The Seattle International Film Festival returns to in-person screenings this year after canceling in 2020 and hosting the event virtually last year. Attendees can still stream films online but the return to in-person events with appearances from cast and crew of the films is being lauded.
You may not know Zia Mohajerjasbi’s name but you’ve probably seen his work. Mohajerjasbi made a name for himself working with some of Seattle's biggest names in hip-hop like Jake One, Blue Scholars, and Macklemore. More recently he's worked on commercials for brands like Gatorade. At SIFF, which began as an annual festival in 1976, he’s premiering his debut feature film “Know Your Place.”
The movie follows a 15-year old Eritrean boy as he makes a journey across Seattle to deliver a suitcase to a family friend returning to Africa. It’s both a love letter to the city and also an effort to capture this particular moment in time. Something Mohajerjasbi has learned to not take for granted as the city evolves so quickly.
"So much of our city's collective experience now lives in memory," Mohajerjasbi said. "I feel like what 'Know Your Place' in some way tries to do is just take a picture of what it looks like right now.
Mohajerjasbi grew up in Seattle. For him to premiere his debut feature film here, he said, feels like his career has come full circle. He recalls seeing the film "The White Balloon" at the Seven Gables theater as a kid and it being a catalyst for his love of movies. And how his short film "Hagereseb," which centered on Yesler Terrace, premiered at the Harvard Exit.
Places that are all now part of Seattle's collective memory: The Seven Gables theater burnt down in 2020, the Harvard Exit closed in 2015, and the Yesler Terrace captured in the short film has since been re-developed.
"We made a movie in a neighborhood that doesn't exist. We screened it in a cinema that doesn't exist. I was inspired to be a filmmaker at a movie house that also doesn't exist. And there's like five locations already in our movie 'Know Your Place' that don't exist," Mohajerjasbi said. "It's like sand in an hourglass."
Another film that is premiering at the festival is "Sweetheart Deal." It also comes from a local filmmaker and prominently features Seattle. The documentary follows the lives of four of Aurora Avenue’s sex workers.
Elisa Levine started this project back in 2009. Like so many locals she was familiar with Aurora Avenue, but she wanted to know more about the people who roamed it. For three years, she and her co-director Gabriel Miller, followed the lives of four female sex workers. All of them struggled with heroin addiction.
"What I found was at least in this small pocket of people that I got to know, everyone had an addiction going on, and every aspect of their day revolved around in some way around heroin and around making sure they didn't get dope sickness," Levine said.
Levine sees this film as being a snapshot of Aurora Avenue. Since she followed these women a lot has changed. Back in 2009, Aurora's sex workers were a lot more hidden and there were fewer of them.
In recent years there has been an increase and they've become more visible. This is due in part, to the state's 2012 effort to protect juveniles by requiring age verification for online ads promoting sex-related services. Levine hopes that this film helps humanize Aurora and the sex workers.
"This is their story and we consider it a collaboration with them," Levine said. "This film might not always be comfortable to watch, but it's important to these women that people know what the reality out there is like and people really get to know who they were as individuals."
Levine has remained in touch with all four women featured in the documentary. They are scheduled to be at the premiere on Monday, April 18th at Pacific Place. "Know Your Place" premieres on Sunday, April 17th at the Egyptian. Information and tickets can be found on SIFF's website.
