Family ties defy the Israeli-Palestinian divide in ‘The Other Son’

Babies accidentally switched at birth. From Mark Twain to the ABC Family Monday night lineup, it’s a familiar plot device – and a usually a pretty cheesy one. But French director Lorraine Levy successfully adopts this clichéd premise in her third feature film, The Other Son, which opens Friday at the Egyptian Theatre. Levy delivers a […]
Oct 25, 2012
Cambodia film

SIFF pick resurrects Cambodia’s forgotten film industry

Inside the gutted remains of a 1000-seat movie theater that now is home to hundreds of squatters, an old woman sits with a baby in her lap and retells the plot of a Cambodian movie she loved as a child. The movie she speaks of probably no longer exists, destroyed under the reign of the Khmer […]
May 30, 2012
Egypt Elections

A Globalist primer on the Egyptian elections

Egyptians went to the polls this week to vote in the first presidential election since the revolution last year. If all goes according to plan, the winner will be the first freely elected president in Egypt’s history, and the standard bearer for a new era of politics in the Middle East. In short, this is […]
May 24, 2012

Rose-Avila named director of Seattle’s new Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs

Immigration advocate and former director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Magdaleno Rose-Avila, was named director of the Seattle’s new Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) this week. Rose-Avila grew up in a Mexican-American farm worker community in Colorado, and has a long history of organizing for progressive causes. He’s worked for the United Farm Workers, the Peace Corps, Amnesty […]
May 23, 2012

SIFF film picks from Africa

Of the 460-odd films from 64 different countries playing at SIFF this year, only a thin slice hail from Africa. To be fair to the SIFF programmers, they can only screen the films that get submitted, and only a few African countries have robust film scenes. But c’mon – only 5 features and 4 shorts? […]
May 20, 2012
Pride Parade

The international fight for gay rights comes to Seattle

The national conversation about LGBT rights has reached a fever pitch. On Wednesday, President Obama confirmed his opinion that same-sex marriage should be legal, becoming the first sitting president to publicly support one of the most controversial civil rights issues of our time. Just the day before, North Carolinians voted to ban same-sex marriages, partnerships and civil unions, becoming the […]
May 11, 2012

Microsofties with global roots give back

The last couple weeks have seen one former Microsoft executive become the Prime Minister of Mali and another hatch an ambitious plot to mine asteroids. Expanding from our rainy cradle in the corner of the country, the reach of our massive hometown software company transcends borders (and even outer space apparently). But some Microsoft employees […]
Apr 30, 2012

Five fantastic foreign films playing at SIFF 2012

The Seattle International Film Festival returns May 17, boasting a line-up of 459 films including 24 feature films making their world premiere. And as usual, this year’s lineup stays true to the International in “Seattle International Film Festival” with a ton of foreign films that you probably won’t get another chance to see. To help you cull through […]
Apr 27, 2012

Controversial ad campaign claims Sea-Tac workers are paid poverty wages

As your plane lifts off from Sea-Tac, you might be fantasizing about the sunny vacation destination that awaits, or preparing for the big business meeting on the other end of your flight. You’re probably not thinking about the thousands of employees who helped get you in the air, but stayed behind back at the airport. […]
Apr 24, 2012

Five global hipster meccas even cooler than Seattle

Last week hipster Seattleites shrugged indifferently at the news that our city had been named by Travel and Leisure as America’s best city for hipsters. Seattle took the prized vegan cupcake for first place, and was lauded by the site for our brains, Mac products, coffee snobbery and unique “buttoned-down” brand of hipster. We even […]
Apr 13, 2012
Japan earthquake

Tsunami debris arriving on Washington shores sooner than expected

Growing up, we had some prize beachcomber’s treasure in my backyard: a pair of antique glass fishing buoys that had broken free from a Japanese fishing net and bobbed their way across the Pacific. The floats stirred my young imagination about our mysterious watery connection with Japan, and incited a voracious streak of local beach-combing. It looks like […]
Apr 4, 2012