Words and Pictures

Portland Community College has hosted the Cascade Festival of African Films

for 34 years, inviting filmmakers from the African diaspora to Oregon and

welcoming the community to attend screenings free of charge.

This year's festival co-directors, Eugenie Jolivett Fontana ...

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Words and Pictures, we

revisit our January 2005 conversation with Jack Ohman.

Jack is the Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist who spend 20 years

in Portland drawing cartoons for the Oregonian newspaper before moving ...

Author, cartoonist, and storyboard artist Derek Ballard has worked on the

television shows Adventure Time and Midnight Gospel.  He's also put in his

time as a construction worker, single dad, and all-around working-class hero.

Derek's comic stories have been collected in...

The New Yorker’s David Remnick said of bestselling author and cartoonist

Roz Chast: “She’s got a very recognizable style of squiggly lines and

neurotic characters.”

Roz's work has appeared in The Village Voice, The National

Lampoon, Scientific American, Mother Jones, an...

In this extended (and unexpurgated) conversation with cartoonist Roz

Chast, we spend an extra 15 minutes with the bestselling author

who inspired The New Yorker’s David Remnick to say: “She’s got a very

recognizable style of squiggly lines and neurotic characters.”

Roz'...

Harrod Blank is a hero of underground culture, taking the prankster spirit to

the world of documentary film.  His mother was the erotic ceramicist Gail

Perrin Blank and his father was legendary director Les Blank, known for his

filmic studies of ethnomusicology.  Harrod ...

Independent animator Signe Baumane has directed multiple short films and two

feature films, Rocks in My Pockets and My Love Affair With Marriage.  Now

touring the Pacific Northwest, My Love Affair With Marriage follows the

misadventures of Zelma, whose 23-year quest for ...

In 2013, award-winning political cartoonist Matt Bors founded the website The

Nib, dedicated to comics journalism.  After a decade of publishing

non-fiction comics from around the globe, Matt is saying goodbye to The Nib.

S.W. Conser talks with Matt about the history of ...

The Gorge Impact Film Festival is an environmentally-themed event that's

making its premiere this November in Hood River, Oregon, featuring

independent films, speakers, and workshops.

S.W. Conser previews the festival with three of its organizers.  Alan

Hickenbottom is ...

Portland's reputation as a hub for independent animation gains new

stature in a documentary from British filmmaker Martin Cooper.  In History,

Mystery, and Odyssey, Martin profiles six iconic Portland animators: Rose

Bond, Chel White, Joanna Priestley, Jim Blashfield, Jo...