OFF33 OPENING NIGHT GALA! Moving Pictures: A Live Dance & Film Performance, CONTEMPORARY COLOR: NW PREMIERE SCREENING

Thursday, November 3
The 33rd Annual Olympia Film Festival presents
OPENING NIGHT GALA!
6:00pm doors
7:00pm Moving Pictures: A Live Dance & Film Performance
7:30pm Contemporary Color: NW Premiere Screening
$15 general / $10 members

Hold onto your ticket stub! We’ll be raffling off 3 FULL PASSES to the film festival!
FREE small popcorn on opening night!

MOVING PICTURES
A Live Dance & Film Performance

Welcome to the 33rd Annual Olympia Film Festival! Buckle up and get ready for eleven sensational days of independent film, music and art. This year we kick off opening night with a live performance we call MOVING PICTURES. Moving Pictures is a fantastic fusion of dance and film that celebrates collaboration as a key form of artistic expression. Local dance choreographers have paired with local filmmakers to create a unique and exciting audio-visual experience. Prepare to be stunned. This mind-blowing marriage of cinematography and choreography will astound and delight your senses. Special thanks to our friends at Ballet Northwest!

Choreographers: Natalie Rawson, Ann Sanders, Meribeth Grabner, Emily Walter, Molly Foote, Anna Thornton

Filmmakers: Jonah Barrett, Misty Berlin, Connor Smith, Kadazia Perry, Zachary Halpern

Dancers: June-Marie Brittain, Maisie Maclay, Maleea Morales, Kate Peterson, Elise Braseth, Natalia Jording, Sunny Swasey, Monica Tsien, Lauren Zinke, Margaret Doyle, Brenna Evans, Molly Foote, Anna Thornton, Daria Baldridge, Elora Neal, Emily Walter

NW PREMIERE
CONTEMPORARY COLOR

Sticking with our opening night theme of artistic collaboration, OFF33 proudly presents the Northwest Premiere of CONTEMPORARY COLOR, a brilliant new documentary from the creative mind of David Byrne.
In the summer of 2015, legendary musician David Byrne staged an event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to celebrate the art of Color Guard: synchronized dance routines involving flags, rifles, sabers and glitter canons. Recruiting performers that include the likes of Saint Vincent, Nelly Furtado, Ad-Rock, and Ira Glass to collaborate on original pieces with 10 color guard teams from across the US and Canada, Contemporary Color is a beautifully filmed snapshot of a one-of-a-kind live event.
Director: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross 2016 / US / 107 min

In David Byrne’s words:

“Color guards are, well, high school (and college-level) “dance” groups who perform during half time at football games, and then compete amongst themselves later in the school year – usually in their school gymnasiums. They are, in my way of looking at them, a sophisticated folk art form that flies under the official cultural radar. I think it’s a wonderful, peculiar, under-appreciated and very creative art form that deserves to be seen and experienced – in a slightly different context, by a wider public.

But how? The interesting thing about color guard is that the community is very insular, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be kind of great to ask some friends to collaborate with the team’s creative folks to create original music for these guys?” That idea blossomed into a year-long musical collaboration between 10 color guard teams and 10 composers.

The performances will mimic the energy and granduer of the color guard World Championships, but without the competitive aspect. Instead, the exhibition event will put these amazing teams on the stages of two premiere North American venues, to perform their programs alongside a live performance of the original score by the composers themselves, and accompanied by a live band. Elaborate costumes, professional athleticism combined with modern dance, and rock stars in their element, all culminating in the biggest glitter cannon show of your life.”