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Second Run Portland
Posted inSecond Run Portland

Second Run Portland: Reality Be Damned

This month, two theaters present surreal screening series, and Björk appears in an atmospheric witchcraft fantasy.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

May Day carries an ancient connection to Floralia, a Roman festival that honored the blossom goddess Flora in early May. It’s only fitting that local cinemas would screen dreamy, surreal films this month, yeah? Two screening series at Clinton Street Theater and Tomorrow Theater wander toward the uncanny, offering opportunities to drift through the otherworlds […]

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Second Run Portland: Iranian Docufiction, Soviet Sci-Fi, and Catherine O’Hara’s Impact

This month’s rep screening schedule is stacked.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

Hello, reader. I am once again requesting you go to the movies, and here’s why: This month, we’ve got Soviet sci-fi, eerie animation, and some of the 20th century’s directorial greats represented (Robert Altman, Akira Kurosawa, Abbas Kiarostami, and the list goes onnnn). Also, have you read Suzette Smith’s picks for the upcoming Portland Panorama […]

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Second Run Portland: Films for Literary Types

This month, a bevy of options beyond Wuthering Heights.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

Film adaptations of novels tend to get a bad rap, and with Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights landing last month, suddenly everyone holds a strong stance for or against them. Take a breath, dear reader. Perhaps within the tranquil confines of your local cinema…? Because this month, indie screens zero in on film-literature crossovers that hit, actually. […]

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Second Run Portland: In Picnic at Hanging Rock, Valentine’s Day Turns Mysterious

This month, nine films on love, desire, and human psychology.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

I’m certain I don’t need to tell you this, but: Shit sucks. Are you taking care of yourself right now? One reliable method is through the poetry and dissociative capacity of good cinema. This month, options abound with screenings of Picnic at Hanging Rock (romance is cryptic), You’ve Got Mail (romance is online), and In the […]

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Second Run Portland: Rich People Behaving Badly

Peter Greenaway’s gourmet art film and Frederick Wiseman’s snowy documentary show vastly different approaches to class critique.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

Some claim that January is a cultural dead zone for events, and on days when the sun seems to clock out at noon, it’s hard to argue. But while much of the city hibernates, one institution keeps the lights on. Thanks, independent movie theaters!! This month’s screenings come through with interesting takes on class critique […]

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Second Run Portland: In Memoria, Tilda Swinton Has a Sonic Headache

Plus more slow cinema, Celtic myth, and Sergei Parajanov in smell-o-vision.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

Unlike some months, the repertory movie screenings of November lack a natural theme. But our indie cinemas have still formed a united front, choosing films that ask their audiences to hang tight with a little more focus and faith than usual. Surreal and nonlinear selections like The Double Life of Véronique, The Color of Pomegranates, […]

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Second Run Portland: Phantasm’s Freaky Mortician Takes Over a Portland Funeral Home

Plus, city theaters pregame for Halloween with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s neo-noir Cure and a fashionable giallo classic.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

Yes, it’s October, and yes, that means it’s time to watch something that leaves you a little unsettled. But that doesn’t mean settling for the same old slashers. (Okay… some slashers can stay. More on that below.) This month, indie theaters dig a little deeper, offering less-screened but much-loved options like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s slow-burn detective […]

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Second Run Portland: Gakuryū Ishii’s August in the Water is Unstreamable Late-Summer Magic

The folkloric Japanese film screens alongside Hungarian psychedelia and Edward Yang’s Yi Yi this month. 
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

This month, Portland venues will close out summer with a psychedelic swirl of films merging myth and magical adolescence. Teen girls time-travel and chat with dolphins; cosmic heroes emerge from horse goddesses. Meanwhile, here on earth, a sex worker undertakes her own journey from a donut shop to a laundromat in Los Angeles.  Screenings are […]

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Second Run Portland: Shinji Sōmai’s Moving Is the Luminous Coming-Of-Age Film You’ve Never Seen

Plus, Gakuryū Ishii’s punk-inflected vision and two cinema vérité documentaries head to the screen this month.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

Portland’s late-summer screenings feel especially thoughtful, turbulent, and aliiiive! This month, we’ve got fresh restorations and poetic takes on youth, class, and artistic longing on the docket. A coming-of-age sparkler by Japanese director Shinji Sōmai gets its due, and two vérité documentaries paint radically human portraits of small-town America. Plus, Ethan Hawke has a well-deserved […]

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Second Run Portland: Days of Heaven Glows Again in 35mm

Plus, a queer twist on yakuza inheritance and Chantal Akerman’s mother-daughter meditation hit Portland screens this month.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

It’s no secret that Portland is a film town. We’re lucky to have a constellation of independent cinemas and DIY programmers keeping the big screens weird, smart, and surprising. But too often, the most interesting films disappear beneath a steaming pile of streaming services and endless reboots. Second Run Portland is a new film column […]

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