wanted to shoot the

film? Yeah.

Well, the film is an elegy for small town cinemas of the American West.

So I came to this idea because as I said, I live in Seattle and we have lost seven to 10 of our art house theaters in the last 15 years, 10 years.

They just keep dropping like flies.

This is where I got my movie going, Education, where all these theaters, many of them clustered around the University of Washington, where I went to college.

And I really was feeling the pain of losing those theaters.

So they'll have them around.

And why did you want this to be the focus of your career?

Well, you know, I'll go back to when I was a kid because I so mentioned I had an older brother.

He was older than me by two years.

But when he was nine, he tragically died.

He had a heart problem and he died.

And so I suddenly became an only child.

And my mom and dad divorced shortly after that.

So speaking of going to these theaters through your documentary, but also just in life, what is your ideal movie theater going experience? Like what kind of snacks? What kind of theater? Do you have a preferred seat?

Yes,

it did.

Sort of rewinding back to when I started making the film, I'm from Seattle.

That's where I went to college and where I've lived for 30, 40 years.

And we used to be a great art house town.

And we've lost 10 of our art house theaters in the last 10, 15 years, all gone.

They closed, burned down, converted to this or that.

Yeah.

They understand what we're going to be talking about.

Yeah, so it's a documentary feature.

It runs about 78 minutes, and I describe it as an elegy for small-town cinemas of the American West.

I'm from Seattle.

I grew up mainly in a little town outside of Seattle called Puyallup, but I also spent time in Reno and Colorado Springs and Vail and Ontario, Oregon.

I always loved those wide open spaces.

And when I thought about making this film, I really wanted to go to the so-called cinema deserts, which are the small towns that still has a theater, yet there's 50 to 100 miles, sometimes less, sometimes more, between the next theater that's open.

I wish that somebody would open an IMAX theater or change their screen to become an IMAX, you know, because more and more films are coming out that way.

... seem to be showing many, uh, any studio films, first-run studio films for two weeks.

Right.

The, so there's a theater in my film that we meet the owners early on, uh, and it's in Susanville, California, and it's the Sierra Theater.

Gorgeous exterior.

Just, uh, just classically beautiful, uh, marquee, and a huge interior, and they have a balcony.

And they turned the balcony into another theater.

So th- they ran, ran it that way for many, many years.

... like that?

So tell me a little bit about what inspired you to go out on the road and track down some of these great movie houses.

Yeah, well, I know your audience can't see it, but yes, I'm surrounded by film posters, foreign language film posters, and my DVDs and Blu-rays, so clearly I'm a bit of a film head, a cinephile.

And I was at a very early age, probably when I was seven or eight is when my love of film really took off.

And the way that I've learned about life and love and death and relationships and how to live.

So it's been very important to me.

And I live in Seattle.

That's where I'm at right now.

There's a lot really that drives this film emotionally as well because getting to know the theater owners, inevitably they will say to you, we love doing this we love being a part of showcasing presenting film

I saw those images and I wasn't sure if that was your original stuff.

Yeah, all of the filmed images I filmed in the movie.

And there's that one that I didn't name that's in Elma, Washington, that looks like it could... blow over in the wind.

You could just knock it over with your finger.

And it's just sitting there abandoned.

It's been that way for many, many years.

Washington was a big part of the film, but also I went through Oregon.

I mean, what did you hear from community members about what having these single and double screen theaters on their main streets means?

Right.

Uh, yeah.

Yeah.

So, so it's, uh, it's a documentary.

I, I, I call it an elegy for small town cinemas of the American West, and I, um, I wanted to explore these, these cinema deserts, these spaces that were a small town, it might have the only existing operating theater in a span of 100 to 150 miles.

And in between those small towns are all these other small towns that are dotted with theaters that are closed, uh, and have been long closed, some for 50 years, some for 30 years.

Some have reopened and then closed again.

Mm-hmm