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What to Watch This Week: Break Dancing, Toga Parties and a Galactic War Over Spice

Want to see a movie this week? Maybe something you’ve seen before—or something you’ve been meaning to see for a while? Here are the best old flicks revived on movie screens across town right now.

Pickathon, Planet of the Apes and 12 Other Things to Do and See in Portland Aug. 1-7

Cool kids, hot sauce, creepy unicorns and other events we’re excited about this week.

NW Film Center’s Director is Stepping Down After 40 Years of Helming the Organization

Bill Foster has lead the organization for the majority of its history. He oversaw the founding of Reel Music Festival and Portland Jewish Film Festival. After joining the organization in 1981, Foster helped grow Northwest Filmmaker’s Festival and Portland International Film Festival from their infancy into nationally acclaimed festivals.

“The Cage Fighter” Delves into the Dual Lives of a Washington MMA Fighter

“The Cage Fighter” was a difficult production that found Unay testing the limits of documentary filmmaking, thrusting his Red One MX camera into the midst of the warring Carman family and battling painful memories from his own childhood that the making of the film aroused. But for Unay—who, like Carman, lives in Washington state—The Cage Fighter turned out to be a mesmerizing portrait of a man torn between his duty as a father and the allure of the arena.

A Biopic of Portland’s Most Famous Stripper Is a Powder Keg Debate About Sex Work

Whether or not stripping is art isn’t exactly an anchor of the film’s narrative. It’s more like a powder keg. Just about everyone in the film has an opinion. Most of the counterpoints come from men. Las Vegas’ former bandmate, Kevin Shapen, says stripping is entertainment, which is different from art. Her brother, Kristoffer Osthus, says Las Vegas romanticizes stripping, and worries that her male audience might see her job differently. “Do they think that she’s truly giving an art performance, or do they just think that she’s another stripper?” he says.

Black Out Beer Fest, Thunderpussy and 12 Other Things to Do and See in Portland Feb. 28-March 6

Uniique has been spreading the gospel of jersey club, the hyper-localized dance phenomenon of her hometown of Newark, N.J. It’s an addictive sound that has found its way into DJ sets all over the world—she’s a big reason why.

All You Can Eat Pizza, Tune-Yards and 12 Other Things to Do and See in Portland Feb. 21-27

Yeah, you read that right. A cool $15 at Natian’s tasting room will get you a pint of beer and every slice of Sizzle Pie you can cram into your meatsack.

Here’s What We’re Most Excited to See at This Year’s Reel Music Festival

The 35th iteration of the festival kicks off this Friday with a lineup that includes movies that challenge not just how we see music, but how we see film.

Mark Shapiro Has His Finger on the Pulse Of Stop-Motion Animation. He’s Curated a Screening That’s a Crash Course in the Genre’s Shorts.

It takes less than two minutes before Will Vinton’s Closed Mondays gets really weird. In the 1974 short by the stop-motion animation pioneer and Oregonian, an old man walks into an art gallery. But the banal scene quickly turns surreal when music notes painted on one of the canvas start moving. From there, Closed Mondays only moves further from reality.

Portland-Raised James Blue Helped Pave the Way For Independent Filmmaking, But His Large Legacy Is Little Known

Outside of academic circles, James Blue’s name and legacy aren’t exactly well known. Daniel Miller is trying to change that. His new film “Citizen Blue: The Life and Art of Cinema Master James Blue,” seeks to illuminate the life and career of an underappreciated innovator of cinema.

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