Tacoma Film Festival returns this week with live screenings and virtual showings
The Tacoma Film Festival is back with in-person and virtual screenings for 2021. The festival kicks off its week-long run at The Grand Cinema on Thursday with a locally made but partially set in Russia comedy.
Festival goers can attend the festival in person with social distancing or stay at home to see 70 of the 150 new independent features, shorts, documentaries and other films on the schedule.
“It’s been complicated to put together, but we’re happy to be back,” said festival spokesman Ernest Jasmin.
It’s a partial return to normalcy for the festival, now in its 16th year. The festival went all virtual in 2020 due to pandemic safety concerns.
The opening night (7:30 p.m. Thursday) film, “Potato Dreams of America”, is an autobiographical comedy by Seattle writer-director Wes Hurley. Shot in late 2019 and early 2020, the film follows a Russian woman, Elena, and her gay son Potato in the tough Perestroika years where they watch pirated American movies. The pair move to the United States after Elena becomes a mail-order bride.
If the story sounds familiar, that’s because its precursor was the documentary “Little Potato” that toured the film festival circuit in 2017.
The festival’s centerpiece film (8 p.m. Friday), “Youngstown”, is a new comedic take on the witness protection story by director Pete Ohs. The film is centered on a young woman who is placed in the federal witness protection program but is somehow relocated to her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.
The festival’s closing film (7:30 p.m. Oct. 14), the jazz-infused comedy “Thin Skin”, was co-written by “The Stranger” editor Charles Mudede. It stars Ahamefule Oluo playing a character of the same name as he spends his days at his soul-killing Seattle corporate job and nights in the city’s jazz clubs. Oluo is the brother of writer Ijeoma Oluo who also stars in the film.
Mudede is known for his previous films “Police Beat” and “Zoo” and co-wrote the filmed-in-Tacoma but never released feature “You Can’t Win,” starring Michael Pitt.
Short films for children are offered in English and Spanish this year in two programs sponsored by the New York International Children’s Film Festival.
The 10 a.m. Saturday showings give families the option of seeing “Family Shorts” in English and “Viva Kids Flicks” in Spanish.
If you go:
Tacoma Film Festival
Where: The Grand Cinema, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma
Tickets: $9-150. Tickets can be purchased for in-person and virtual screenings as well as a full festival pass. Free for students and EBT/Quest card holders.
More info: tacomafilmfestival.com, 253-593-4474, info@grandcinema.com
COVID-19: Masks and proof of vaccination are required to attend live screenings. Empty seats will be maintained between groups of patrons.
