Northwest Film Forum

And there's more good news for movie theaters in Seattle.

Starting today, the Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill is now open seven days a week.

The Stranger reports it's the first time the Film Forum has shown movies every day in more than a decade.

After major layoffs just two years ago, attendance is up 27% this year, which allowed the theater to open full-time.

Hello, and welcome to Seattle Movies Daily.

I'm Chase Hutchinson, and this week we're talking all about the Northwest Film Forum, which announced this week that they are going to be open seven days a week, which you can read all about in my article in The Stranger.

Joining me to talk all things Northwest Film Forum is friend of the show, Liam Billingham.

Liam, what do you think of this news?

I think I should have checked my hair before we hit record.

... bringing people out and seeing attendance going up is a big thing, and we'll talk about some of that programming this weekend.

But I think it's just been a general trend in a positive direction that especially post-pandemic I've heard other theaters are also experiencing, and that in general people are going out to live events, to movies again, to that type of experience that you can't get at home.

But then again, it's like you gotta give people a reason to show up and get off the couch, and I think the sort of unique programming that the Northwest Film Forum has, that The Beacon has, that Grand Illusion has, and also that SIFF has, like the sort of independent-

So what are you all up to this weekend?

Well, I'm going to be celebrating the fact that the Northwest Film Forum starting next week is gonna be open seven days a week.

Oh.

Like, which I have a little bit of reporting I've been doing for The Stranger on that.

these, like, bigger leaps.

And I don't know.

I was just thinking about how this is one of those films you can't see anywhere in the city currently, only at Northwest Film Forum, and so the fact that there will be more opportunities of them to do that every single week, that, that's my first pick.

That's great.

Ooh

... um, which is running from October 15th through the 18th at Northwest Film Forum.

Um, they took over from, I believe it was Three Dollar Bill Cinema, which used to run, uh, like, a queer and trans film festival that then ran out of funding, and so they picked up the baton and, and kept it running.

Um, and there's all kinds of short films that will be shown, and they've broken it out into a bunch of different categories.

It was one of those ones that was, like, hard to track down, so I'm very...

I'm gonna try to go see that.

And then our friends at Northwest Film Forum are doing their Trauma Bond series-

[laughs]

The Grand Illusion didn't ever fully die and go away.

It was being supported by the Northwest Film Forum and CIFF doing pop-up screenings.

And to put up that marquee, they borrowed letters from the Majestic Bay Theater, which I thought was very sweet.

I think they'll have to give them back at some point.

Like, how did we go from having three to zero in the U District for a little while?

it's a tough industry right now the the movie business is a tough one and won't go too far down this is a whole other rabbit hole but there are mergers there are like big shifting economic forces there's the rise of streaming there's many challenges but what has been interesting what i think is worth celebrating this is that the grand illusion didn't fully go away they had been doing pop-up screenings throughout the city for the last kind of couple years at the northwest film forum at sif And so there was a demonstrated demand from an audience.

I went to the Kiyoshi Kurosawa double feature they had a few months back and it sold out.

It was like packed in there.

Yeah, is that just how things work now? Is that indicative of what works for movie theaters right now? Because it does feel like, at least in Seattle, the small and specific is really winning.

I feel like people are really into going to an independent theater and seeing a movie or a series that has been carefully curated rather than...

I can't remember, really, the last time I went to a giant movie theater and just saw a blockbuster, but I feel like I have been going to SIF or Northwest Film Forum and going to see something very specific and niche.

Yeah, you don't want things just curated by an algorithm that sort of feels sometimes random or almost comically assembled.

He's a local historian, tour guide, and author.

You can see the documentary version of his latest book, The Burning of Moses Seattle, at the Northwest Film Forum's Local Sightings Festival on the 26th.

David, good to see you.

Glad to be back after working seven days a week all summer.

But first, speaking of exciting arts events, the Local Sightings Film Festival kicks off tomorrow.

And for the next 10 days, Northwest Film Forum is showing films shot here and by local filmmakers.

Joining us to discuss is Camille Ermita-Fuentes, Local Sightings Film Festival co-director.

Hi, Camille.

Oh, gorgeous.

We're in year 29 of putting this festival on.

We are Northwest Film Forum's biggest annual film festival.

Kicks off this Friday and runs for two weekends through the 28th of September.

Jenna's poem became a film called To Dress a Wound.

It premieres this month at Northwest Film Forum.

When I was getting ready to talk to Jenna, I found myself thinking about how I parent my daughter and how becoming aware of what I'm passing on to her could take a lifetime.

So I needed to know from Jenna, how did she decide to write a poem about something this big?

it was expensive.

But also, you know, this is also my first film, right? So I have never made a like a short film before, but I got a grant from for culture.

And then I also got a grant from the Northwest Film Forum, their collective action grant to help me finish the film.

And then there were a lot of people.