Stephin Merritt is in Seattle this week for screenings of two projects at the Seattle International Film Festival: Strange Powers, the new documentary about him and The Magnetic Fields, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the classic film for which he has written and will perform a new score.

Strange Powers was first shown last night with the film's directors, Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara, in attendance and will be given an encore screening this afternoon at the SIFF Cinema, with both the directors and Merritt due to attend and participate in a Q&A afterward.

Seattle radio station KEXP calls it "exquisite." The Seattle Times film critic Michael Upchurch calls it "a canny glimpse into the world of songwriter Stephin Merrit," from which "Merritt emerges as simultaneously dry and droll, shy and scathing."

The film begins its theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, and other select North American cities this October. Learn more at strangepowersfilm.com.

This Wednesday, June 9, Merritt will perform his new score to the 1916 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, at the Paramount, with David Hegarty on the organ and Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket and Merritt's Gothic Archies cohort) on the accordion. For further details, visit siff.net.