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Synopses & Reviews
From Twin Peaks to Twilight, from Practical Magic to Portlandia!, Filmlandia! highlights more than 200 film and television entertainments created and centered in Seattle, Portland, and the greater Pacific Northwest, extensively researched and curated by culture writer David Schmader.
The Pacific Northwest has a thriving, rich film culture, and it's finally celebrated in a guide as visually arresting and compelling as the films and television themselves. Author David Schmader put in a lot of screen time watching movies and TV shows, and the result is more than 200 entries that feature hilarious and insightful synopses, behind-the-scene facts and trivia, and regional scenic highlights. Sidebars showcase filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Lynn Shelton, the television shows that shaped the public's perception of the region (such as Twin Peaks, Shrill, and Portlandia! ), documentaries, queer cinema, silent films, Vancouver-shot imposters, and more. This is a book for any cinephile, but for those who love and live in the PNW, it's an absolute must-have.
Review
"David Schmader's film writing has always been dryly funny and incisive, but it has rarely been this affectionate. This very comprehensive collection of PNW-centric film and TV capsules is for locals or tourists, hardcore cinephiles or casual viewers. Full disclosure: David once called me a " Showgirls truther." Matt Lynch, Scarecrow Video, cohost of The Suspense Is Killing Us podcast and YouTube's Viva Physical Media
About the Author
David Schmader is a writer and performer devoted to exploring his obsessions, from homophobic rock stars and pray-away-the-gay Christians to trash cinema and legalized drugs. His solo plays — Letter to Axl, Straight, and A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem — have been performed across the US. From 1998-2015, Schmader worked as a staff writer and editor for Seattle's Pulitzer-winning newsweekly The Stranger, where he wrote the issue-opening column "Last Days: The Week in Review" for 18 years. In his spare time, he is the world's foremost authority on the glorious terribleness of the movie Showgirls, hosting annotated screenings of Paul Verhoeven's notorious stripper drama at cinemas all over North America and providing the commentary track for the Showgirls DVD. His first book Weed: The User's Guide was published by Sasquatch Books in 2016.