Home to dark coffee and grunge music, rainy days and spectacular views, Microsoft and anti-globalization riots, Seattle is clearly a city of introspection, insight and busy conversation. Indeed in 2006, it was ranked as the most literate big city in the US. And the same can be said for its film literacy. The Seattle Film Festival, which runs for more than three weeks from the end of May to the middle of June, is the largest film festival in America. This year the festival has actually shrunk by offering only 248 Feature films. To zoom in on Seattle, we asked writer, filmmaker and editor at the weekly alternative The Stranger Charles Mudede to think about Seattle in the movies, after all his two films — Police Beat and Zoo — re-imagine Seattle and its enclaves in radically new ways and from distinctive perspectives. In addition, Nick Dawson maps out the films that include Seattle in their frame.

Rain City on Film

Nick Dawson casts an eye over the way that Seattle has been featured in recent movies, ranging from Alan Rudolph's indie classic Trouble in Mind to teen romcom 10 Things I Hate About You.

Seattle Sees Itself

How do we know a film is in Seattle? Charles Mudede argues that the unavoidable Space Needle stitches together the city's identity.