Storm Tharp: Northwest Film & Video Festival, Judge's Selection

JUDGE'S STATEMENT
Summer of 2008 was my first extended stay in Portland while not under the pressures of making a film, though it’s through filmmaking that I’ve come to know the Northwest. It seems perfect to end this summer of non-work by watching the films of makers living in the region. The process of judging was imperfect and undemocratic—I just picked the films I liked. Films where I discovered a larger political truth through the minutely personal. Films that made me work. Where the controlled manipulation of sound and image gently pointed me in a direction, but I had to do my part to make the discovery. Where no emotion was delivered up via a sad note from an accordion or jaunty piano cord. I picked the films with subtext and form that for whatever reason, I went home and thought about. Few of them screamed or even whispered the great Northwest to me but like a good guide stayed out front and showed me something I hadn’t quite seen or heard before.

JUDGE'S BIO
Kelly Reichardt, currently a visiting assistant professor at Bard College, lives in New York City