Event

Walking Against the Wind

Local Sightings Film Festival 2013

Sep 27

Brendan Flynn - Seattle, WA
2013 - Blu-ray - 90 min

Local Sightings opening night!

Opening night party at 10pm!

Friday, Sep 27 at 08:00PM

Seattle filmmaker Brendan Flynn's debut feature, Walking Against The Wind, uses brooding black and white cinematography to mirror the stark contrasts and the carnivalesque lower depths of life. Frank (played with astonishing authenticity by Tom Ricciardelli) lives in world of lifelessness and disappointment. His day job as a mime isn't working out as planned and his wife's sudden death leaves him and his daughter Aspen to fend for themselves. While pursuing a day job at a restaurant, Frank tries to make ends meet. When his sister-in-law arrives unannounced to help plan memorial arrangements, his life takes some unexpected turns.

The story is wonderfully (ridiculously) minimal, banal even, in its archetypal contours, but Flynn's film often seems to crest and climax, creating hypnotic suspension that is perfectly expressed by the serial soundtrack (brilliantly designed by composer Ian Becker). Flynn's camera is often not stationary as it tracks with delicious slowness, revealing, reframing and often surprising the viewer. Bleak, mysterious and not without a certain gallows humor, Walking Against The Wind might be Seattle's cinematic discovery of the year.

* Special ticket pricing: $8 / Film Forum Members, $12 / General Admission. Includes entry to Local Sightings opening night party at 10pm; see our overview of Local Sightings festival passes.