I Wanna be a Professional Eulogist

The 2009 Earshot Jazz Festival is gaining momentum with tonight's premier of Sarah Jane Lapp's Animated Jazz Experiments film Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist. The film is a hand-drawn (India ink, gouache and wax) animation, which follows a prospective pro-eulogist as he learns the secrets of the trade, its ordained responsibilities and economic angles. He wonders about the creation of communal memory, while Seattle-based Lapp's fanciful, maneuvering animation combines with jazz musician Mark Dresser's melancholy and musing score. The relatively short film covers much ground, with a narrator who constantly considers memory and life, duty, death, and phenomenal love.

This presentation at the Seattle Asian Art Museum features a live score performance by Dresser, a highly esteemed free jazz bassist. Dresser's musical performance will bring this experimental film to life, and it will be his first live score undertaking. The bassist also performs live scores for other Lapp films at the event and his ensemble Trio M will perform later in the evening. Filmgoers who bring their stub to the Trio M concert will receive half off concert admission.

7:00 p.m. // Seattle Asian Art Museum & NWFF // $12, $10 NWFF members