Gus Van Sant in Attendance at Tonight’s Screening of Drugstore Cowboy

Last week, Alison Hallett wrote about the NW Film Center’s Gus Van Sant retrospective:

The Portland that Gus Van Sant documented in the ’80s and ’90s is gone. Watching Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, and My Own Private Idaho is like playing bingo with the past: that’s where Satyricon used to be; there’s a sports bar on that corner now; that street’s name has changed.

Portland’s changed entirely since Van Sant shot those iconic films. (It’s probably annoying for recent transplants to constantly hear about the rough old years in Portland; it’s also annoying for longtime residents to no longer be able to afford to live here, so it cuts both ways.) We’ll never be closer to the Portland that Van Sant captured in those films than we are at this moment, though, so maybe now is as good a time as any for a retrospective of Van Sant’s work.

Last night, the NW Film Center announced that Van Sant will be in attendance for tonight’s screening of Drugstore Cowboy, and he’ll be doing “a short Q&A” after the movie. The film is also going to be projected from an archival 35mm print. So if you were on the fence about going tonight? Yeah. Don’t be on the fence. Movie starts at 7 pm at the Whitsell Auditorium (1219 SW Park); it’s probably a good idea to get advance tickets.