Your ID is a ticket
Film buffs, clear your calendars. The Northwest Film Center has reached a settlement with Portland State University’s English department that allows students free admission to screenings at the Guild Theater, 829 S.W. 9th Ave. and the Whitsell Auditorium in the basement of the Portland Fine Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.
The partnership began last week on a trial basis, pending student’s reception to the program. The more who utilize the access, the more likely it will be reported as a success and continue through future terms.
“We’ve had a partnership with PSU since the seventies,” Bill Foster, director of the N.W. Film Center, 1139 S.W. 11th Ave, said. “Michael Clark and I weighed the costs and felt that making the resources available would benefit everyone, at least on a personal, enriching level, if not a strictly academic one.”
Foster is sure that coming attractions should interest students, but will keenly consider the volume the theaters see signed-in as PSU complimentary pass-holders. “We’re currently showing Japanese-language selections from the director Yasujiro Ozu. Next will be Russian films, then a series on anarchism and another showcasing films from developing countries.”
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“We urge students to go,” Clark, the instructor of record for accredited off-campus film courses taught in the NWFC, said. “They bring films which, frankly, don’t show up anywhere else – ethnically and culturally diverse, infinitely more than other [theaters], watching their selections gives new insights on the world.”
The English department praised NWFC’s output as an educational and empowering institution as well. “They’ve been a real supporter of experimental, underrepresented and personal works which couldn’t have been produced anywhere else unless [the filmmaker were] independently wealthy.”
“It’s an impressive opportunity that’s been extended to faculty as well. Foster has been very open with this team-up,” Clark said. “This partnership further links PSU to the community, and may encourage faculty to offer courses organized around NWFC programs.”
“It all depends whether interest dictates it,” Clark said. “Examining the effects of the globalization movement as seen through international cinema could be another avenue for exploration.”
“We’ve had all of these great resources at opposite ends of the Park Blocks,” Foster said. “It’s about time that our relationship gel more broadly.”
Watch The Vanguard’s calendar page for scheduled films and showtimes, or visit nwfilm.org/nowshowing.
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