https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/ Explore the restored Portland Humanist Film Festival archive: programs, films, awards and essays on reason, science, humanism and human rights, 2010–2015. en-us Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/acronym24-phff-digital-footprint/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/acronym24-phff-digital-footprint/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAcronym24 offers almost no context, but its expansion of PHFF demonstrates how cultural names persist in machine-oriented reference layers. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/wikipedia-brian-dunning-phff-award/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/wikipedia-brian-dunning-phff-award/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Brian Dunning article records that Here Be Dragons received festival recognition in November 2011, carrying PHFF into a widely consulted reference system. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/fandango-digital-trace-portland-humanist-film-festival/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/fandango-digital-trace-portland-humanist-film-festival/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe ticketing platform now holds little scheduling detail, yet its surviving title page confirms how festival information entered mainstream cinema infrastructure. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/dguides-portland-event-listing-phff/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/dguides-portland-event-listing-phff/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe event listing translated a specialized humanist program into the practical language of a city guide: dates, venue, atmosphere and audience. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/filmfestivals-com-freethought-network/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/filmfestivals-com-freethought-network/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTA 2012 industry post identified PHFF as one of the festivals advised by the Freethought Film Festival Foundation. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/thomas-paine-society-american-freethought-award/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/thomas-paine-society-american-freethought-award/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTA later presentation of American Freethought used its PHFF Grand Prize to establish the film’s relevance for another public discussion. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/vimeo-filmmakers-preserve-phff-recognition/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/vimeo-filmmakers-preserve-phff-recognition/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCreator pages for Parrot and Flatland 2: Sphereland preserve the festival as part of each film’s public exhibition history. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/hrdag-solving-for-x-jury-prize/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/hrdag-solving-for-x-jury-prize/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Human Rights Data Analysis Group’s film page preserves both the subject of Solving for X and its 2012 recognition in Portland. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/tom-dwyer-newsletter-festival-guide/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/tom-dwyer-newsletter-festival-guide/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTTom Dwyer Automotive’s 2011 newsletter shows how cultural outreach traveled through ordinary Portland networks, not only arts publications. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/pharyngula-call-for-films-portland/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/pharyngula-call-for-films-portland/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPZ Myers translated a local call for submissions into a direct invitation to a large international skeptical readership. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/dispersal-darwin-portland-humanist-film-fest/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/dispersal-darwin-portland-humanist-film-fest/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTFrom the first free weekend in 2010 to the 2012 press release, a science-history blog repeatedly carried PHFF news beyond Portland’s immediate organizations. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/humanists-greater-portland-festival-history/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/humanists-greater-portland-festival-history/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAn organizational history records the meetings, funding decisions and volunteer labor behind the public screenings—details that ordinary event listings rarely retain. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/kboo-radio-portland-humanist-film-festival/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/kboo-radio-portland-humanist-film-festival/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Film Show did more than list an event: it invited festival chair Sylvia Benner into a local broadcast conversation about films, ideas and audiences. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/portland-mercury-humanist-film-festival/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/portland-mercury-humanist-film-festival/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTA compact 2012 listing placed the Portland Humanist Film Festival inside the living rhythm of Portland moviegoing—and sent readers directly to the festival website. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/why-humanist-film-festivals-matter/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/why-humanist-film-festivals-matter/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTA humanist film festival is more than a sequence of screenings. It is a temporary public square where evidence, empathy and difficult questions become shared experiences. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/cinema-critical-thinking-laboratory/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/cinema-critical-thinking-laboratory/Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTFilms do not teach skepticism by handing audiences a checklist. They place claims, motives and consequences inside stories where attention becomes an ethical practice. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/reasonable-doubt-ethics/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/reasonable-doubt-ethics/Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe enduring power of jury-room stories lies in a demanding idea: slowing down before judgment is not weakness, but respect for evidence and for the person affected by a decision. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/science-on-screen-wonder/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/science-on-screen-wonder/Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTScientific cinema can preserve awe while changing its source—from mystery protected against questions to reality made richer by investigation. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/human-rights-documentaries-data-dignity/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/human-rights-documentaries-data-dignity/Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe strongest human-rights films connect testimony, documents and quantitative evidence without turning suffering into spectacle. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/secular-ethics-cinema/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/secular-ethics-cinema/Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTCinema repeatedly asks moral questions without requiring supernatural answers: Who is harmed? What do we owe one another? What kind of world do our choices create? https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/after-the-credits-dialogue/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/after-the-credits-dialogue/Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTA good post-screening discussion is neither a lecture nor an unstructured argument. It is a designed space where interpretation can become inquiry. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/portland-independent-cinema-culture/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/portland-independent-cinema-culture/Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPortland’s neighborhood theaters, volunteer organizations and questioning audiences created fertile ground for a festival built around humanism and free inquiry. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/preserving-digital-festival-archives/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/preserving-digital-festival-archives/Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTA festival website is fragile cultural evidence. Preserving it requires more than copying pages: routes, context, uncertainty and provenance all matter. https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/curating-humanist-film-program/https://www.humanistfest.com/blog/curating-humanist-film-program/Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTA strong humanist program balances argument with emotion, expertise with accessibility and intellectual challenge with the practical rhythm of a shared weekend.