Events

The Sprocket Society periodically hosts movie screening and film events in the Seattle area. To receive announcements of these, subscribe to our email list, join our Facebook group, or visit our blog.

Learn more about our past events.

Coming Soon

Dog Star Man
Wed. August 4, 2010 at the Northwest Film Forum
8:00 PM (16mm, 86 min.)
Advance tickets

A rare screening of an essential film of the 20th century avant garde in its original 16mm format, as intended by the artist. Four years in the making, this influential and much-revered abstract work is widely regarded as the masterpiece of legendary filmmaker Stan Brakhage. A psychedelic freakout, mytho-poetic dissertation and aesthetic shot-across-the-bow all in one, Dog Star Man is an unforgettable work of high artistry, as challenging as it is rewarding. Plus: screens with Legendary Epics Yarns and Fables. Part 2: Stan Brakhage (1969), a short interview with no interlocutor shot in one continuous take by Stephen Gebhardt and Robert Fries. Read more.

First Words: The Birth of Sound Cinema, 1895-1929
Thurs. September 23, 2010 at the Northwest Film Forum
7:30 PM – Victrola Favorites with Robert Millis and Jeffery Taylor
8:00 PM – Films (16mm, 88 min.)

Al Jolson was not the first to sing on screen, and Mickey Mouse didn’t star in the first sound cartoon. In reality, sound movies are nearly as old as cinema itself. This program of rare short films traces the evolution of sound, from the earliest experiments through its eventual transformation of the entire film industry. Selections include vaudeville acts, jazz, cartoons, musical theater, newsreels, and more. Plus! Join us before and after the show for period 78rpm records played live on a real Victrola by collectors Robert Millis and Jeffery Taylor, of the bands Climax Golden Twins and AFCGT. The first sound processes relied on early phonographs, and this will let you hear it in action just as audiences did a century ago.

Breakaway: Films by Bruce Conner
Thurs. November 11, 2010 at the Northwest Film Forum
8:00 PM (16mm & DigiBeta video, 92 min.)

In celebration of what would have been Conner’s 77th birthday, we are proud to present a selection of some of his greatest films in their original formats. A painter, sculptor and collagist, Conner is perhaps best remembered as among the most important – and delightful – experimental filmmakers of the late 20th century. Often working from found footage and applying a dark sense of humor, films such as A Movie (1959) and Cosmic Ray (1961) are acknowledged landmarks that retain their spellbinding allure, while music films like Mongoloid (1978) practically invented the early MTV aesthetic. Later works, including Valse Triste (1979) and Looking for Mushrooms (1995), took a more lyrical and almost autobiographical approach, or were pure visual meditations, like the rarely-screened Luke (1967-2004).  Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Conner’s works on the screen.

Past Events

Public Screenings

  • Sixties Synaesthetics
    (April 14, 2010) Northwest Film Forum
    Co-presented as part of the series Visual Music: Sensory Cinema, 1920s–1970s
    The 1960s brought an explosion in experimental cinema, at once influenced by its forebears and liberated from them by the revolutionary lysergic ethos of the time. Its influence continues to reverberate today. In this final program of the Visual Music series, we present a selection of highly original works by artists who shattered the boundaries between visual and sonic through the creative use of optical printing, animation, electronics, and editing. Films included works by Jud Yalkut, Barry Spinello, Robert Breer, Tony Conrad, Scott Barlett, and Storm DeHirsch, plus a special screening of a rare Auroratone film from 1942.
  • Halloween Spook-Show Spectacular
    (October 30, 2009) Grand Illusion Cinema
    Mind-Rending Movies and a Terrifying Display of Un-Dead Magic! A Shocking, Thrilling, and Amazing Event! Can you Survive?!? Will you soil your pants!?! The Swami is your host for an old fashioned Halloween spook show in the grand tradition, with an extra-special program of haunted film delights featuring: Carnivorous Cartoons! Shocking Shorts! Putrescent Previews! Alliterative Asphyxiation! And Unexpurgated Unexpectednesses! Your eye-sacks will explode!
  • Focal Points: Documentary Shorts of 1969
    (October 14, 2009) Northwest Film Forum
    A program of traditional, vertité, radical newsreel, and avant-garde short docs that provide diverse portals into a fractured time. Subjects include a Black Panthers rally in San Francisco, Pentecostal Christians in rural Ohio, a severely handicapped man in Lawrence, Kansas, the 1968 Democratic Convention, and legendary underground filmmaking team the Kuchar brothers. Co-presented as part of the year-long 69 Series.
  • Heavy Visuals ‘69: Electronic Cinema and Experimental Films
    (September 23, 2009) Northwest Film Forum
    A selection of landmarks in avant film from 1969, featuring short works by many of the year’s greatest pioneering artists. Surveying a pivotal year, both aesthetically and technologically, the program presented “analog” films side-by-side with examples from the birth of digital cinema, with early video art and even some of the first digital computer animation ever made. Co-presented as part of the year-long 69 Series.
  • The Secret Sunday Matinee II: Adventure! And Stuff!
    (March 1 – May 24, 2009) Northwest Film Forum
    Our second three-month series of old-fashioned weekend matinees, with a 12 chapter cliffhanger movie serial (Zorro’s Fighting Legion, 1939), plus rare cartoons and shorts, and a classic Secret Feature Film. This series emphasized adventure, film noir, and westerns along with the occasional comedy, horror, or sci-fi treasure.
  • The Secret Sunday Matinee series
    (August 31 – November 23, 2008) Northwest Film Forum
    A three-month series of good old-fashioned weekend matinees. Every show featured weekly episodes of the classic 1941 sci-fi movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, plus cartoons and shorts, and a Secret Feature — science fiction, adventure, and horror films from the 1930s – 1960s. Web page includes a series guide and downloadable posters.
  • Georges Méliès: Impossible Voyager
    (May 15, 2008) Northwest Film Forum
    Special effects epics from the early 1900s, with unusual musical accompaniment. Plus special guests Climax Golden Twins on dueling Victrolas, and a rare live performance of Méliès’ original narration for The Impossible Voyage (1904). Illustrated program booklet available as PDF.
  • Keep Warm, Burn Britain!
    (April 13, 2008) The Jewel Box Theater
    Slide show performance and experimental films by Ross Lipman, plus live music by Ruby Thicket and The Philistine Liberation Orchestra. Web page includes film stills, full bio and press release PDFs, MP3s and other related links.
  • Search and Rescue: Sound Found
    (March 4, 2008) Northwest Film Forum
    A program of rare early sound films, with The Mysterious Island (1929) starring Lionel Barrymore, and the Fleischer brothers’ cartoon, Noah’s Lark (1929).

Backyard Movie Parties

The Sprocket Society had its genesis in a (so far) ongoing series of private backyard movie parties held in Ballard, beginning in 2005. Below is a list of our backyard movie parties to date, including links to available program notes.

  • Backyard Movie Party X – Space Brains: Fiend Without a Face (1958), plus Koko’s Cartoon Factory (1924, Max & Dave Fleischer), St. Louis Blues (1929) with Bessie Smith, Hoppity Pop (1946, Norman McLaren) and the remarkable Délicieuse Catastrophe (1970) by Polish animator Piotr Kamler with electronic score by Robert Cohen-Solal. (July 18, 2009)
  • Backyard Movie Party IX – Flash vs. the Psychic Silverfish: Mars Attacks the World (1938) – a feature version of the serial Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars released at the same time. Plus shorts: The Silverfish King, Bobby Bump’s Hypnotic Eye, PSI, et al. (August 15, 2008)
  • Backyard Movie Party VIII – Duck, Duck, Marx: Duck Soup (1932) plus shorts (June 27, 2008)
  • Backyard Movie Party VII – Trippin’ With Groucho: Skidoo (1968, Scope) plus shorts (September 15, 2007)
  • Backyard Movie Party VI – Attend or Die! (Atomic B-Day Edition): Monster Zero (1970) plus shorts (August 4, 2007)
  • Backyard Movie Party V – Soundies and Stuff: numerous shorts (July 6, 2007)
  • Backyard Movie Party IV – Voyages: The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958/1961) plus shorts (May 25, 2007)
  • Backyard Movie Party III – BYMP 2006 Part 2, The Sequel: Nosferatu (1922) plus shorts (Sept. 29, 2006)
  • Backyard Movie Party II – BYMP 2006: Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster (1974) + shorts and 3D (Sept. 3, 2006)
  • Backyard Movie Party I – Basement Edition: Frankenstein (1931) + shorts and 3D (Sept. 4, 2005)