"GREGORY CREWDSON: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS"
7:30 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday; Northwest Film Center
Photographer Gregory Crewdson is known for his elaborate setups. He uses still photographs to create a story out of single frames, a movie frozen at its climax.
Documentarian Ben Shapiro turns the camera around on the artist in "Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters," a thoughtful observation of a creator and his creations. Shapiro films the photographer constructing his narratives, wrangling cast and crew and interacting with the small Massachusetts town he calls home.
The result is a surprisingly intimate view of how inspiration and perspiration become art. Crewdson lays his process bare, allowing for unprecedented insight into why a visionary of his caliber shares what he sees with the rest of the world.
"MODEST RECEPTION"
7 p.m. Sunday, Northwest Film Center
An absurd scenario gets serious treatment in the Iranian film "A Modest Reception."
A man and a woman travel through the remote mountains outside Tehran with a trunk filled with bags of money. As they encounter the different people living in these harsh conditions, they offer them some of the cash. When each recipient challenges their motives, however, the charitable pranksters grow disillusioned, and their explanations become increasingly elaborate and sometimes belligerent.
As the audience, we never understand their motives, either, but director/star Mani Haghighi keeps us on our toes, confronting our own perceptions of materialism, hardship and our sense of what is fundamentally correct.
"CHARLES BRADLEY: SOUL OF AMERICA"
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hollywood Theatre
Though "Charles Bradley: Soul of America" has a more obvious whiff of promotional motivations, this story of the late-in-life success of a soul singer would make a nice double feature with "Searching for Sugar Man." Unlike Rodriguez, Bradley never got a chance at stardom when he was younger; his first record dropped when he was in his early 60s.
"Soul of America" follows the singer in the days leading up to the release of his 2011 debut album, "No Time for Dreaming." In between rehearsals and live shows, director Poull Brien traces the hard knocks of the man's life.
Bradley's tenacity is inspiring, and the music is excellent to boot.
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