⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎵 Kelela
Tue. 9/8, doors 7pm
The Showbox (Downtown)

Kelela first appeared in our collective musical consciousness with 2013’s staggering Cut 4 Me, a unique blend of R&B songwriting with direct to the floor club production, courtesy of the UK’s innovative Night Slugs and Fade to Mind crews. Since then, she’s graced our lonely ears with multiple albums of low-lit future sex bass flex song craft, carving a unique path through the modern union of electronic production and songwriting, and inspiring dozens of impersonators. While her high point so far remains 2017’s unimpeachable Take Me Apart, her latest is no less intriguing. On New Avatar (released earlier this year on Warp) Kelela takes her bedroom-on-the-dance-floor sensibilities and runs them through a shoegaze pedalboard, adding layers of fuzzed out guitars and almost Incubus-esque alt-funk distortions to strange and hypnotic effect.

Sold out but resale tickets abound, $89. Tickets and more info

🎥 Hope (Na Hong-jin, 2026)
Opens Wed. 9/9, various times
SIFF Downtown (Belltown)

Have you SEEN The Wailing??? As one of our most recommended horror films of the last decade, the Korean Shaman flick pitted modern rational beliefs vs. traditional regional possession rituals in a bone-chilling, nihilistic vessel that left viewers questioning everything they believed. It also looked freaking gorgeous.

10 years after leaving us in the existential dust, director Na Hong-jin returns with his much-anticipated follow-up. Hope is ostensibly an alien creature feature, with previews showing an impressively strange beast being chased through the woods and rural towns by cops with guns. However, if the early reviews (which were very divisive) are to be believed, we are in for some out-of-nowhere twists and turns. Make sure to thank SIFF for showing this on the big Cinerama screen.

$18 general admission. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥🎶 Sleepbomb Presents: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Wed. 9/2, 8pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Sleepbomb, a psych post-rock band from San Francisco, plays a live score over the silent German classic surreal film.
$25 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 Osees, Brigid Dawson, Traps PS
Wed. 9/2, doors 7pm
Neumos (Capitol Hill)
This quintessential mid-2010s LA line up exudes proggy, garagey, krauty rock. If you’ve never listened to Osees (a.k.a. Thee Oh Sees) or Traps PS, wait to listen because they’re more fun live.
All ages. Tickets and more info

🎥 In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima, 1976)
Wed–Thu. 9/2–9/3, 7:15pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Catch this pinku-adjacent erotic art film in 35mm for the 50th anniversary screening.
18+. Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema and SECS Fest. $18 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 Rabba’s House: ‘nohup’ / Nick Carroll / Alesandro Carrabba
Fri. 9/4, 10pm
Timbre Room (Denny Triangle)
Bruiser homie line-up with the most primo selectors in town.
21+. Presented by OFF99. $20 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 CAMPERS: A Group Show
Sat. 9/5, performances start at 8pm
Georgetown Steam Plant (Georgetown)
Co-curated by Bergen Hendrickson and Hank Reavis, CAMPERS traces a PNW lineage of artist-run spaces and DIY culture.
More info

🎵 Re-Animated Music 2026 Sidewalk Sale
Sat–Sun. 9/5–9/6, 11am–7pm
Re-Animated Music (University District)
Trading Musician closing was a blow to the broke musicians of Seattle; thankfully, Re-Animated Music rose from the ashes. Support their efforts—you do need a new reverb pedal. Everyone does.
Free entry. More info

🎥 Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
Sat. 9/5, Tue. 9/8-Thu. 9/10, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A fever dream, a Jungian collapse, and some of the most unforgettable shots in Tarkovsky’s oeuvre.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 Mount Eerie, New Issue
Fri. 9/11, doors 7pm
The Neptune Theatre (University District)
One of those awesome stoner Reddit facts is that The Glow, Pt. 2 came out on 9/11. Never forget it with this well-timed performance by one of our true regional mystics.
$44. Tickets and more info

🎵 Crank II
Fri. 9/11, 10pm
Secret Location
“4 b2bs you’ll never forget,” featuring Tabitha b2b Solanum, Market Failure b2b Eve Defy, Hyeonje b2b Succubass, and Mimi Zima b2b Mealdrift.
Presented by Safetydance Collective. More info

🎥 The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)
Fri. 9/11, 4pm and 10pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
An unbelievably stylish film about an unbelievably deranged act in which the transference of one face to another creates a post-modern persona breakdown.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 When We Dance: DJ Lag
Fri. 9/11, 10pm
Monkey Loft (SoDo)
Rare chance to catch South Africa’s pioneer of gqom, a raw, pulsing club style that forgoes four-on-the-floor in favor of rhythmic brilliance.
21+. $19.73. Tickets and more info

🎥 The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois & Alex Rubenstein, 2021)
Sun. 9/13, 4:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
If you love (hate) the Mariners and crying your eyes out while studying graphs, boy, this is the documentary for you.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1989)
Mon. 9/14, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
As part of a series of 4K Hong Kong restorations shown by Grand Illusion Cinema, Full Contact is a powerful collab between director Ringo Lam and bad ass actor Chow Yun-Fat.
Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Baron Von Terror presents: In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter, 1995)
Sat. 8/22, 9:30pm
Central Cinema (Central District)

The late great Sam Neill’s performance shines brightly in one of John Carpenter’s best films. In the Mouth of Madness concerns an insurance agent (played by Neill) hired by a publishing house to track down a missing horror author. A simple premise unravels into one of the most deranged entries in Carpenter’s incredible film catalog, with metatextual elements continuously unfolding into themselves. One of the more truly Lovecraftian turns in any film lays claim to the descriptor: an image of the world falling apart from the perspective of authorship, agency, and agonizing void.

Don’t miss a chance to witness Neill in one of his self-proclaimed favorite roles, and a critical piece of his meltdown trilogy (including Possession and Event Horizon).

$16. Tickets and more info

🎶 Bill Callahan, Lonnie Holley
Wed. 8/26, 7pm
Neptune Theatre (U District)

Sad boys: old age addition. Callahan has been a staying presence for generations of frowning dudes over multiple decades, from his early noised out work as Smog to his last run of records under his own name. These latest collections find the elder statesman ruminating on love, loss, and death through his signature baritone. As one of the most enigmatic and beguiling voices in modern music, his music gazes at flocks of birds and analyzes dreams. It wonders where the heart has wandered off to in strange turns of phrase that reward deeper, intelligent readings.

Callahan’s latest, My Days of 58, finds him working with a group of musicians in an even more intentional way. He discovers subtle sonic shifts by spending longer stretches of time with each musician separately, working out the sinews of the pieces’ possibilities.

Lonnie Holley is a sweetener in the opening slot, a sculptor who turned to music in the early 2010s and creates ethereal songscapes.

$35.60. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 WTF with STUFF: Señorita (Isabel Sandoval, 2011)
Wed. 8/19, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Prepare yourself for Isabel Sandoval’s upcoming hyped noir Moonglow with her debut noir-inflected feature.
$15 general admission. Presented by Three Dollar Bill Cinema. Tickets and more info

🎨 KEEPING
Wed–Sat. 8/19–8/22, 7:30pm
12th Avenue Arts (Capitol Hill)
Try to catch this hour-long dance performance by Blue Screen on its opening night—the only chance you have to hear the performance accompanied by local ambient upstart Morgan O.
$31.60. Tickets and more info

🎥 Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004)
Fri. 8/21, Sat. 8/22, Tue. 8/25 & Thu. 8/27, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A new 4K restoration of Araki’s landmark film, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, and the late Michelle Trachtenberg.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🥪🎶 Club Sandwich: Carly Barton, Floridian Slip
Sun. 8/23, 4-8pm
The Space (Columbia City)
Order your sandwiches (chipotle corn chicken salad 🤤) and baked treats (black sesame corn tartlet 🌽) early so you can chill on the dance floor.
Various prices. Pre-order and more info

🎥 Visitor Q (Takashi Miike, 2001)
Mon. 8/24, 7:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Celebrate the ultra-violent master’s birthday by watching his under-seen play on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema. The film is a dance of familial perversions and a stranger that wanders into the web to disturb the balance.
$12 general admission. Presented by The Grand Illusion. Tickets and more info

💬 unpoetry
Tue. 8/25, 8pm (gallery opens 7pm)
Cowpine Theater (U District)
A night of readings and more, featuring Pidge Pasqualle, Bunny Bloom, Lady Zade, Flowering Ground, and Charlie Lou Evans.
More info

🎬 Seattle Film Society: LOCALS ONLY #31
Thu. 8/27, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Join up for the monthly showcase of local short films and in-depth discussion. This month focuses on films that help us ease or interrogate new phases of life.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 Black Marble, The Serfs
Fri. 8/28, 6pm
The Crocodile (Belltown)
Escape the sun with the dark synthwave of Black Marble and The Serfs’ jangly post-punk.
$37.35. 21+. Tickets and more info

🎨 Inconvenience Store — Soft Opening
Fri. 8/28, 6pm
Parnassus, Third & Pine (Downtown)
From the hyper-realists behind STÖR comes a new experiment in reality re-creation, featuring contributions from over 50 artists.
Free. More info

💬 Isabella Von Ghoul, Lisa van Dam-Bates, & Maggie Block: Hallow's Eve
Mon. 8/31, 7pm
Elliott Bay Book Company (Capitol Hill)
Celebrate the launch of Hallow's Eve Zine, a biannual femme-created arts publication exploring horror and the macabre through a dark feminine lens.
RSVP encouraged. More info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎨 Deadly Prey Gallery Pop-Up
Tue. 8/11, 6-10pm + Wed. 8/12, 2-8pm
Quality Flea Center (Capitol Hill)

We are happy as heck to hear that Deadly Prey is swinging through Seattle this summer. The old QFC on 15th hosts a stop from this roving Chicago-based gallery that tours hand-painted film poster art from Accra, Ghana. The tradition dates back to the 1980s micro cinema boom in Ghana, when traveling cinemas needed eye-catching posters to pull crowds, and has since grown to cover just about every corner of movie history.

These aren’t reproductions. Each poster is its own deranged, maximalist reimagining, sometimes following the plot, often abandoning it entirely for psychedelic, violent, hallucinatory riffs on the film’s characters and imagery. The results are as much outsider art as promotional material. Free and in a perfectly fitting ‘gallery’ space; come gaze upon bizarro cinema with the rest of the punks.

Presented by Scarecrow Video. Free. More info

🎬 The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2026)
Opens Fri. 8/7, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)

We’ve long loved Kiyoshi Kurosawa for his incredible forays into internet paranoia and tech horror, capturing the Y2K fin de siècle so perfectly (and terrifyingly). In recent years, though, the virtuoso has tried his hand at a variety of genres, from crime capers to World War II era dramas. Now he turns his attention to the samurai film, following in the footsteps of the elder (and unrelated) Kurosawa. He treats the genre with real respect, and early reports promise a mind-bending puzzle box of a film: a noir samurai mystery set in a castle, where nothing is quite what it seems. Don’t miss the chance to see the savant at work.

$15. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
Wed. 8/5, 4:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Charlie Chaplin’s first pure talking picture, featuring his controversial caricature of Adolf Hitler.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 JOOSED: Wet And Stupid
Thu. 8/6, 9pm
Timbre Room (Denny Triangle)
Stay cool on the dance floor with some wet and wild drinks while this month’s resident, Tabitha, hitting the decks.
$14.27. Tickets and more info

🎥 What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972)
Fri. 8/7, 10pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack for this Italian-German giallo will make you wanna solve this mystery.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 VHS Swap: Rat City Heat Edition
Sat. 8/9, 4pm
Tomb of Treasure and Lariat Bar (White Center)
Calling all dead media collectors: Swap ya VHS tapes with fellow film nerds.
Presented by Greater Seattle VHS Guild. More info

🎥 Knockabout (Sammo Hung, 1979)
Fri. 8/14 + Mon. 8/17, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Kung-fu choreography, film directing, acting—What can’t Sammo Hung do?
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 Research: Tornado Wallace, Djfix, Slynky
Sat. 8/15, 11pm
Location TBA
Tornado Wallace and Djfix make their Seattle debut with their genre-bending tracks.
Tickets and more info

🎥 Scarecrow Parking Lot Sale
Sat. 8/15, 12pm
Scarecrow Video (U District)
Scarecrow’s renowned parking lot sale is back! DVDs, VHSs, players, raffles, and other treasures.
Free admission. More info

🎨 Vera Project Yard Sale and Swap
Sun. 8/16, 12pm
The Vera Project (Seattle Center)
Get ur music gear and ~vintage~ Vera Project screenprints and T-shirts from Seattle’s beloved non-profit.
Free admission. More info

🎥 The Blade (Tsui Hark, 1995)
Mon. 8/17, 7:15pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
A bold, dizzying Hong Kong action film spins a dark tale of revenge and soaked in blood.
Presented by The Grand Illusion. $12 general admission. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎬 Base Metals, Pure Gold: The Scores of Ennio Morricone
Through Thu. 8/13, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)

When the great composer Ennio Morricone departed this earthly existence in 2020, he left behind a singular, expansive, and incredibly generous catalog of sound and feeling. Born in Rome in 1928, il Maestro is best known for his indelible scores to the Spaghetti Westerns of the ‘60s and ‘70s, most notably Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. (Though his haunting, chaotic scores for the other Sergio are personal favorites, especially Il Grande Silenzio). Outside of the spaghetti bowl, Morricone helmed the scores for over 400 films, ranging from horror to romance, always bringing an emotional depth that is intrinsically tied up with our contemporary definition of ‘cinematic.’

Morricone’s style was fully unique. His work blends classical motifs with electronic sounds, atonal surf guitar, and everyday objects like typewriters, animal noises, and whistles. Famously, Leone would have Morricone write the scores before the film was made; the music was another image, a full presence in the cinematic world. Never one to tire of sonic exploration, Morricone and his weirdest friends also put together jaw dropping noise and free jazz records out as Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

But the movies themselves are the real draw here, and thankfully, The Beacon is halfway through a celebration of Ennio’s filmic output. Hopefully you’ve caught one (The Big Gundown was freaking revelatory). But even if you haven’t, there’s plenty more goodness on the horizon, including Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Lucio Fulci’s psychedelic horror A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971), and Giuseppe Tornatore’s movie-magic fantasia Cinema Paradiso (1988). Don’t be a lonely meatball. Put that cowboy hat on and roll on down.

$15 general admission. Tickets & other info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎶 A Musical Dialogue Between Venice and Persia
Wed. 7/22, 7:30pm
ANTiPODE Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)
New works for baroque instruments by several Persian woman composers, examining a lineage between Persian and Venetian composition.
$23.18. Tickets and more info

🎤 Ocean Vuong w/ Putsata Reang
Thu. 7/23, 7:30pm
Town Hall Seattle (First Hill)
The celebrated author comes to Town Hall to discuss his newest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, with journalist and Ma and Me author Putsata Reang.
$12.50. Tickets and more info

🎶 Freakquencies: The Dare / Two Shell / Nick León
Thu. 7/23, 8pm
Neumos (Capitol Hill)
Don’t care about the Dare and new Two Shell is ROUGH bad but dang if we don’t love the first few Shellings that came out from the anonymous duo - however, the real highlight here is León’s sinisterly breezy tropical post-pop.
21+. $36.97. Tickets and more info

🎨 Assembly Art Fair
Thu. 7/23 – Sun. 7/26, Various Times
West Canal Yards (Interbay)
It’s art fair weekend! While the mega-fair takes over Lumen Field, we’re more interested in this new, gallery-led initiative with exhibitors primarily from West Coast galleries, all housed in the waterfront West Canal Yards.
$15 day pass. Tickets and more info

🎶🎨 Minding Machines: DJ Charles Mudede for Grand Gesture
Thu. 7/23, 7pm
Railspur (Pioneer Square)
Local genius/writer/filmmaker Charles Mudede DJs at the luxe Railspur for the opening of ‘Grand Gesture,’ an exhibit co-produced by the fine folks at Arcade Magazine.
21+. Free with RSVP. Tickets and more info

🎨 Recollections: Actualize AIR Summer Showcase — Opening Night
Fri. 7/24, 6–10pm
Actualize AIR (Pioneer Square)
More art fair satellite goodness going down at Actualize with their summer showcase and first birthday celebration, digging into memories held, lost, and formed through a range of media.
Free. More info

🎶 Kim Gordon
Sat. 7/25, 7pm
Neptune Theatre (University District)
Forever cool Kim Gordon plays in support of her weirdo noised out trap beat inflected new album Play Me.
$47.60 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 Seattle Zine Fest
Sun. 7/26, 12–6pm
Quality Flea Center (Capitol Hill)
Celebrate printed media at the annual festival of zines, DIY print media, and self-published creative works — back with 100+ tablers.
Free. Tickets and more info

🎬 The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
Sun. 7/26, 5pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
One of our greatest living filmmakers, Lucrecia Martel’s films are hypnotic dismantlings of bourgeois life. In The Headless Woman, a wealthy driver believes she may have hit someone. Her suspicions drive her into a Lispector-esque unraveling.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 Hiraya Cinema Shorts Showcase: Halo-Halo Night
Wed. 7/29, 6pm
mam’s books (Chinatown–International District)
Launch event for Hiraya Cinema, a new microcinema focused on Filipino films, showing seven shorts (including a “pansit” western!) with complimentary halo-halo.
Free with RSVP. Tickets and more info

🎬 Beacon of Flesh
Wed. 7/29, 7:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Three Dollar Bill Cinema presents a Super 8 rock opera about a transgender creature that gets wrapped up with a gang of nuns.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 Seattle Film Society: LOCALS ONLY
Thu. 7/30, doors 6:30pm / films 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
SFS’s monthly showcase of Washington-made shorts goes sci-fi: four films of cyber strikes, time-hopping androids, stranded starship crews, and stargazers.
$15. Tickets and more info

🎶🎨 ANTiPODE 1st Birthday: Alessandro Carrabba, Nick Carroll, Azmito
Sat. 8/1
ANTiPODE (Pioneer Square)
Celebrate one year of the wonderful ANTiPODE gallery with groovy sets from local dons Carrabba and Carroll.
$33.85. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎶 Drongo Fest
Sat. 7/11-Sun. 7/12 12pm-12am
Email drongotapes@gmail.com for address

In our endlessly self-sterilizing contemporary Seattle, Drongo Fest is a sweet reminder of the DIY noise spirit that has infused our fair city in decades past. Run by local cassette label Drongo Tapes, the two-day festival takes place in several low-key venues across the city, boasting a largely PNW-based lineup filled with heaps of guitar weirdos, synth magicians, and general aural outsiders. Highlights include local dreampop heroes somesurprises; Boston-based acoustic guitar raga droner Liam Grant; Seattle noise punks Miscomings; and Vegas no wavers Spring Breeding.

$30-$60 for a single day pass, $50-$100 for a 2-day pass. More info

🎥 Free Forum 2026
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Wed. 7/8-Sun. 7/12, various times

If you or a friend ever wanted to start getting into cinema, now is the time. Northwest Film Forum is bringing out all the bangers from essential film makers, such as Wong Kar-wai, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and David Lynch. Much of their selection for Free Forum 2026 is foundational to contemporary cinema, not just in the U.S., but all over the world. Seriously. When Norhtwest Film Forum released the line up, we screamed. Here are our favorite picks:

Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
Thu. 7/9, 7pm

Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
Fri. 7/10, 7:15pm

Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
Sat. 7/11, 3pm

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez, 2024)
Sat. 7/11, 3:15pm

Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
Sun. 7/12, 7:15pm

All free with ticket reservation. More info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 Macho Dancer (Lino Brocka, 1988)
Fri. 7/10, Sat. 7/11, Tue. 7/14, Wed. 7/15, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A queer coming of age story set in the clubs of Manila from the late great Filipino master Lino Brocka.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥💬 Microplastics, Health and Fertility
Tue. 7/14, 6:15pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
The microplastics in my body are trying to get me to stop recommending this film and panel discussion presented by Physicians for Social Responsibility and Toxic Free Future.
Free. RSVP and more info

🎥 Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroli, 1967)
Wed. 7/15, Thu. 7/16, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Complex revenge narratives push this Western into dense psychological territory, with an obsession-fueled Morricone soundtrack to twirl your spaghetti to.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 The Mercenary (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
Thu. 7/16, 7:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
The GOAT Sergio (sorry, Leone) goes haywire with a revolutionary Zapata story. Maestro Morricone keeps things appropriately explosive. Spaghetti!!
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Early Summer (Yasujirō Ozu, 1951)
Fri. 7/17-Sun. 7/19, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
2026 marches forward, and so does the Forum’s progression through Ozu’s seasonal dramas.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 Pratt Fine Arts Summer Market
Sat. 7/18, 12-5pm
Pratt Fine Arts Center (Neighborhood)
In Pratt’s 3rd Outdoor Summer Market, 50+ local artists will have sick things for sale. Tasty bites, bumpin’ tunes, and live demos will keep your soul full while you peruse.
More info

🎶🎨 (waterfall / sound/ light) install
Sat. 7/18, 8pm
Gallery 1412 (Central District)
Feel the change of nature in a continuous sound and light installation that tonally reflects the rippling waterfalls of the Seattle area.
$3-$25 suggested donation. More info

🎶 The Body, Big Brave
Mon. 7/20, 7pm
The Black Lodge (South Lake Union)
Witness the purest, most anguished screeching that music can bring.
All ages. $24.98. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎶 Shane Parish
Wed. 7/1, 7pm
Vera Project (Seattle Center)

There are invisible lines through the history of music: tonal, resonant cartographies that are not immediately apparent, that need to be struck like a bell in order to be heard and studied. Shane Parish constantly seeks these strange harmonies, as exemplified in his newest collection, Autechre Guitar. The album is an acoustic exploration of the titular band’s dense structures that discovers hidden warmth therein.

Parish was first known for his work in the band Ahleuchatistas, who trafficked in progged out zany jams that used instruments as vehicles for sonic dismantling. He has several collaborations that are worth seeking out, including one with Wendy Eisenberg, as well as being a member of the last two year’s most essential guitar music, Bill Orcutt’s music for four guitars.

In his solo work, Parish finds freedom in compositional restraint, often working through the notation of other musicians and interpreting it for solo acoustic guitar. His work in this space has touched on everything from Kraftwerk to Alice Coltrane, but none of it has been as affective as Autechre Guitar. A dissociative journey into the heart of the British enigma’s early tunes, the 10-track album sinks into a kind of lackadaisical uneasiness: like half-remembered bossa nova on an out of tune six-string while the world burns around you.

Don’t miss the rare chance to see Parish grace the Vera Project stage.

All ages. $24.98. Tickets & more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎨 Breakfast for Dinner
Thu. 6/25, 5pm
The Space, 3820 S. Ferdinand St. (Columbia City)
As part of the Columbia City Art Walk and Kick It Block Party, this event a fun lil collage of art and food, including tasty treats from Club Sandwich.
More info

🎥 Locals Only 29
Thu. 6/25, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Seattle Film Society presents a special Juneteenth edition of the Locals Only series, featuring video works from Seattle’s black film community.
$15 general admission. Tickets & more info

🎥 All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
Thu. 6/25 + Wed. 7/1, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Dripping with paranoia and cool skinny ties, witness the Dustin Hoffman/Robert Redford duo in glorious 35mm as they go deep on the conspiracies around the Watergate scandal.
$12 general admission. Tickets and more info
Presented by The Grand Illusion

🎶 Sir Richard Bishop, Climax Golden Twins
Fri. 6/26, 7pm doors
Black Lodge (South Lake Union)
It’s hot weird guitar summer 🎸 Catch Sir Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls fame get strange at the Black Lodge with support from Climax Golden Twins.
All ages. $30.13. Tickets & more info

🎶 Sebastian Camens, Unity Garnish, Bit Graves
Fri. 6/26, 7:30pm doors
Gallery 1412 (Central District)
Bit Graves marks the release of their new EP with an A/V performance, alongside sonic explorations from Sebastian Camens and Portland-based artist Unity Garnish.
$10-$20 sliding scale. More info

🎥 Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin, 2025)
Fri. 6/26-Thu. 7/2, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)
In all its 16mm glory, director Mark Jenkin lures us into a nautical, hallucinatory reverie with textural visuals of a returned ship that had once disappeared at sea.
$18 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 ode
Sun. 6/28, 5pm and 7pm
ANTiPODE (Pioneer Square)
New choreography from Marco Farroni Leonardo and Danielbi Perdomo in response to ANTiPODE’s current exhibition, the liberating prints of Forouzan Safari.
More info

🎥 The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
Mon. 6/29 - Thu. 7/2, various times
The Beacon Cinema (Columbia City)
The Maestro Ennio Morricone passed on a year ago, and The Beacon is rightfully celebrating some of his great contributions to cinematic scores, kicking things off with blistering, militant snares of The Battle of Algiers.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Poison (Todd Haynes, 1991)
Mon. 6/29, 7:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Haynes’s early ‘90s queer classic by sinking into its Jean Genet-inspired transgressions.
$12 general admission. Tickets and more info
Presented by The Grand Illusion

🎥 Cadence Video Poetry: Imagine a Mountain Running
Thu. 7/2, 5pm
Seattle Art Museum (Downtown)
As part of the First Thursday Art Walk, eight ethereal short films hold a visual dialogue with SAM’s current exhibit, Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest.
Free. More info

🎶 Rabba’s House: Mike Dunn, Nick Carroll, Joey Webb
Fri. 7/3, 10pm doors
Cherry Nightclub (Denny Triangle)
House heads rejoice! Chicago legend Mike Dunn will bring his genre-defining grooves to the Cherry dance floor.
21+. $20. Tickets & more info

🎥 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2002)
Fri. 7/3, 7pm + Tue. 7/7, 7:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
I remember watching this in college and being like damn Quentin Tarantino kinda sucks. 🙃
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 Strange Library
Sat. 7/4, 2pm
Saint Bread (U District)
What better way to spend the 4th of July than to rent and read manga over yummy treats?
More info

🎥 The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1976)
Fri. 7/4, 7pm + Tue. 7/7, 4:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Skip the July 4th fireworks for a good ol’ spaghetti western gunfight instead. Come for the action, and stay for the Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
Sun. 7/5, 7pm
Central Cinema (Central District)
I’m saying I’m an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.
$16. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)
Fri. 6/12-Thu. 6/18, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)

Upon wearing an Amores Perros hat in Brooklyn, a bartender told me, “That is the most Mexican movie ever.” As one of the Three Amigos, director Alejandro González Iñárritu, along with Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, shaped the international perception of contemporary Mexican cinema at the turn of the century. Iñárritu’s pop sensibilities shot him to success in the U.S. with the release of Birdman (2014), but earlier films such as Biutiful (2010), Babel (2006), and, of course, Amores Perros (2000) hold the power of Mexican grittiness and resilience.

Released during the culmination of extreme political strife in Mexico, Amores Perros reflects the despondent state of the country during the turn of the century. In a desperate hunger for transformation, the film’s three protagonists face the contradictions of striving for prestige while facing calamity, each in different ways. The multi-narrative film follows a model, a hitman, and a dog fighter (played by a young Gael García Bernal), whose lives become increasingly intertwined by a destructive car wreck, despite the stark differences in their socioeconomic status. Using dogs as a motif, the triptych reveals the characters’ struggles with class, sexuality, and morality. While the dog fighter uses his rottweiler to make money, the model dotes on her darling pet, who is the receiver of ultimate affection. On the other hand, the hitman’s only company is his pack of dogs. Their different relationships with dogs reflect their states and skirmishes.

The film’s title can be interpreted any number of ways. While it literally translates to English as ‘loves dogs,’ the title is sometimes rendered as ‘love is a bitch.’ Either way, both interpretations accurately represent the sentiments of the film and the contradictions that persist.

$18 general admission. More info and tickets

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎨 The Hill House: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald
Thu. 6/11, 11:30am
Frye Art Museum (First Hill)
Not to be confused with The Haunting of Hill House, this art history lecture discusses Mackintosh’s and Macdonald’s all-encompassing architectural and interior design work on the Hill House in Scotland.
$20 for non-members. More info and tickets

🏀 Seattle Storm vs. Golden State Valkyries
Fri. 6/12, 7pm
Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle Center)
At As Busy As It Gets HQ, we love basketball. While the NBA Finals may be dominating headlines, the WNBA is bringing plenty of heat, too. Catch the hometown Seattle Storm as they take on the upstart Golden State Valkyries, the league’s third newest franchise, in just their second season.
Starting at $23. More info and tickets

🎥 Queer Cinema for Palestine
Fri. 6/12, 7pm
Pipsqueak Gallery (Chinatown International District)
In the fourth edition of Queer Cinema for Palestine, six short films stand against pinkwashing and genocide against Palestinians.
Free. More info and film program

🎶 Joosed: othrwrld, tea & him
Fri. 6/12, 10pm
Kremwerk (Denny Triangle)
Wet & wild techno from Portland’s othrwrld.
$17.83. More info and tickets

🎶 In Heaven: Succubass, DJ Girlfriends, Korra b2b Mirin Doja
Sat. 6/13, 10pm
Timbre Room (Denny Triangle)
”Bass-forward club for gay girls.”
$11.89. More info and tickets

🎥 The Queercrow Archive vol. 4
Sun. 6/14, 4:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Presented by Scarecrow Video and Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS), featuring newly digitized queer VHS treasures.
Free with RSVP. More info

🎥 Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)
Mon. 6/15, 7:15pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
New 4K restoration of a post-revolution action comedy from Hong Kong cinema hero Tsui Hark.
$12 general admission. More info and tickets

🎥 In Her Body: Short Films from Iran On Reproductive Realities
Wed. 6/17, 8:30pm
ANTiPODE Gallery (Pioneer Square)
An evening of short films examining the material conditions of abortion, egg donation, and pregnancy in Iran.
$33.85. More info and tickets

🎥 Candyman (Nia DaCosta, 2021)
Fri. 6/19, 7pm
Central Cinema (Central District)
Celebrate Juneteenth with this chilling reimagining of a horror classic. Part ghost story, part social commentary. Just remember: don’t say his name.
$15. Presented by Seattle Scare Society. More info and tickets

🎶 Research: Ciel, Miata Man, Tabitha
Sat. 6/20, 10pm
Location announced day of show
Toronto-based producer Ciel brings propulsive experimentalism to the dancefloor.
$40. More info and tickets

💵 Sold out but still recommended! 💵

These events caught our eye, but tickets might be hard to come by. Think of it as an honorable mention ;)

🎥 SEATTLE IS BURNING!
Tue. 6/16, 6pm
Hidden Hall (Capitol Hill)
Screening of Paris is Burning + a drag show. Afterparty tickets still available!!
$15.37. More info and tickets

🎵 Underscores, Umru
Tue. 6/23, 7pm
Showbox (Downtown)
U is one of the best pop albums of the year — if you can scalp some tickets, its a chance to see a future star early on.
More info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎬 Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair
Fri. 6/5-Thu. 6/11, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)

Have things always been this bad? It’s easy to feel like this is the worst of all possible worlds, the worst timeline to be involved in. And it just might be! However, if you want to feel connected to a multitude of other dismal points in recent world history, Bleak Week covers all the angles.

Now on its fifth year, the American Cinematheque of Los Angeles started Bleak Week as an annual ‘celebration’ of film exploring the darker sides of humanity. The 2026 festival has expanded to theaters in 73 cities around the world, including our very own Beacon Theater in Columbia City. Truly, nothing brings the world together like horrifying, unrelenting sadness.

Some of this year’s films include Catherine Breillat’s disturbing childhood drama Fat Girl (2001); Agustí Villaronga’s depraved post-WWII fairy tale In a Glass Cage (1986); and the romantic bleak 🐐Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous symphony of sex, torture, and degradation Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). See you in the sad pit. 😢

$15 general admission. More info

🎬 Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi, 2025)
Tue. 5/26-Fri. 5/29, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)

In scientific research, we, as humans, continually use metaphors to explain phenomena. (e.g. “Cells are cities buzzing with activity.”) In Silent Friend, a contemporary scientist played by Tony Leung Chui-wai (In the Mood for Love) strives to debunk the belief that all human brains are like spotlights, focusing on one thought at a time. However, COVID-19 disrupts his neurological research at a German university and forces him to look elsewhere at cognition and relation. A large ginko tree in the university’s botanic garden offers another possible way of analyzing perception and his own loneliness.

This tree connects his story to other individuals who similarly struggled with (not against!) varying scales of conflict. From a pioneering female botany student in the early 20th century to a reluctant plant caretaker in the Vietnam War era, the giant 188-year-old ginko tree offers insight into cognition and communication.

Through gorgeous imagery, the gentle film asks us to patiently consider seeing things through others’ perspectives, whether another person’s or even a plant’s point of view.

$18 general admission. More info and tickets

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎬 Mārama (Taratoa Stappard, 2025)
Tue. 5/26-Thu. 5/28, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)
Horror flicks from Down Under are particularly frightening. Mix that with colonialism, and you’ve got a cocktail for terror that’ll chill you to your core.
$18 general admission. More info and tickets

🎵 THC.XLR, OC-EN, DJ Having Sex
Wed. 5/27, 7pm doors
Baba Yaga (Pioneer Square)
Psychosonic wanderers THC.XLR take the stage at Baba Yaga with support from the exploratory OC-EN, featuring Morgan Hendersen of Blood Brothers fame, and DJ Having Sex.
21+. $19.99. Tickets

🗣️ Socialism and Revolution in Asian American History
Thu. 5/28, 6:30pm
Hood Famous Bakery + Bar (Chinatown International District)
Dive into the recent history of socialism and anti-colonial struggles in Amerikkka pre-Zohran Mamdani. Part of Red May 2026.
Free. RSVP required. Only 40 spots available. More info

🎬 Backrooms (Kane Parsons, 2026)
Thu. 5/28-Thu. 6/4, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)
Backrooms started as a YouTube series of endless spaces, digitally constructed out of Cinema4D (for all you nerds out there). No people, no end, just a sea of interconnected yellow rooms.
$18 general admission. More info and tickets

🎬 Seattle Asian American Film Festival
In person: Fri. 5/29-Sun. 5/31, various times
Virtual: Mon. 6/1-Sun. 6/7, various times
Wing Luke Museum (Chinatown International District), Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (Central District)
Film festival season is still among us. In its 14th rendition, the Seattle Asian American Film Festival gently reminds us that the Asian diaspora remains connected, despite different languages, cultures, and homes.
Prices vary; some showings are free. More info

🎨🗣️ Glazer’s PhotoFest
Fri. 5/29-Sun. 5/31, various times
Glazer’s Camera and The Collective (South Lake Union)
Calling all photographers and casual shutterbugs: Glazer’s Camera has a packed schedule with workshops, photo walks, demos, and more!
Free, registration required. More info

🎵🎬 places in pieces vol. 4
Sat. 5/30, 7:30pm
Gallery 1412 (Central District)
This 56-minute film by Jason Pappariella and Adam Parks wanders through Eastern and Central Europe in a dream-like meditation on fleeting landscapes and mundane moments, with Adam Parks’ score weaving the scenes together. Local support from Seed Order and Horse Thief.
Suggested $10-$20 donation. More info

🎬 Late Spring (Yasujirō Ozu, 1949)
Sat. 5/30-Sun. 5/31 4pm + 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
As part of the seasonal series, Waste Not Your Thoughts on Eternity, Late Spring reminds us why Ozu is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Set in post-war Japan, a father reluctantly marries off his daughter before it’s “too late,” even though neither want it to happen.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Sun. May 31, 5pm + 8pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
”Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.”
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)
Sun. May 31, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Seattle is STOKED to get sexy for the 10th anniversary of The Handmaiden because only limited tickets are available at the door.
Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. More info

🎬 WFLM Presents: Secret Movie + Physical Media Swap
Tue. June 2, 7:30pm
The Egyptian (Capitol Hill)
Yes, The Egyptian. It’s not back, per se, but not all is lost. If you secured a ticket or are doing standby, don’t forget to bring a DVD, Blu-Ray, or VHS to trade for the physical media swap.
Presented by WFLM (We Film) and Classified Cinema. Standby tickets only. Tickets and more info

🎨 Imagined Freedom | Revealing Bodies Never Allowed to Be Seen
Thu. 6/4, 5pm
ANTiPODE Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)
For June’s Pioneer Square Art Walk, ANTiPODE emerges out of its April pause with a new exhibition featuring stunning drawings from Forouzan Safari.
More info

🎬 After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
Thu. 6/4, 7pm
a/stir (Capitol Hill)
Have you ever thought you were going to get some? And maybe it did or didn’t happen? You can relive that thrill by going to the speakeasy downstairs beneath a/stir to catch a taste of Scorsese’s absurd New York joyride.
Presented by Seattle Magic Theater. $15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎨 Lotus L. Kang and Nour Mobarak in Conversation
Sat. 6/6, 2pm
Frye Art Museum (First Hill)
What does memory sound like? Artists Lotus L. Kang and Nour Mobarak discuss the influences of poetry, music, and history in their own contemporary art practices.
Free. More info and RSVP

🎵 Dorian Electra, Oskie
Tue. 6/9, 7pm
Substation (Fremont)
Barbie Boy Dorian Electra takes flamboyance to a new level, not just in their outfits, but also their hyperpop sounds.
$31.94. More info and tickets

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎵 Dry Cleaning, Hotline TNT
Mon. May 18, 7pm
Showbox Sodo

In the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka takes the kids on a horrifying boat ride, dead panning his way out of the sugar-filled utopia of the chocolate room into a tunnel filled with shocking projected images of bugs and all sorts of horrors amidst the endless dark. The whole time his expert deadpan provides zero comfort in its eerie invocations.... ‘There’s no knowing where we’re goooing...’

Listening to the UK-based Dry Cleaning hits a similar pocket. Florence Shaw has a delightfully dull charm in her absurdist provocations, watching the slow disaster of modern society unfold with clear eyes, not really rejecting it but disassociating enough to get a good view. ‘Do everything and feel nothing,’ as Shaw drolls on their 2021 hit Scratchcard Lanyard, pointing a lethargic finger at the heaps of wannabe influencers that turn everything they touch to commodity. Underneath, the rhythm section slips from sinewy motorik to blasts of post-punk, with enough tricks up their sleeve to hold attention. Their newest, Secret Love, finds the group in a no less detached pocket, finding momentum in slower rhythms, never losing sight of the deeply unknown goal.

21+. $44.52. Tickets and more info

🎶 Laraaji
Sat. 5/16, 7:15pm
Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral (Capitol Hill)

After a chance encounter with the chance-obsessed Brian Eno in a New York park in 1978, Laraaji and his electronic zither became the central sound fascination of Eno’s Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. Since that synchronistic moment, Laraaji has become a central figure in new age and ambient sounds, with essential, low-key releases throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s (many collected on Numero Group’s excellent compilation Segue to Infinity). The ambient revival over the last 15 years saw renewed interest in his music and approach. He has been touring and bringing his joyful, cosmic sound (and laughter workshops) to multi-generational audiences worldwide, peeking behind the veil to see a brighter, harmonious universe. Don’t miss this chance to see the orange-clad vessel in Seattle’s beautiful Saint Mark’s church.

$35-65. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎨 A Thousand Flowers: The Unicorn Tapestries in Paris
Thu. 5/14, 11:30am
Frye Art Museum (First Hill)
Some of the more sensual artistic expressions of the Middle Ages, the Unicorn tapestries housed in Paris express the five senses through a noblewoman’s interactions with a unicorn and other flora and fauna. Learn more about the field of a thousand flowers at the Frye.
$20 general admission. Tickets must be purchased in person on the day of the lecture. More info

🎬 An Evening with Sky Hopinka
Fri. 5/15, 6:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Seven short films by the incredible Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians). The Ferndale-born artist will be present for post-film audience Q&A.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 DJ Stingray 313, Sharlese, Jason Code
Sat. 5/16, 10pm
An all-night affair featuring the blistering electro of Detroit’s masked legend manipulating the sound system.
21+. More info. Apply for tickets here

🎨 AANHPI Mini Market
Sat. 5/16, 3-7pm
Seattle Boxing Gym (Interbay)
Food, art vendors, and DJs, plus MEGA MAHJONG in the freaking boxing ring.
$5 suggested donation. More info

🎬 City on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1987)
Mon. 5/18, 7:15pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Chow Yun-Fat is an undercover cop… again.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 Danny Brown, midwxst, Chase USA
Wed. 5/20, 7pm doors
Showbox SoDo
With the release of Danny Brown’s latest album, Stardust, the rapper’s sound is as anxiously elastic as ever.
$44.54 general admission. All ages. More info

🎬 Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)
Wed. 5/20-Fri. 5/22, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Friends don’t let friends… kill each other. Or do they?
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 Altered States - 4K Restoration (Ken Russell, 1980)
Fri. 5/22-Sun. 5/24, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
If you’ve never seen a Ken Russell film, imagine maximalist psychosis happening due to a failed sensory deprivation tank experiment, painted by Salvador Dalí. Can’t imagine it? Then you’ll have to see the film for yourself.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎬 Rosa de Areia (António Reis & Margarida Cordeiro, 1989)
Sun. 5/24 and Wed. 5/27, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A cosmic collage that transforms the windswept landscapes of northeast Portugal into a hypnotic meditation on humanity.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 Dethklok with Thrown into Exile and Witch Ripper
Mon. 5/25, 6pm doors
The Moore Theatre (Downtown)
Metalocalypse but in real life. Toneschasers unite.
Various prices. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Seattle International Film Festival
May 7-17, various times
SIFF Downtown (Belltown); SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne); SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center); Pacific Science Center (Seattle Center)

Seattle is a FILM town, baby. There’s no better way to celebrate it than immersing yourself in SIFF’s annual namesake festival, a two-week multi-venue program showcasing 203 films from 71 countries and regions. There are too many highlights to feature, but a few standouts include Powwow People, a locally filmed documentary from legendary artist, writer, and director Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians); The Furious, an ultra-stylized, new Hong Kong action blast from Kenji Tanigaki (Hong Kong; best enjoyed at midnight at SIFF Downtown); Aanikoobijigan, a film investigating the ongoing struggle to return indigenous artifacts from museums by the brilliant brothers Adam and Zack Kahlil (Ojibway); and Mārama, an anti-colonial horror film from newcomer Taratoa Stappard (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa me Ngāti Tūwharetoa). But there are so many gems. All you need to know is — if you have a free night over the next couple weeks, wander out to a SIFF theater, take a chance, and buy a ticket to something new.

Prices vary. Schedule, tickets, and more info

🎶 Nuvolascura, Depiction of Man, Crossed, Hetta, Ostraca
Fri. 5/1, 7pm
The Vera Project (Seattle Center)

Even knowing this is a fire horse year, the world seems especially feverish, buckling in maniacal directions, each headline more unbelievable than the last. There are times when tranquil pools of ambient sounds help as a balm for the world, but this night of new gen screamo royalty is not one of those nights. Nuvolascura comes to the Vera Project as the frontrunners of the last decade of the genre’s revival. The LA quartet’s 2019 record, As We Suffer From Memory and Imagination, is one of the highest pinnacles of modern screamo, a frenetically radioactive blend of dissonant metallic riffs and world-weary shrieking. Nuvolascura returned last year with a new disc, How This All Ends, bringing richly heavy layers to their palette without sacrificing the chaos that makes their sound so essential.

The rest of this impressive bill explores international strains of genre evolution: Crossed (Spain) bring a sprawling metalcore edge; Hetta (Portugal) fractures their screams in a post-hardcore hall of mirrors; Ostraca (Richmond, VA) strangle their screamo in atmospheric anguish; and Seattle’s Depiction of Man bury the screams in a pile of esoteric dirt. Heal yrself in the pit.

All ages. $27.04. Tickets

🎨 Seattle Art Book Fair
Sat. 5/9-Sun. 5/10, 11am-5pm
Washington Hall (Chinatown International District)

Get ya books, zines, journals, and prints at Seattle’s very own independent art book fest. Washington Hall is hosting over 85 exhibitors hailing everywhere from our Evergreen State to Brooklyn and Shanghai. Whether you’re a book maker or lover, you can peruse exhibitors’ tables, listen to talks, and join workshops. Some talks have limited space, so make sure to cop a spot. For the Rainy Day Book Exchange, don’t forget to bring an art book you’re willing to share, and swap it for a new one to take home. If you already feel like you own too many printed ephemera, just remember: it’s not hoarding, it’s archiving.

Free. More info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎬 Cadence Video Poetry Screening: ceaseless, of the earth
Thu. 4/30, 6pm
Frye Art Museum (First Hill)
A standalone Cadence Festival screening at the Frye featuring video poetry exploring land, memory, and the natural world, followed by a conversation with the artists.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🗣️ A Sexual History of the Internet by Mindy Seu
Fri. 5/1
Cannonball Arts (Seattle)
Artist and technologist Mindy Seu presents a participatory lecture performance drawing on her research into the internet’s erotic and subcultural histories.
21+. $30-$35. Tickets and more info

🎵 Great Night For It (Research x OFF99): Marcellus Pittman, Bobby Ghanoush
Fri. 5/1, 9pm–5am
Venue TBA (announced to ticket holders)
Detroit’s legendary Marcellus Pittman graces Seattle’s underground with a soulful all-night set.
21+. Various prices. Tickets and more info

🗣️ Mark Frost w/ Harley Peyton
Tue. 5/5, 7pm
Elliott Bay Book Company (Capitol Hill)
Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost converses with fellow series writer Harley Peyton about his latest book, The Yankee Sphinx, a novel about one of FDR’s wartime advisers, focusing on the president’s final days.
Free. RSVP suggested. More info

🎵 Research x Osmosis: Introspekt, Tempa., Cousin, x1aoy3, and more
Fri. 5/8, 9pm
Seattle Harbor (FKA China Harbor in Lake Union)
Killer night of twisty techno at a recently un-vanished Seattle institution.
21+. Various prices. Tickets and more info

🎬 God Speed You! Black Emperor (Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1976)
Sat. 5/9, 7pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A rare screening of the cult Japanese biker documentary that inspired the name of the band that radicalized my suburban high school political compass.
$15. Tickets

🎵 Souled American
Mon. 5/11, 8pm
Tractor Tavern (Ballard)
Rare performance from the legendary, reclusive alt-country outfit.
$31.26. 21+. Tickets

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Fri. 4/24 - Sun. 4/26, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)

Seattle opened one of the world’s first nocturamas (or nocturnal houses) in February of 1969. Part of a larger Tropical House within the Woodland Park Zoo, the exhibit relied on the maintenance of a reverse light cycle, so animals typically asleep at night are awake during the day, while outside viewers can observe these creatures in their ‘natural’ state.

In Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, the inciting incident (a coordinated attack across Paris, including the bombing of a federal building and the burning of a statue of Joan of Arc) is secondary to the long, strange night that follows. The characters, all in their late teens to early twenties, regroup from their actions in a large department store with the intent of waiting out the citywide manhunt. The liminal drift in their new nocturnal mall world is truly surreal, as they sample luxury wares, indulge in high fashion catwalks, and explore the uncanny interiors.

Bonello masterfully films his young cadre, with tracking shots around the mall giving way to some of the most memorable needle drops in contemporary film (including a particularly wild use of Willow Smith’s ‘Whip My Hair’). The mall’s ambiguous space allows the anti-establishment impulses of the foundational act of the film to intermix with capitalistic desires and indulgent fantasies. It’s tough to say whether the real reverse light cycle is this time in the mall or the deforming neoliberalism that led to such extreme acts.

$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🗣️ The (Printed) Matter of Black Arts Writing: Archives for the Future
Thu. 4/16, 6–7:30pm
Henry Art Gallery (University District)
A panel of archivists and publishers convened by The Black Embodiments Studio to discuss collecting and circulating Black arts writing ephemera.
Free, donations welcome. RSVP encouraged. More info

🎬 Serpent’s Path (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1998) / Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2024)
Thu. 4/16 and Tue. 4/28, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Two Kiyoshi Kurosawa works making their US theatrical debut: a restored twisted yakuza thriller and a newer horror film about a culinary instructor driven to madness by a mysterious chiming sound.
$12. Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. Tickets and more info

🎬 2026 Cadence Video Poetry Festival
Fri. 4/17–Sun. 4/19
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
An annual festival celebrating video poetry, with an incredibly deep international roster of short films.
Prices vary. Tickets and more info

🎬 Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze, 2026)
Fri. 4/17–Sun. 4/26, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
With the proliferation of high-def imagery readily available to us, Dry Leaf turns our world on its head with the lo-fi video lending itself to the film’s impressionistic dreamscape, while unraveling the mysterious plot.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎞️ Ani-Marathon
Sat. 4/18–Mon. 4/27, various times
SIFF Downtown (Uptown)
Multi-week anime film series: Perfect Blue, Paprika, Ghost in the Shell, Mind Game, Angel’s Egg, A Silent Voice, The End of Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Weathering With You, Millennium Actress, and more.
$17 general admission. More info

🎵 FUN PARTY LOL: Ariel Zetina, DJ Having Sex, Alexia F, Soraya, Riki Healing
Sat. 4/18, 10pm
Massive (Capitol Hill)
DJ Having Sex hosts a stacked party headlined by Chicago house and techno artist Ariel Zetina.
21+. $22.35. Tickets and more info

🎬 1st Seattle Taiwanese Eco Film Festival
Sat. 4/18
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
The inaugural edition of Seattle's first Taiwanese eco-focused film festival, screening Birds and Us and Pongso no Tao~Island of People.
$18 general admission. More info

🎬 Universal Language (Matthew Rankin, 2024)
Sun. 4/19, 6:30pm
ANTiPODE Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)
A surreal, deadpan comedy set in an impossible interzone between Tehran and Winnipeg, followed by a Q&A with actor Pirouz Nemati.
$23.18. Tickets and more info

🎬 Chess of the Wind (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 1976)
Tue. 4/21, 7:15pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
A hypnotically stylized gothic murder mystery banned after a single screening in pre-revolution Iran and lost for decades, now restored in 4K for its 50th anniversary.
$12 general admission. Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. Tickets and more info

🗣️ Monsen Photography Lecture: Deana Lawson
Thu. 4/23, 6pm
Henry Art Gallery (University District)
The annual Monsen Lecture features Deana Lawson discussing a decade of her portrait practice, followed by a reception with the artist.
Free, donations welcome. RSVP encouraged. More info

🎵 Tek-Out: DJ Manny, CTRL.MP3, EXIS, MIXYA, Distemper, Mo Pls
Sat. 4/25
Kremwerk (Downtown)
Serious bass weight from some footwork heavy-hitters, headlined by the romantic freneticism of Chicago’s DJ Manny.
21+. $20-$30 doors. Presented by Impact Seattle. Tickets and more info

🎬 Wait Until Dark (Terence Young, 1967)
Sun. 4/26, 2pm and Mon. 4/27, 4:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Audrey Hepburn stars as a blind woman terrorized in her own apartment in this 1967 thriller.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎵 William Basinski, Kelly Moran
Mon. 4/27, 8pm
Substation (Fremont)
Legend of the loop William Basinski summons the relentless fog of brittle memory for an intimate performance.
21+. $31.94. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎶 Oklou
Tue. 4/14, 8pm
Showbox SoDo (SODO)

Oklou brings her fairy queen vibes to our very own Showbox SoDo to celebrate the release of her latest album, choke enough (2025). The French singer, composer, and producer combines hyperpop’s ultra-digital elements with the lush tenderness of R&B to orchestrate beautiful tracks. Her ethereal voice and Renaissance-esque synth work build a textural landscape for playfulness and post-digital irony.

Through glitchy sounds and an elegant use of autotune, Oklou invites us to bring awareness to the digital age, while using Baroque tones that disrupt these futuristic aspects and encourage us to stay grounded in the physical world. (The importance of her digital sound made it hard to resist the temptation to Photoshop a collage for this issue’s drawing, but I ultimately stuck to watercolor and colored pencil for this one.) In her music videos, she surrounds herself with friends, simply hanging out in a room or running together outside. She prioritizes emotion and connection, drawing influence from PC Music, who similarly foregrounds sentiment and passion across synthetic soundscapes.

In a world where it’s increasingly easier to isolate ourselves behinds our phones and computers, we look forward to swaying with you on Showbox SoDo’s dancefloor.

All ages. $51.23. Tickets and more info

🎥 Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold, 2025)
Fri. 4/3–Thu. 4/9, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)

Christian Petzold is one of our great contemporary directors, crafting mesmerizing, poetic works that burst out of their humble and economic appearance. His films tend to explore borders, identity (and its loss), and romantic power. In these modes he feels extremely contemporary, exploring modern fascist impulses by investigating particularly European struggles, while layering on a Hitchcock-tinged impulse towards mysterious motives and narrative sleight of hand. His newest, Miroirs No. 3, is his fourth collaboration with Paula Beer, and finds the two of them working in a Vertigo riff — the main character adapting to the identity of a family’s deceased daughter after a car crash leaves her shaken. Even more remarkable is the hall of mirrors Petzold can accomplish in under 90 minutes.

$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 I Live Here Now (Julie Pacino, 2025)
Thu. 4/2 & Thu. 4/9, 7:30pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
The debut feature of Julie Pacino (daughter of Al!), shot in 35mm, is a surreal psychodrama about a woman facing visions of her past while trapped in a hotel. Also Sheryl Lee!
$12 general admission. More info

🎥 Early Spring (Yasujirō Ozu, 1956)
Fri. 4/3–Sun. 4/5, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
The first in NWFF’s seasonally accurate series Waste Not Your Thoughts on Eternity: The Seasonal Films of Yasujirō Ozu.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Palestine 36 (Annemarie Jacir, 2025)
Fri. 4/3–Thu. 4/16, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
A sweeping period drama from Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir that recreates the moment the British Empire closed its fist around Palestine while Jewish refugees fled persecution across Europe. Essential viewing.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info
Also showing at SIFF Uptown

🎨 Eric-Paul Riege: Durational Performance + Talk
Sat. 4/4, 11am–3pm
Henry Art Gallery (University District)
Opening weekend event for Eric-Paul Riege: ojo|-|ólґ́ (on view through October 25). Riege performs his “weaving dances” in close concert with exhibition objects, followed by a conversation with curators Thea Quiray Tagle and Nina Bozicnik.
Free, donations welcome. RSVP encouraged. More info

🎥 Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
Sun. 4/5, 2pm; Mon. 4/6, 4:30pm
The Beacon (Columbia City)
Charming classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, part of The Beacon’s SHADOWLAND series.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

💬 ‘reveal’: An Evening of Unreleased Poetry, Prose & Music
Sun. 4/5, 6pm
Location provided to ticket buyers
Presented by A Tempo, an evening of unreleased work by Emily J Mundy, Ran Park, Mico Astrid, and Lily Minke Tahar — raising urgent funds for families in Gaza.
Suggested $5–$30. Tickets and more info

💬 Minh Nguyen with Charles Mudede
Sun. 4/5, 7pm
Elliott Bay Book Company (Capitol Hill)
A reading and conversation for the excellent Memorial Park: Revisiting Vietnam by Minh Nguyen, in dialogue with The Stranger’s Charles Mudede.
Free. More info

🎥 The Killer (New 4K Restoration) (John Woo, 1989)
Mon. 4/6, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
The most operatic of John Woo’s pre-Hollywood output, a beautiful film about two men learning how to shoot guns together <3
$12 general admission. Tickets and more info
Also showing at Regal!

🎵 Friends of the Road, Hanna Broback / Noel Kennon, Joseph Dee Bradshaw
Tue. 4/7, 7pm
Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar (Capitol Hill)
Joseph Dee Bradshaw visits the PNW from the Bay Area in support of his new solo fingerstyle guitar album The Conversion, with local support from Friends of the Road (Drongo Tapes) and a fiddle drone duo by Hanna Broback and Noel Kennon.
More info

🎥 Chime + Serpent’s Path (New 4K Restoration) (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Tue. 4/7 & Thu. 4/16, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
King Kiyoshi originally released the most horrifying film of the last few years as a freaking NFT, but we can’t hate him because he is the GOAT. Now that it’s getting its theatrical flowers, it’s time for audiences to appreciate Chime, with the esteemed filmmaker squeezing more contemporary fear out of 45 minutes than most directors can in their entire careers. Showing with the criminally underrated Serpent’s Path in a new 4K restoration. Do NOT miss.
$12 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Wed. 4/8, 7pm; Thu. 4/9, 7:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Have u ever become 2 similar 2 your best friend? Same.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🛼 🎵 Southgate Roller Rink 15th Anniversary
Sat. 4/11, 9pm
Southgate Roller Rink (White Center)
Celebrating 15 years since the rink’s reopening with a full night of DJs plus Baby Ketten Karaoke in the bar starting at 9pm.
21+. $18 admission, $5 skate rental. Tickets at the door. More info

🎵 Maria Somerville
Mon. 4/13, 8pm
Belltown Yacht Club (Belltown)
Keep your April hazy with the exquisite dreampop of Maria Somerville, touring behind the luminescent songcraft found on Luster (4AD, 2025).
21+. $27.65. Tickets and more info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Generations (Lynne Siefert, 2020)
Thu 3/19, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)

Cinematic articulations of power plants tend towards the spectacular, often used in dramatic meltdowns (see: Chernobyl) but rarely shown in clear relation with our mundane lives. As the Seattle-born director Lynne Siefert has observed, “Industry is such an integral part of the United States, but we rarely perceive it as an element in our local space or as a presence in our daily life. Many of us tend to experience the source of our power consumption abstractly and at a remove.”

In her 2020 film Generations, Siefert invites viewers to witness the existence of coal power plants amid their environments, whether that is within an empty, snow-filled landscape or as a bizarre growth within a suburban community. The film consists of twelve static single-shot tableaus, each about five minutes, showing quotidian life in the shadows of the power plants. Without direct commentary, one’s attention can rest on the uncanny effect of these images, wander through the very real environmental impact of the plants, and contemplate what other invisible forces of power pulse through our lives every day.

Presented by Mount Analog Art + Cinema, Tacoma Art Museum, and Seattle Documentary Association. $10 general admission. More info

🎶 Moin with deadquiet + Sheridan Riley
Sun. 3/29, 7pm
The Vera Project (Seattle Center)

Before becoming Moin, the duo known as Raime had an icy grip on a particularly subtle post-punk gothic sound in the early 2010s. While those releases had a powerful restraint to them, the UK duo’s work under their updated moniker has a renewed zeal for ‘90s guitar music. Much of this can be attributed to their collaboration with Valentina Magaletti, one of the most exciting drummers working today. Magaletti’s output is intimidatingly prolific, with solo releases complemented by jaw-dropping collaborations with the likes of YPY, Jeugdbrand, CZN, and an upcoming release with Upsammy, who melted synapses at Ground Hum earlier this month.

As Moin, the trio delves into a broken approximation of post-hardcore, textural and asymmetric, guitar-driven but never comfortably resembling a traditional rock band. On their latest, the expansive You Never End (AD93, 2024), the trio invited friends and peers to add vocal elements to their typically instrumental compositions. The resulting tracks come across as half-remembered visions of alt rock songs. What they perform at the Vera Project is anyone’s guess.

$29.87. Tickets

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 Farocki Made Me Hardcore: Three by Harun Farocki
Wed. 3/18, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Veronica Project Space brings us a rare chance to view films by the brilliant Harun Farocki, an artist who used short documentary works to explore the distribution, creation, and complex politics of the image. Featuring Indistinguishable Fire (1969, 22 min.), War at a Distance (2003, 58 min), and Parallel I (2012, 15 min).
Presented by Veronica Project Space. Free with RSVP. Tickets and more info

💬 Speculative Landscapes: A Reading by Anastacia-Reneé
Sat. 3/21, 2pm
Henry Art Gallery (University District)
Poet and writer Anastacia-Reneé visits the Henry for an afternoon exploring memory, ancestry, and haunted life—expect some reading and a chance for dialogue.
Free with RSVP. More info

🎥 The Magic of Cinema: Solo Show for Dominic Angerame
Sat. 3/21, 7:30pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
A career-spanning solo retrospective of the work of Dominic Angerame, who served as executive director of Canyon Cinema and works in a variety of genres and forms.
Presented by Interbay Cinema Society. $15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 The Spook Who Sat By the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)
Mon. 3/23-Wed. 3/25, various times
The Beacon (Columbia City)
One of the more radically militant films to come out of the ‘70s, Dixon’s long out of circulation narrative revolves around a Black CIA agent who turns against the US government and builds a small army to help him overthrow it. Seattle premiere of a new 4K restoration! Part of the program, Anything You Don’t Control Can Be Used as a Weapon Against You: Radical Blaxpoitation.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 Malibu
Tue. 3/24, 7pm
Substation (Ballard)
Oceanic ambience from the musician behind the celebrated Vanities (YEAR0001, 2025).
21+. $32-38. Tickets

💃 Again, There is No Other (The Remix)
Thu. 3/26-Sat. 3/28, 8pm
On the Boards (Queen Anne)
Combining contemporary and street dance forms, choreographer Amy O’Neal wields femme power to tackle questions of race and gender through dark yet jubilant dance.
$44.50 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 THC. XLR and Erin Jorgensen
Thu. 3/26, 7pm
The Black Lodge (South Lake Union)
Avant sound excellence from two exploratory acts.
All ages. $19.32. Tickets

🎥 National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) 2026
Thu. 3/26-Sun. 3/29, various times
SIFF Cinema Downtown (Belltown)
235 short films from the best new directors ages 24 and younger—not to mention educational sessions and parties. Did you know Chappell Roan featured her work in a previous edition of NFFTY?
Prices vary. Passes and more info

🎶 NEUROKILL with ACHAMA, Instantly, and {dove}
Thu. 3/26, 10pm
Kremwerk (Denny Triangle)
NEUROKILL makes his Seattle debut with raw, brain-melting techno à la Mexico City.
Presented by CONFLUX. 21+. $11.90. Tickets and more info

🎨 Chess Club Seattle Residency
Fri. 3/27-Sun. 3/29
Glasswing (Capitol Hill)
Glasswing hosts Portland’s supreme printed matter book shop, Chess Club. Kick off the weekend with an opening party Friday night, and flip through carefully curated pages from Chess Club’s bookshelves.
More info

🎥 Bushido (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2024)
Mon. 3/30-Wed. 4/1, various times
SIFF Cinema Uptown (Queen Anne)
Edo-period drama with freaking samurai ⚔️⚔️⚔️
$18 general admission. Tickets

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎶🎨🍲🎤 Ground Hum: Upsammy, Joy Guidry, Madeline Stepien, Raven, Raica, and more
Sat. 3/7, 12pm-11pm Washington Hall (Central District)

Like a dim, friendly light appearing during an endless night, Ground Hum returns for its fifth year of experimental art and music to help shake the deep crust from our sleepy eyelids. This year’s edition takes place over the course of a half day in the Central District’s historic (and beautiful) Washington Hall. As with previous years, the curation is some of the best you will find in Seattle in any month, with a program of sound and visual art that pushes attendees into adventurous new spaces while still providing a warm, accessible space in which to drift between inner landscapes.

We won’t be able to highlight everything here, but here are a few performances we are especially excited for:

Upsammy operates a twilit machinery that weaves gentle threads of synth together into a shimmering narcotic puzzle. This is a rare Northwestern chance to see the Netherlands-based musician. Her 2024 record Strange Meridians is an HQ zoner favorite.

Joy Guidry finds textural innovation between electronics, voice, and her own explorations on the bassoon. Last year’s Deep Rivers found the Brooklyn-based artist explore a deeply spiritual ambient sound to prayerful affect.

Madeline Stepien, another artist from NYC, manipulates sharper sounds into play, with drones cut short into icy valleys, heard beautifully in 2024’s Trepidation Cycles for 3XL.

Elsewhere on the line-up, the enigmatic Bay Area producer Raven performs new work, Seattle electronic royalty Raica unfurls idiosyncratic synthetic mirages, and Travel Agent descends towards dubwise hallucinations.

Installation art throughout the Hall will deepen the experience of the heavy music line-up, with immersive work by Blazinspace, María Dolores A. Matienzo, Chelsea Rodino, Jax Braun, and Simone Pierson all contributing to the creation of a unique and essential Seattle space. Workshops on music creation and worldbuilding round the day out.

$50 general admission. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 World of Wong Kar-wai
Including: Days of Being Wild (1990), Chungking Express (1994), 2046 (2004), and As Tears Go By (1988)
Tue. 3/3-Wed. 3/4, various times
SIFF Downtown (Belltown)
Known for directing one of the most romantic films in cinematic history, Wong Kar-wai’s atmospheric masterpieces look extra sharp (but still smoky) in 4K.
$18 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)
Tue. 3/3-Thu. 3/5, various times
The Beacon (Beacon Hill)
A father-and-son duo of wanderers begin a comic fable of capitalistic change by encountering a talking crow that spouts Marxist thought.
$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎥 Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
Tue. 3/3-Sun. 3/15, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Julianne Moore stumbles through SoCal paranoia, environmental illness, and health guru cults in this mid-90s classic.
$15 general admission. Tickets

🎨 𝒮𝑒𝓇𝓋𝒾𝒸𝑒/𝒮𝓎𝓂𝒷𝒾𝑜𝓈𝒾𝓈 (Opening Reception)
Thu. 3/5, 6-9pm
Actualize AiR and Soil Artist-run Gallery (Pioneer Square)
A collaborative show between two of Seattle’s best galleries.
Free. More information

🎨 “Dancing On Your Own Grave” by Esra Güler (Opening Reception)
Thu. 3/5, 4:30-9:30pm
ANTiPODE Gallery (Pioneer Square)
An opening reception for Güler’s new show featuring charcoal works that explore ‘Revolt, Rupture, and Play.’ The evening closes with a performance by the Seattle Jazz Fellowship.
Free. More information

🎥 Days and Nights in the Forest (Satyajit Ray, 1970)
Opens Fri. 3/6, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)
Newly restored 1970 cult classic by the legendary Indian director Satyajit Ray about a vacation that leads to the exposure of masculine vulnerabilities and class divisions with graceful complexity.
$18 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 Reflections: Steve Hauschildt + Kara-lis Coverdale
Fri. 3/6, 7pm
Seattle First Baptist (Capitol Hill)
Pretty unreal weekend for electronic heads. Start it out with two luminaries of experimental landscapes in a projection-mapped church. Steve Hauschildt achieved notoriety with ambient trio Emeralds, but his solo work is just as exploratory. Kara-lis Coverdale capped off a busy 2025 with Changes in Air, her best release in years, an entrancing, minimal work utilizing piano, organ, and drone.
$45.42. Tickets

🎶 Routine 5 Year Anniversary: Skee Mask // Priori // Loidis + more
Sat. 3/7, 2pm-2am
Substation (Ballard)
A full day featuring some of the best names in modern techno, from Skee Mask’s imperious rollers through to the strange dubs of Loidis (aka Huerco S).
21+. $62.68. Tickets and more info

🎥 Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, 2000)
Opens Fri. 3/13, various times
SIFF Uptown (Queen Anne)
A beautiful 4K restoration of one of the most loved films by the late great Hungarian master of slow, dark, and incredibly human films.
$18 general admission. Tickets and more info

🎶 secondnature: Polygonia, noRecall, Riki Healing, 8Circuit
Fri. 3/13, 10pm-Morning
Venue TBA
A deep night of techno featuring the Seattle debut of German legend Polygonia. 21+. Prices vary. Tickets and more info

🎨 🎤 Photography and the Afterlife of the War in Vietnam
Sat. 3/14, 2-3:30pm
Seattle Asian Art Museum (Capitol Hill)
Thy Phu discusses the performance of memory in war imagery, focusing on An-My Lê’s jarring photography of Vietnam War reenactments in the American South.
$15. Tickets and more info

🎶 Rebecca Lawrence: Imaginary Light
Sat. 3/14, 8pm
Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center (Wallingford)
Lawrence performs contemporary and early works exploring extended techniques for the double bass.
$5-20 suggested donation at the door. More info

🎶 Till the Teeth, Rambod Dargahi, and Kian Farahani
Sun. 3/15, 6pm
ANTiPODE Gallery (Pioneer Square)
A dynamic performance by sound artists and traditional instrument musicians from cultural landscapes of the U.S.–Mexico border, southern India, and Iran.
$23.18. More info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 A Void in the Cosmos and From There You Sing: Early Pasolini
The Beacon (Beacon Hill)

Writer, filmmaker, and intellectual, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s radical work stands as one of the most influential and polarizing in 20th century Italy. Today he continues to inspire filmmakers, artists, and the radical left all over the world. (Myself included. My fourth-year architecture studio professor—a gentle Italian man—barely batted an eye when I took inspiration from Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom to design a love hotel where the Berlin Wall once stood. But I digress…) Unafraid of looking controversy in the face, Pasolini’s scandals and endured censorship reveal a world in which political radicalism meld with austere Catholicism and queerness during a more conservative time period. Yet somehow these eclectic themes are today’s reality, 65 years after the release of his first feature-length film Accatone, which kicked off this film series by The Beacon.

The remaining four films in the program face the contradictions of our everyday world, while following Othered figures: sex workers, vagabonds, and even Jesus Christ himself. Blurring the lines of morality within these early films, Pasolini invited non-professional actors to bring a sense of authenticity to the experiences he portrays. Through a post-neorealism lens, he presents an individual’s introspective experience to tackle questions about class, politics, and crime.

With the exception of The Gospel According to St. Matthew, the rest of the films in the series take place in the countryside of Rome. While Pasolini was born in Bologna, Rome was an important place to his personal and cinematic life. Not only did he flee there with his mother to escape his hated father, he uses the city in his films as a groundwork for the complex social struggles he portrays. Within the outskirts of Rome, depictions of the poor and other outsiders show us that, despite Italy’s transformation of the 1950s, the same contradictions—of class, faith, and capitalist desire—continue to define our modern world.

Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Passolini, 1962) Tue. 2/17-Thu. 2/19, various times
Love Meetings (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964) Thu. 2/19, 7:30pm
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964) Mon. 2/23-Thu. 2/26, various times
The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966) Mon. 3/2-Thu. 3/5, various times

$15 general admission. Tickets and more info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎶 DXARTS Winter Concert: Floating Points
Wed. 2/18, 7:30pm
Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater (U District)
The University of Washington’s Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) “3D music” exhibition, not to be confused with Floating Points, the musician.
Free. More info

🎥 Satin Rouge (Raja Amari, 2002)
Thu. 2/19, 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Presented by SAFF Arab Film Club
Coping with death through the discovery of a belly dancing cabaret.
$15 general admission. Tickets

🎥 D’Est (From the East) (Chantal Akerman, 1993)
Thu. 2/19, 7pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Presented by Mount Analogue and Art + Cinema with Seattle Documentary Association
Great chance to see a rarely screened documentary from Akerman chronicling a journey across the collapsed Soviet bloc.
$12 general admission. Tickets

🎥 BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph, 2025)
Sat. 2/21-Sun. 2/22, 4pm and 7pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Part cinematic odyssey, part aural catharsis, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is best experienced by dropping any notions of what science fiction, history, and—for that matter—film means.
$15 general admission. Tickets

🍲 Holding You in Mind: Closing Careworn Exhibition with a Tea Ceremony
Sat. 2/21, 11:30am - 5pm
ANTiPODE Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)
A Japanese tea ceremony hosted by Seizan T Space reflecting on ANTiPODE's current exhibition, Careworn by Rachel Dorsey.
$23.18. Tickets

🎶 Reflections: Visible Cloaks + Saloli
Sat. 2/21, 7pm
Seattle First Baptist (Capitol Hill)
Although the duo stayed relatively lowkey since the album’s release, Visible Cloaks’ Reassamblage remains a high point of 2010s HD ambient sound design. See them at a freaking church.
$45.42. Tickets

🎶🍲 Vinahaus Tét Celebration
Sun. 2/22, 12-3pm
Little Saigon Creative (CID)
A Tết day party with food and vendors—‘a tribute to the sound, movement, and joy of the Việt Diaspora.’
$5-10, NOTAFLOF. Tickets

🎶 Bitchin Bajas, Geologist
Sun. 2/22, 8pm
Sunset Tavern (Ballard)
Zoned out jams from the Chicago-based group (check their collaboration with Natural Information Society). Support from Animal Collective’s Geologist, whose latest is pure krautrock bliss.
$23.18. Tickets

🎶 Mia Koden, Succubass, noRecall, Ross Lowder
Sat. 2/28, 10pm
Location TBA
All night dub weight from South London heavy hitter Mia Koden, with deep local support.
21+. Fill out this form for ticket info and location

🎶 Dream Pool (THC.XLR, Raica, Juno T.B., Leandrul, Kyle Slawski, Places to Be) Sat. 2/28, 8pm
Kremwerk (Denny Triangle)
The seventh rendition of a textural ambient and experimental showcase, bringing warmth and rest in the midst of winter.
$20-$25. Tickets

🎥 Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
Sat. 3/1-Sun. 3/15, various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Julianne Moore stumbles through SoCal paranoia, environmental illness, and health guru cults in this mid-’90s classic.
$15 general admission. Tickets

🎥 A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)
Mon. 3/2, 7:15pm
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema.
Part of the same John Woo restoration series as Hard Boiled (1992), the main feature from our Jan 21 - Feb 4, 2026 newsletter!
$12 general admission. Tickets

🎶 Tatsuya Nakatani in Community
Tue. 3/3, 8pm
Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center (Wallingford)
Two improvisational quartet sets with Tatsuya Nakatani leading in percussions. $5-$20 suggested donation. More info

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Magellan (Lav Diaz, 2025)
Fri 2/6 - Thu 2/12, various times
SIFF Cinema Uptown (Queen Anne)

Lav Diaz is a Filipino independent filmmaker who uses cinematic space to stretch time out and expose the mysterious (but material) relational qualities. His films often run to daunting lengths (his 2004 magnum opus, Evolution of a Filipino Family, clocks in at close to 11 hours), but not without purpose; in an age of relentless acceleration, it can help to slow the aesthetic experience down to create a more reflective space if the viewer hopes to discover a real feeling for the buried social and political realities that may appear.

Magellan is Diaz at his most ‘accessible’—a paltry 2 hours and 42 minutes—and his first with a star actor in the western world. Gael García Bernal inhabits the leading conquistador role, but do not expect a hero’s journey. Diaz has made this film to encourage his native country to confront their colonized past, to go ‘near the truth, not just embrace anything that’s been imposed by the dominant eye of the West, the imposed narrative from Europe.’ He does not spectacularize violence, but does show the terrible consequences, often through gorgeous, painterly shots imbued with his mastery of slow cinema.

$18. Tickets

🎶 Purelink, ‘nohup,’ Hünter
Tue, 2/10. 7pm
Substation (Ballard)

Ambient jam band Purelink revels in the kind of dubbed out textures that were explored in depth by Basic Channel and Vladislav Delay, but with a brighter, looser sheen. Their latest, Faith (2025), blunted and reduced the clicking percussion from earlier releases and put gorgeous zoned out chords at the forefront.

Though Seattle’s ‘nohup’ often can be found bringing an irrepressible love of dance music to their life-affirming DJ sets, their work on the ambient and experimental front is just as inquisitive and inspired. Often taking one or two samples and stretching them to an illogical conclusion, they reveal hidden textural resonances with bass frequencies and synthesized sonic flourishes. Hünter provides DJ support.

21+. $31.94. Tickets

💬 Lunar New Year

The Year of the Fire Horse means daring changes and forward momentum. With endless conflict happening in the world, the Fire Horse reminds us that we must act with decisiveness during these restless times. Although Lunar New Year is celebrated by various countries throughout eastern and southeast Asia, Seattle’s vast Vietnamese population brings its own flavor of enthusiasm to the glorious holiday. The city goes hard during Lunar New Year, so here is a roundup of multiple celebratory events around the neighhhhhborhood. 🐎

Tết Celebration
Fri 2/6-Sun 2/8
Little Saigon Creative and Hoa Mai Park (International District)

Friends of Little Sài Gòn, a collective who preserves and reinforces Little Saigon’s liveliness, hosts a wide series of Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) events in the International District. On Fri. 2/6, SEA Vinyl Society presents a vinyl listening party for pre-1975 Vietnamese records. The Tết Market on Sat. 2/7 showcases cute swag and creative pieces from local Asian American small shops. Peep the link below for details on each of the events, which also includes Tết in the park, a zine-making workshop, and a Bánh Tét (sticky rice cake) workshop.

RSVP and more info

Tết in Seattle
Sat 2/14-Sun 2/15. 11am-6pm
Seattle Center Armory and Fisher Pavilion (Queen Anne)

As part of the Seattle Center Festál year-round cultural event series, Tết in Seattle focuses on food and its delectable ability to bring people together while highlighting Vietnamese culture. From eating competitions to a Bánh Tết wrapping tournament, adults and children can feast their eyes and fill up their bellies. Music, lion dances, firecrackers, and a fashion show honors 30 years of Tet in Seattle—proof of the deep Vietnamese roots in the region.

More info

ALSO RECOMMENDED

💬 Mark Z. Danielewski
Wed 2/4. 7pm
Elliott Bay Books (Capitol Hill)
Free. More info

🎨 🎶 Forest for the Trees First Thursday
Thu 2/5. 5-9pm
Various Galleries (Pioneer Square)
Free. More info

🎨 🎶 Gallery Visit + Live Kamanche Performance
Thu 2/5. 5pm
ANTiPODE Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)
Free with RSVP

🎨 Isaac Layman: Residence-ish
Fri 2/6. 2-5pm
Veronica (Mount Baker)
Free. More info

🎶 Fun Party Lol: The Baptist, DJ Having Sex
Fri 2/6, 10pm
Massive (Capitol Hill)
$15. Tickets

🎥 Resurrection (Bi Gan, 2025)
Fri 2/6 - Sun 2/15. Various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
$15. Tickets

🎶 Research: Laurel Halo, Sherman, Sage, Raica, Asa Nakagawa
Sat 2/7. 10pm
Location TBA
$45. Tickets

🎥 Out 1 (Jacques Rivette, 1971)
First half: Sat 2/7. 4pm
Second half: Sun 2/8. 2pm
The Beacon Cinema (Columbia City)
$15. Tickets

🎥 Accattone (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961)
Mon 2/9 - Wed 2/11. Various times
The Beacon Cinema (Columbia City)
$15. Tickets

🎥 The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
Wed 2/11. 7pm
SIFF Cinema Uptown (Queen Anne)
$15. Tickets

🎥 Noir City
15 Films, Fri 2/13 - Wed 2/19. Various times
SIFF Cinema Downtown (Belltown)
$20. Tickets

🎶 Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, Tiny Vipers
Tue, 2/17. 7pm
The Crocodile (Belltown)
21+. $39.35. Tickets

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)
Sun 1/25, Mon 1/26 + Wed 1/28. Various times
Regal Meridian (Downtown)

You haven’t seen a capital A Action Movie until watching one of John Woo’s films. Before he made Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible II (2000), he dominated the Hong Kong action movie world. With cult hit The Killer (1989), Woo drew Western eyes to Hong Kong cinema in the 1990s. This movie inspired Western and Asian filmmakers alike—from Quentin Tarantino to Park Chan-wook. It continues to influence contemporary action flicks and B-movies across the globe, calling for Woo’s celebration and re-releases of his hits.

Shout! Studios, a Radial Entertainment Company, Hong Kong Cinema Classics, and GKIDS present Hard Boiled (1992) as part of a national retrospective featuring certain Hong Kong heavyweights. Starring long-time Woo collaborator, Chow Yun-fat, and Hong Kong heartthrob Tony Leung, Hard Boiled pursues a police inspector teaming up with an undercover cop to investigate a chaotic Triad leader. Get ready for smooth action sequences and heroic baby-saving in this a darkly funny, yet poetic bullet dance of a film.

$17.49. Regal Meridian Tickets
Also screening in other locations

🎶 Yarn/Wire
Thu 1/22. 7:30pm
Meany Hall, University of Washington (U District)

Consistent luminaries of the contemporary classical scene, Yarn/Wire descends on Meany Hall for an evening of pulsating vibrations and obtuse harmonies. The New York-based quartet of two pianists and two percussionists has been the quiet metronomic heart of new compositional fields for the last 20 years. Their recorded highlights include interpretations of modern composers as well as mind-bending collaborations with Pete Swanson (ex-Yellow Swans), Sarah Davachi, Mark Fell, and many others. For this performance, Yarn/Wire will interpret new work by UW Composition doctoral student Yiğit Kolat, alongside pieces by Klaus Lang, Yonatan Ron, and polyrhythm deity Steve Reich.

$20. Tickets

💬 FOBs & Orange Chicken: Cambodian American Youth, Identity, and Schooling
Sat 1/31. 4-6pm
Mam’s Books (International District)

Mam’s Books hosts author Vichet Chhuon for a book talk and signing of Cambodian American Youth, Identity, and Schooling. The book delves into the Cambodian American high schooler’s experience, confronting stereotypes and identities in relation to academic performance. Interrogating how the model minority stereotype is created, Chhuon uses ethnographic research to shed light on the self-perpetuating process of how Asian Americans affirm it themselves.

Free. More info.

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000)
Wed 1/21, 7pm. SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Presented by Seattle Film Society and Mount Analogue
$12. More info

🎶 Ryley Walker, Passenger Pigeons
Wed 1/21. 8pm
Sunset Tavern (Ballard)
21+. $26.67. Tickets

🎨 ARCADE Pop-Up Release Issue 42.2: Bend, Don’t Break
Fri 1/23. 2-5pm
Bulldog News (U District)
Free. More info

🎥 Resurrection (Bi Gan, 2025)
Fri 1/23 - Thu 1/29. Various times
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
$18. Tickets

🍴 Mixed Pantry Market
Sat 1/24. 11am-3pm
Mixed Pantry (Belltown)
More info

🎥 A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025)
Sat 1/24, Sun 1/25, Fri 1/30 - Sun 2/1. Various times
Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
$15. Tickets

🎥 Viva la Muerte (Fernando Arrabal, 1971)
Tue 1/27, Thu 1/29. Various times
The Beacon Cinema (Columbia City)
$15. Tickets

🎥 Room Temperature (Dennis Cooper and Zac Farley, 2025)
Wed, 1/28. 7:30pm
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Presented by The Grand Illusion
$18. Tickets

🎶 Glaive, Kurtains
Fri 1/30. Doors 7pm
The Showbox (Downtown)
All ages. $43.23. Tickets

🎥 The Chronology of Water (Kristen Stewart, 2025)
Fri 1/30, Sun 2/1. Various times
SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center)
Presented by The Grand Illusion
$18. Tickets

🎨 Lunar New Year Family Fair
Sat 1/31. 10am-3pm
Wing Luke Museum (International District)
$0-$24.95. More info

Every two weeks we’ll send out events, concerts, films, and anything else we’re excited about recommending in the Seattle area. We’ll also update our Instagram every few days with things coming up. Feel free to submit any events to asbusyasitgets@gmail.com <3 Hope to see you out there :)

⭐️ DON’T MISS ⭐️

🎥 Reflections in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet + Bruno Forzani, 2025)
January 9, 7pm; January 10, 10pm. The Beacon Cinema

Directors Cattet and Forzani have spent their collaborative marriage creating films that burst with a hypermodern love for all things Eurofilm. Their films are clinical reimaginings of Gialli, Spaghetti Westerns, and oversexed thrillers that ruled the screens across Italy and elsewhere in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Often they feel like dreams about films – the plots are paper thin (if they even exist) and instead, the gorgeous aesthetics that we love from these films are brought to their illogical extreme.

In their newest film, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, they turn their professorial kaleidoscopes towards the spy thriller. John D. is a retired maverick letting the days disappear at a posh French resort that gets sucked back into the secret agent world when the beautiful girl next door disappears. The rest promises to be a time-jumping feast for the senses.

$15. Part of The Beacon’s series SUPERKRIME. Tickets

🎶 Research presents: Objekt
January 10, 9pm-Morning. Location TBA

The expert selector and producer graces us with an all-night set. Expect unexpected trapdoors, fluorescent no-kick rollers, and gleaming transcendence to take you well into the morning.

21+. Tickets

🎭 The Living Stories of “Beau Dick: Insatiable Beings”
January 17, 2-3:15pm. Frye Museum of Art

As part of the closing weekend for the Frye Museum’s exhibit, Beau Dick: Insatiable Beings, you can experience the Kwakwaka’wakw Hereditary Chief’s work come to life through stories and songs. Beau Dick (1955-2017) was an activist and contemporary artist whose carvings support his storytelling. Like the importance of activating Kwakwaka’wakw cultural practices through oral traditions, the masks that Beau Dick carved are activated through dance. Color and materiality accentuate the masks’ expressiveness and hint at motion, bringing the spirts they represent to life. Led by hereditary chief Alan Hunt and Gavin Dick—Beau Dick’s grandson—this celebratory event lets you see Beau Dick’s work and ancestral stories come to life.

Free with RSVP

ALSO RECOMMENDED

🎥 No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, 2025)
January 1-8. SIFF Uptown

$18. Tickets

🎨 Isaac Layman: Residence-ish
Ongoing through January 24. Veronica

🎭 Dance (by Hannah Rice & Alia Swersky) and Sound (by Sandesh Nagaraj & Jonathan Rodriguez)
January 8, 5:30-9pm. ANTiPODE

Free w/ RSVP. Performing for the opening of Careworn by Rachel Dorsey.

🎥 SUPERKRIME
Various films from January 8 to February 9. The Beacon

$15. Tickets

💬 Putsata Reang: Resisting Erasure through Storytelling
January 10, 7:30pm. Rainier Arts Center

Free ($15 suggested donation). Part of Holding the Moment: A Speaker Series. Tickets

🎶 THC XLR, ‘nohup,’ Travel Agent
January 15, 7pm. Add-a-Ball Amusements

21+. $10 adv/$15 day of. Tickets

🎶 Rock Out, Feed Seattle! With Daughters of Venus, Love So Deep, Rat Utopia Experiment, DJ Ladey J
January 15, 7pm. Neumos

All ages. $15. Tickets

🎥 Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000)
January 21, 7pm. SIFF Film Center presented by Seattle Film Society and Mount Analogue.

More info