Last month, the Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) put out a challenge for the "intrepid film maker" in Seattle to remake their favorite film into a five-minute short.

Together with James Grindle, Ballardite Rachel Livingston has taken on the challenge and will be premiering her first film as a director tonight at 8 p.m. at the NWFF.

"I’ve secretly always wanted to make a movie," Livingston said.

A NWFF volunteer, Livingston calls herself a " lifelong cinefile".

"I fell in love with the movies the first time I saw “The Wizard of Oz” at the age of three or four," she said.

"My parents always took me to see foreign or independent films that played at more avant garde theatres in Seattle long before videos or DVDs when people depended on movie theatres to see art house movies."

"I practically lived in The Neptune during college back when The Neptune played old movies and foreign films that ran for a day to a week only. It’s not an exaggeration to say that these early film viewing experiences helped shape how I view art, the world and my own life."

It was her friend James Grindle who proposed the idea of participating in the challenge and he knew just the right film for the project - the 2000 American psychological thriller, "Memento".

The original film, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, revolves around Leonard Shelby, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers. One story line moves forward in time while the other tells the story backwards revealing more each time.

"I think Memento is a modern film noir masterpiece," Grindle said. "Most people have their own opinion on what really happens. This film is left up to the viewer so I hoped we could recreate that feeling of engrossed confusion with an audience as well as take them one step further."

Livingston was easily convinced to do "Memento".

"Memento is such a thought-provoking story. What would it be like to start your life over every ten minutes? Who could you trust? Who would you love? How reliable is memory? The film definitely leaves the audience with more questions than a satisfying resolution," she said.

But picking the film was the easy part. Stepping into the shoes of the actors, directors, cinematographers and producers to remake a two-hour film into a five-minute short was -- as the contest name suggests -- a real challenge.

Grindle, a DJ, comes from a background in the music scene. He has starred as an extra in a few films and worked with the Actor's theatre of Charlotte, NC for a year but prior to this project, he had spend very little time behind the camera.

"I have always wanted to write a screenplay and have it produced but until meeting Rachel never followed through," Grindle said.

The two directing newbies set out with the idea to do everything themselves and use digital cameras and cell phones to film. They quickly learned they needed help.

They rented equipment from NWFF and enlisted friends to help them with the filming.

Grindle said some of the filming challenges lied in the coordination between many different people and finding a compromise between everyone's opinions and ideas as well as learning to let go and trust others.

"Any actor that directs himself has to be a control freak," he said. "You have a vision for how something should be and if you don't do it yourself it won't be what you envision. But, for time and sanity’s sake, there is no way one person could or should do it all."

Livingston added that coordinating schedules and keeping everything moving along in a timely manner proved to be challenging as well.

"On our first day, we filmed in three different locations. The last location was outside, so we had to rush to beat the sun going down," Livingston recalled.

"The character James plays changes his haircut in the film, so I had to cut his hair before we filmed at the last location. Since I don’t cut hair (and really shouldn’t), it took me forever. When you are in charge of everything from directing to props to make-up, things can get a little hairy."

Livingston said she learned to depend on miracles. When the tattoo artist intended to do Grindle's temporary body art cancelled, Livingston found last-minute help from Tracy Zumwalt at Ballard's Anchor tattoo.

"We couldn’t postpone the shoot, because we only had our cinematographer for two days," Livingston said. "I was on the phone at 11 p.m. the night before, trying to find a real tattooist who would volunteer to fake-tattoo James the next morning."

Zumwalt not only volunteered his time, he also allowed them to film inside Anchor Tattoo's shop and do some acting.

Their biggest challenge however was editing the hours of film and conducing it to a tight, five-minute film.

"The hardest part for me was definitely not being fluent with Final Cut Pro," Livingston said. "We had to rely on so many people for help in order to finish the movie."

"This film couldn't have been possible much less be what it is without the eyes, ears and talents of our director of photography, Sigismund Pikul," Grindle added.

Now that they have their finished product, Grindle said their main expectation is to have it shown.

"I am just thrilled to have had this experience. Like most people, I often talk about things I want to do, but never get around to doing them, but not this time," Livingston said.

The five-minute-film will be shown along with the films of other challenge particpants from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m at the Northwest Film Forum on 1515 12th Ave. The event is free and beer and wine will be served in the lobby. There will be a fun social engagement after the screening.

"Every "fan" of Memento should see this. I think we take Leonard and Natalie one step further than the original story and give it a very logical, true finale and yet hopefully surprising/stunning ending. I dare Christopher and Jonathan Nolan to find any holes in our plot," Grindle said.