Welcome back to City Stream from the Northwest Film
Forum, home to Children's Film Festival, Seattle.
I'm here with the festival director Kendra Ann Sherrill
Thanks so much for being here.
Thank you so much for coming and having me.
So let's start with a little bit of background.
This film festival has been going on for 18 years.
I think a lot of people don't really know much about it.
So how did it all come to be? Yeah, that's a great question.
So about 18 years ago, the original director, her name is Liz Shepherd.
She's amazing.
She just felt that there was a need
to bring international cinema to our local Seattle families.
And so ever since then, every year we try to bring the best and brightest
in cinema to our families here in the Northwest and
and really just show the kids a little slice of the world.
And it's geared for kids of all ages. Right.
So when you say families, you really mean families
from the little ones all the way up to teenagers. Exactly.
We have programing for our ages two all the way up to teens.
Adults and parents love to enjoy the films as well.
And a question I get a lot actually is are the films made by children
or are they for children?
And the answer is a little bit of both.
We always have a short film program that celebrates young filmmakers,
but a majority of the films are, quote unquote, professional films
from around the world that are intended to be enjoyed by children and families.
Okay.
Let's talk a little bit about what's on tap for this weekend. Yes.
So our big closing night film, which is on February 12th, is The Magic Flute.
It is a German musical fantasy epic film
based on Mozart's opera of the same name, Magic Flute.
So it's a really fun adventure.
We also have a few shorts programs, again, for all different types of ages.
So for the younger kiddos,
they're going to enjoy our warm and fuzzy shorts animation program.
We have a Growing Pains shorts block for
for those kids who are experiencing the challenges of growing up.
And we also have a teen night on Friday,
February 10th, and all teens get in for just $5.
There's a silkscreen print
activity followed by a block of short films just for teens.
Okay.
So, I mean, really, there is something for everybody.
And with a family, for the kids, for all ages, perfect place to come.
You'll be able to find something. Exactly.
So tell me a little bit about how you end up
selecting the films that get featured here. It's a great question.
So one of the biggest things we try to keep in mind is making sure the films are
for children, not just about children, because those are very different things.
There's a lot of films that are about children
then aren't necessarily made to enjoy by children.
So we always try to keep that in mind
and we really try to feature stories that aren't seen in mainstream media.
You can't find it streaming anywhere.
This year we have over 150 films from 40 different countries.
So it really gives families a glimpse into different countries,
cultures, languages and just different perspectives
that they might not get from Netflix, so to speak.
A diverse selection.
And you guys have a lot of diverse activities here, too,
so it's not just coming here to watch a movie.
You offer workshops and a lot of other activities.
Tell us a little bit about what other things people can do. Yes.
So we have some really fun workshops coming up this weekend.
So we have a shadow puppetry and we have two workshops
to learn the art of Shadow Puppets.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
We also have an interactive showcase that's audience participation
put on by our friends Majestic Adventures, which is a local youth fantasy camp
and so it's going to be a really fun, interactive theater showcase,
and that's going to be on Sunday, February 12th.
And then, like I said at the teen night, we have the silkscreen print activity
that everyone can enjoy.
Okay.
You've been a part of this for a long time.
Hard question for you.
Do you have any personal favorite films of yours?
Oh, man, that is very that's a hard question.
I really just enjoy films that
I would never get to see anywhere else.
So there's some amazing animation films that we've seen from France, Germany,
Africa.
Like, I just it's really hard to choose.
But last year we were able to feature
a local TV show called Look Listen Learn, which I also work on.
And it was really fun to be able to provide them a venue to screen it
in the cinema and let our local families know a little bit more about it.
So that was kind of a really special event that I would got to be a part of.
So families watching, they want to come here this coming weekend.
How do they go about it? Where do they get the tickets?
What do they need to know?
Great question.
So there's a couple of different ways you can do it.
The best way is to get a festival pass and we have three options.
You can do an all virtual pass.
You can do an in-person pass or hybrid pass, which is a little bit of both.
You can come in person or enjoy virtually.
If you don't want to do a pass, you can get individual tickets,
virtual or in-person, to any of the individual programs that you see
that you really like.
And you can get all those tickets on our website or here at the theater
at the Northwest Film Forum, and you mentioned the website.
So if anybody has any additional questions or would like to purchase that film
pass, you can visit NWFilmForum.org
Kendra Ann Sherrill, thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you so much for having me.
We'll be right back.