Walkie Talkie Blog
RICK WALTERS HOSTS FUNDRAISER FOR LATEST FILM >>> TWISTED. MURDER. MAYHEM. And you thought Halloween had crawled back into its coffin for another year. Allow me to fill in some blanks. "Twisted" belongs to Twisted Tales of Madness and Murder, a feature-length anthology of horror shorts written by Federal Way's Rick
Walkie Talkie Blog
DEAR CITY'S JEFF STILLWELL BEGINS FIRST FEATURE FILM >>> Did I go to Wendy's twice yesterday? Comedian Jim Gaffigan jokes that lofty contemplations like the one above eventually creep into his brain during church services. If make that noble pilgrimage every Sunday, you probably from time to time can relate to Gaffigan's
Walkie Talkie Blog
CIRCUMSTANCE PLAYING NOW AT THE GRAND CINEMA >>> A feeling of paranoia arrives early in writer-director Maryam Keshavarz's film, Circumstance, and it never leaves. We see two young women - the beautiful Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and the beautiful Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) - giggling and playfully pushing each other on a sidewalk.
Walkie Talkie Blog
MUTUALLY ASSURED PRODUCTIONS PREMIERES MISSED CONNECTION IN OLYMPIA SATURDAY>>> Authors have book readings. Painters have exhibitions. So why don't more indie moviemakers have public showings of their works beyond a film festival setting? Finding an appropriate and affordable venue is just one hurdle to overcome. The real struggle may reside within
Walkie Talkie Blog
AND SO IT BEGINS >>> Last night the Tacoma Film Festival officially entered its sixth year of existence, and this time around I aim to embrace it in a slightly different way than in the past. Obviously I'll soak in as much cinema as time allows before Closing Night Oct. 13.
Walkie Talkie Blog
MELISSA LEO & PETER GERETY IN THE SEA IS ALL I KNOW >>> I feel your fear. The Tacoma Film Festival starts Thursday, Oct. 6, and it scares you. You think, "So many movies, and not one recognizable face in any of them." The star is our buoy, our anchor
Walkie Talkie Blog
PETE ANDERSON KEEPS LATEST FILM LOCAL >>> I consider myself only a part-time filmmaker, so I can't say I belong in the same league as someone like Pete Anderson. When he told me Break marks not only his seventh time in the director's chair of a feature film, but also his
Walkie Talkie Blog
RANDY SPARKS TAKES A NEW DIRECTION >>> I dialed Randy Sparks' number late Thursday night, and his voice, tiny amidst a mob of shouts, greeted my ears. "Chris, hold on a second!" he cried, sounding faraway. "I'm at Hell's Kitchen!" It figures. If you know only two indispensable truths about Sparks, they are
Walkie Talkie Blog
SIT BACK AND WATCH >>> It wouldn't surprise me to find out that on any given day a film festival is brewing in some corner of the world. But in our small slice of Western Washington, they all tend to congregate in the autumn months. With the exception of the Seattle
Walkie Talkie Blog
THE GIG HARBOR 72-HOUR FILM COMPETITION, PART TWO >>> Whether it comes from inside their own heads or other people, filmmakers hear "No!" a lot. It simply comes with the territory; theirs is an art, and business, of constant constraints and near-limitless limitations, never enough money/time/CGI apes ... you fill
Walkie Talkie Blog
WHAT FILMS DO YOU FIGHT OFF THE COLD? >>> No question about it: we done got screwed this summer. Never mind the fact that I write these words outdoors with a cloudless blue sky and blazing sun above me; I'm here to bitch about past grievances. It took us too
Walkie Talkie Blog
25 NEW FACES FEST SCREENS WITHOUT >>> In The Weekly Volcano's recent "Super Best of Tacoma" issue, I named last year's 25 New Faces of Independent Film "Best New Film Fest," emphasis on new. At a time in which Hollywood has other buzzwords in its lexicon - prequel, sequel, reboot, adaptation
Walkie Talkie Blog
WELCOME TO PACIFICA >>> Many times when I set out to make a short film I wind up with a script that crams in too many scenes and too many events, thereby abusing the purpose of the whole "short" concept. So for inspiration I look to filmmakers whose works succeed, because
Walkie Talkie Blog
LOCALLY-SHOT WEB SERIES GOES GLOBAL THIS FALL >>> It was the young man lying on the street with a bullet in his belly that got us laughing. I hadn't been on set of the upcoming web series Look Up in the Sky an hour, and already I could spot little annoyances slowing
Walkie Talkie Blog
TIMOTHY MORGAN GETS LOST IN TRANSLATION >>> A long time ago (meh, a few years back), in a place far, far away (Shanghai), a man entered a flea market and purchased a DVD, assuming it was one of the prequels to a certain sci-fi American franchise. It turned out to be
Walkie Talkie Blog
LOVE IS SCARY FOR SCREENWRITER RICK TOBIN >>> Rick Tobin's dark work shall soon see the light of day. The shooting of Tobin's horror short, The Resolution, is scheduled to commence July 31, with Rick Walters of Tacoma-based production company Adventus Films directing. In the tradition of films like Four Rooms
Walkie Talkie Blog
FILM COMPOSER CATHERINE GREALISH KNOWS THE SCORE >>> In plenty of Buzzes I've given due attention to mainly the writers and directors (and sometimes writer-directors) of local films. Yet so many more contributors to a movie's production go largely unacknowledged. Composers, for one, go unsung (sorry) possibly because of their rarity
Walkie Talkie Blog
TAKING STUDENTS THROUGH SPACE & TIME >>> Talk about a globetrotter. Hirsh Diamant began life as a Ukrainian in the capital city of Kiev, eventually left as a dissident, at one point studied in Israel, and has acted in New York. Westward he continued from Big Apple to the Evergreen
Walkie Talkie Blog
SEE LOCAL FILMS AT ART ON THE AVE >>> Want to sample some of the best in Tacoma film, and for free? Art On The Ave hits Sixth this weekend, and a chilled summertime mix of local cinema will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 10. Though now
Walkie Talkie Blog
FILM PIONEER AT UWT >>> By now scores of students have jettisoned all thoughts of homework and rushed headlong into the wild blue of summer. Instead I've gone back to school. Already five years have elapsed since graduating from the University of Washington's Tacoma campus, and some of my best memories from
