a plethora of events that engage with the local community and town surroundings. Back on the slate of events is our beloved Twin Peaks tour that covers locations from all three seasons, including stops at Salish lodge, Sheriff’s Department, and RR Diner!
Showcased especially in our program is an exclusive first look at the teaser for hotly anticipated Twin Peaks documentary, I KNOW CATHERINE, THE LOG LADY, which will play for North Bend audiences before Spotlight films.
The festival is thrilled to open with the US Premiere of Jon Mikel Caballero’s THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WKND and close with acclaimed Netflix doc CIRCUS OF BOOKS, with director Rachel Mason in attendance. KNIVES AND SKIN takes the spotlight as our Narrative Centerpiece, and Jennifer Reeder joins us for both the screening and a live recording of Perri Nemiroff and Haleigh Foutch’s popular Collider horror podcast, The Witching Hour. Rodney Ascher, the innovative documentarian behind ROOM 237 and THE NIGHTMARE, unleashes another devastatingly digestive doc with THE EL DUCE TAPES, co-directed by David Lawrence and screening as our Documentary Centerpiece. Director Joe Begos joins us for the West Coast Premiere of BLISS and Director Andrew Wonder will be in attendance for the West Coast Premiere of FERAL.
We can’t wait to descend once again on North Bend, and hope that you can join us for fantastic films, visionary VR, electrifying events, and, most importantly, some damn fine coffee.
The Incredible Shrinking Wknd
US Premiere
Opening Night Film
SPAIN | 2019 | 93 min | Dir. Jon Mikel Caballero
En route for a post-birthday cabin séjour with friends, Alba and her fiancé Pablo seem to have the perfect romance. But upon arriving at their weekend destination, Pablo confesses his intention to breakup with Alba–a bombshell revelation that changes everything. The next day, she wakes up to find herself back in the van driving to the cabin, living the same day again… A Twilight zone-esque take on “What would you do to change your life?”, Caballero’s visual narrative spin on the genre is a wild ride into the emotional depths of love and loss.
Knives and Skin
Washington Premiere
Narrative Centerpiece Film | Director Jennifer Reeder in attendance
USA | 2019 | 111 min | Dir. Jennifer Reeder
It doesn’t take much to turn a small town into a twilight zone. For the Midwestern community of Big River, all it takes is the disappearance of high school sophomore Carolyn Harper to trigger a widespread epidemic of emotional and psychological unraveling. But in the hands of writer-director Jennifer Reeder, communal crisis is wildly entertaining and wholly transfixing. An unclassifiable exercise in gloves-off visual style and disoriented ensemble storytelling, KNIVES AND SKIN is one of the year’s most attention-commanding feature debuts.
The El Duce Tapes
US Premiere
Documentary Centerpiece Film
USA | 2019 | 105 min | Dir. Rodney Ascher & David Lawrence, Interviews directed by Ryan Sexton
Following ROOM 237 and THE NIGHTMARE, inventive documentarian Rodney Ascher returns with an uncomfortably in-your-face missive that’s simultaneously revolting and illuminating. Totally comprised of old VHS footage, Ascher and co-director/editor David Lawrence’s THE EL DUCE TAPES takes a long, hard look at Eldon “El Duce” Hoke, the misogynistic and all-around abhorrent front-man of the controversial ’90s shock metal band The Mentors. What begins as a “dare you to look away” character study evolves into a timely societal indictment, further cementing Ascher as a singular provocateur in the documentary field.
Circus of Books
Washington Premiere
Closing Night Film | Director Rachel Mason in attendance.
USA | 2019 | 92 min | Dir. Rachel Mason
The year is 1976. She was a former investigative journalist and he was a special-effects guru. But when Karen and Barry Mason realized they needed more money to support their growing family, they did what any married couple would do—they opened an adult bookstore and started a gay porn empire. Directed by their daughter Rachel Mason, CIRCUS OF BOOKS is an honest, humorous and beautiful untold chapter in American queer history.
Bliss
West Coast Premiere
Director Joe Begos in attendance
USA | 2019 | 80 min | Dir. Joe Begos
Dropped by her agent, visual artist Dezzy finds her coping mechanism for creative despair in a new uplifting drug on the market called Bliss. While her creativity seems to slowly enter back into her psyche, she soon begins to feel drug’s sinister side-effects. Presented as a lovechild between Gaspar Noé and Jim Jarmusch, BLISS is a visual acid-trip set against a bold score by Steve Moore.
Monument
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Poland | 2019 | 108 min | Dir. Jagoda Szelc
Expecting a regular Summer internship, 20 students wake up on a bus and are stripped of their names and identities, leaving them only with a number and the new clothes on their backs. In this new home that seems to bend time and space, they begin to acquire new skills from a mysterious hotel manager. Following up on her award-winning debut feature TOWER: A BRIGHT DAY, Polish filmmaker Jagoda Szelc teamed up with a group of acting school students in creating MONUMENT. What they created is a ritualistic and unpredictable mood piece.
The Gasoline Thieves
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Mexico, UK, USA, Spain | 2019 | 93 min | Dir. Edgar Nito
In need of quick cash, thanks to a desire to impress his high school crush with a new smartphone, 14-year-old Lalo embraces a risky black market hustle: the siphoning of gas for illegal resale. Which, before long, puts him in the increasingly narrowing sights of authorities and places his entire life in jeopardy. With the intimate and quietly explosive GASOLINE THIEVES, Mexican first-timer Edgar Nito pairs universally relatable coming-of-age anxieties with his home country’s underlying societal unease, crafting a thriller with immersive grit and raw emotion.
Extra Ordinary
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Ireland, Belgium | 2019 | 94 min | Dir. Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman
Communicating with ghosts has always been second nature to small-town Irish medium Rose. When her father passes away, she decides to hang up her supernatural gloves and enter into a life as a civilian. Feeling like she’s successfully eased back into the normal world, she can’t help but renew her profession when a special case comes across her desk surrounding a pact with the devil and a washed-up rock star. Starring Maeve Higgins and Will Forte, this is a unique comedy you won’t soon forget.
Searching Eva
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Germany | 2019 | 84 min | Dir. Pia Hellenthal
Eva is a real-life sex worker–feminist by definition, vagabond and internet star. In this documentary feature by German director Pia Hellenthal, viewers are invited to peer into Eva’s daily life in Berlin, through her eyes and in her own voice. Pushing past the walls of censorship and societal constructs, SEARCHING EVA is a boundary-pushing and moving exploration into harnessing sexual autonomy and empowerment in a 21st century world.
Feral
West Coast Premiere
Director Andrew Wonder in attendance
USA | 2019 | 73 min | Dir. Andrew Wonder
Homeless and all alone, Yazmine (a terrific Annapurna Sriram) calls the dark labyrinths of New York City subway system home. No one she encounters, however, knows this, due to how Yazmine wanders in and out of strangers’ lives, taking brief sojourns outside of her subterranean dwellings to remind herself of what life is like above ground. Through a documentary-minded, vignette-heavy structure, first-time director Andrew Wonder’s unconventionally poignant FERAL gives both voice and humanity to a forgotten community of outsiders.
Villains
Pacific Northwest Premiere
USA | 2019 | 89 min | Dir. Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Two young lovers turned convenience store robbers are on the run and forced to improvise their plan when their getaway vehicle runs out of gas. Their search for a new ride leads the bumbling pair into a nearby home and straight into the hands of another couple harboring much more sinister intentions. Maika Monroe and Bill Skarsgård cook with alchemy in this off-kilter thriller that breathes new joyous life into the home invasion genre.
Koko-Di Koko-Da
Sweden, Denmark | 2019 | 86 min | Dir. Johannes Nyholm
After suffering a devastating loss, a couple ventures out on holiday looking to return to some semblance of a life. What should’ve been a time of healing spirals into a full-blown relentless nightmare as a gang of carny freaks terrorize them in a sick game of adapt or die. Marked by a wicked sense of humor, KOKO-DI KOKO-DA is a tonally fluid criss-cross between compassion and an exploration of grief by all the ways we choose to run and avoid it.
NBFF unveils expansive VR Program and introduces new Work-In-Progress platform
TRACES TO NOWHERE
VR Program #1
VR has the unique ability to blur and the line between illusion and reality, creating false memories, associations and emotions. This eclectic collection of experiences questions what we know about our place in society and the world around us, through interactive and transformative experiences.
Manic VR
Canada | 2018 | 10 Min | Creator: Kalina Bertin
West Coast Premiere
Mindpalace
Germany | 2018 | 10 Min | Creator: Carl Krause & Dominik Stockhausen
WA Premiere
Die Fernweh Oper (The Fernweh Opera)
The Netherlands | 2019 | 7 Min | Creator: Daniel Ernst
West Coast Premiere
Gymnasia
Canada | 2019 | 6 Min | Creator: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
West Coast Premiere
Isle of the Dead
France | 2018 | 8 Min | Creator: Benjamin Nuel
WA Premiere
Unceded Territories
Canada | 2019 | 6 Min | Creator: Paisley Smith
WA Premiere
Bonfire
USA | 2019 | 15-20 Min | Creator: Eric Damell
WA Premiere
Destruction
USA | 2018 | 3 Min | Creator: Nicholas Van Buren
World Premiere
Lucidità
Italy | 2019 | 7 min 35 sec | Creator: Hannah Swayze, Daniel Contaldo
World Premiere
Ghost Reality
Japan | 2018 | 15 min 28 sec | Creator: Hajime Ohata
US Premiere
THE PAST DICTATES THE FUTURE
VR Program #2
VR is going to revolutionize documentary storytelling. Moving away from traditional, linear narratives; this collection of 360-degree, immersive short films turn real-life experiences into intimate moments that can be ‘lived’.
Bembé
Cuba | 2019 | 14 Min | Creator: Marcos Louit/Patricia Diaz
World Premiere
4 Feet: Blind Date
Argentina | 2018 | 18 Min | Creator: María Belén Poncio/ Rosario Perazolo Masjoan / Damián Turkieh / Ezequiel Lenardón
West Coast Premiere
Accused No.2: Walter Sisulu
France | 2018 | 14 Min | Creator: Nicolas Champeaux, Gilles Porte
WA Premiere
Floodplain
Turkey | 2018 | 13 Min | Creator: Deniz Tortum
12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting
USA | 2019 | 7 Min | Creator: Suzette Moyer, Seth Blanchard
Traveling While Black
USA | 2019 | 20 Min | Creator: Roger Ross Williams
The Evolution of Testicles
UK/USA | 2018 | 9 Min | Creator: Ryan Hartsell
West Coast Premiere
WORK-IN-PROGRESS EXHIBITION
VR Program #3
Reinforcement (Work-in-Progress)
USA | 2019 | 30 Min | Creator: Brennan King
Interaction in VR is only effective if it helps the story to progress naturally. You should commit to making decisions, without realising that you’re being asked to. You should tricked into a false sense of security, so comfortable that by the time you’re aware you’ve made a decision, it’s too late.
Two reality-pushing immersive events to unravel across North Bend
Follower
Immersive Theatre
World Premiere
Creators: Vinny DePonto, Elizabeth Carena
From the minds of theatre-maker and renowned mentalist Vinny DePonto (Charlatan, Mind Reader) and performing artist Elizabeth Carena (Then She Fell, Ghost Light) comes this world premiere immersive theatre experience for only five audience members at a time.
Set in a secret location in the Pacific Northwest, you are met by two vagabond healers. Notorious for their controversial techniques, they lead you on a journey inside their practice. FOLLOWER explores the human fixation with control, our veneration of false idols, and our never-ending search for something more.
Ghosted
Augmented Reality
World Premiere
Creators: Allyson Morgan, Kevin Laibson
Produced by: Allyson Morgan, Kevin Laibson
Agile Lens: Immersive Design
Lead AR Developer: Alex Coulombe
Have you ever felt completely alone in the dating world? Sometimes it feels like one big purgatory waiting for the “one” to arrive. Now try dating…a ghost.
In GHOSTED, a world premiere interactive Augmented Reality experience utilizing the Magic Leap One headset, you’ll go on ten minutes of speed dating with partners who can’t see or hear you – or at least, they’ll pretend not to. They want to talk to you about their hobbies, work, blah blah blah ghost stuff, but more importantly, they have one minute to convince you to take them BACK.
Writers include: Nicco Aeed, Nick Carrill, Josh Conkel, Lucy Cottrell, JW Crump, Lucas Hazlett, Jake Keefe, Caroline McGraw, Allyson Morgan, Greg Moss, Tamsi New, Sarah Nowak, Alex Song, Amy Staats, Marina Tempelsman, Mark Vigeant, Robin Virginie and Emily Chaddick Weiss
Sponsored by Volition Brewery