- SIFF Uptown Director of Operations Holden Payne. Photo by Michael
“Bob and the Monster” a documentary SIFF is set to run next week illuminated the big screen at the Uptown, a rehearsal run of sorts, while recessed in the shadows of the house, Holden Payne, SIFF Uptown’s director of operations, spoke hurriedly into his cell phone making sure last-minute details were taken care of. The lobby, where in about six hours, cash registers would be buzzing and popcorn popping, was a staging area for supplies and ebony marquee letters.
Outside crews from Strong Painting and Neon & Electric were making some final touches. Strong had transformed the pink facade to sea blue and Neon & Electric transformed the marquee adding the SIFF logo and making sure all would illuminate on this the first night of Uptown’s reopening.
“The challenge has been the aggressive timeline we took on,” Payne said. “But everyone has gone above and beyond, everyone pulled together. And the last three days (where the sun shone with no sign of rain) we got a lot done.”
Payne’s favorite part of the renovation? “The marquee. The building itself looks good and, no offense to its former purple and pink, but it had looked like a Nagel painting.”
In preparation for tonight’s opening of the Seattle International Film Festival’s new film headquarters, the former Uptown Theater in lower Queen Anne got some new curb appeal.
- A new SIFF sign to adorn the theater.
The venue, which shut down late last year, and then resuscitated by SIFF early this summer, lost its dingy pink paint and was brushed with sea blue hues. It received some new signage too. SIFF’s year-round venue will now have three screens. At McCaw Hall, where it had been leasing space, SIFF offered just one screen.
- Lookin’ good.
The opening film? That honor goes to “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” playing today (Thursday) at 8 p.m. The film is part of a three-day sing-along film tour. It continues with “Purple Rain,” at 9:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 21, then “Grease” at 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22. For each there will be interactive props and sing-along subtitles.
After the sing-alongs, there will be five days of classics, which were submitted to SIFF through the recent Uptown Memories contest. The classics will screen Oct. 23-27.
Admission for the classics are $5 or FREE with any same-day receipt from any Queen Anne area business.
The featured films are:
Citizen Kane (1941), Singin’ In the Rain (1952), West Side Story (1961), The Godfather (1972), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), LA Confidential (1997), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
Visit http://www.siff.net/cinema/seriesDetail.aspx?FID=255 for times.
Photos by Cory Bergman and Michael.