For many Capitol Hill pets, the pandemic has answered prayers. Humans are home nearly all the time. Walks are plentiful. Sunday, at Capitol Hill’s St. Joseph Parish, the congregation again marked the feast day of Francis of Assisi with a Blessing of the Animals. Several furry friends attended and gave thanks while sniffing the lawn along 18th Ave E. Continue reading
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Tent City 3 settles in for short summer stay on Capitol Hill
Nadine Skidmore
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- Lumberjack
Tent City 3 is nearly finished moving into its home for the next two months, the parking lot of St. Joseph’s at 19th and Aloha. Though there are a few things left to set up, the new location is an improvement.
“It’s a lot more quieter,” said resident Nadine Skidmore. “We don’t have the buses and college kids yelling.”
Volunteers from St. Joseph’s and tent city residents moved the encampment from its previous home in the U-District over the weekend. The camp is made up of rows of tents known as dorms, along with tents that serve as a computer room, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a community dining hall. There are four port-a-potties located just inside the camp’s entrance and a tent at the entryway that serves as a gatehouse.
Residents estimate it can hold about 100 people, a larger capacity than when it was located in the U-District, and currently has around 60. Continue reading
A SIFF hit, Capitol Hill film My Last Year with the Nuns gets another run at NWFF
Matt Smith and big ol’ St. Joe’s
It might sound like fun to see a truly Capitol Hill movie but My Last Year with the Nuns is not a pleasant film. Yes, Matt Smith‘s acting is compelling and at turns dazzling as he deadpans his way through a script that’s been honed for nearly two decades, telling the story of a “white, 13-year old boy” living in Capitol Hill circa 1966, during the protagonist’s eighth grade year at St. Joseph’s Catholic School. And yes, in his directorial film debut, Capitol Hill theater veteran Bret Fetzer pulls on decades of experience of doing a lot with relatively little and helps turn a one man stage play, and a $50,000 or so budget, into a smartly-composed and imaginative feature-length monologue film that was a hit at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2014.
But the film does not flinch as it depicts the the racism, sexism and homophobia that informed and constructed the young protagonist’s reality and helped define his identity, and that still resonates in the reality and identity of his older, somewhat more reflective self, who plays the narrator.
“When I put this together, I wanted to convey the truthful essence of my experience from the point of view of a 13-year-old boy,” Smith told CHS, “And I tried to tell it from the stream-of-consciousness of this 13-year-old boy in such a way that it didn’t take me off the hook.”
After its packed shows at The Egyptian during SIFF last year, My Last Year with the Nuns is returning to Capitol Hill for a week’s run at Northwest Film Forum, where it will be taking over both screens starting Friday. The film will show at 7 PM and 9 PM daily through Thursday, January 19. Members of the film’s crew are promised to be present at all screenings. Tickets are available here. Continue reading
