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Playing at Pickford Film Center
86 minutes, USA, In English and Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Chulas Fronteras (Beautiful Borders) (dir. Les Blank, 1976) is a zesty introduction to Norteña music and culture that exists along the Texas-Mexican border. The music is a fusion of traditional Mexican harmonies, German dancehall rhythms and a little something extra. From soulful, lively dance tunes to political work songs, música Norteña has evolved since the turn of the 20th century into a unique Mexican-American hybrid. Blank links the music’s spirit and vitality to the strong family bonds of Tejanos. The plight of migrant workers adds a sobering backbeat to this joyous film. 58 mins.

Also presenting Del Mero Corazón (Straight from the Heart) (dir. Les Blank and Maureen Gosling, 1979), a lyrical journey through the heart of Chicano culture as reflected in the love songs of the Tejano Conjunto and musica Norteña traditions. 28 mins.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
101 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Sponsored by Northwest Holistic Pet Care

Join us after the September 29 screening for a Skype Q&A with filmmaker/producer Cindy Meehl!

A founding father of integrative veterinary medicine, Dr. Marty Goldstein and his colleagues in South Salem, NY have created a mecca for holistic care, offering hope to scores of previously hopeless animals (and their owners). Combining conventional medical training with cutting edge alternative therapies, Dr. Marty’s deeply empathetic philosophy offers a vital example of how improving overall health rather than merely treating disease is transformative for all living things.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
85 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Village Books

Words from a Bear examines the enigmatic life and mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Navarro Scott Momaday, one of Native America’s most celebrated authors of poetry and prose. Words from a Bear visually captures the essence of Momaday’s writings, relating each written line to his unique American experience representing ancestry, place, and oral history. Cinematically this story takes audiences on a spiritual journey through the expansive landscapes of the West, when Momaday’s Kiowa ancestors roamed the Great Plains with herds of buffalo, to the sand-painted valleys of Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico where his imagination ripened and he showed superior writing skills as a young mission student.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
96 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by NAMI Whatcom
One evening only.

Ernie & Joe is an intimate portrait of two Texas police officers who are helping change the way police respond to mental health calls. The film takes audiences on a personal journey, weaving together their experiences during their daily encounters with people in crisis. These two officers are not your everyday cops. They are part of the San Antonio Police Department’s 10-person Mental Health Unit.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
98 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Animals as Natural Therapy
visits by therapy horses at both screenings!

For most, South Central LA is synonymous with gang violence, drug trafficking, and crime. Yet for much of the twentieth century the area was an agricultural boomtown filled with ranchers, farmers, and equestrians alike. Since the city’s establishment, Compton and the surrounding neighborhoods have always had a culture of Black Cowboys. This culture has all but disappeared now in a wash of land-hungry developers, apathetic politicians, and relentless gang activity. Fire on the Hill tells the story of one of the last strongholds that the Cowboys have: a horse stable known as the Hill that was mysteriously set on fire in 2012.

Also screening short film Fast Horse.

View our complete Doctober lineup!

Playing at Pickford Film Center
80 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Mount Baker Planned Parenthood
with Q&A moderated by director Jan Haaken

With clinic bombings, death threats, and harassment targeting providers and their families, it appeared by the 1990s that few doctors were willing to provide this service. But beneath the surface, a quiet rebellion was taking place in the field of medicine. A number of doctors came out publicly as abortion providers, even as the larger medical community often viewed them as “rogue physicians.” This rebellion depended heavily on working with women’s freestanding clinics and their feminist allies. Our Bodies Our Doctors takes viewers into the lives of these providers and their struggles to provide abortion procedures.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
88 minutes, Netherlands, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World explores the promise of open source investigation, taking viewers inside the exclusive world of the “citizen investigative journalist” collective known as Bellingcat. In cases ranging from the MH17 disaster to the poisoning of a Russian spy in the United Kingdom, the Bellingcat team’s quest for truth will shed light on the fight for journalistic integrity in the era of fake news and alternative facts.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
75 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Capturing the messy upheaval of the ’70s just as rock was re-inventing itself, the film explores CREEM Magazine’s humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit, follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national powerhouse – spotlighting iconic features, interviews, and anecdotes along the way – then bears witness to its imminent demise following the tragic and untimely deaths of its visionary publisher, Barry Kramer, and its most famous alum and genius clown prince, Lester Bangs, a year later. Fifty years after publishing its first issue, “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine” remains a seditious spirit in music and culture.

Sponsored by Ann Reinhart

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
87 minutes, Canada, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Canada House
Shown in partnership with WWU Canadian-American Studies and the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle
One evening only.

Anthropocene follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group, who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains,Anthropocene traverses the globe to document evidence and experience of human planetary domination.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
107 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by WWU Chemistry Department in honor of National Chemistry Week

A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. Human Nature is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
89 minutes, Ireland, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented as part of Bellingham Irish Fest
+ 10:00am – 12:00: Open jam session in the lobby — everyone is welcome!
+ serving homemade Irish soda bread and tea
+ exhibits of historical Irish books from Western Washington Libraries Special Collections

One evening only.

Katie Taylor fell in love with boxing at the age of six but quickly found that her avenues into the ring were blocked by the sport’s traditionally sexist culture. Women were banned from boxing in Ireland, so she dressed as a boy to enter competitions. This was the first of many obstacles that intensified her drive to succeed and strengthened her relationship with her dad, who was both her coach and closest confidant.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
100 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Echoes

In response to a wave of discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws in Southern states and the divisive 2016 election, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South. Led by Gay Chorus Conductor Dr. Tim Seelig and joined by The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the tour brings a message of music, love and acceptance, to communities and individuals confronting intolerance. Over 300 singers travelled from Mississippi to Tennessee through the Carolinas and over the bridge in Selma. They performed in churches, community centers and concert halls in hopes of uniting us in a time of difference. The journey also challenges Tim and other Chorus members who fled the South to confront their own fears, pain and prejudices on a journey towards reconciliation.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
94 minutes, USA, Canada, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Set in a sizzling New York City, The Hottest August is Brett Story’s visionary look at a culture on the precipice as both climate change and disaster capitalism eclipse our future. Despite an edgy undercurrent of anxiety, the film locates a warm humanity in interactions with a cross section of New Yorkers expert at “rolling with the punches,” as one Staten Island couple says outside of their garage. The rich set of characters includes a futuristic Afronaut, Hurricane Sandy holdouts, a Zumba instructor, and 1920s-style dancers who could be deckhands on the Titanic. While this smart, incisive essay taps into passages by Zadie Smith, Karl Marx, and Annie Dillard, Story’s presence can be felt strongly throughout: she acts as free-ranging poet/meteorologist with a farsighted ability to forecast our uncertain destiny.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
90 minutes, Mexico, In Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


In Mexico City’s wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a private ambulance, competing with other for-profit EMTs for patients in need of urgent help. As the Ochoas try to make a living in this fraught industry, they struggle to keep their dire finances from compromising the people in their care.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
81 minutes, USA, Australia, Germany, Ghana, Nicaragua, UK, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by WTA + Smart Trips, with post-screening panel discussions featuring local parents, commuters, and business owners who have discovered the power of cargo bikes.

Motherload is a crowdsourced documentary about a new mother’s quest to understand the increasing isolation and disconnection of the digital age, its planetary impact, and how cargo bikes could be an antidote.

Filmmaker Liz Canning cycled everywhere until she had twins in 2008. Hauling babies via car was not only unsustainable but took the freedom and adventure out of life, and Liz felt trapped. She Googled “family bike” and uncovered a global movement of people replacing cars with cargo bikes: long-frame bicycles designed for carrying passengers and heavy loads. Liz set out to learn more, and Motherload was born.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
79 minutes, USA, Kenya, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


A feature-length documentary that follows the lives of two young, Kenyan recruits who join Ol Pejeta Conservancy’s rhino caretaker unit — a small group of rangers that protect and care for Sudan, the last male northern white rhino in the world. Spanning over the course of the caretakers first four years on the job, Kifaru allows viewers to intimately experience the joys and pitfalls of wildlife conservation firsthand through the eyes of these Kenyan rhino caretakers who witness extinction happening in real-time.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
50 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by United Faculty of Western Washington and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSME) Local 114, featuring historical images of Teamsters on display courtesy of the Whatcom Museum Archives.

One evening only.

Sitdowns, scabs, goon squads, unemployment, hunger marches, red baiting and finally the energetic birth of the CIO: the 1930s were a landmark period for the American labor movement. Union Maids is the story of three women who lived that history and make it come alive today. Released in 1976, it was the first film of its kind–an oral history, using a wealth of footage from the National Archives to chronicle the fight to form industrial unions as seen through the eyes of rank and file women. The film was widely distributed in 16mm, including theatrical dates in about 20 cities.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
80 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by the YWCA

Finding Home in Boomtown is a cinéma vérité documentary about Briana and John-Mark Echols, and their dream to build a tiny house community for the homeless in oil boom-town Midland, Texas.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
113 minutes, USA, Japan, In English and Japanese w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


In snowbound Tokamachi, Japan, teenaged Akio Sakurai took refuge in his room, escaping to another world with a pair of headphones and a pile of Led Zeppelin records. Moving to Tokyo, Akio worked as a “salary man” by day, but by night became “Mr. Jimmy,” adopting the guitar chops and persona of Jimmy Page.

For 35 years, Akio recreated vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note in small Tokyo clubs, until the “real” Jimmy Page stopped by one night, and Akio’s life changed forever.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
100 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated G: .


One of the most acclaimed music documentaries of all time, Say Amen, Somebody is George Nierenberg’s masterpiece — a joyous, funny, deeply emotional celebration of African American culture, featuring the father of Gospel, Thomas A. Dorsey (“Precious Lord, Take My Hand”); its matron, Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith; and earth-shaking performances by the Barrett Sisters and the O’Neal Twins. When it was first released in the early 1980s, the film received an overwhelming critical response, garnering rave reviews around the world.

“One of the most joyful movies I’ve ever seen.”
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
90 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Children of the Setting Sun Productions

One evening only.

Children of the Setting Sun Productions returns after a full year of filming in and around the Salish Sea. Come see the vibrancy of local Native cultures in a series of short films, our latest honoring the Women of Canoe Journey in this year’s Paddle to Lummi. Also showing is Salmon People, with new scenes illuminating the intricate relationship between salmon and the Coast Salish peoples. CSSP will live host the event and would love to hear your voices in the after show discussion of the work.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
81 minutes, ., In Spanish, French, English w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force

This documentary takes place in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, two ethnically and culturally distinct countries that have been forced to share an island since colonial times. The film follows Pikilina, a Dominican-born woman of Haitian descent, and her family. Racial and political violence erupt when the country of her birth, the Dominican Republic, reverses its birthright citizenship law and she is left stateless, along with 250,000 others. With the stroke of a pen, generations of people are left without a homeland. This sets Pikilina off on an epic journey as she struggles to regain her Dominican citizenship. Pikilina now faces the choice of fighting for her rightful citizenship and exposing herself to danger, or fleeing with her family to Haiti, a country she barely knows.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
82 minutes, USA, Mexico, In English and Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival

Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy is a feature-length documentary offering a candid look into the world of 92-year-old British chef and cookbook author Diana Kennedy, widely regarded as the world’s authority on Mexican cuisine. Standing barely five feet tall with a still-thick English accent, Diana is a formidable critic of any individual who doesn’t agree with her subjective views of Mexican culinary traditions, or, God forbid, doesn’t recycle.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
68 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented as part of our LGBT+ film series The Queens’ Vernacular

One evening only.

More than 40 years before RuPaul’s Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. Organized by LGBTQ icon and activist Flawless Sabrina, the competition boasted a star-studded panel of judges including Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, and Terry Southern. But perhaps most memorable is an epic diatribe calling out the pageant’s bias delivered by Crystal LaBeija, who would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija, heavily featured in Paris Is Burning (1990).

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
115 minutes, Austria, In English, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Italian w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Several billion tons of earth are moved annually by humans – with shovels, excavators or dynamite. Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Homo Sapiens, Our Daily Bread) observes people, in mines, quarries and at large construction sites, engaged in a constant struggle to take possession of the planet.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
95 minutes, USA, UK, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Indivisble Bellingham
One evening only.

Veteran documentarian Errol Morris directs American Dharma, a long-form examination of alt-right figurehead and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. In-depth interviews with Bannon reveal his past political tactics and his future predictions on the state of the union.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
85 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


An evening with director David Shields on Friday, October 18.

Lynch: A History explores the silence that nonconformist NFL star Marshawn Lynch deploys as a form of resistance. Culling more than 700 video clips and placing them in dramatic, rapid, and radical juxtaposition, the film is a powerful political parable about the American media-sports complex and its deep complicity with racial oppression.

Born and raised in in Oakland by a single mother, Lynch became an All-American, an All-Pro running back, and a Super Bowl champion, but over the last five years he has emerged as a nationally significant figure precisely because he has refused to “play the game” of being a dutiful, cliché-bound interviewee.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
88 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Sponsored by Shake & Shine

Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and Well Groomed captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Follow four champion groomers and their gorgeous, vibrant dogs through a year in the life on the technicolor competition circuit, playfully exploring their creative process. From South Carolina to California, New York to Arkansas, these women are revolutionizing the age old question – what is art? Director Rebecca Stern has captured an up-close and revealing look at pets, families, friendships and the glory of dog grooming through a bright spectrum of color.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
85 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Ten years after the Wall Street meltdown of 2008, questions still linger over whether insiders could see it coming or do more to stop it. Inside Lehman Brothers is an involving autopsy of what led to the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. The film profiles several insiders who had early warning signs about the dangers of subprime mortgages and tried to sound alarms from within. The stories of these whistleblowers deepen our understanding of the mindset that caused the crash and serve as a stark warning for the future.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
92 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by the Community Food Co-op

The Pollinators is a cinematic journey around the United States following migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honey bees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetables we all eat.

We will talk to farmers, scientist, chefs, economists and academics along the way to give a broad perspective about the threats to honey bees and what it means to our food security.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
85 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


It’s the most loved food in America. And we want to tell you a story about three pizza places in the town of New Haven, Connecticut that you may or may not have heard of. They’re named: Sally’s Apizza, Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, and Modern Apizza, and they are generally considered to be three of the finest pizza restaurants on the planet.

Anyone who’s ever sampled a pie from one of these New Haven brick oven pizza palaces, knows that they’ve just tasted the finest pizza known to mankind. One bite and there is no going back.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
123 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


WBCN and The American Revolution is a landmark feature documentary that tells the previously untold story of the early days of the underground, radical radio station, WBCN-FM, set against the dazzling and profound social, political, and cultural changes in Boston and nationally from the late-1960s through the early-1970s.

The documentary includes never before exhibited film material shot by Andy Warhol and cinema verite pioneer Ricky Leacock, and photographic images from a host of top 1960s photographers including the late Peter Simon, brother of singer Carly Simon, who also appears in the film, and Jeff Albertson.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
98 minutes, Germany, UK, Australia, In English, Persian, French, and Mandarin w/ English subtitles, Documentary
Rated NR: .


The burning of ghost money perfumes the air on far-off Christmas Island where Poh Lin Lee, a trauma therapist, lives on the island with her husband and daughters. While Lee helps detained immigrants work through their trauma, migrating crabs freely move from the jungle to the ocean, coddled by locals who gently rake them from the path of oncoming vehicles. Lee’s therapeutic work, which is filmed in a uniquely intimate way, and her mediation between the unhappy spirits and the detainees take a toll on her relationship with her family. Director Gabrielle Brady conjures a poetic darkness that evinces a confrontation of nature and human suffering.

With a recorded introduction from Director Gabrielle Brady.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
88 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Whatcom Youth Pride and the Queer Youth Project

Mack Beggs made headlines last year when he became the Texas State Champion in girls wrestling — as a boy. Fighting Texas State policy and drawing international media coverage, he was heralded as a hero by some while receiving hate and threats from others. The tumultuous press surrounding his success continues to pull Mack in multiple directions as he and his family navigate the media and this year’s State wrestling tournament, all while trying to graduate high school. We hear two other stories from trans high school atheletes, and these courageous kids offer us the opportunity to see the world through their eyes — and share their struggles and successes along the way.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
94 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Talking to Crows

Few realize that sound is 50% of the cinematic experience. Building on the pioneering sight-and-sound discoveries of iconic filmmakers, this documentary features the first generation of recognized Sound Designers who designed great movies with sound before a frame was shot. We will explore the collaborative relationship between Sound Designers and the visionary directors they work with by entering their creative realms via interviews and clips from their movies. We check out the latest discoveries and advances in sound technology and learn how sound transforms not only the cinematic experience, but also our lives.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
88 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Greater Bellingham Running Club

Runner follows Sudanese refugee and marathon runner Guor Marial as he struggles to win his right to run independently without a country in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
87 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


After a decade of making music together, Jim and Sam, a recently married singer/songwriter duo from Los Angeles, were not the conventionally successful band they hoped they’d be. Feeling stuck and anxious about their future, the duo made a spontaneous decision to go “all in,” making a pact to play one show every day for a year. With suitcases and a guitar, the troubadours ventured out for a 365-day tour down unexplored roads, and onto unexpected stages, bringing their music to new audiences throughout 14 different countries. After So Many Days is an intimate front row seat to the highs and lows of what it’s like for two people to pursue a dream, together.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
85 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


We are in a plastic crisis.

Plastic pollution is everywhere we look, smothering our oceans and poisoning communities around the world. Meanwhile, Big Plastic only plans to expand production. We need to chart a different course.

View our complete Doctober lineup.

Playing at Pickford Film Center
99 minutes, USA, In English, Documentary
Rated NR: .


Presented by Bleedingham and shown as part of our series The Queens’ Vernacular

Your ticket for Scream, Queen! on October 31 gains you entrance to A Nightmare on Elm Street II, screening at 8:30pm!

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street sets the records straight about the controversial sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, which ended Mark Patton’s acting career, just as it was about to begin.

Scream, Queen follows Patton as he travels to horror conventions across the U.S. Each new city unwraps a chapter from his life that is met with equal parts joyful and bittersweet detail, as he attempts to make peace with his past and embrace his legacy as cinema’s first male “scream queen.” The film also finds Patton confronting Freddy’s Revenge cast and crew for the first time, including Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.

View our complete Doctober lineup.