Highlights

Live Variety Show at INB Performing Arts Center

Several great performers will entertain you with juggling, comedy, boogie-woogie piano, jump-rope acrobatics (from Rene Bibaud, who has performed with Cirque du Soleil) and old vaudeville style clowning. Shows are at 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 p.m.

Yoke’s Dinosaur Egg Safari

From 7 to 10 p.m., pick up a passport from one of four locations. At each location, you will receive a clue to solve before moving on to the next location. Once a clue is solved, you will receive a stamp on your passport. When you have all four stamps, drop your passport into a Yoke’s Dinosaur Egg Safari enter-to-win box to be entered into drawings for prizes.

5k Resolution Run

Start your healthy resolutions a few hours early with a 5k run through downtown Spokane. Runners line up at 6:30 p.m., and the run begins at 6:45 p.m. An optional bag drop makes it easy to get your coat and purse afterward. Fill out and bring the waiver form before you go. Click here for a map of the course.

Midnight Fireworks Spectacular

At midnight, a fireworks show will begin at Riverfront Park.

Free Parking and Shuttle Service

Don’t let fear of downtown parking keep you from First Night! Just park at the Riverpoint Campus just east of downtown Spokane (412 E. Spokane Falls Blvd.) in the yellow lot and catch a bus to one of several First Night venues. Buses run every ten minutes from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Free Carousel Rides and Ice Skating

From 7 to 11 p.m., you can skate free at the Ice Palace in the heart of Riverfront Park (you still have to pay for skate rental) and take free rides on the beautiful Looff Carousel, also located in Riverfront Park.

The Comedy Show at the Spokane Masonic Center

Four comedians will perform in the ballroom. Show times are 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 p.m.

You can also check out plenty of live music, theatre from Stage West Community Theatre and the Spokane Community College Players, Spokane Theatre Ballet, improv comedy from Blue Door Theatre, and much more! Check out the full schedule on the website.

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Copyright Northwest Museum of Art and Culture

Campbell House Holiday Tours

The MAC Museum of Art and Culture is putting on living history performances in its largest exhibit, the Campbell House, during the two weeks around Christmas when most kids are out of school. The Campbell House is a turn-of-the-20th-century English Tudor Revival mansion designed by renowned Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter. You can see the house decorated for the holidays and learn about the times in which it was built and the daily life of the Campbell family from December 21 through January 1 on the days the MAC is open (the MAC is right next door to the Campbell House) from 12–4 p.m.

New for this year: Check out the just-opened Interpretive Center to create your own Campbell House experience and connect the past and present with interactive computers and hands-on exploration, and you can also take a horse-drawn carriage ride. Admission is free for MAC members or $7 adults/$5 students and seniors, which includes both museum entry and a tour of the Campbell House. For more information, call the admissions desk at 509-363-5355. The MAC is located in Spokane’s gorgeous historic Browne’s Addition neighborhood at 2316 W. First Ave.

Mt. Spokane Tubing Hill

A friend with three children in elementary school shared this story:

My kids had been out of school on break for three days and they were driving me crazy—fighting, not listening, whining, throwing tantrums. Suddenly I realized that for the past two months it had been go-go-go, with football practice, dance lessons, after-school activities, and homework every day, and now they suddenly had nothing to use up their energy. So I loaded them into the Suburban and took them to Mt. Spokane to go tubing. Those kids played HARD and wore themselves out and had a great time. They couldn’t stay awake on the ride home, and after that, I recognized my children again and things were back to normal.

Enough said? The hill has been moved and newly constructed this year at Lodge 2, just north and downhill of the parking lot and Ski Patrol building. With several lanes, a new tow-rope to haul tubers back up the mountain, a limit of 50 participants per session, and plenty of snow, the Children’s Choice Tubing Hill is great for families and safer than uncontrolled sledding in parks. The hill is open weekends and holidays (except Christmas and Christmas Eve), for the remainder of the season, with sessions beginning at 10 a.m. and the last session starting at 2:30 p.m. One-and-a-half hour sessions are $10 for everyone 42” and over. Kids under 42” are free but must ride with a paid adult. Check conditions before you come up. Mt. Spokane is 28 miles from downtown Spokane; click here for directions.

Horse and Carriage Rides through Downtown Spokane

Through Christmas Eve, the Downtown Spokane Business Improvement District and Spokane Teachers Credit Union presents free old-fashioned horse and carriage rides through the streets of downtown. Just show up on Wall Street at Main Avenue on Fridays 3–8 p.m., weekends 12–5 p.m., or Christmas Eve 12–3 p.m. This is a great outing for family from out of town! Rides are given on a first-come, first-serve basis. After your ride, you will receive free candy canes and coupons for hot chocolate and coffee at participating downtown businesses. Click here to see a video preview of the ride.

Ice Skating in Riverfront Park

The Ice Palace, one of the nation’s best outdoor ice skating rinks, is open all winter long under the Pavilion in the heart of Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. Lessons and drop-in hockey are available. Click here for hours. Admission is $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for youth/seniors/military, and skate rental is $3.50. Thursday nights are Inlander appreciation nights—get your ticket from the Inlander, a free weekly publication, to skate for $1. The Spokane Falls SkyRide, IMAX Theatre, and Looff Carousel are also open all winter if you want to spend more fun family time in the park.

First Night Spokane New Year’s Eve Celebration

By far the biggest New Year’s Eve party around, First Night Spokane is a huge, alcohol-free festival of the arts in downtown Spokane for the entire family. This year’s theme is “Dawn of Time” Year of the Dinosaur. At venues within a walkable area of downtown, you can enjoy live music, theatre, dance performances, film, dance parties, art, comedy, and a fireworks show. There are plenty of activities for kids, including face painting, bookmark making, magic shows, free ice skating and carousel rides, and rolling video games. Click here for the schedule of the night’s event’s, which get started at 7 p.m.

If your family is making a resolution to exercise more, start early with the 5k Resolution Run! Runners line up at 6:30 p.m., and the run begins at 6:45 p.m. An optional bag drop makes it easy to get your coat and purse afterward. Fill out and bring the waiver form before you go. Click here for a map of the course. Admission buttons are just $12 in advance or $15 on New Year’s Eve. Kids 10 and under are free with a paid adult. Purchase tickets here or at various participating Spokane businesses.

On New Year’s Day, celebrate First Day Spokane and get free admission to the MAC Museum of Art and Culture with your First Night button plus discounted passes to play in Riverfront Park.

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This Saturday, November 12, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., local shops in seven different Spokane business districts will offer games, prizes, and great discounts in honor of Girl’s Day Out, a shopping event aimed at introducing women to their neighborhood business centers. Businesses in the Garland, Hillyard, International District, Monroe, Perry, N. Division/Ruby, and SoDo areas are rolling out the “pink carpet” to entice ladies to come in. Each district has a headquarters, where the first 100 shoppers will receive a “swag bag” of goodies, and you can pick up your Girl’s Day Out map. Check out the facebook page for an inside look at what some of the business owners are doing to make this year’s event the best ever.

Many shops will be offering treats and beverages, and every business will have something special to offer. You can start your holiday shopping or shop for yourself—you can find antiques, jewelry, clothing, makeup, skin care, art, new and used furniture, books, and much more. Some of the city’s best coffee houses and restaurants will also be offering great specials for the day. Door prizes and drawings for gift certificates will be part of the fun. You can see all the participating businesses and scope out all the deals before you go in this week’s Exchange, available at free newsstands all over the city.

District headquarters, where you will want to stop first to get your map and swag bag:

• Monroe: Cruz ‘n Back in Time, 3107 N. Monroe
• South Perry: Skin Care by Yisel, 1016 S. Perry
• Hillyard: Corner Cottage, 5210 N. Market
• Garland: Glamarita, 901 W. Garland
• SoDo: Ronan’s Door, 301 W. 2^nd Ave.
• North Division/Ruby St.: Retired Treasures, 2824 N. Ruby
• East Sprague/International: Northwest Seed and Pet, 2422 E. Sprague

Posted on the Girl’s Day Out facebook wall by Cruz ‘n Back in Time Collectibles

Although it is an event for women, men are welcome to come enjoy the fun as well.  Shopping local is good for the economy, good for the community, and good for the environment, just in case you needed an excuse to spend a day shopping!

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Bedazzle Your Bra Competition: Come to Bay 3 to view entries in this new competition of creatively decorated bras. This exhibit is put on by the Home Arts Department and the Susan G. Kohmen Foundation to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Goat Cart Rides: Ramona Mather and her goat Casper will give kids rides in the Goat Barn!

Dancing Horses: On Friday, September 16, at 2:15 p.m., watch members of Spokane County 4-H perform a dressage exhibition in the Horse Arena.

QR Code Barn Tours for Smart Phones: If you have a smartphone, you can scan a code at the entrance to each barn for a self-guided tour, which will make looking at livestock much more interesting! It’s sponsored by Big R. Stores, and you will receive a Big R. 15% off coupon for participating.

Not-So-Newlywed Contest: Tuesday, September 13, at 1:15 p.m., couples pre-selected through an essay competition will play for a grand prize at the North Stage. Play along in the audience to find out how well you know your partner!

As always, you can count on fun shows at the Grandstand: PRCA rodeos Friday and Saturday nights (September 10 and 11), compact car demolition derby and lawn mower races Sunday, September 11, two monster truck shows on the second Saturday (September 17), full-size car demolition derby on the second Sunday (September 18), and five great acts during the week: Neal McCoy, Osmond Brothers, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Switchfoot. Tickets are available at the Interstate Fair Office or at Ticketswest.com. General admission to the Fair is required for all shows.

The North Stage features a wide variety of free entertainment throughout the Fair, including regional and local musicians, comedy, hypnotism, juggling, and dancing. There are many other free entertainment events each day, such as racing pigs, kids pedal tractor racing, and demonstrations of “how it used to be” (butter churning, rope making, etc.) Click here for a complete day-by-day schedule of all that is happening.

General admission to the Fair is required for all shows. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for kids 7 to 13 and seniors 65 and over, and free for kids 6 and under. If, for you, going to the Fair means having a blast on the carnival rides, consider going on September 12–15, when you can buy a pay-one-price bracelet for $25, good for unlimited rides all night. Otherwise, each ride is $3–$5 in single carnival tickets. Fair hours are 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day except September 18, when this year’s big event will wrap up at 8:00 p.m. Parking is available at the Main Gate and South Gate. If you are travelling from out of town to play at the Fair, do yourself a favor and book a comfortable one- or two-bedroom suite at Stratford Suites Hotel, Spokane’s best lodging value! Full kitchens, leather furniture, pillow top mattresses, and 50” HDTV with DVD await you.

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Parking and driving around downtown can be a little challenging when Spokane is hosting 200,000 basketball players and fans, so you may want to consider taking the bus. On both days of Hoopfest, STA (Spokane’ bus system) is offering day passes for just $1.50, and there are two free park-and-ride lots. Check the website for more information on Hoopfest schedules—please note that the Plaza downtown will not be open to buses (to make room for Hoopfest!), so bus stops will be in alternate nearby locations.

In addition to loads of free live music and other entertainment at Hoopfest in downtown Spokane, including Hoopfest Saturday Night (DJ nightclub party) at the Lincoln Center (1316 N. Lincoln Street), here are some suggestions for making the most of your visit.

Catch a Live Show

Spokane has a thriving live music scene, with venues large and small, offering country, blues, rock, pop, and more. To pick out some good local live music, check out the Inlander’s live music calendar. There are also a couple of national acts in town on Hoopfest weekend. The infamous rock band KISS is performing at the Spokane Arena Friday night. Click here for tickets. The Judds play at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on Saturday night (see below).

Shopping with Local Flair

Riverpark Sqare in downtown Spokane is a great mall (and has a great movie theater with cushy couch-style seats), but think outside of the mall if you want a more uniquely Spokane shopping experience. If you are staying downtown or are downtown for the day during Hoopfest, walk east on Main Street to find a variety of locally owned businesses.

You’ll go by Auntie’s Bookstore, a large, wonderful, independent gem with a local gourmet café, Santé, in the same building. Closer to Division Street is Finders Keepers, a designer dress boutique, and Kizuri, a fair trade clothing and gift store, and more. Along the way, you’ll be tempted by local purveyors of food and drink.

Stroll up toward 2^nd Avenue for more independent, local shops: the Spokane Public Market (24 W. 2^nd Ave.), Sun People Dry Goods (32 W. 2^nd Ave.), Saunders Cheese Market (210 S. Washington Street, handcrafted artisanal cheeses), and Lolo Boutique (319 W. 2^nd Ave.) are some of the highlights. There are also numerous wineries to visit in the downtown area—go to the Spokane Winery Association website for details.

Just north of downtown at 621W. Mallon, visit the Flour Mill for great local shops and restaurants inside a historic flour mill: our favorites include the Kitchen Engine, the Chocolate Apothecary, Tobacco World (fine cigar shop), Wonders of the World, and the Queen of Sheba restaurant (click here for our review of this fabulous Ethiopian restaurant).

Leonardo da Vinci at the MAC

Be sure to check out the wonderful, interactive da Vinci exhibit at the MAC Museum of Arts and Culture, which just opened this month. A big bonus is seeing the huge old houses of historic Browne’s Addition neighborhood, just west of downtown Spokane, where the MAC is located. For more information, check out our blog post on it.

Garland District

The Garland District is a quick drive or bus ride from downtown Spokane, and it is a great place to hang out and escape the crowds downtown during Hoopfest for awhile. Right away you’ll see the historic Garland Theatre at Maple and Garland, Spokane’s only independent “encore” theater, which runs second-run movies for just $3.50 all the time, so you can catch a flick in a beautiful old theatre for very little money. Stroll up and down Garland for great little locally owned shops and cafes, including the 1950s-style Ferguson’s Café and the Milk Bottle, a former ice cream parlor turned café that features a two-story milk bottle for a store-front. Other quirky local gems include the Blue Door Theatre, a family friendly improv. comedy group that performs every Friday and Saturday night, and Drop Your Drawers, a unique clothing consignment shop with everything from old sweaters to outrageous costume platform shoes. For nightlife, you can enjoy an old-fashioned drink at Bon Bon, the hippest bar on Garland, located inside the Garland Theatre building with an old-fashioned soda fountain/candy store feel and fixtures made from old movie reels.

Northern Quest Resort and Casino

This large resort near the airport has a lot more than just 46,000 square feet of gaming space. It also boasts the Inland Northwest’s only cigar room, several restaurants with casual to fine dining (if you’re vegetarian, try Fatburger’s veggie burger), a night club with entertainment seven nights a week, a sports bar with a 30’ x 10’ HD screen, and a full-service spa. The Judds are playing at Northern Quest’s new outdoor concert venue on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for ticket information.

Japanese Gardens at Manito Park. Copyright City of Spokane Parks and Recreation.

Find out Why We Say Spokane Is “Near Nature, Near Perfect”

Walk or bike through Riverside State Park to get into the woods without leaving the city and admire the beautiful Spokane River. You can also enjoy great views of natural areas of the Spokane River on the Centennial Trail, a paved walkway/bike path. Or simply take in the beauty of one of our gorgeous city parks—Manito Park, Finch Arboretum, and the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens are all uniquely Spokane and uniquely beautiful.

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The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci was unquestionably a genius. Nearly everyone knows his name and the images of his most famous paintings, including the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Less people are familiar with his other works of genius, including his many inventions, which were so far ahead of his time that few could be produced with existing materials and manufacturing methods. His inventions are still up-to-date 500 years after his death and are currently used in the aviation, war, maritime, and automobile industries. He was proficient in all areas of art, science, engineering, and music. The major traveling exhibit that opens at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) in the gorgeous Browne’s Addition neighborhood in Spokane on June 3 aims to show how da Vinci mastered diverse subjects and fused them together through observation, insight, and inspiration. This unique exhibit includes sixty of da Vinci’s invention models with the same craftsmanship and beauty of the materials that the artist used in the 15^th century.

Visitors can view twenty-three made-to-scale replicas of da Vinci’s artistic masterpieces, watch videos about his life, hear music composed by the artist, and check out interactive inventions and machines from the four codices: flight, civil machines, hydraulics and engineering, and military machines. This is a rare opportunity to consider all of his artistic masterpieces together along with many of his other creations.

The exhibition has been hosted by major museums including the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington; Exhibition Hall of the Eaton Centre, Montreal, Quebec, and the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History in Texas. It will run June 3 through September 5 at the MAC in Spokane, WA. The museum expects visitors from all over the region; if you are travelling here for the exhibit, Stratford Suites Spokane area extended stay hotel is close by and offers beautiful suites at affordable prices.

Tickets are available now through TicketsWest for Leonardo da Vinci: Man–Inventor–Genius, reserved by date and time. MAC members can buy tickets at a discount at the museum admissions counter (not restricted by date and time). If you are not a MAC member, this might be a good time to support the arts in Spokane and become one! Non-member exhibit prices are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $8 for students.

On select Sundays, you can further explore the world of da Vinci at Renaissance Mix events at the MAC. These afternoon events include a cash bar with Italian wines, renaissance music performances, and lectures about the Age of Discovery. Suggested donation for Renaissance Mix afternoons is $8. I’ll see you there!

While you are in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood, it is worth your time to take a walking tour and see some of the incredible historic houses that Spokane’s oldest neighborhood is known for. The MAC has just released a Browne’s Addition walking tour e-book that works on Apple and Android smartphones, portable media players, and tablet computers. The route takes about an hour to walk. The tour e-book includes photos, architectural descriptions, and brief stories of fifty-four properties. This great new guide is free! Just download it and you will be on your way.

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Earth Day is officially Friday, April 27, but the big party starts on Saturday at 11 a.m. in downtown Spokane. Main Street will be closed off between Browne and Division to allow Spokane residents and visitors to celebrate our beautiful planet and green living until midnight. The day’s events are definitely family friendly. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., kids can enjoy free activities like vegetable planting and marching in the Procession of the Species parade (parade is at 2 p.m., and kids will make their own fun animal masks to wear beforehand). Youngsters can also collect special “passports” that will be stamped for visiting different animal themed activity booths.

If you want to start celebrating earlier in the morning and feel good about doing something for the nature in and around Spokane, join the Earth Day Spokane River Clean Up sponsored by 96.9 the River, Friends of the Centennial Trail, and the Spokane Riverkeeper. Meet at Mission Park at 8 a.m. (across from Avista on Mission Ave.) Treats, coffee, and trash bags will be provided.

All ages will enjoy the live performances of music, dance, and poetry. Malidoma World Dance studio will be performing traditional dances, the Hoop Troup will make hula hooping tricks look ridiculously easy, and several bands will perform, including the Angela Marie Project, B Radicals, and the Brad Keeler Trio. Local community leaders, among them Mayor Mary Verner and Councilman Richard Rush, will give blissfully brief talks as well. If you have a thing or two to say or sing yourself, sign up for the open mic on Isabella’s rooftop. All day long, you can browse interesting community booths with information and activities on sustainability, and of course there will be delicious street food.

In the evening, stick around to see flaming hula hoop performances and show your moves at an electronic dance party located in the Community Building warehouse (ages 16+). Bands will continue to rock the outdoor stage until midnight. Admission is free; come for just a little while or stay all day, but don’t miss Earth Day Spokane 2011!

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Copyright Eastern Washington University

The Get Lit! Festival connects the Spokane area with local, new, and nationally-known writers, but Danielle Ward, Get Lit! Programs Coordinator since 2008, thinks outside the “book box.” Case in point: Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco will be among the headliners at the 13^th annual festival (April 15 at the Bing Crosby Theater). “She is my favorite singer/songwriter. I think her talent with the poetry included in her songs is something to celebrate and highlight as poetry, not just music,” Ward said. Comedian Heather Gold is also an out-of-the-book-box performer (April 14 at the Kress Gallery), with a style that is part Sarah Silverman and part Rachel Maddow. The workshops, panels, and talks portion of the festival includes topics on blog writing and graphic novels as well as more traditional writing forms.

Tying all the events together is this year’s festival theme of “Telling the American Story.” Highlights that illustrate this theme include An Evening with Tim O’Brien and Brian Turner (April 16 at the Bing Crosby Theater), in which the authors will share their military experiences in Vietnam and Iraq through their writing. O’Brien is the author of The Things They Carried, a recent Big Read book, and Turner is a poet. Contemporary poet Matthew Dickman will read from his latest book All American Poem, providing a pop culture perspective (April 17 at the Lincoln Center). Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, and Nancy Rawles, author of My Jim, will discuss how they took familiar American pieces and re-imagined them from a female perspective, at Reimagining the Classics (April 15 at the Lincoln Center). Sam Kean, author of the best-selling book The Disappearing Spoon, will discuss history related to science and discovery at Tales from the Periodic Table with Sam Kean.

Get Lit! has plenty of events for the entire family, including youth poetry slams, free workshops for children and teens, and readings by children’s writers.

For a full schedule and description of the numerous readings, lectures, workshops, panels, and poetry slams you can enjoy at Get Lit!, check out the festival guide, online for the first time this year, with all the content available in the printed version that you can find in this week’s Inlander newspaper. The festival is organized by Eastern Washington University.

Headliner events are $15, except the DiFranco concert, which is $37. You can save money if you plan to attend several headlining events by purchasing a festival pass for $45 (does not include Ani DiFranco concert). All tickets are available through TicketsWest. You are encouraged to buy your tickets early, as all events are general admission, and if you have your ticket in hand, you will not have to wait in line and can choose your seat sooner. It is best to register for workshops ahead of time because each has a maximum of 25 attendees.

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The Big Read begins on March 4 at 5 p.m. at Spokane City Hall chambers with a reception hosted by Spokane mayor Mary Verner. Other Big Read events include an art exhibit on “Telling the American Story” at the Chase Gallery, a stage adaptation of The Things They Carried written and performed by Eastern Washington University’s Theater Department, a Wednesday night film series related to the 1960’s and/or wars in general, and numerous readings and discussions. Click here for a complete schedule. The grand finale event will be an evening with Vietnam War veteran Tim O’Brien and Iraq War veteran and poet Brian Turner during the Get Lit! Festival on April 16th at the Bing Crosby Theater.

Most events are free; tickets for the evening reading with Tim O’Brien are $15 and available through TicketsWest.

The 13^th annual Get Lit! Literary Festival runs April 13–17 at numerous venues in Spokane, WA. This year’s headliners are Sam Kean, author of the best seller The Disappearing Spoon; Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife; Nancy Rawles, author of My Jim; Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried; Matthew Dickman, author of All-American Poem, and Ani DiFranco, Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter. Go to the festival website for a complete schedule of events.

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Copyright Spokane International Film Festival

The Spokane International Film Festival, held in downtown Spokane, WA, offers movies from around the globe, including our little corner of the world. Lady Lily (Adventures in God’s Country) was filmed in North Idaho and directed by Danielle Barbieri, who is from Spokane, as are two of the cast members, J. Rose Greif and John Palladino. Barbieri is scheduled to attend and host the film on Friday, February 11, 7:30 p.m. at the Magic Lantern Theatre. Adam Harum, an Eastern Washington University graduate, is scheduled to attend the showing of his short film “Disintegration: The Life of Jonathan Willoughby,” winner of the spring 2010 Reel Spokane show put on by FAVES (Film and Video Enthusiasts of Spokane) at Shorts with FAVES, Saturday, February 12, 3:15 p.m. at the Magic Lantern.

SpIFF will also show all the competitors from this year’s 48-Hour Film Festival, sponsored by North by Northwest, a Spokane, WA film production company. To enter, filmmakers must produce a very short film using a theme, a prop, and a line supplied by the contest administrators in under forty-eight hours. The filmmakers are all local, and some will be attending the show on Saturday, February 12, 3:15 p.m. at the Magic Lantern.

You can see six of the ten contenders for the Animation Short Subject Academy Award at the Animation Showcase on Saturday, February 5, noon, at the AMC theatre. This a great one to bring the kids to. Other kid friendly options are Kinshasa Symphony, Chef of South Polar, The Desert of Forbidden Art, and Alamar. These films are not rated, so parents should research the films to decide if they are appropriate for their children.

The festival placed a big emphasis on knowledgeable hosts this year. Each film has a host who introduces the film and usually answers questions at the end. Hosts are often filmmakers, but local subject matter experts will also be stepping in: Jess Walter, a Spokane native and best-selling, award-winning author, will host the festival’s opening film, My Word, My Lies . . . My Love. Eckart Preu, music director of the Spokane Symphony, will host Kinshasha Symphony, and Jeremy Hansen, head chef of Santé restaurant, will host Kings of Pastry.

Check the schedule for all the other great films at the 13^th annual festival. In addition to movies, there will be two filmmaker forums, both at the Magic Lantern, at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 5 and February 12. According to Pete Porter, SpIFF’s director, the purpose of the forums is to get local filmmakers thinking about how to make better films and advance their careers and to show people how films are made. “It’s the kind of thing you only get at a film festival,” Porter said.

Porter says the Spokane International Film Festival selections are made by programmer committees. Programmers begin by attending the Seattle and Vancouver international film festivals, where they screen selections and, more importantly, meet filmmakers. About half of the films are selected through other film festivals. The rest come from submissions requested by SpIFF. The programmers are highly selective; Porter says “we turn down probably four or five films for every film we select.”

The Spokane International Film Festival runs February 3–13 in downtown Spokane, WA at the AMC Theatre (808 W. Main in River Park Square) and the Magic Lantern Theatre (25 W. Main). You can buy your tickets online in advance at the SpIFF website; prices are $10 or $7.50 for shows before or at noon.

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