Next 50 Neighborhood Film Celebration and Awards Take Place Today, 10/17

A Story Runs Through It: Neighborhood Film Celebration and Awards, part of Next 50 Civic Action Month, features winning films and other selected videos, 7 p.m., tonight, Oct. 17, SIFF Cinema Uptown. This event concludes Civic Action Month and celebrates a project that captures stories about Seattle's civic fabric through short films that Seattle area residents of all ages submitted.

The Celebration and Awards conclude a multi-month effort to engage and train communities in the art of filmmaking as a means to develop their own future narratives and establish closer ties between Seattle neighborhoods. Filmmakers were encouraged to approach their topics through a variety of techniques including interviews with subjects, histories of events or locations, mythologies, fictions, examples of good works or local agents of change, and neighborhood needs or improvements. They could feature any part of the city, regardless of their residential address in videos of up to three minutes.

All film submissions to A Story Runs Through It are posted at: http://www.seattlecenter.com/thenextfifty/announcement_detail.aspx?aid=24. Winners in the categories of Youth Filmmaker, Adult Filmmaker, Civic Relevance and Special Recognition will be announced and screened at tonight's Oct. 17 Celebration. We will invite audience and filmmakers to engage in a dialogue about community. Admission is free.

The Next Fifty Civic Action Committee organized A Story Runs through It. AT&T is sponsoring the event, with additional support from Seattle International Film Festival, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Swedish, Wyman Trust and MSN Postbox.

Through conversations, competitions, debate viewings, film and the arts, Civic Action, the final month of The Next Fifty, considers political participation, civic engagement, and preparing our citizens to effectively connect with their communities. For more information on Next 50 and Civic Action, visit www.seattlecenter.com or call 206 684-7200.