The MacGuffin

A staircase spirals around, leading you down underneath the Experience Music Project Museum. You know you’re heading in the right direction because things have taken a darker turn. The lighting has the distinct color of red, and in the background you can hear the faint cries and screams of people in desperate need of some help. Off on the left wall from the staircase is a large black and white collage of nameless faces, all perfectly photographed at the precise moment they let out a horrific shriek. It goes without saying that the tone the EMP is going for at this particular point is to create some kind of descent into a hellish place. At the bottom of the stairwell are glass doors, and once a person walks through them, they enter a world of goblins, ghouls, monsters, and a whole bunch of other really cool stuff.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival, affectionately known as SFFSFF (say it “siff siff”) returns to the Cinerama theater in Seattle this weekend. The sixth annual event, jointly sponsored by the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Seattle International Film Festival, will feature twenty films that span the definition of the genres, and come from around the world.