"In My Opinion . . ."
May 30, 2000
Seattle has long been viewed by the rest of the nation, and perhaps even the world, as a movie-friendly town. Not only is it a great place to film movies ("Sleepless in Seattle," "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "It Happened at the World's Fair," and "10 Things I Hate About You," to name a few), Seattle is a great place to show films. Something about the people and their eclectic tastes makes this city a director's dream.
Take the case of the movie, "The Stunt Man," starring Peter O'Toole. Director Richard Rush took 9 years to get his project to the screen. Filmed in 1978. Fox would not release it until 1980. In fact, if it hadn't been for Seattle, the film would never have made it out of the can, much less into the Acadamy Awards Winners' Circle. The movie had only one venue: the Guild 45 theater in Seattle. The quirky, dark little comedy attracted a near cult-following from the university crowd as well as the general public. After weeks and months of success in its lone theaterhouse, the movie finally attracted the interest of "outsiders." Instead of languishing on the shelf gathering dust, the film gathered national and international attention and then awards. In 1981 it was even nominated for three Acadamy Awards.
My contention is that Seattlites love movies, not Hollywood. What other place would have given birth to Scarecrow Videos? Where else but in Seattle can you go to a mom and pop grocery store like Ken's Market, peruse it's limited video rental selections, and come away with "The Kingdom," a 5 and 1/2 hour subtitled Danish film? I was so shocked to find it there the first day of its US release that I quickly phoned a Danish friend at the university of Michigan to see if he, too, could get it. No. He had scoured the city (certainly a sophisticated, cultured campus town) to no avail. In the end, I had to send him a bootleg copy of the movie so that he could finally see it. It took months and months before that film reached the shelves of art house video stores in the rest of the country, but my corner store had it on day one. Why?
I questioned Greg Giles, the owner of the store, about his incredibly broad selection of international and independent films. He explained that the local distributer had done demographic studies of the area and was able to provide the folks on Queen Anne Hill with movies to fit their tastes. Apparently we have good taste!
This acceptance of non-mainstream movies and our willingness to experiment with film might help to explain the abundance of film festivals and screenings in Seattle. The Seattle International Film Festival (now in its 26th year) may be the grand-daddy of them all, but it is by no means the only one. The Polish Film Festival, The Jewish Film Festival, and the Seattle Women in Film Festival are a few of the larger events. Perhaps the "My First Film Festival" put on by my son for his senior project will become a time-honored tradition as well. It certainly fills a void, since youth-produced films have not previously had a serious venue in this city. Perhaps someday I'll walk into Ken's and find one of William's films prominently displayed on the shelf. That would truly be cool.