SIFF Favorite "All Sorts" Returns to Seattle Theaters June 16th

ALL SORTS, directed by Yakima Valley native J. Rick Castañeda, was filmed in Central Washington by the Los Angeles production company in 2018. There will be a panel after the premiere with Castañeda and other members of the cast and crew to answer questions.

After the event on the 16th ALL SORTS will have three more screenings at SIFF Center June 17th, 18th, 19th. Tickets are on sale now.

The film had its festival premiere in 2021 at the Seattle International Film Festival and was one of the festival’s most-viewed films. Chase Hutchinson of The Stranger said it was “a sentimental and surrealist comedy unlike anything else I've seen at the festival.”

The main character, Diego (played by Eli Vargas of “Chavez”; “You, Me and Dupree”; “Arrested Development”; and “Burning Bodhi”), is desperate to find a job, excitement, and even love. New on the job at a strange company, Diego stumbles into an incredibly fast folder filer named June (played by Greena Park of “The Comedown” and “Family from Tang”), and the two journey through a wildly unexpected office adventure.

In addition to screening at festivals across North America, “All Sorts” had its international festival premiere at Raindance in London, where it was similarly well received. Steve Harcourt of NerdSpan said, “What ‘All Sorts’ has in abundance is an off-beat wit, and remarkable charm.”
Although the film premiered at SIFF, the festival was virtual that year, and this will be the first time audiences in Seattle can see it in an actual movie theater. “Virtual screenings are great, but nothing beats sitting in a dark room and hearing the laughter of an entire theater full of people,” Castañeda said. “That feeling is why I went to LA to study filmmaking in the first place. I’m excited that our first screenings in the US will be with the people whose hard work actually made it happen.”

“When I moved to Los Angeles to break into the film industry, I worked a lot of mundane office jobs,” Castañeda said, describing his inspiration behind the story he wrote 19 years ago. “I found lots of time to imagine magical escape routes out of the gray cubicles where I was trapped everyday. I really wanted to add a little magic to this otherwise dreary landscape.” Through Castañeda’s imagination came a mystical office story about the surreal world of Data-Mart and the eclectic people who work there.

It’s the second feature Castañeda filmed near his hometown of Granger, WA. In 2011, he used a local cast and crew to film Cement Suitcase, an award-winning comedy about a wine salesman in the Yakima Valley. It was such a success, he knew the area was the perfect spot for his next movie, too. After enlisting many of the same cast and crew, he shot the movie in 18 days before returning to Los Angeles for post-production.

“‘All Sorts’ is truly a Washington-made film,” Castañeda said. “We really utilized resources from all over the state. Many of our actors drove or flew over from Seattle, and we sourced a lot of crew, too, who also worked on other Washington State indies like East of the Mountains and The Paper Tigers. We can’t wait to see this film with them.”

Vibrant Penguin plans to have theatrical screenings nationwide leading up to their video on demand and DVD release later this year. Castañeda’s hope is to put a smile on viewer’s faces during these uncertain times.

“We want to make magic; that’s why we make movies, and that’s especially why we made this movie,” he said. “This is a very positive movie about love, about friendship, about finding magic in a dim, drab place. We think it will bring smiles to a lot of faces, and really get people to think about their world in a different way.”