[Film reel clicking] ♪♪
-The Grand
Illusion Cinema it's a small nonprofit,
volunteer-operated movie theater in the U District.
It was started in 1970 by a guy named Randy Finley,
and it was called the Movie House back then.
And he kind of recognized that there needs to be a spot
for students to come see movies.
It was kind of like he saw an opportunity,
I guess, with the market to be like, oh,
I can show these movies that like nobody else is showing.
And Randy operated it probably until like the late 70s.
And I think that's when it became
The Grand Illusion, and that's when Paul Doyle took over
and renamed it The Grand Illusion.
-It's about bringing in a community
and having that experience that you really
you're not going to get it with streaming.
You only get it with a room full of people,
and it's just big enough to be a home. ♪♪
-What is great about the venues and what was great
about the Grand Illusion,
what it's its intimacy because it's so small.
There's like 68 seats in the place.
Yeah, it's a small screen, but you're
there's not a bad seat in the house
and you're in the movie and you're experiencing it
in a close proximity to the rest of the audience.
-It came here in 1977 as a student
at the University of Washington,
and this was the very first cinema in Seattle I came to,
and I was, I loved it, and they also showed very,
special movies from all over the world,
which is was already hard to find in the US at the time.
-I think we just bring one huge sense of community into it.
We play a lot of movies that don't get like huge
distribution, so people, like,
they will come here specifically to see it.
-We're not really tied to the new releases,
the Hollywood blockbusters or anything like that. So.
So we can show older repertory films, classic stuff,
new foreign and independent things all the time.
-There's Kung Fu Clubhouse, there's VHS Über Ales,
which they have their own
little scene that they bring it here
and people come here to enjoy it.
I think it's a space
where people can really enjoy, like the full spectrum
of really high brow and really low brow,
which always existed.
And I feel like it really thrives.
But I think the thing has changed is just
the audiences has really grown,
and we have a lot of loyal people.
-I've been sitting out here
since 4:00 hoping to get a ticket.
I was foolish and did not purchase
my ticket ahead of time,
so I'm participating in the Grand Illusions
time-honored tradition of the standby line.
-Theaters are rare enough,
but like a theater like this is really rare.
And the staff is amazing.
The people I've met,
it's just like it's a cool community
and it's just such a nice group of people
and everybody's really passionate about it.
It's amazing.
-I love this theater
that's about,
you know, being in community with other people
who are interested in the same kinds of things.
And actually standing in line and talking with
my neighbors in line was a huge part of it.
Some of the first,
most interesting movies I saw, I saw here, it's right here.
-It's right in the U District.
It's easily accessible by public transit.
It's a stone's throw away from UW.
It's not shiny and brand new.
It's, you know, it's wonderfully scuffed up.
It's it's like a comfortable pair of jeans. [seat squeaks]
That's something that I'll miss about
having the Grand Illusion be here.
-Well, it's such a funky building,
and I spent so much time here.
And, like, there's weird crawl spaces
and things like that in the booth.
Like, the walls are covered with stuff.
I hung up while I was here projecting.
You know, it's a lot of pictures.
You know, it's a picture of me and Quentin Tarantino
standing in front of the Grand Illusion, you know?
So had a lot of good times here.
-That's kind of the name of the game around here.
It's just like random stuff.
Nobody knows where it came from. I mean,
it's one of my favorite spots,
you know, to ever hang out in, yeah.
You just kind of absorb it all.
All that weird stuff hanging all over the place.
And I mean, it's still, you know, it's
just a little room, but, like, hard to imagine
a new place having the same, the soul of it.
It's like a place you kind of want to show somebody if
they've never been here for the first time.
You want to be like, oh, you should check it,
check out the booth.
Because it's like really cool in there.
There's all this stuff on the walls
and this big machinery and stuff like that.
But I would say it's like where the magic happens,
you know. [unintelligible staticky speach]
-I'm talking about the building alone.
-I know very well what you’re talking about-
[traffic] -This week's probably been a little harder,
you know, just knowing that the end is near and,
all that kind of stuff. But it's not.
It's not like there's, like, some good stuff happening.
So I know it's not the end of it.
It's mostly just kind of like,
oh, there's a lot of memories here,
you know, a lot of connections with people and just,
the routine of it, I guess, you know.
But yeah, definitely, definitely
♪♪ getting to me
a little bit that it's kind of coming
to an end, at least at this location, to say-
[unintelligible] [applause]
-Hey, everybody, thanks for being here for our,
final night of shows here at 1403 northeast 50th Street.
We've been it's been a movie theater here for,
like, 54 years, so, like, you can't really,
just move into some new spot and be like, oh, hey, it's
the movie theater again. It's just like you remember it.
So, you know, whenever we move,
a lot of stuff
is going to change,
but it's still like, you know, it's a shoe box
and there speakers and a screen and all that.
And, it's like an immersive experience.
Sorry. [voice wavers]
But, yeah,
the plan has always been to, to move it, move the theater,
and, yeah, I appreciate everybody being here.
And, we'll get the show on the road, so thank you.
[applause] -I was born in Seattle.
I lived my whole life here.
I've watched people die,
Buildings get knocked down,
everything has its time, and everything has a lifespan.
And eventually it goes away.
And hopefully people make something,
you know, really interesting that happens here.
And maybe they don't.
And that's what happens. ♪♪ [light switch clicks, door squeaks]