Special Events and Series
Hong Kong Cinema Classics
Monthly screenings of essential movies from Hong Kong, many long unavailable and recently restored.
Now Playing
Carolina Caroline
- Wednesday, Jul 8, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
The new movie from director Adam Rehmeier (DINNER IN AMERICA, SNACK SHACK), CAROLINA CAROLINE is a romantic crime thriller starring Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner). Together, they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.
“Nestled into its classic blueprint like a pair of old, reliable jeans, it banks on the quality of its ingredients — its magnetic stars and soulful sincerity.” Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times
“If you’re looking for an update on the old Bonnie and Clyde story, this is it. It’s modern without feeling like it’s pandering, it toes the line between feeling almost fantastical without actually being fantasy, and the love on screen is as addictive as the heists those two lovers pull… From the country music needle drops to the oozing on-screen chemistry, anyone who loves a good crime movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously will need to get their butts into the theater for this one.” Therese Lacson, Collider
Trains
- Thursday, Jul 9, 2026, 7:30pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
TRAINS is a deeply personal and contemplative journey through the twentieth century, composed entirely of archival film footage. In this wordless film, full of beauty and bitterness, the excitement of adventure becomes a curse, and tears of joy mingle with the pain of despair.
A train compartment is a place where, for a while, people are taken out of their everyday context. For a few hours or days, they inhabit a temporary community, and their lives unfold according to a timetable. A train journey is something beautiful, magical, but also often very dramatic. Sometimes, the journey is accompanied by the hope that something will change in our lives upon reaching the destination, or conversely, by a stark absence of hope.
Co-presented with Mount Analogue Art + Cinema, TRAINS is a documentary crafted in the found footage genre, using archival film materials from 46 archives around the world. This film harnesses the vast potential of cinematic language to forge an emotional connection between the viewer and the archival reality.
“Trains is not just a technical achievement – a skillful and patient result of working with archives – but also a meditation on the moral weight and responsibility of images.” Ola Salwa, Cineuropa
“Like Koyaanisqatsi with an Interrail pass… this magnetic cine-essay is also a hidden tribute to that second voyager in space and time: the train’s contemporary, the movie camera.” Phil Hoad, The Guardian
Outdoor Movie: Freddy Got Fingered
- Saturday, Jul 11, 2026, 9:15pm
Screening location: Dirty Couch Brewing – 2715 W Fort St, Seattle
25th anniversary of Tom Green's singular work of cinematic anarchy.
Gord Brody (Tom Green) is a struggling cartoonist trying to pitch an animated show to Hollywood executives. When he fails, he returns to his hometown with no choice but to live with his parents and younger brother, Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas). His father (Rip Torn) doesn't approve of Gord's career path, and pressures him to gain independence. As father and son exchange barbs, Gord comes up with a lie that changes everything, leading to drastic consequences.
Tickets are pay-what-you-will with a $7 minimum. Any net profit from ticket sales (after the movie’s licensing fee is paid) will go to the Grand Illusion’s relocation fund. Please note that this movie is definitely NOT appropriate for the young’uns.
Approximate showtime is 9:15 pm, depending on when it gets dark enough. Be sure to come early to claim your spot, hang out, and get great drinks from the brewery. The fine folks at Dirty Couch will also be smoking up some beer brat sausages for purchase and consumption.
“Mr. Green stage[s] his gross-outs with a demented but unmistakable integrity. Like it or not, he’s an artist.” A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels… The day may come when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism.” Roger Ebert
The Currents
- Sunday, Jul 12, 2026, 11:00am
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler, THE CURRENTS is a quietly gripping psychological mystery with dreamlike, hallucinatory threads that weave a portrait of a woman on the verge of unraveling.
While visiting Switzerland to accept an award for her work in the fashion industry, Argentinian designer Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola) is seized by the sudden urge to jump off a bridge into an icy river. She survives the plunge and returns to Buenos Aires; she tells no one of the incident, yet a transformation has taken place within her. Left with a paralyzing fear of water, Lina finds it impossible to readjust to her former identity as a wife, mother, and artist. She distances herself from her husband (Esteban Bigliardi) and career, growing increasingly isolated and fragile as she confronts long-buried existential questions.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Critic’s Pick! “Superb, sensuously realized… Its bravura filmmaking is all in the service of letting us travel alongside Lina as she feels her way to self-understanding.” Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times
“A lush, hypnotic character study… a work of impressive, at times thrilling, assurance from start to finish. The elegance and, especially, empathy with which Mumenthaler captures the gaping chasm between how we present and who we are give the film a voluptuous pull all its own.” Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter
Coming Soon
Bullet in the Head – New 4K Restoration
- Monday, Jul 13, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
John Woo’s Vietnam War-era saga of greed and betrayal, newly restored!
Three friends fleeing Hong Kong after a violent crime find themselves trapped in the chaos of the Vietnam War, where their loyalty and morality are tested beyond repair. What begins as a desperate bid for escape descends into a harrowing portrait of friendship under unimaginable pressure. As war strips away ideals and innocence, the bonds between the men fracture, leading to betrayals that cut deeper than any bullet.
Fueled by rage and grief Bullet in the Head trades balletic elegance for raw emotional devastation. This is heroic bloodshed turned inward, and a legendary filmmaker pushing himself into completely new territory.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.
“As operatic as he is in crafting his set pieces, John Woo proves he is equally adept at making a Shakespearean tragedy from characters of great depth. Bullet in the Head is a reminder that John Woo is considered a master because of his expertise and supreme style. At the same time, some of his great works, like this one, also possess great substance.” Aneesh Raikundalia, High on Films
The Taste of Tea
- Saturday, Jul 18, 2026, 1:30pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
New HD master supervised by director Katsuhito Ishii.
Maverick director Ishii pulled out all the stops for this endearing outré take on the Japanese psyche, replete with non-stop irreverent gags, anime digressions, musical numbers and candy-coated lysergic passages.
The pristine image of the Japanese family is turned on its uber-polite head with surreal aplomb in this far out collection of hilarious vignettes. Set in the languid countryside, Mom is an eccentric artist who eschews household chores for an animation project with occasional help from crazy Grandpa. Meanwhile, Dad is just your everyday hypnotherapist. Their teenaged son suffers from hangups about the opposite sex while his little sister must contend with a doppelgänger. Uncle is a groovy music producer on a respite whose ghostly past experiences still haunt him.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
“So delightful and strange… one of my favorite films… It reminds me that small, personal acts of creation can still be cosmic.” Chase Burns, The Stranger
“A character remarks (in regard to what will hopefully amount to a classic musical sequence): ‘It’s more cool than weird, and it stays in your head.’ Perhaps unintentionally, The Taste of Tea encapsulates its own kinky allure in that line of dialogue. As sweet as the lives it celebrates, it’s something to savor time and time again.” Rob Humanick, Slant
Puppygirl
- Monday, Jul 20, 2026, 7:30pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
With co-producer / star Milo Talwani in-person for an intro and Q&A!
A semi-delusional trans woman (Milo Talwani) embarks on a shocking, bizarre, and oddly touching personal odyssey to undo years of sexual repression by performing in puppygirl fetish porn in director Henry Hanson's gonzo documentary.
Official selection of the 50th annual Frameline Film Festival.
“A heartwarming exercise in neo-transgression.” Patrizia Dahlia Thompson, Headstuff.org
A Simple Machine
- Sunday, Jul 26, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
With director / writer Mark Alan Hoffman in-person for an intro and Q&A.
Starring Richard Blackmon in a breakout lead role, A SIMPLE MACHINE is a coming-of-age story following Nick Allander, a recent college grad trying to figure out his life’s direction during the late stages of the pandemic. In a last-ditch attempt to get out of debt, Nick makes a series of radically frugal lifestyle choices without telling his girlfriend (Gabriela Bloomgarden) that he's going off the grid.
Shot in luminous black and white in Portland, Oregon by award-winning cinematographer Kevin Fletcher (It’s What’s Inside) and featuring an original score by Mark Orton (Nebraska, The Holdovers), A SIMPLE MACHINE is a deeply human and timely story about personal freedom and the cost of wanting less in a culture built on more. At a time of economic crisis, housing instability, and digital saturation, it offers something rare: a grounded, thoughtful counterpoint rooted in the deliberate choice towards simplicity and financial freedom. Based on the novel A Simple Machine, Like the Lever by Evan P. Schneider.
“…relevant to almost everyone in America, as affordability becomes one of our biggest worries.” Tim Molloy, MovieMaker
Summer Tour
- Sunday, Aug 2, 2026, 4:15pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle(located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
SUMMER TOUR is a poetic documentary that follows Jerry and Annie, a magnetic young couple devoted to the music and community of Dead & Company as they journey across America for the band’s final tour.
Blending intimate portraiture with lyrical road imagery, the film captures the essence of the Deadhead experience: an unconventional family bound together by music, freedom, and the open road.
At once a love story and a celebration of a uniquely American tradition of wandering, SUMMER TOUR reflects on what it means to seek belonging, adventure, and transcendence in a fleeting moment of cultural history.
“A Deadhead himself, [director] Richter’s film is a thoughtful and loving tribute to an often misunderstood group of fans… the structure of the documentary mirrors the wandering soulfulness of the band’s impeccable musicianship and timeless songs… [Richter’s] empathetic eye grants us access to a fascinating subject without ever betraying it… This film is for and about the fans.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
The Blade – New Restoration
- Monday, Aug 17, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
Tickets on sale soon!
Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967.
Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, THE BLADE follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Vincent Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger. With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, THE BLADE was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.
“The action scenes are some of the most chaotic in Tsui’s canon, with an emphasis on rapid, almost cubist editing that seduces you with swings and strikes caught from multiple angles.” Jake Cole, Slant
“Watching [The Blade] is like sitting in the passenger seat of a feature-length, high-speed car chase sequence. It’s thrilling, it’s confusing, and you’ve never seen anything like it before. And you want to go again and again, like a rollercoaster ride through hell.” Peter Martin, ScreenAnarchy
Full Contact – New Restoration
- Monday, Sep 14, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
Tickets on sale soon.
In an effort to get his buddy out of a gambling debt, Gou Fei agrees to join forces with his friend Judge in a weapons heist. The job goes bad and Judge betrays him. Gou Fei plots the ultimate revenge on Judge and his followers and sets forth a plan of violence and deceit. Starring legendary actor Chow Yun-Fat and directed by Ringo Lam (CITY ON FIRE).
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.
“With Full Contact, Lam takes the action genre and proceeds to not merely transcend it but explode it.” Beth Accomando, KPBS.org