Words and Pictures

  The Portland International Film Festival is normally a highlight of the rainy season's arts calendar.  Thanks to the pandemic lockdown, all of this year's events are presented either online or at the Cinema Unbound Drive-In. Three local filmmakers join us to talk about t... Read more

  In this extended conversation about the 44th Portland International Film Festival, we spend an extra 20 minutes with three local filmmakers whose new projects are highlights of the festival lineup.   Dawn Jones Redstone has teamed up with Artists Repertory Theatre to cre... Read more

  For the past 30 years, the Cascade Festival of African Films has brought African films and African filmmakers to Portland, with screenings and events at Portland Community College, the Kennedy School, and the Hollywood Theatre.  But with the Covid-19 shutdown, the festiv... Read more

  Writer David F Walker is known for his work on such comics titles as Shaft, Luke Cage, and Power Man & Iron Fist.  In Portland, he covered the film scene for Willamette Week as well as his self-published blaxploitation zine BadAzzMoFo, and curated the Longbaugh Film Fest... Read more

  Animator Nina Paley is one of the most independent of filmmakers.  Her two feature films, Sita Sings the Blues and Seder Masochism, tackle patriarchal themes in religious narratives, and reimagine them from a feminist point of view. A fierce advocate of copyright abolit... Read more

  In this encore episode from 2009, we visit two award-winning independent animation directors at their Portland studios. Joanna Priestley is a filmmaker, teacher, producer, and festival organizer.  She’s best known for her abstract animation, most notably for North of Bl... Read more

  The 2016 U.S. presidential election was the first to showcase the power of internet memes, and no meme was more powerful than Pepe the Frog.  Created by Bay-area artist Matt Furie for the 2006 cartoon collection Boy's Club, Pepe suddenly found himself in the midst of a b... Read more

  Over half a century ago, the UPA animation studio was a haven for misfit geniuses struggling to create relevant cartoon films in the face of political and cultural repression.  Gambling the future of the company on an hourlong television special featuring their most popu... Read more