This program of the Frye Art Museum Genius Film Festival takes place at the Northwest Film Forum.

The Genius Film Festival includes screenings and discussions with film makers.

Program Producer: Courtney Sheehan; Program Consultant: Northwest Film Forum.

James Longley: Fractured Poetry
3–4:30 pm

Iraq in Fragments (2006, 94 min)
Rare 35mm screening

James Longley’s acclaimed documentary explores the lived realities of Iraqis in an era of oppression, violence, and societal upheaval. An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.

Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. Winner of Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition, the film was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Q&A with Courtney Sheehan and James Longley
4:30–5 pm

David Russo: Redrawing Imagination
5–7 pm

No longer actively working as a filmmaker, David Russo’s daring filmic feats screened in festivals across the globe in the first decade of the 21st century. His best known award-winning short films Populi (2002) and Pan With Us (2003), premiered in competition at Sundance (with Pan With Us winning an “Honorable Mention”) before going on to play festivals around the world, including Telluride, Toronto, Aspen, Edinburgh and Clermont-Ferrand. Pan With Us was released theatrically in “The Animation Show” (2005), a touring showcase of short films curated by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt. Populi was acquired by Vulcan, Inc., and installed as a public media artwork at Qwest Field. In addition to the Stranger Genius Film distinction, Russo was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “New Faces of Independent Film.”

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (2009, 100 min)
Heralded by one critic who reveled in its “sick, twisted glory,” David Russo’s prescient debut feature (produced with Northwest Film Forum) juxtaposes a different kind of commercial office doldrums with a bizarrely supernatural ploy of male pregnancy. Russo’s film takes on a hugely entertaining hilarity and weight that is simultaneously odd, puzzling, invigorating and truly hilarious. Fellow Film Geniuses Megan Griffiths and Ben Kasulke also worked on the film.