If you're on the prowl before our next meeting for something stimulating to see, consider these films about Northwest places showing at the Capitol Theater: Great Speeches from A Dying World (Sunday at 5pm), and March Point (Monday at 5:30). Both involve a high degree of collaboration between the documentarists and the people they are working with.
Great Speeches is about the lives of nine homeless people in Seattle. As part of their portraits, all of the narrators perform speeches that matter to them. "The words of Shakespeare, Lincoln, JFK, and others are reinvested with meaning as they're tied to these personal stories." (from the program notes) I happened to meet the director, Linas Phillips, at the Seattle airport last night: he and my daughter are acquaintances and were on the same flight from NY. He's an imaginative documentarist, and spent two years doing fieldwork and creating this film. He'll be there after the showing to answer questions.
March Point is the account of three Swinomish teenagers from northwestern Washington who "investigate the impact of two oil refineries on their tribal community. [It] follows their journey as they come to understand themselves, the environment and the threat their people face. For centuries the Swinomish Indian Tribe has relied on the natural resources of the Skagit Valley through clamming, crabbing, and fishing...Over time, the presence of the refineries has negatively affected the health of the water and land, and the very fabric of cultural tradition itself...Ambivalent environmental ambassadors at the onset, the boys grapple with their assignment through humor, sarcasm, and a candid self-knowledge." Again, the filmmakers will be there to talk about their work.
If you haven't been there yet, the Capitol Theater is at 206 5th Ave. in downtown Olympia.