Tag Archives: film

Midnight-movie evangelists want to revive Capitol Hill’s historic Egyptian Theatre

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A Classified Cinema screening at The Egyptian this summer (Image: Classified Cinema)

A group of midnight movie champions and lovers of physical media are finalizing a lease agreement with property owner Seattle College to reopen the Egyptian Theatre on Capitol Hill. The E Pine venue closed two years ago due to a major pipe burst in the more than 110-year-old former Masonic Temple, followed by SIFF’s decision not to renew its 10-year lease in 2025.

WFLM Seattle, led by Ben Redder alongside Elias Savage, Scotty Wright, and Lanna Hed, is lined up to become a long-term tenant in the theater, The Stranger reports.

Redder brings local cinephile experience having managed Seattle Cinerama and worked at Scarecrow Video, The Stranger notes.

WFLM has been part of a summer of pop-ups and events in the Egyptian as Seattle Central opened a schedule of one-time showings and special screenings to light the theater back up after a long closure following the water pipe break and the exit of SIFF. Meanwhile, the school has been looking for a new long-term tenant for the theater that has been showcasing arthouse, classic, and international cinema since 1980. Continue reading →

The Quality Film Club: Capitol Hill’s newest movie theater is in an abandoned grocery store

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(Image: Quality Film Club)

By Brenna Gauchat

The Quality Film Club is bringing a little of the neighborhood moviegoing experience to 15th Ave E by building on the power of Seattle’s existing film community. Every first and third Thursday of the month, attendees can purchase a ticket for a 7 PM screening at the Quality Flea Center, the repurposed grocery store home to events including the Punk Rock Flea Market while the block awaits eventual demolition and redevelopment.

Flyers decorating utility poles for a recent screening of the 1999 camp classic But I’m a Cheerleader drew crowds to the makeshift theater.

“The truth is, it’s really just a community movie house,” PRFM’s Josh Okrent said.

With big-time summer releases like The Odyssey arriving with waves of hype and marketing, Most attendees find Quality Film Club through local flyers or social media, with word-of-mouth driving the rest. Okrent and co-organizer Todd Hewitt started the club after getting their hands on a projector and screen. Alongside filmmaker Robert Zverina, they began hosting movie nights when the venue was free of its regular schedule of events and markets.

“We were showing films just for ourselves, just running some funny little films, and it struck us that we had a venue with a good movie projector and a good screen and good sound,” Okrent said. Continue reading →

From the Central District to Seattle Center, Scope Screenings is cultivating city’s next generation of filmmakers

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(Image: @lexscope)

What are you doing Tuesday, June 30th?

If LexScope has his way, you’re building community at Scope Screenings’ first Seattle Center event — a summer outdoor film festival version of the event.

Scope Screenings is an independent Seattle film festival building off its growth in the Central District and devoted to short form media, showcasing everything from skits to short documentaries to music videos.

Monthly screenings place an emphasis on creative projects by underrepresented communities and include meticulous programming, talks with filmmakers, and of course, popcorn. Each program runs roughly one hour, broken up by these talks and an intermission, and is designed to give people the opportunity to mingle and connect with their neighbors.

“I treat it like church in North Carolina – ‘hey, how’s everybody doing, hey,’ look at your neighbor and say hello,” said LexScope. “As soon as you shake hands with both of your neighbors, that whole show is ten times more comfortable just because you already have some kind of rapport.”

Videographer, director, producer, actor, commissioner for the Seattle Film Commission and board member at the Northwest Film Forum, LexScope co-founded Scope Screenings with Shailee Stevens back in 2022.

A “for us and by us” mentality has allowed the festival to grow and operate organically. Bouncing around to different theaters around Seattle proper, the show has settled into the Langston Hughes Center on 17th Ave S where it currently enjoys a residency.

(Image: @lexscope)

Continue reading →

Building a creative heart in the Central District, Seattle Black Film Festival returns to Langston Hughes

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Scenes from Dark and Tender: The Big Island, a follow-up to the award-winning documentary about the transformative power of touch (Image: The Chronically UnderTouched Project)

The 23rd annual Seattle Black Film Festival takes place April 30 – May 3 at the Langston Hughes Center, showcasing 55 films and four workshops throughout the event. 

Seattle has its own bustling film scene, with the Langston Hughes Center at the heart of it.

The 23rd annual Seattle Black Film Festival kicks off next week with an opening night party on Thursday, April 30th. A steadily growing event, this year’s festival will screen 55 independent films from all across the world, centering and celebrating the community.

This year’s theme is ‘The Sound of Us,’ highlighting the voices and creativity of the Black diaspora, with a nod to its setting in the Puget Sound region. Continue reading →

Ideas for ‘short-term rentals and long-term leases’ are lining up to put Capitol Hill Egyptian back into motion

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The Egyptian (Image: CHS)

The screen at The Egyptian hopefully won’t stay dark much longer.

A spokesperson for Seattle Central College that owns the 110-year-old former Masonic Temple building the movie theater calls home says the Capitol Hill school is currently “reviewing applications for short-term rentals and long-term leases of the Egyptian.” Continue reading →

SIFF exiting Capitol Hill’s Egyptian Theatre

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(Image: SIFF)

A plot twist in local cinema Seattle moviegoers had seen coming has been made official. Thursday, SIFF announced it will not be reopening its run in Capitol Hill’s Egyptian Theatre.

“For many months we prioritized finding a path to reopen this beloved venue. SIFF is currently prioritizing financial and operational sustainability above all else so the organization can continue the expansive programming offered at our additional three venues: SIFF Cinema Downtown, SIFF Cinema Uptown, and the SIFF Film Center,” SIFF executive director Tom Mara said in a statement. Continue reading →

20th anniversary HUMP! coming to Dan Savage’s neighborhood this weekend

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Capitol Hill’s very own Dan Savage is bringing a neighborhood Pride approach to this year’s 20th edition of his annual HUMP! film festival that was born in the days before “amateur” was the most popular category on Pornhub and has grown into a showcase of “unapologetically human, sex-positive short films—each five minutes or less—crafted by independent filmmakers and everyday people from around the world.”

With planned smaller neighborhood screenings in Seattle for the 20th anniversary year of the festival, of course the sex columnist/podcaster/film buff is bringing HUMP! to his home turf. HUMP! is coming to 15th Ave E’s Quality Flea Center this Saturday: Continue reading →

‘Keep making movies for the big screen’ — work underway for SIFF Egyptian reopening — UPDATE

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As Anora director Sean Baker celebrated wins for five Academy Awards including best picture Sunday night, he called on filmmakers to “keep making movies for the big screen.”

Capitol Hill’s biggest screen will soon be able to light up again.

This week marks four months since the Seattle Central College of Fine Arts Building, home to the 570-seat SIFF Cinema Egyptian movie theater was shuttered following a devastating water leak in the building’s fourth floor mainline. The leak damaged several floors of the five-story, 110-year-old structure which houses the former Masonic Temple where SIFF Cinema Egyptian operates. Continue reading →

You can be a Capitol Hill community producer and boost BIPOC and queer filmmakers behind Reckless Spirits

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A scene from RECKLESS SPIRITS

Hua

Despite the ongoing closure of the historic Egyptian Theatre, the film community on Capitol Hill continues to flourish and create as local community figure and filmmaker Vee Hua launches short film Reckless Spirits.

This “metaphysical, multilingual POC best friend comedy,” also serves as proof-of-concept and first 12 minutes of a proposed full-length feature film. Hua and their team are in the throes of crowdfunding for the project, with hopes to raise $100,000 by December 22nd.

The film is a “hilarious, trippy ride,” said Hua, Director, Co-writer, and Producer of the project. Incorporating inspiration from media like “Broad City” and Everything Everywhere All at Once, the film follows a pair of best friends who are led into “swirl-world,” of “ancestor spirits, physics, and a cult leader”, according to the project’s kickstarter page.

The main characters are “a gender-fluid Latine performance artist and a neurotic Asian American therapist,” inspired by the co-writers, Hua and Lisa Sanaye Dring. “We wanted to see characters that we felt related to us and offer representation that we haven’t seen haven’t seen on-screen before,” said Hua.

The film has “anti-colonial, anti-capitalist undercurrents” and explores themes of spirituality, particularly the tension between belief and the capitalist messaging that comes with modern, commercialized spirituality, said Hua. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Egyptian closed for ‘foreseeable future’ after burst pipe damages building home to 108-year-old theater — UPDATE

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(Image: SIFF)

(Image: SIFF)

Capitol Hill’s art house film future is murkier than ever as the silver screen at E Pine’s Egyptian Theatre could go dark for months.

SIFF says a major water pipe burst on an upper story of the Seattle Central-owned building home to the historic theater Tuesday damaged multiple floors of the 1916-era structure.

SIFF said it looks like the building could be closed for a long time. Continue reading →