MICHAEL SWAN: REEL TACOMA â€" A DAY EARLY >>>

Beginning tomorrow the Tacoma Film Festival presents 132 films from around the region, country and the world, a sampling of myriad creative worlds that any weekend of web surfing would have trouble equaling, all projected on the big silver at seven Tacoma venues â€" an experience no laptop screen can match. The week-long festival also brings in the filmmakers themselves, to host screenings and answer questions, narrowing that usually yawning gap between those who make the movies and those who watch them and providing the kind of rich viewing experience that no DVD extras menu could.

And then there's the opportunity to ask one of the TFF executives how they went about whittling the 300 film submissions down to a manageable festival.

Tonight, Rachel Marecle, director of Community Development for The Grand Cinema, will answer questions and screen seven films scheduled to run at this year’s Tacoma Film Festival at The Garfield Book Company at 7 p.m. She will play short 2-3 minute clips from the following films:

• Four of a Kind
• Otis v. Monster (pictured)
  
• White on Rice
• Schizofredic
• Signs of the Time
• The Day My Parents Became Cool
• Sebation's Voodoo
• Short Term 12

[The Garfield Book Company’s Fireside Lounge, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 7 p.m., no cover, 208 Garfield St. Suite 100, Tacoma, 253.535.7665]