At SIFF Tomorrow: Local Filmmaker Takes the Craigslist Dating Plunge

Craigslist is, in one way or another, an inspiration to us all. Whether it's trolling for post-rapture loot, finding out what new restaurants are coming to town, finding an apartment or just finding a goddamn date, the listing service has slowly infiltrated its way into our daily lives, for better or for worse. The beauty of it, and the source of all its problems, is that anyone can post -- and therein lies the true phenomenon of using Craigslist to get a date. This topic is nothing new, but Seattle director Cassidy Dimon adds a local bent in a short documentary at SIFF's Seattle Stories screening tomorrow.

Cassidy and her friend Morgan Dusatko had made Woman Seeks Man for Date on Friday in five days as part of the International Documentary Challenge, where both of them had previously worked on short docs, like 2009's It's In the PI. Woman Seeks Man was also well-received; they took home Best Use of First Person Narrative.

The premise is simple: line up a series of dates on Craigslist for one Friday night, then film them. The results vary, resulting in a fair amount of improvisation on Cassidy's part. One camera-shy date even left at the very beginning, despite the documentary being mentioned in their initial listing. The goal? Find someone she wants to go on a second date with. "[With] online dating, you can always get a first date," she explained, "the second date seems elusive to me."

While no stranger to the online dating world, she was new to Craigslist -- and she hadn't tried dating online until she moved to Seattle three years ago, after being on the east coast her whole life. In fact, Morgan, her editor/cameraman/buddy ("Morgan shot, edited, he did everything on this movie... editors don't get enough credit," says Cassidy), was the first person she met in the city that actually hung out with her afterwards, platonic or otherwise.

So is Craigslist an avenue she'd turn to if not for art, with numerous other online dating channels out there?

"Craigslist is a little creepy," she says, "It was good to have somebody there."

While it's harder to meet friends and boyfriends through the normal channels in Seattle, Seattle is Cassidy's chosen home now, and after three years here, she mostly has nice things to say about it:

What I really love about the Seattle film scene in particular is the lack of pretension. In New York, there's so much pretension going on and so many people that are looking to advance themselves and step on whoever in order to get there rather than bring the people along with them. And I feel like a lot of the scene here is very collaborative, and it's very inspirational.

Normally, Cassidy works on harder news items for her documentaries like It's In the PI -- her next project is about an Iraqi Seattle resident who was deported and accused of terrorism. But she and Morgan had a lot of fun with the film, although she honestly didn't think it would make it as far as it has. "Neither of us really liked the movie that much... we really didn't realize it was that good," she admits, "maybe people relate to it more than we expected."

Part of the film's relatability is Cassidy's charisma, and how effortlessly she interacts on camera and directs the experience of the film and the viewer. Ultimately, what makes this film what it is isn't the concept as much as who's narrating it.

So it's no surprise that Cassidy is also a fan of narrative fiction filmmaking, although she doesn't feel the need to make it herself -- there's already "so many stories out there that need to be told," so she sticks with documentaries. But in terms of other SIFF films, she says we all have to see Jess + Moss, even though the date has already passed. "It's the kind of film I would love to make if I were a narrative filmmaker," she says, adding that films like Jess + Moss "inspire me to be a better filmmaker... I don't aspire to be a Hollywood filmmaker. I aspire to make little films like that."

Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. // SIFF Cinema, Seattle Center // $8