Under the eyes of Elvis, Marilyn and Capt. Jack Sparrow, Gig Harbor movers and shakers along with a handful of filmmakers showed up Thursday evening to kick off that city’s first-ever film festival.

Elvis & Co. were stand-up cardboard cutouts placed along a walkway next to the Galaxy Uptown ten-plex, the festival’s main venue and were there to underscore the event’s theme, “bringing a little Hollywood to Gig Harbor.” On a grassy parklike area adjacent to the theater more than 100 Gig Harbor business and civic leaders, including Mayor Chuck Hunter, mingled and chatted during the 5 p.m. cocktail party that preceded the screening of the festival’s first films.

John Jeffcoat, Seattle-based writer-director of the opening night feature, “Outsourced,” talked about how his indie comedy about an American executive sent to India to manage a call center is still playing in theaters around the country even though it’s just been out for nearly a year and has just been released on DVD. He said NBC is thinking about turning the story into a series and has commissioned him to write a pilot.

Stan Dunster, also of Seattle, an associate producer for “Shikashika,” a 10-minute documentary that preceded the showing of “Outsourced,” explained how he and a group of fellow Northwest mountaineers decided to become filmmakers after observing native people chopping and packing glacier ice down from a steep Andean peak while on a climbing expedition in Peru. The natives’ traditional costumes and the sheer effort involved in their task so intrigued the Americans that they returned to make a movie. The ice, we learn from the film, is taken into a city where it is shaved to make snow cones. The title refers to the sound of the ice being scraped by the native women.

After about an hour and a half of chitchat, the party moved into the theater where festival board President Marty Thacker and Vice President Paula Lillard introduced the board and the filmmakers (who stayed on to talk answer questions about their films) and signaled for the lights to be lowered. The credits for “Shikashika” came up and the film festival was off and running. It will run today through Saturday.

Showtime information can be found at www.gigharborfilmfestival.com.
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Gerald McDermott, "Raven Catches the Light," now at Handforth Gallery, Tacoma Public Library. Image courtesy Tacoma Public Library.

Children’s Book Illustrator comes to library
As part of the new exhibit of gorgeous mythical paintings by award-winning children’s author Gerald McDermott (“Raven: Trickster Tales”) at the Tacoma Public Library’s Handforth Gallery, McDermott himself will be at the library for a talk and book-signing at 7 p.m. Sept. 17. Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through November 18. Free. Tacoma Public Library main branch, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma. 253-591-5666, www.tacomapubliclibrary.org

Richard Marquis at Traver
Traver Gallery features one of the Northwest’s original glass artists with a reception tomorrow night: Richard Marquis, who not only brought blown glass art to Australia single-handedly but taught many American artists also. Reception 5-8 p.m. Sept. 13. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 5. Free. 1811 E. Dock St., Ste. 100, Tacoma. 253-383-3685, www.travergallery.com

New at Museum of Glass: Chihuly and Clayman
At about the opposite extremes of glass art are Dale Chihuly and Daniel Clayman. See both this weekend at MoG: Chihuly’s new 1,500-sq. ft. Venetian chandelier and Clayman’s enormous white minimalism. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. third Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays, opens Sept. 14. $10/$8/$4/free for under-six and third Thursdays 5-8 p.m. 866-4-MUSEUM, www.museumofglass.org

Farmers’ Market becomes “La Plaza Major”
The downtown Farmers’ Market goes Latino this week courtesy of the Broadway Center, which is staging a free Latino community event there next Thursday. 11 a.m.: storyteller Rose Cano, in second-floor lobby of Theatre on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. Noon: band Correo Aereo plays on main stage in Pierce Transit Park, above the market on Broadway. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. artwork from Marcio Diaz and Lupita Cano in TOTS lobby. Free. www.broadwaycenter.org

ArtWalk Third Thursday
This month’s ArtWalk includes Australian wood-carver Mick Newham at Fulcrum Gallery, cityscapes by Gary LaTurner at Two Vaults and more. 5-8 p.m. Sept. 18. Free. Fulcrum Gallery: 1308 MLK Jr. Way, Tacoma; 253-250-0520, fulcrum.oliverdoriss.com. Two Vaults Gallery, 602 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma; 253-759-6233, www.twovaults.com