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CANCELLED | Filmmaker Q&A | At the Video Store
March 17th 6:30pm
At the Video Store is an innovative and rambunctiously entertaining documentary film by director James Westby (Film Geek, The Auteur, Rid of Me). Westby will be in attendance at both screenings on March 17th!
JAMES WESTBY
Called “a wizard of concision and a master of discomfort†by The New York Times, James Westby is an independent filmmaker from Portland, OR. He writes, directs, and edits provocative films with economical budgets and no compromises. And big laughs! And discomfort. Westby-made features include Film Geek (socially inept video store clerk loses his job and starts working at an auto parts warehouse), The Auteur (sweet romantic comedy about the world’s greatest porn director) and Rid of Me (timid housewife wreaks revenge on her yuppie husband and his a-hole friends). His films have played at the Tribeca Film Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortsfest, and hundreds of others. Westby’s latest is At the Video Store, an offbeat and bittersweet documentary featuring Bill Hader, John Waters, Nicole Holofcener, Lance Bangs, David F. Walker, and an entire community of lovable weirdos. The film is structured around original video store-inspired songs (performed by Laura Veirs, Laura Gibson, Liz Vice, Wonderly, Storm Large, and Mo Troper) and exists as a loving ode to the dying art of connection and curation. Westby’s work in the commercial world includes the short film Evan Rachel Would for tomboy clothier Wildfang (starring Kim Gordon, Beth Ditto, and Evan Rachel Wood), as well as recent campaigns for Oregon Lottery and more cannabis companies than you can count.
