
Short Doc Showcase, Meet Up, and Zine Fair with NW Documentary, Oregon Media Lab, and Secret Room
- Thu, Mar 13
Run Time: 90 min.
TICKETS $15
Doors & Zine Fair at 6:30 p.m.; Event 7:30 p.m.
Come early for a non-fiction zine fair with Secret Room Press!
Click here to learn more about accessibility at the Tomorrow Theater.
THE EXPERIENCE
Local documentary meet up with NW Documentary and Oregon Media Lab! Come meet other locally based documentary filmmakers and producers and learn more about available resources, classes, and workshops, as well as ways to get that story you’ve been tracking onto the big screen. Come early for a non-fiction zine fair with Secret Room Press.
ON SCREEN:Short Doc Showcase
Presented in partnership with NW Documentary and Oregon Media Lab, PAM CUT is pleased to present an evening of locally made documentary films. Following the screening, NW Documentary executive director Sam Gaty will have a brief discussion with each of the filmmakers. We’ll then invite the audience to come and further mingle with these wonderful makers next door at The End bar.
The Kelp Keepers.
Directed by Anna Lueck. Runtime: 8:18 minutes. 2024.
Kelp forests are essential to a healthy ocean, serving as habitat, storm break, carbon sink, and food source all in one. However, like so many other essential habitats, these forests are rapidly declining. This film introduces us to Dave Lacey, a Port-Orford based outfitter who was among the first to notice kelp forests collapsing on the South Coast of Oregon, as well as the civilian divers now working to survey these sites before it’s too late.
Road to Sunrise.
Produced by Nora Colie. Runtime: 16:09 minutes. 2024
A young activist and nonprofit founder is on a mission to raise awareness of Oregon’s history of institutional and violent racism while also building communities dedicated to healing the deep wounds left by this legacy. Editor/Cinematographer – Brooke Herber, Sound -Callie Da, Executive Producer – Arya Surowidjojo.
Shadow of Paradise.
Directed by Sahar al-Sawaf. Runtime: 7 minutes. 2022.
Sahar al-Sawaf, an Iraqi immigrant living in the USA, uses photographs and hand-painted 35mm film to depict family who are alive, dead or missing in Iraq, 30 years after Operation Desert Storm.
Remembering York.
Directed by Dana DeLaski. Runtime: 10 minutes. 2024.
After decades of continued displacement and erasure, a group of Black Portlanders work to build a better future by reclaiming a part of their history: namely, the story of York, the first recorded person of African descent to step foot in what would become Portland.
The Urban Birder.
Directed by Tarin Jordan-Vandermast. Runtime: 6:34 minutes. 2014.
Birding isn’t just for old folks anymore. Follow Richard Cavell as he conducts a never before seen experiment involving bird watching, a ghillie suit, and a bottle of whiskey!!
Hand Me Down: Xiahui.
Directed by Diana Mulan Zhu. Runtime: 18 minutes. 2024.
The first chapter in an experimental documentary series tracing three generations of Chinese American women through the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Protests, and middle-class suburban assimilation. Filmmaker Diana Mulan Zhu interviews her grandmother and mother, exploring rarely discussed topics in immigrant Asian families, such as sex education, menstruation, and feminism. The film highlights generational tensions, with her grandmother holding traditional views on gender and her mother embracing a neoliberal form of feminism, in contrast to Diana’s own radical, queer perspectives.
The City that Works.
Directed by Anna Lueck. Runtime: 9:30 minutes. 2024.
In early 2023, several hundred City of Portland employees—representing park rangers, wastewater treatment plant operators, road maintenance crews, and more—went on strike. Despite doing essential work that keeps Portland clean and functional, these workers say they have not been compensated for the increasing demands and dangers of their jobs. This is their story.
Life of Water.
Directed by Jennie Greb. Runtime: 4:19 minutes. 2024.
Through montage documentary style, Life of Water follows water in its many shapes and sounds as it traverses across geographies. The film celebrates the intimate ways water seeps into our everyday life, as well as the people throughout history who have fought to protect it.
HOSTED BY:
Oregon Media Lab
Oregon Media Lab connects Oregon filmmakers. OML is committed to striving for gender and racial equity in all of their projects.
NW Documentary
NW Documentary is a Portland-based nonprofit that supports filmmakers and storytellers of all kinds dedicated to the craft of nonfiction.
Secret Room
Secret Room Press likes publishing work from artists who are fun & nice. Art gives us a way to understand each other—we publish stuff that explores place and time and individual experience. We enjoy life on earth by publishing stuff that makes us excited about life on earth.