Free Documentary Screening of Helvetica December 6, 2008

JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS! A HEARTWARMING LOVE STORY...
ABOUT A TYPEFACE. HAVE YOU HUGGED A FONT TODAY?

A special free screening of a love story for the season, HELVETICA, will unspool on Saturday, December 06 at SIFF Cinema at Seattle Center at 5:00 PM.

Born in 1957 of Swiss origin, Helvetica was a typeface for the modern age. Sleek, streamlined and simple, it became the font that launched a thousand corporate logos—from Melbourne to Minneapolis to Munich. As neutral as the country of its birth, Helvetica was capable of being invested with the aspirations of millions of consumer products, a typeface whose meaning was created in the eye of the beholder.

Enter our "Favorite Font Contest" at the event for prizes including CDs, t-shirts, umbrellas, funky luggage tags, and more!

HELVETICA by Gary Hustwit (Moog and Drive Well, Sleep Carefully) encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology and communication and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. The film was shot in high-definition on location in the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.

See this film in dazzling high definition HD at SIFF Cinema, located in the Nelsholm Family Lecture Hall on the lower level of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center in the heart of Seattle's theatre district.

From the New York City subways to the vacation getaway ads in your morning newspaper to the Push and Pull signs on your office door, the Helvetica typeface has made a sans-serif assault on the world since its creation in 1957. How did a typeface drawn by a little-known Swiss designer become one of the most popular ways for us to communicate our words more than 50 years later? And what are the repercussions of that popularity? Has it resulted in the globalization of our visual culture? How do we interact with type on a daily basis? And what about the effects of technology on type and graphic design and the ways we consume it? Most of us use computers and digital fonts every day, so are we all graphic designers now, in a sense?

Community Cinema Seattle shows its lighter side this month, but as always we're presented by KCTS9 Television Seattle, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, The City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights, and the Seattle International Film Festival.

Community Cinema Seattle was named "Best Film Series In Seattle" by Seattle Metropolitan magazine in July 2008, and we're still 100% free.

WHAT: Special love-in for HELVETICA with fun after film activities
WHEN: Saturday, December 06, 2008 at 5:00 PM
WHERE: SIFF Cinema, 321 Mercer Street, Seattle, 98109
WHO: ITVS, KCTS, KBCS FM, SOCR, & SIFF
HOW: Free. For more information visit http://communitycinema.org/

To learn more about the film and the issues, visit the companion website for HELVETICA at pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/. Get detailed information on the film, watch video clips, read an interview with the filmmaker and find related links and resources to explore the subject in depth. The site also features a Talkback section for audiences to share their ideas and opinions.

About Community Cinema:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/getinvolved/

Official Website: http://communitycinema.org/