David and Rebecca Wiesehan of Rochester pose on the red carpet at the Seattle International Film Festival. As husband and wife they also double double down as a film director and producer. Their most recent work, 'The Faces of Zandra Rhodes', will debut at SIFF on Thursday.
The outside of the auditorium is lit up on opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival with the Space Needle in the background.
It’s not every day that a film director from Rochester gets invited to dinner at a downtown Seattle restaurant with a name he can’t pronounce with a motley cast of filmmakers from around the world, but that’s exactly the life that David Wiesehan and his wife Rebecca are living this week.
Such are the perks of having your film selected to show at the Seattle International Film Festival.
“The Faces of Zandra Rhodes,” directed by David Wiesehan, will make its world premiere tonight at SIFF. The film is more than 30 years in the making and will be attended in person by its subject, international tactile artist Zandra Rhodes.
Wiesehan first profiled Rhodes, known for her pink hair and equally colorful artwork, in 1982 when he had just graduated from film school at the University of California San Diego. That work was titled “Zandra Rhodes: A Fantasy Show” and represented Wiesehan’s first foray into the world of documentary storytelling.
“What turned me on to that particular job is I had done a fictional narrative and I was really wanting to do a documentary,” said Wiesehan, who has lived and worked in southwest Washington for more than 30 years. “I really wanted to try documentaries because I felt like it was my calling.”
Wiesehan says he has always been fascinated with Rhodes’ vibrant works and he continued to follow her career in the decades after he first made her a subject of his work. Thursday’s premier will serve as a continuation of Wiesehan’s earlier work while catching up on Rhodes’ career arc.
A press release from the Wiesehan Media Group noted that new film will allow audiences to “Travel the world with a fashion icon whose textiles and styling are as eccentric as her signature hot pink bob ... Archival footage shows career highlights and innovative looks that unapologetically rebelled against conventional trends. Known for bringing London to the forefront of international fashion and designing ages ahead of her time, Zandra consistently beat luxury brands to styles that became the embodiment of generations.”
In the years since he first began filmmaking, David Wiesehan has created documentaries for broadcast television as well as work for corporations focused on innovations in technology. Those works include the “Swatch Mobile Wave Tour” and “The Making of MagicQuest.” The Faces of Zandra Rhodes is Wiesehan’s first feature-length documentary.
Rhodes, a native of London who now lives in San Diego, will fly in for the film’s showing. She is no stranger to Seattle either, having worked on costume design work for the Seattle Opera’s production of “The Magic Flute.”
“What folks should expect to see is really her connection to the art world,” explained David Wiesehan. “It’s about art, inspiration and beauty and really following her around on a daily basis.”
Wiesehan called the film a “passion project” and said it has been a thrill getting to rub elbows with accomplished filmmakers and actors from around the world. For instance, at that fancy Italian dinner late last week the Wiesehans found themselves conversing with directors and cinematographers from Sweden, Hong Kong, South Korea, Copenhagen, and Australia, along with fellow Americans.
“For us being local we’ve been actually to about four different events and we’ve gotten to know the people at SIFF really well,” said David Wiesehan. “What was really wonderful about that was being to share with other filmmakers and other directors and their experiences.”
Rebecca Cole Wiesehan, who served as executive producer for “The Faces of Zandra Rhodes”, has also worked as manager of the Thorbeckes Fitness Center in Rochester for the past 13 years. She said that there have been many doubters along the way during the creation of the film.
“A lot of people told us that we couldn’t do this and that we would never finish it,” said Rebecca Cole Wiesehan. “People said, ‘Who do you think you are?’ But now we’ve been chosen out of 5,000 films, so I guess we’ll see.”
She says that the film is an instrument to help folks find inspiration in their everyday lives.
“If you want to be inspired to be the artist that you truly want to be then you need to see this film. It’s a beautiful movie about inspiration. It’s a wonderful show. It’s entertaining. It tells you how, historically, fashion has come forward. She’s got pink hair and she’s had pink hair for 50 years!” she said. “What it does is allows you to say ‘I want to be a part of art. I want to make my own art. She finds inspiration in everything and it will inspire you to be a part of the art culture.”
“The Faces of Zandra Rhodes” will premier at SIFF on 6:30 p.m. tonight with a second showing scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Uptown Cinema in Seattle. Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.siff.net/festival/the-faces-of-zandra-rhodes.
SIFF will continue through June 10.
