CHRISTOPHER WOOD: OLYMPIA FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT >>>

A couple strolls past storefronts decorated for Christmas. Fall leaves dance across quiet rain-slicked streets. Have I just crossed over into The Norman Rockwell Zone?

Nope. It’s just another evening for that city to the south, Olympia.

The sensation of unreality heightens as I approach Fifth Avenue. People saunter about in clothing almost a century old. Above our heads, construction cranes, like monstrous insect legs, arch across Capitol Theater’s walls. Men in hard hats puzzle over the newly-built old-fashioned marquee, which stubbornly refuses to sparkle in time for Olympia Film Festival’s opening night. I feel someone will yell “Action!” any moment.

At this intersection of past and present I spot a familiar face â€" Kevin Jacobs, a filmmaker who hosted his own cinefest in town earlier this year. While we chat a flapper girl hands us a pamphlet on hip 1920s verbiage. OK, I’ll give it a whirl: Birds got spifflicated on giggle water while eyeing the gams on nearby tomatoes.
Balled up yet?

An MC in top hat and tails eventually ushers attendees into the expansive theater. “In Olympia…we do things OUR way,” she tells a cheering crowd. The gals at Studio West began with a dance set to sultry guitar strumming. Then the huge screen lit up with L’Etoile de Mer. Man Ray’s 1928 silent work stars a man, a woman, and a starfish that out-acts them both. Luckily, pianist Jack Nelson’s graceful accompaniment makes the avant-gardeness bearable.

Next, Buster Keaton’s masterpiece Steamboat Bill, Jr. moved viewers in ways I’ve rarely witnessed. They gasped and booed while Buster’s innocent character Willie encounters obstacles while trying to win the hearts of both his hot-tempered father and a riverboat rival’s daughter. And they gleefully walloped every time Willie unleashes his breathtaking physical agility. Ultimately he triumphs because, like Olympia, he does things his way.

If these silent films indicate the rest of this fest, then we ain’t heard nothing yet.

[25th AnnualOlympia Film Festival, Nov. 7-15, $6-$75, Capitol Theater, Mariah Art School, Olympia, 360.754.6670]

LINK: Olympia Film Festival cover story
LINK: Olympia Film Festival Web site
LINK: Olympia Film Festival schedule