Warren Etheredge is a prolific media critic, writer, director, teacher and interviewer. He’s hosted the Seattle International Film Festival and curated the 1 Reel Film Festival at Bumbershoot. “The High Bar” is Etheredge’s gin-fueled, humorous interview show in which he’s hosted the likes of Moon director Duncan Jones and actress Jodie Foster. The show airs on Tacoma public television.
Warren Etheredge is a prolific media critic, writer, director, teacher and interviewer. He’s hosted the Seattle International Film Festival and curated the 1 Reel Film Festival at Bumbershoot. “The High Bar” is Etheredge’s gin-fueled, humorous interview show in which he’s hosted the likes of Moon director Duncan Jones and actress Jodie Foster. The show airs on Tacoma public television.
This Sunday, Etheredge will be at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium for “What’s Wrong with This Picture?,” an event that aims to make new filmmakers into better filmmakers.
In the past, filmmakers whose work had been denied entry into the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival were given the opportunity to have their work publicly critiqued by Etheredge, who played a few minutes of each film to get a sense of what went wrong before launching into his critique.
His style is flippant and humorous but insightful. The audience and filmmakers themselves are solicited for input, and one hopes that their cinematic egos aren’t irrevocably shattered.
“All the time I’ve done it, a person that I knew was the only one to get upset, get belligerent. He argued everything. Nobody’s ever cried,” Etheredge said. “I can feel it. I can tell when the words are leaving my mouth whether it’s a well-intentioned comment or a mean-spirited one, and I have the self-control to keep it nice.”
Apparently the process works. Filmmakers take the criticism seriously, and some have gone on to make better films as a result of Etheredge’s teaching. Writer/director Jesse Blanchard has had his work featured in the event three times, and it will be featured in this year’s Northwest Filmmakers’ festival.
This iteration of the event will be slightly different in that the films haven’t yet been submitted, and the critique will presumably improve the hopefuls’ chance of a successful review process.
Will Etheredge be raising a toast at the event?
“I always bring my flask,” he said. “A few years ago, I brought my daughter, who was five at the time, and right before it started she handed me my flask and said, ‘Papa, I think you’re going to need this.’”
