In Janette Force’s office on the fourth floor of the Mount Baker Block Building, there is a wall of Post-it notes.

In this balance of pink and green, with a sprinkling of blue, each note bears the title of a film scheduled to be shown at the 18th annual Port Townsend Film Festival (PTFF), which is taking place this weekend.

“This is my world!” exclaimed Force, who is now in her eighth year as executive director of the festival.

The color-coded narrative films, documentaries and shorts are all arranged into time slots over a three-day period (most are showing twice) in different locations, along with other notes indicating who’s presenting each film, which guests are attending, a few TBA slots, etc., etc.

“It’s this crazy puzzle,” Force said of weaving together nearly 90 films into a three-day festival.

And, of course, there are myriad more details to consider, from making sure a high school–age guest can attend a late-night Saturday screening and make it back to New Orleans in time for school on Monday, to figuring out if it’s OK to deep-fry a tarantula downtown. (Turns out that what Force thought of as a “delightful and spooky” spectacle is not happening. But intrepid insectivorous festivalgoers can look forward to trying free fried crickets and a few other delicacies on Sunday, as part of an insect-cooking demonstration associated with “Bugs on the Menu,” a documentary featured in the festival.)

“No matter how much you think you know how a year is going to go, you really have no idea,” said Force.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Building a three-day festival for September begins in January, when festival staff and volunteers embark on seeking out and watching films to curate a program that balances documentaries with narratives, and also features a diverse array of subjects.

Two years ago, Force recalled, they ended up with five films on post-traumatic stress disorder.

“You can’t show five films on anything,” she said.

Force has a team of 25 volunteer reviewers who, this year, watched 500 submitted films and rated them based on a list of criteria, such as cinematography, acting, editing, story line, concept, execution of that concept, soundtrack and more.

“Every single film that is submitted to us is watched in completion by three different reviewers,” she said.

Reviewers grade each film in order to come up with an average score.

Just because something scores high doesn’t mean it will end up in the festival.

“You have to know your audience,” Force said.

One year, she programmed a slasher comedy. “I still have complaints about that five years later.”

At the same time, Force aims to create a program that doesn’t blindly cater to a particular audience’s tastes. “We want to challenge the audience,” she said.

RELATIONSHIPS

The submitted films watched by the reviewers join films sought out by PTFF programming director Jane Julian at festivals across the country, and films that Force has received directly from distributors or filmmakers who have attended past festivals.

“Those relationships allow us to evolve and change in a really important way.”

For example, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences member Doug Blush, who, Force said, considers himself 100 percent devoted to PTFF, last year brought 2016 Sundance Audience Award winner “Jim: The James Foley Story,” and this year is bringing “20 Feet from Stardom” and “The Music of Strangers” (both directed by PTFF special guest Morgan Neville), and “The S Word.”

And, for the third year in a row, actor and special guest Karen Allen is back. Force said Allen was so keen on coming this year that she even offering to just be a volunteer for the weekend so she could participate. Instead, she’ll be here for her directorial debut, “A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud,” as a special guest.

“Of all the guests that we’ve had, Karen Allen is the most normal,” Force said. In life, Allen is the same as she appears on screen: warm, natural, encouraging.

“I kept finding her on the street,” Force said of observing Allen’s first year at the festival, “Shopping, having coffee with complete strangers.”

Force tells one story in which Allen was being interviewed outside the theater, and someone from the now-shuttered Pinbar came out and asked if Allen would sign the business’s Indiana Jones pinball machine. “She walked out of the interview, ran in there, leapt onto the pinball machine, signed autographs ... ” Force said. “That’s who she is.”

EXPLORING SPACE

While Force tries to keep the festival’s programming diverse, this year she ended up with three films about space: “The Mars Generation” and “The Farthest,” both documentaries, and “Seat 25,” a narrative feature. Force said each of those films addresses space from a different angle. “It’s rare that you can stay with a subject and find such unique perspectives on it,” she said.

“The Mars Generation” came out of Julian’s trip to Sundance in January.

It’s rare for PTFF to get a film out of Sundance because most that are shown there go straight to the big screen, and everyone has had an opportunity to see them. But this documentary is going to Netflix. “I was so excited,” said Force.

She’s been questioned about why the festival is showing a film that everyone can see on Netflix. “Because it was designed and created to be on the big screen,” she responds.

And the film festival would be the one opportunity to see that film on the big screen.

“The Mars Generation” follows a group of aspiring teenage astronauts attending the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. One of those students, 16-year-old Alyssa Carson, is attending the festival, along with the film’s director and composer.

Carlson has been selected as one of seven ambassadors representing Mars One, a mission to establish a human colony on Mars in 2030.

Force said Carlson will be attending school in New Orleans on Thursday, then flying to Washington, arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday in time to get to Port Townsend for an appearance at Jefferson Community School. Then, she’ll attend a screening at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday at the Northwest Maritime Center before catching a 5 a.m. flight on Sunday morning to return to New Orleans in time for school on Monday morning.

“That is the festival experience in a nutshell!” Force said, laughing.

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Force said this year’s program is filled with “deep and amazing stories,” many of which, like “The Mars Generation,” are about coming of age, about finding our way from this universe to the next.

And many are uplifting, too; PTFF programmers are aware that audiences want to be inspired during these times.

Force shares some of her favorites. “No Man’s Land” – a documentary on the 2016 standoff between armed militants occupying Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and federal authorities” – exposes a story Force thought she already knew, until she saw the film. “I had written the story myself,” she said. “I knew nothing about it.”

That documentary, she said, reveals the power of filmmaking. “We would never be able to see it without film,” she said.

Then there’s “Under the Same Sun,” a feature narrative about a man who finds himself in a group of Hindu and Muslim village children living in the medieval town of Jaisalmer, near the border of India and Pakistan. “These children come from a vast variety of backgrounds, and they all live together – they are learning that there really aren’t that many differences between their faith,” she said. “It is just beautiful.”

Other films she mentions are “The Light of the Moon,” a narrative that tackles sexual assault; “Jasper Jones,” an Australian “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and “Rebels on Pointe,” a documentary on an all-male drag ballet company.

OUTDOOR MOVIES FOR ALL

And, of course, there are the outdoor movies for all ages.

On Friday, there’s a screening of “Chicken Run,” a cross-promotion for the Jefferson County Farm Tour, which also is taking place this weekend (the film festival was original scheduled for next weekend, but was changed because of Rosh Hashanah).

On Sunday, there’s the ever popular “The Princess Bride,” which, when it was shown about a decade ago, drew the largest crowd Taylor Street has ever seen, Force said.

And on Saturday, there is a screening of “20 Feet from Stardom,” the 2014 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature by Morgan Neville, this year’s special guest. That film, which follows the untold story of backup singers behind the musical legends of the 21st century, is another example of the powerful ways in which film shares stories we may otherwise not know.

“That’s happening with film over and over again,” Force said.

The advent of technology, especially, has made it possible for more stories to be told through film.

“Film is the universal language,” said Force.

She encourages festivalgoers to explore that language, discover new ideas and find unexpected parallels in their lives.

Close your eyes, Force said, and point to a film, any film, and watch that.

“Trust us,” she said.