TICKETS $25

Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
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THE EXPERIENCE

Elliott Smith touched the lives of many with his music and artistry. As part of PAM CUT’s March music month, we are presenting this special event in tribute to Elliott and his legacy. The evening will feature two rarely screened short films, Steve Hanft’s Strange Parallel, and Jem Cohen’s Lucky Three, both featuring Elliott, along with music videos by Ross Harris, images from JJ Gonson, and performances of Elliott’s music by Portland’s own Sean Croghan and tribute band Rose Parade. Emceeing the evening is the producer of the feature documentary about Elliott’s life, Heaven Adores You, Kevin Moyer. Presented in partnership with Jackpot! Records.

ON SCREEN: Strange Parallel, Lucky Three, Music Videos by Ross Harris

Strange Parallel – 1998. Directed by Steve Hanft. Runtime: 28 minutes. 
Strange Parallel is a documentary/short film revolving around the American singer/songwriter Elliott Smith. The film features interviews with Elliott himself as well as fans, friends and other acquaintances of his (including Gus Van Sant, Larry Crane (Jackpot! Records and Tape Op), and members of Quasi). The film includes snippets of Elliott Smith performing as well as footage of him recording an unreleased song, “Brand New Game.”

Lucky Three – 1997. Directed by Jem Cohen. Runtime: 11 minutes. 
Described as “a cross between a video and a documentary, but actually being neither of the two,” singer/songwriter Elliott Smith plays three acoustic songs in this Jem Cohen-directed short film.

Plain Clothes Man, Coming Up Roses, Miss Misery – 1995 – 1998. Directed by Ross Harris.  
Music videos from Elliott Smith and Heatmiser.

Photos of Elliott Smith from photographer JJ Gonson.  

Show Poster designed by Julien Elliott

ON STAGE: 

Kevin Moyer (Emcee) – Kevin Moyer is an award-winning creative, producer, and music supervisor who has worked on various creative endeavors including artist albums, musical scores, soundtracks, music videos, commercials, and independent and feature films. Kevin was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and served as producer and music supervisor for the posthumous Elliott Smith documentary Heaven Adores You, as well as producing the soundtrack for the film. He has also worked to release Elliott’s music as part of, and for, various charity endeavors—one of which is the Live From Nowhere Near You charity album series which sent all proceeds to a street youth charity located just down the street from the high school that both Elliott and Kevin attended.

Steve Hanft (Director) – Steve Hanft is a California native writer/director, known for creating original movies and videos. He first gathered momentum at California Institute of the Arts, where he studied art and film making, cranking out films and receiving several grants, including the Princess Grace Film Grant, the Kodak Cinematography Award, the Studio Film and Tape Film Grant, the Los Angeles Arts Council Grant, the Seagrams Film Award, and the Chouinard Film and Video Award. After graduating film school with a Master of Fine Arts, the prolific Hanft, has been shooting feature films, music videos, short films, and commercials, non stop.
He has an MTV award for directing the Beck- Where It’s At music video, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, for producing and starring in the Ray Ban short film- Sunglass Catch. Hanft’s films have screened at the Rome Italy Film Festival, the South By Southwest Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Brasil International Film Festival, the CMJ Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive New Filmmakers Event, and at the Don’t Knock the Rock Film Festival in Hollywood.

Rose Parade (Band) – Formed in 2021 in Portland, Oregon, this jazz-influenced Elliott Smith tribute band brings a fresh and deeply emotive perspective to the late songwriter’s catalog. Featuring Shiloh Schatzkamer on vocals, Aber Miller on keyboards, Sean Vinson on bass, and Brian Sussman on drums, the group reimagines Smith’s intimate, melancholic songs through lush harmonies, nuanced improvisation, and dynamic interplay. Drawing from Portland’s rich musical landscape, the ensemble pays homage to Smith’s legacy while exploring new emotional and sonic terrain in his work.

JJ Gonson (Photographer) – Obsessed with music from the time she was a small girl in the mid 80’s, she discovered that it was possible to get access to musicians and bands by signing on to shoot live and posed photos for magazines and newspapers. For the last half of that decade she shot hardcore and punk bands multiple times a week in clubs around the Boston area, striving to preserve the personal experience of music. In 1990 she went west, to Portland, Oregon. Working in management and show booking in the independent music industry provided myriad opportunities to continue to shoot bands who needed promotional photos and photos for cover art. While much of her work is of live music, portraits have dominated my body of work over the span of decades—from the early 80’s to present day. The result of her experiences is a collection of intimate portraits of musicians, friends and fans, both live on stage and candid, off of it.

Note: We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT, the Tomorrow Theater, or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com.