Dance and documentaries fill Seattle-area screens

Though the Seattle International Film Festival (www.siff.net) and Seattle's True Independent Film Festival (www.trueindependent.org) are in full swing for their final weekends, they're not the only game in town.

Here's an unmissable event for dance fans: "NY Export: Opus Jazz," a filmed adaptation of a 1958 "ballet in sneakers" by Jerome Robbins set to music by Robert Prince, plays at Northwest Film Forum Saturday through Monday only. You can see the youthful tension of "West Side Story" (which had opened on Broadway a year previously) everywhere in this work: the snapping fingers, the soft knees, the sudden bursts of movement. Robbins created "Opus Jazz" for the stage (though it aired — with creative camera angles directed by Robbins — on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and was a sensation) with backdrops indicating outdoor settings.

Two New York City Ballet members were recently inspired to create a film of the ballet, using NYCB dancers and shooting in a variety of locations all over New York: a high-school gym, a railroad track, an abandoned warehouse, an empty theater. "Opus Jazz" screens with a short documentary about the making of the film; Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal (formerly a dancer with NYCB) will introduce Monday night's screening.

Also at NWFF this weekend: Director Matt Porterfield will be in attendance for Saturday and Sunday screenings of his 2006 work "Hamilton," an acclaimed documentary/drama hybrid about a young couple living in a Baltimore suburb. And on Monday, Portland filmmaker Nick Peterson will introduce his second feature "Field Guide to November Days," shot entirely with bicycles rather than any motorized transport. All events take place at 1515 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-267-5380 or www.nwfilmforum.org.

Seattle Art Museum continues its Andy Warhol film series (in conjunction with the exhibit "love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death — Andy Warhol Media Works") with "Vinyl," Warhol's 1965 adaptation of Anthony Burgess' "A Clock-

work Orange" (years before Stanley Kubrick would make his film), starring Gerald Malanga and Edie Sedgwick. 7:30 tonight at SAM's Plestcheeff Auditorium, 1300 First Ave., Seattle; tickets are $7 at the door. For more information: www.seattleartmuseum.org, or 206-654-3121.

And at the Grand Illusion, film archivist Dennis Nyback will present a weeklong series of themed short film packages, on a variety of topics: "Terrorism Light and Dark," "Battle of the Sexes," "Industrial Design and Refrigerator Fetish" and "Hillbillies in Hollywood," to name just a few. Nyback, a prodigious collector of found film, will introduce each screening. Nightly through Thursday, Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., Seattle; 206-523-3935 or www.grandillusioncinema.org.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com