Curator's Defense Series at NWFF Kicks off Sunday

Imagine you're a respected local art curator and the Northwest Film Forum emails you one day and asks you to not only choose your favorite film of the aughts, but to get up in front of a house full of movie goers and defend your selection. What would you choose? That's the question being answered by four local programmers from very different backgrounds starting this Sunday.

Frye Art Museum curator Robin Held kicks off the series defending her choice of Lady Vengeance, the final film in Chan-wook Park's Vengeance trilogy. For fans of Park's films, this should be a very interesting discussion as to why Held prefers Lady Vengeance over both Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the other two very good films in the series. For those who aren't fans, Lady Vengeance makes a fine introduction to the work of a talented director who has yet to hit his peak.

Lane Czaplinski, artistic director of On the Boards, follows on the 17th with Titus, the violent and provocative adaption of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. We're of a mind that this one is worth checking out just for the scene in which Anthony Hopkins (starring in the titular role) feeds his rival Tamora her own dead children in a pie. In other words, be sure to buy plenty of popcorn!

Linda Bowers, director of Seattle Arts And Lectures, defends the 2001 David Lynch mind-exploder Mulholland Drive on May 19th. We may just go see this one to see if she can give us an explanation for the events in the film that doesn't make our face hurt.

Finally, Micheal Hebb of One Pot wins for most interesting pick of the series when he defends his favorite film Dig!, the story of two rock bands (The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre) who love to argue and get high, in no particular order. We have no idea how Mr. Hebb could possibly convince us of this film's merits, but it should be very entertaining to watch him try.

Trailers for Titus, Mulholland Drive and Dig! after the break.