The WhatcomTalk Events Calendar shares things to do around Whatcom County including Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine and beyond. Find fun activities and adventures throughout the region on our comprehensive events calendar. Have an event that isn’t listed? Click the green “Post your Event” button and our editors will review and approve within two business days.
Celebrating the Pickford Film Center’s 20th anniversary with 20 of our most popular films. Tickets are only $3.
Oscar-award winning film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) follows a washed-up actor (played by Michael Keaton) who once played an iconic superhero, attempting to revive his career by writing and staring in his own Broadway play. Dark comedy ensues.
Pickford Film Center is hosting the NY Cat Film Festival, presented by Tracie Hotchner and the Radio Pet Lady Network. This Festival premieres in New York and then travels the country to spread a feline-frenzy to select theaters. The Pickford is lucky enough to host it. Plan for a fun afternoon with a cat-photo contest, tabeling by various organizations with cat-friendly information and services, temporary tattoos and more!
Join us at Limelight Cinema for a special two-night only screening of “Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing.” Showing Sunday, September 2 at 11:00 a.m. and again, Wednesday, September 5 at 6:00 p.m., this biography grants complete access to Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Van Gogh’s death. With information from experts at the Museum, in combination with Theo Van Gogh’s letter collection, and over 200 paintings, this film is a complete telling of Van Gogh’s life.
“The Doctor from India” is the fascinating story of one man’s mission to bring the ancient healthcare system of wellness called Ayurveda from India to the West in the late 1970s. In this meditative, immersive portrait, with interviewees including Ayurvedic practitioner Deepak Chopra, Frindel documents the life and work of Dr. Vasant Lad who, fulfilling his destiny as foretold by his family guru became a holistic health pioneer, helping to bring Ayurveda, which was almost unknown when he first arrived in the west, to become one of the most prominent alternative health systems in the world today.
Thank you to our sponsor Ayurvedic Health Center & Wellness Shop.
The Red Pony is an adaptation of the John Steinbeck story of the same name. Top billing goes to Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum, but the film’s true star is young Peter Miles as Tom. A lonely farm boy, Tom seeks refuge from his troublesome home life and his eternally squabbling parents (Loy and Shepperd Strudwick) through his devotion to a newborn colt. The red pony is the issue of a prize mare owned by ranchhand Billy Buck (Mitchum), whom Tom idolizes. The film’s coming-of-age theme culminates in a poignant denouement. Louis Calhern plays Tom’s lovably prevaricating grandfather, while 10-year-old Beau Bridges essays one of his first featured roles.
Vanessa Kirby (The Crown, NT Live: A Streetcar Named Desire) and Eric Kofi Abrefa (The Amen Corner) feature in the cast of this brand new production, directed by Carrie Cracknell (NT Live: The Deep Blue Sea) and broadcast live from the National Theatre to cinemas. Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them. Crossing the threshold, Julie initiates a power game with Jean – which rapidly descends into a savage fight for survival. This new version of August Strinberg’s play Miss Julie, written by Polly Stenham, remains shocking and fiercely relevant in its new setting of contemporary London.
HESTER STREET (1974)
Limelight Cinema
Monday, Mar 11, 2019 6:00 PM
The Distaff Side: Women Directors of the 70s. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Hester Street is presented by Congregation Beth Israel
Gitl (Carol Kane) has just arrived in America from Russia with her son. She has come to meet her husband, Jake (Steven Keats), who has been in the States for some time and is comfortably settled. While Gitl struggles to find her place in this country, she clashes with Jake, who has fully embraced their new homeland. Directed by Joan Micklin Silver.
“Another revelation is Joan Micklin Silver’s Hester Street (1975), based on a nineteenth-century novella. Beautifully realized in black-and-white with a blend of wry humor and real yearning, its clear-eyed portrait of Jewish immigrants in New York’s Lower East Side conveys the community disruption wrought by the conflicting pull of tradition and assimilation.” Carmen Gray for The Village Voice.
ALIENS (1986)
Pickford Film Center
Saturday, Mar 16, 2019 12:00 PM
Rocket Sci-Fi, introduction by Steve Meyers.
57 years after Ellen Ripley had a close encounter with the reptilian alien creature from the first movie, she is called back, this time, to help a group of highly trained colonial marines fight off against the sinister extraterrestrials. But this time, the aliens have taken over a space colony on the moon LV-426. When the colonial marines are called upon to search the deserted space colony, they later find out that they are up against more than what they bargained for. Using specially modified machine guns and enough firepower, it’s either fight or die as the space marines battle against the aliens. As the Marines do their best to defend themselves, Ripley must attempt to protect a young girl who is the sole survivor of the decimated space colony.
WANDA (1970)
Limelight Cinema
Monday, Mar 18, 2019 6:00 PM
The Distaff Side: Women Directors of the 70s. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
With her first and only feature film, Barbara Loden turned in a groundbreaking work of American independent cinema. Set amid a soot-choked Pennsylvania landscape and shot in an intimate verite style, the film takes up with distant and soft-spoken Wanda (Loden), who has left her husband, lost custody of her children, and now finds herself alone, drifting between dingy bars and motels, and callously mistreated by a series of men – including a bank robber who ropes her into his next criminal scheme.
“At that moment in the early 1970s, the feminist movement was split over whether its political imperative was to secure the liberty of all women or, more practically, to throw its weight behind the talented, the ambitious, the already privileged. There was—and continues to be—discomfort around Wanda because the central character is not a role model.” Amy Taubin for Criterion.
MIKEY AND NICKY (1976)
Limelight Cinema
Monday, Mar 25, 2019 6:00 PM
The Distaff Side: Women Directors of the 70s. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Nickey (John Cassavetes) is a small-time Jewish gangster in trouble with the mob. He calls on his lifelong friend Mikey (Peter Falk) for help. During the night the two spend together, the power of their friendship is undermined by their mutual nastiness and pressing financial concerns. Directed by Elaine May.
“[May’s] genius for finding the squirmy humanity within toxic characters finds its purest and most heartbreaking expression in Mikey and Nicky, which filming began in 1973 but which wasn’t released till 1976, following all manner of ill will and out-and-out warfare between May and Paramount, the studio that financed the film. At one point, May even hid reels of her own footage so that Paramount could not wrest it from her and release the movie in a bastardized form.” Nathan Rabin for Criterion.
HOT ROD (2007)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, Apr 6, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Ariana
Amateur stuntman Rod Kimble has a problem–his step-father Frank is a jerk. Frank picks on Rod, tosses him around like a rag doll in their weekly sparring sessions and definitely doesn’t respect him, much less his stunts. But, when Frank falls ill, it’s up to Rod to stage the jump of his life in order to save his step-father. The plan: Jump 15 buses, raise the money for Frank’s heart operation, and then… kick his ass.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
TANK GIRL (1995)
Pickford Film Center
Saturday, Apr 20, 2019 12:00 PM
Rocket Sci-Fi, introduction by Steve Meyers.
This wild, futuristic action-fantasy is set in the year 2033 where drought and pollution have turned the Earth into a desert wasteland. The planet’s water supply is controlled by a despotic company that is opposed by a few courageous rebels who regularly risk their lives to poach the precious fluid.
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA (2008)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, May 4, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Michael
The people of Earth have been devastated by inexplicable and widespread organ failures, and as a result scientists begin planning a substantial organ harvest. Though an innovative biotech conglomerate offers the fearful public a means of maintaining their health by enacting a series of hassle-free organ payment plans, things begin to get messy when it’s revealed that the financed body parts are subjected to legal default, and, therefore, reposession.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
CONCEIVING ADA (1997)
Pickford Film Center
Saturday, May 18, 2019 12:00 PM
Rocket Sci-Fi, introduction by Steve Meyers.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Sci-Fi adventure is an imaginary biography of the real-life Lady Ada Lovelace , daughter of Lord Byron, a mathematics genius a century ahead of her time. A computer expert is somehow able to contact her through virtual reality.
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, Jun 1, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Meghan
The setting is Camp Firewood, the year 1981. It’s the last day before everyone goes back to the real world, but there’s still a summer’s worth of unfinished business to resolve. At the center of the action is camp director Beth, who struggles to keep order while she falls in love with the local astrophysics professor. All that, plus: a dangerous waterfall rescue, love triangles, misfits, cool kids, and talking vegetable cans.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Pickford Film Center
Saturday, Jun 15, 2019 12:00 PM
Rocket Sci-Fi, introduction by Steve Meyers.
Filmmaker George Miller gears up for another post-apocalyptic action adventure with Fury Road, the fourth outing in the Mad Max film series. Charlize Theron stars alongside Tom Hardy (Bronson), with Zoe Kravitz, Adelaide Clemens, and Rosie Huntington Whiteley heading up the supporting cast.
DRUNKEN MASTER (1978)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, Jul 6, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Darcy
Drunken Master follows Wong Fei-hong (Jackie Chan), a troublesome youth who is sent to receive martial arts instruction from his uncle (Siu Tien Yuen), the hard-drinking title character. Wong runs away, but runs afoul of some local villains. Beaten badly, he returns to his uncle, who trains him in “drunken-style” kung fu.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
Our annual Rooftop Cinema series returns again this summer! Spend three Friday nights this summer watching great films on the top story of the Commercial Street Parking Garage, with music, food, drinks, and the best 360 views of Bellingham Bay and beyond.
Friday, July 26 features Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Bring a camp chair or a cushion (note some seating is provided) and join us at the Parkade, located on the 1300 block of Commercial Street. There will be four floors of free parking below the event. Bring your friends and family for a delightful summer evening!
Film description: Salvatore “Sal” Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin’ Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin’ Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. This film, “Confirmed Spike Lee as a writer and filmmaker of peerless vision and passionate social engagement. Punctuated by the anthemic refrain of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” Do the Right Thing is a landmark in American cinema, as politically and emotionally charged and as relevant now as when it first hit the big screen.” -The Criterion Collection
REPO MAN (1984)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, Aug 3, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Film Is Truth
After being fired from his job, Los Angeles slacker and punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) lands a gig working for an eccentric repossession agent named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton). At first, Otto is reluctant to work as a repo man, but he soon feels differently.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
Our annual Rooftop Cinema series returns again this summer! Spend three Friday nights this summer watching great films on the top story of the Commercial Street Parking Garage, with music, food, drinks, and the best 360 views of Bellingham Bay and beyond.
Friday, August 9 features Wes Craven’s horror classic Scream. Bring a camp chair or a cushion (note some seating is provided) and join us at the Parkade, located on the 1300 block of Commercial Street. There will be four floors of free parking below the event. Bring your friends and family for a delightful summer evening!
Film description: Wes Craven re-invented and revitalized the slasher-horror genre with this modern horror classic, which manages to be funny, clever and scary, as a fright-masked knife maniac stalks high-school student in middle-class suburbia. Craven is happy to provide both tension and self-parody as the body count mounts – but the victims aren’t always the ones you’d expect. Scream is one of the most successful horror films of all time, and a fan-favorite film.
GUMMO (1997)
Limelight Cinema
Saturday, Sep 7, 2019 10:00 PM
Third Eye Cinema is a monthly series at the Limelight programmed by Pickford staff and sponsored by Film is Truth. Tickets are only $5!
Programmed by Hayley
Teen friends Tummler (Nick Sutton) and Solomon (Jacob Reynolds) navigate the ruins of a tiny, tornado-ravaged town in Ohio that is populated by the deformed, disturbed and perverted. When not gunning down stray cats for a few bucks, the boys pass their time getting stoned on household inhalants. Elsewhere, the mute Bunny Boy (Jacob Sewell) dons rabbit ears and is bullied by kids half his age, and sisters Dot (Chloe Sevigny) and Helen (Carisa Glucksman) dodge a pedophile.
Film is Truth is a local nonprofit video rental archive with an ever-growing collection of more than 20,000 titles, keeping film history at your fingertips for over two decades.
Pickford Film Center is excited for the fun to continue with Kid Pickford, a monthly family-friendly film series for kids at the Pickford for $1. Formally named Pickford Family Matinees, this series shows a classic family film each month on Saturdays at 1 pm. From an epic children’s quest spanning 50 years, rousing debates for the history books, some mysterious mythical cursed rabbits, gifted aspiring ballet stars, a quest to secure a stolen book, and a special winter in Moomin Valley, this year’s Kid Pickford slate is full of excitement and a joy to watch!
No matter if you’re 30 and want to see a classic favorite childhood film, have kids, want to host a birthday party, or simply want a relaxed and enjoyable Saturday afternoon, Kid Pickford is always a lot of fun. Bring your kids, bring friends or a date, and catch a classic Saturday afternoon movie.
Next up is Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) which is stop motion animated film following eccentric inventor Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) and his faithful if often perplexed dog Gromit are back in their first feature-length adventure from animator Nick Park. Wallace and Gromit have launched a new business venture just in time for a major gardening competition in their neighborhood of West Wallaby. “Anti-Pesto” is a humane pest-relocation service in which Wallace and Gromit capture rabbits and other critters who have been eating the produce from local gardens and give them new homes somewhere else. Business has been going well, and when the woman hosting the garden show, Lady Tottington (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), discovers a massive tribe of rabbits has been making a mess of her garden, she calls in Wallace and Gromit to move the bunnies elsewhere… with disastrous results..
Keep updated on the Pickford’s events on our website or sign up for our email newsletter at www.pickfordfilmcenter.org
Pickford Film Center is excited for the fun to continue with Kid Pickford, a monthly family-friendly film series for kids at the Pickford for $1. Formally named Pickford Family Matinees, this series shows a classic family film each month on Saturdays at 1 pm. From an epic children’s quest spanning 50 years, rousing debates for the history books, some mysterious mythical cursed rabbits, gifted aspiring ballet stars, a quest to secure a stolen book, and a special winter in Moomin Valley, this year’s Kid Pickford slate is full of excitement and a joy to watch!
No matter if you’re 30 and want to see a classic favorite childhood film, have kids, want to host a birthday party, or simply want a relaxed and enjoyable Saturday afternoon, Kid Pickford is always a lot of fun. Bring your kids, bring friends or a date, and catch a classic Saturday afternoon movie.
Next we head to graceful and inspiring dancers in First Position (2011). Also featured in our yearly Doctober event, a month-long celebration of documentary film, Fist Position follows thousands of aspiring dancers as they enter one of the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix, where lifelong dreams are at stake. In the final round, with hundreds competing for only a handful of elite scholarships and contracts, practice and discipline are paramount, and nothing short of perfection is expected. Bess Kargman’s award-winning documentary, First Position, follows six young dancers as they prepare for a chance to enter the world of professional ballet, struggling through bloodied feet, near exhaustion and debilitating injuries, all while navigating the drama of adolescence. A showcase of awe-inspiring talent, tenacity and passion, First Position paints a thrilling and moving portrait of the most gifted young ballet stars of tomorrow.
Keep updated on the Pickford’s events on our website or sign up for our email newsletter at www.pickfordfilmcenter.org
Pickford Film Center is excited for the fun to continue with Kid Pickford, a monthly family-friendly film series for kids at the Pickford for $1. Formally named Pickford Family Matinees, this series shows a classic family film each month on Saturdays at 1 pm. From an epic children’s quest spanning 50 years, rousing debates for the history books, some mysterious mythical cursed rabbits, gifted aspiring ballet stars, a quest to secure a stolen book, and a special winter in Moomin Valley, this year’s Kid Pickford slate is full of excitement and a joy to watch!
No matter if you’re 30 and want to see a classic favorite childhood film, have kids, want to host a birthday party, or simply want a relaxed and enjoyable Saturday afternoon, Kid Pickford is always a lot of fun. Bring your kids, bring friends or a date, and catch a classic Saturday afternoon movie.
Next we head to a beloved book character Paddington in Paddington 2 (2017). Settled in with the Brown family, Paddington the bear is a popular member of the community who spreads joy and marmalade wherever he goes. One fine day, he spots a pop-up book in an antique shop — the perfect present for his beloved aunt’s 100th birthday. When a thief steals the prized book, Paddington embarks on an epic quest to unmask the culprit before Aunt Lucy’s big celebration.
Keep updated on the Pickford’s events on our website or sign up for our email newsletter at www.pickfordfilmcenter.org
Pickford Film Center is excited for the fun to continue with Kid Pickford, a monthly family-friendly film series for kids at the Pickford for $1. Formally named Pickford Family Matinees, this series shows a classic family film each month on Saturdays at 1 pm. From an epic children’s quest spanning 50 years, rousing debates for the history books, some mysterious mythical cursed rabbits, gifted aspiring ballet stars, a quest to secure a stolen book, and a special winter in Moomin Valley, this year’s Kid Pickford slate is full of excitement and a joy to watch!
No matter if you’re 30 and want to see a classic favorite childhood film, have kids, want to host a birthday party, or simply want a relaxed and enjoyable Saturday afternoon, Kid Pickford is always a lot of fun. Bring your kids, bring friends or a date, and catch a classic Saturday afternoon movie.
Closing our Kid Pickford 2019 slate is Moomins and the Winter Wonderland (2017). The winter seems extraordinary in Moomin Valley, so Moomintroll decides to stay awake instead of having his typical winter slumber. Moomintroll discovers that strange creatures wander amidst the snowdrifts in the midwinter darkness, and all of the new hints imply that an eccentric guest is soon to arrive. This new guest is called Christmas, and an astounded Moomintroll learns to experience the true meaning of this wonderful holiday.
Keep updated on the Pickford’s events on our website or sign up for our email newsletter at www.pickfordfilmcenter.org
