HLT#171 - FILMMAKER RUSTIN THOMPSON

My guest today is Seattle filmmaker Rustin Thompson. Those of you who visited us for last year’s BAINBRIDGE ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL will remember his earlier work, the mesmerizing and candid, THIRTY FRAMES A SECOND: THE WTO IN SEATTLE. His latest film, THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS - NOT to be confused with the 1971 Peter Bogdanovich classic of almost the same name (but in the singular) THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, is a road trip thru the American West where independent one-screen movie theaters - once the life blood of the movie industry - have dried up, rusted out and left town. Rustin spent two years on the dusty trail seeking to document those that remain, gathering opinion, the facts and fallacies, from the small towns where they once stood majestic and proud, in what he calls ‘the cinema desert’. He cautions us to be patient with the film’s arc and that it is not all doom and gloom nor a cautionary tale of apocalyptic scope. There is still time to honor the past while looking forward to the next big release from Hollywood’s established and trusted stars. There is also a place in our lexicon for Independent filmmakers, shooting on the fly, guerrilla style on limited budgets, because, as we agree, it is always about the story. THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS is a story about love and loss, fame, glory and ruin; rags to riches to rags again under the spell of a thirty frames per second magic act.

More on Rustin Thompson here.

Please join us on Tuesday, August 4 @ 7p for the screening and subsquent Q&A with Rustin. If you can’t make that one , we’ll screen again the following day, Wednesday, August 5 @ 4:30. Tickets for both are here. 

And don’t forget to put Friday, July 31 on your calendar for our two screenings, in celebration of its 55th anniversary, of that ‘other’ Picture Show, starring Cybill Shepard, Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman and directed by Mr. Bogdanovich. I can guarantee you that that movie house no longer exists. Except in our hearts and heads, where it counts. 

Ciao,

Kevin

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