August Things to Do: Film

Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, This & That.

Aug 8–10

My phone’s storage is constantly full because I have approximately 10,000 hours of footage taken of my giant long-haired tuxedo cat, Whisper. For me, everything that Whisper does is worth documenting, and I know I am not alone because CatVideoFest exists. Each year, crazy cat owners submit their favorite feline footage—spanning animation, music videos, viral classics, and home movies—to be screened in theaters as a part of a giant compilation reel. The best part is that funds are donated to cats in need through partnerships with local cat charities, animal welfare organizations, and shelters. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, times vary) AUDREY VANN

Aug 16

Few films can boast the distinction of having streamed on both Pornhub and the Criterion Channel, but that’s exactly what director Leilah Weinraub’s 2018 documentary Shakedown did. The movie, which became “the first ever non-adult film” to appear on Pornhub in March 2020, chronicles the rise and fall of the underground Black lesbian strip club of the same name in Los Angeles from 2002–2004, when it met an untimely demise due to police cracking down on nude dancers. Shakedown has garnered comparisons to the 1990 classic Paris Is Burning and offers a rare glimpse of a spot that granted its community access to Black queer joy and unfettered sexual liberation. As one subject says, “Some places are just hard to find.” (Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm) JULIANNE BELL

Aug 12

Setting out to make a “movie that really stunk,” reigning king of filth John Waters took inspiration from the 1960s theater gimmick Smell-O-Vision and Douglas Sirk’s jewel-box melodramas for his first movie with an actual budget, Polyester. The film follows Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw (played by Waters’s trusty muse, Divine) as she turns to alcoholism while dealing with her cheating pornographer husband, badly behaved children, and needy mother, until she meets the man of her dreams, Todd Tomorrow. Just like the film’s initial theatrical release back in 1981, this screening will be enhanced by Odorama, aka scratch-and-sniff cards that include scents like roses, pizza, flatulence, and dirty shoes. (Here-After, 7:30 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Movies at the Mural Fridays through Aug 22, Mural Amphitheatre, all ages, movies begin at dusk (about 9 pm)

To Live Is to Dream: A Northwest Tribute to David Lynch Through Aug 17, various locations

www.rachelormont.com Aug 6, Here-After, 8 pm, 21+

Eastlake Outdoor Movie Nights: The One I Love Aug 7, Fairview Park, 8:15 pm

Taxi zum Klo Aug 8–11, The Beacon, times vary

Life After Aug 14, Northwest Film Forum, 6:30 pm

Sudan, Remember Us Aug 17–18, The Beacon, times vary

Rimas Tuminas’s ‘War and Peace’ Aug 24, Northwest Film Forum, 4 pm