SIFF to Eastside: Drop Dead
Today's press launch for the 34th annual Seattle International Film Festival confirmed a few facts and omitted a few key points. We already knew that the WTO movie Battle in Seattle would be opening the fest, which runs May 22 through June 15. Today we got the more-or-less final list of titles. All that info, plus the actual schedule, should go live on SIFF's Web site on Thurs. May 8 (when the Times also publishes its "guide," i.e. the canned and uniformly positive blurbs written by SIFF). Our more critical SIFF guide comes out Wed. May 21.
Today was a chance to hear festival director Carl Spence and his minions read highlights from three-by-five notecards, watch a few trailers, and see a movie. Earlier this week, however, I sat down for coffee with the gang and heard a very surprising admission from Spence, indicating a trend I never though SIFF would consider. Which you can read after the jump...
SIFF is getting smaller this year, Spence told me, as tallied by the actual number of features, docs, and shorts in the fest. His rough count now--to be confirmed by May 8--is around 242 movies (shorts excluded), down from around 287 last year.
This is news. For years, loyal SIFFgoers (myself included) have complained about festival bloat--too many movies to see, and screened at venues too far-flung to see efficiently.
Well, the SIFFmeisters apparently heard that latter kvetch, too. The fest has retreated from the Eastside, where Lincoln Square was one of its primary venues last year. Excluding the one-off venues for special events, this year's primary circuit will be: Egyptian, Harvard Exit, Pacific Place, Uptown (it's back!), and SIFF Cinema itself. By my count, that's five. Northwest Film Forum will run one week of SIFF programming May 23-30. We also get the Cinerama back for the last three days of the fest (taking an unprofitable hiatus, no doubt, from Indiana Jones IV--than you, Paul Allen).
As Spence explained over coffee, this gives SIFF a smaller footprint this year--meaning less schlepping and scurrying between tightly scheduled screenings, less commuting and downtime. Great, we're all in favor. But on the downside, Bellevue and other Eastside residents will have to brave traffic, then parking, to get to our metropolitan cluster of screens.
And what about the U District? Gone this year is the Neptune. Meaning for students and other North End dwellers, they, too, will have to head farther south for SIFF. Last year, Neptune included, there were six primary venues. Now all five are downtown and on Cap Hill.
Does this give SIFF a smaller carbon footprint? I'm no scientist, but I'll say yes. Unless, of course, you don't live within the privileged green circle of screens.
May 6 Addendum
Reading some of the comments below, it's clear that Eastsiders want to see good movies, and don't appreciate having to drive across the lake to do so. Downtown Bellevue is booming, and the now-shuttered Bellevue Galleria--which always had trouble booking good flicks--is being converted to more profitable office space. Lincoln Square enjoys a better location, and is attached by skybridge to Bellevue Square (and all its free parking), though I find the place pretty charmless.
Where else can you see a movie in the 425 area code? The closure of Redmond Town Center came as a surprise to me. Smaller venues like Kirkland Parkplace and the Big Picture Redmond continue to eke out business. The Factoria and Crossroads multiplexes are showing their age, and development pressures may soon bring condos and/or commercial buildings to those sites. Totem Lake was showing Bollywood movies when I last checked--does anyone know its situation now?
Years ago, though few may remember, there was an Eastside Film Festival held--just once? in 1997?--at Meydenbauer Center, which I recall having a fairly decent screen and good sightlines. (Another plus: it's closer to the transit hub, though that couldn't save Bellevue Galleria.) In fact, I'm pretty sure I was the only member of the press to attend the weekend fest, making me its best customer. It was organized by Cinema Seattle, the parent of SIFF.
But here, I think, is the crux issue for Eastside filmgoers: Though population density is increasing, 425-ers still live in a much more child- and family-centric suburban milieu. Parents, with most of them both working, return home tired after long days at the office (plus the dreadful cross-lake commute, if they're so unlucky). Do they really want to hire a babysitter, then turn around and go out again to see a movie? This is why prosperous households have home entertainment centers with giant flat-screen TVs for Netflix, cable, and on-demand.
The Eastside isn't a Stepford-style cultural wasteland. I'm sure plenty of cineastes over there own the entire Criterion Collection of DVDs. And everything shown at SIFF eventually makes its way to video, especially if you own a multi-region DVD player. (By contrast, we in Seattle live with greater population density, fewer children per household, shorter commute times, more and closer cinema locations, and--many of us--in small apartments and condos that we are delighted to escape for a movie.)
And to clarify a cheeky headline, yes, Carl Spence of SIFF did mention that the fest hopes to return to the Eastside. I have no doubt he's sincere. The real challenge for him and all 425-dwelling moviegoers, for all the factors cited above, is finding such a venue.
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