Fool Serious Home Page

Fool Serious is a loose organization of Seattle International Film Festival full series and other (platinum, press, staff) passholders. The name is a pun.  "Full Series" -- "Fool Serious" -- get it? Anyhow, we watch movies, we hang out, and we are absolutely not associated with SIFF, Cinema Seattle, Landmark Theaters, any film industry anything, or the space aliens in the black helicopters. For more information, contact us at: The Fool Serious, P.O. Box 94384, Seattle WA 98124, or info@foolserious.org.

Latest updates:

Fool Serious Listserv

Fool Serious now has a dedicated listserv. For late breaking news, reviews, rants and rumors, sign up for the Fool Serious Discussion group:

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During the Festival, this listserv is the best place to find out about the films you are thinking about seeing.  An archive of past messages is available on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fool-serious-discussion/messages.

Fool Serious Party

Fool Serious generally holds two potluck parties a year, the "Fool Serious Summer Party and Potluck" in June, and the "Fall Blow-Out Cine-Bash Party" in late fall. Details for this year's parties will appear on the Fool Serious Listserv.

Here are some faces you might see at the Fool Serious Party.

Here are some photographs from our informal pre-Secret-Festival brunch on June 4 2000.

Fool Serious Awards

One of the main activities of Fool Serious is our annual balloting. You may have seen us during the final weekend distributing and collecting ballots. Every year on the final weekend of the Festival, we invite all passholders (and only passholders) to rate the films they saw, on the assumption that the best comparative data comes from people who have lots of films to compare.

Click here to see the awards from this year or past years.  Click here to see the Fool Serious crowd tabulating data.

General Advice

So, you're thinking about going to the Festival? Great idea! Here are some tips on movie selection and other SIFF hints. Note that these are Jon Newman's personal opinions only:

  1. Be adventurous! If you only watch action flicks, try a historical epic. If you only watch Hollywood blockbusters, try some quirky Australian cinema on for size. If you usually avoid subtitles, give the fast-growing South Korean industry a chance. And definitely don't forget the documentaries...
  2. Catch a documentary! Documentaries rarely get regular theatrical runs, and sometimes they just aren't the same on television, plus who has the time to track the PBS schedule anyway? I recommend avoiding the "polemical" documentaries, those which obviously have some partisan point to make, but that leaves plenty of great stuff.
  3. Parking: Parking in Capitol Hill scares some people off, but the Seattle Community College lot (map) always has space, costs only $3 or $4, and is right next to the Egyptian Theater and Broadway Performance Hall. The Harvard Exit is just a five minute walk north, and Pacific Place is just fifteen minutes west. Take the Union Street exit from I-5 southbound, turn right and then right again, go up First Hill, and turn left on Harvard (one street west of Broadway).  As for the Cinerama, try the Bed Bath & Beyond building on 4th.
  4. Go alone! I know there is some sort of fetish about single movie-watching being a sign of terminal geekdom, but during the festival it is okay. Which of your friends is likely to share your bizarre tastes anyway? If it's too much trouble to make a group outing of it, just show up and enjoy.

SIFF Blogs

The Internet has arrived (belatedly) at SIFF! Here are blogs from some Serious Fools giving the lowdown from the press screenings:

Links

Contact Information

Postal: The Fool Serious, P.O. Box 94384, Seattle WA 98124

Email: info@foolserious.org with questions about Fool Serious, or webmaster@foolserious.org with questions or comments about this website.