By Kirk Boxleitner

The Port Townsend Film Festival is undergoing what their marketing and development director Keith Hitchcock deemed “a big shift” — from a single event spanning a handful of days each year, to a year-round series of screenings and other events, as can be seen in the next two months.

To celebrate the festival’s volunteers and reviewers, the PTFF is opening up its archives for a quarterly screening party, scheduled for February, May, August and November.

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m. the Balcony Theatre on Taylor Street in Port Townsend hosts a select screening of “Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives,” a documentary that previously screened as part of the film festival’s 2019 lineup. According to Hitchcock, this “under-appreciated” film revisits the career of outspoken political activist and feminist singer-songwriter Holly Near, “who never quite achieved the same recognition as her similar contemporaries,” Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, even as Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda appear in the film.

Hitchcock touted Near’s songs and life story over the past 40 years as illustrating how music possesses the power “to send a clarion call, in the struggle for equality,” and influence “the course of global social justice,” from anti-war efforts to “coalition-building within and between the women’s and lesbian movements,” including “the fight to give South American women a voice.”

More information on these quarterly screenings can be found at ptfilmfest.com/film-friends online.

For a screening that’s open to the general public, the PTFF is partnering with the Port Townsend High School Media Lab for its second PTFF Focus presentation of 2024, showcasing what Hitchcock described as a diverse collection of short films and slideshows from the media lab students, under the direction of David Egeler. The screening takes place on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 6:30 p.m., again hosted by the Balcony Theatre.

Attendees can expect not only student-produced short films and a slideshow of photos taken by photography students, all devoted to the theme of “Keep It Surreal,” but can also look forward to a series of short film variations on a script about a bad day at school, called “The Shaft,” as well as brief pieces for a project called “Cinema Magic Tricks.”

Hitchcock expressed his enthusiasm for the program, particularly the student-produced segments for their “Redhawk Report” YouTube channel, which he summed up as “some are silly, some are informative, and some are done as mock commercials.”

The evening will also include a short slideshow of the best photos from the high school’s advanced media student photographers, plus a silent auction to support the media lab and raise money for a field trip, along with servings of popcorn.

“We want to nurture and cultivate prospective filmmakers throughout their life cycles,” Hitchcock said. “Our support and partnership can help turn their interest in film into filmmaking skills, and even careers.”

Tickets to this Feb. 15 screening are free for students and their families, and can be found at ptfilmfest.com/year-round-programming online, along with information and tickets for the “PTFF Focus” screening of “The Wizard of Oz” on Saturday, March 2, at 10 a.m. in the Rose Theatre.

For this March 2 screening, the PTFF is partnering with the Port Townsend Public Library for the latter’s “Community Read” of the book “On the Way to the End of the World,” by Adrianne Harun.

“Like all of our PTFF Focus films, it’s intended to support local nonprofits and small businesses, and to explore important topics using film,” Hitchcock said. “In this instance, we’re supporting the library’s Community Read, since the book ‘On the Way to the End of the World’ also involves a journey, and its characters even reference ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ So we’re giving those readers a chance to go back to the original film, and see how it relates to the book.”

For more information on the “Community Read,” visit ptpubliclibrary.org online.

The PTFF Focus monthly screenings are often followed by facilitated discussions or informal conversations related to featured films. There is no cost to PTFF Focus partners, thanks to the support of sponsors.