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Cinema is a comfy loveseat and then you move: Grand Illusion Executive Director Brian Alter on the U District theater's rich cultural history and impending relocation

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Photos Courtesy of The Grand Illusion
Photos Courtesy of The Grand Illusion

I don't remember the first film I saw at The Grand Illusion when I came to study at the University of Washington in the early 1990s, but I do remember my reaction. It was great: The kitschy atmosphere. The red curtains. The tiny auditorium. The lobby area that looked like something between a curio shop and coffeehouse. The amazing loveseat one could disappear in while watching a movie.

Over the next three decades, I've been to The Grand Illusion more times than I can count. I've watched VHS rarities from the depths of Scarecrow Video's massive library. I've gone to archival presentations of everything from The Curse of Frankenstein to La Cage aux Folles to Bringing Up Baby to The Beyond to Do the Right Thing. It was where I first watched Glen or Glenda and Boys Don't Cry. And, like so many others, it's where I've gone almost every December to watch It's a Wonderful Life on 35mm for its annual exhibition.

Make no mistake, The Grand Illusion is a Seattle landmark, a one-of-a-kind theater that's entirely volunteer run (from programming to the concession counter to the projection booth) and celebrates cinema of all types and persuasions from around the globe. There's no other venue quite like it anywhere.

All of which makes the recent announcement that its longtime home had been sold and that it needed to move somewhat heartbreaking. Could this essential cultural Seattle destination disappear? Is it destined to be another cinema to vanish into the void of history?

Thankfully, the answer to those questions and so many others is an emphatic "no!" shouted to the entire Pacific Northwest in THX surround sound. The volunteer forces who make up The Grand Illusion's board of directors and staff are going to move it, and while a new space as of yet still has not been found, with aid from the U District Partnership, prospects are good that one will soon be secured.

I sat down with Grand Illusion Executive Director Brain Alter to discuss the theater's rich history, the upcoming move, and what's planned between the time of the venue's closure and its reopening in a new location. The following are the edited transcripts from our conversation:

Sara Michelle Fetters: Thank you for sitting down with me. I'm guessing you're crazy-busy at the moment, and not just with doing all the prep work for The Grand Illusion's impending closure in its current University District location and relocation in 2025.

Brian Alter: Yes, definitely. We're all volunteers at The Grand Illusion, as you know, so I do have a day job and other stuff going on, And then there's the planning for [the move]. It was a bunch of work just to get it to this point, and now, we're getting so near to the end of this journey and the start of a new one. It's a lot of work, yes, but we're all hanging in there. We're happy to be doing it.

SMF: Doesn't it speak to just the beauty of The Grand Illusion, though, that there are people like yourself and the other generous volunteers that put on the programming and run the theater, that you are all willing to balance your day-to-day lives and still put forth this effort to make sure this vital Seattle institution doesn't disappear?

BA: Maybe we're all a little crazy but, yeah, I'm always shocked that so many of us are still doing this. That we're making sure the theater survives. When the people who took over The Grand Illusion in 2004 and made it its own nonprofit started, and they made it all-volunteer, who knew that would work? Yet here we still are. It's incredible.

People want to come and help out. I've been here for 20 years, but there've been so many other people over the years that helped, and there's like thirty-some people right now going in every week to open the theater up, sell the tickets, and run the projectors. Then there's the programmers and the extra behind-the-scenes stuff, like the venue's maintenance. It's cool that people love the theater, and that they love it so much to get involved and keep it going.

SMF: I think everybody that I know who considers themselves a "true Seattleite" - whatever that means -has their own Grand Illusion story, one they feel is uniquely their own. I know I have mine. What is your Grand Illusion story? What is it that first brought you to the theater and then got you to the point where you were like, "I need to be involved. I need to help this theater. I need to be a part of this incredible history"?

BA: I moved to Seattle in 2002. I think it was a year before I found the theater - to see the film Badlands. I had worked at film festivals. I loved movies and loved seeing art house stuff, not just the big-budget titles. I think at some point [during] the transaction or buying a ticket I realized, "Oh! Everyone is a volunteer!"

Just being in the auditorium - it's such a small, little place with its own wonderful ambiance. Back then, everything was a 35-millimeter print. I couldn't believe a venue like this existed. And, of course, the signature loveseat was there. I probably sat there just because it was such a weird, cool thing. Why wouldn't you sit there the first time you come to visit?

Within a few months, I think I had emailed the group running the theater - it was Wiggly World back then, but now it's the Film Forum- and I was like, "How can I volunteer?" Eventually I got in on a Saturday afternoon concession shift, and then in a couple of years, I took over and became the projectionist. Those were wonderful days.

I think it was probably later in the 2000s, before 2010, maybe 2011, when the folks who had started the nonprofit were kind of starting to back off. It was time for somebody else to take over. I was willing to help out and do more, so that's when I became the general manager.

From there, I just started doing more and more things. I was the film programmer for a few years in the early 2010s. Eventually I kind of started feeling like it was time to back away a little bit. I'd been volunteering every weekend for like 15 years at that point, so I was starting to get a little burnt out. And then the pandemic hit.

I couldn't step away. I had the help shepherd the theater through that. But I did try to retire again in 2023, but that's when we news broke that the building was going to be sold. So I'm still here as the executive director. [laughs]

I guess that's the whole story. I loved the place when I first visited and now here I still am. I became an unintentional lifer. The Grand Illusion got its claws into me, and now here we are.

SMF: I think something similar happens to almost us all of us who visit The Grand Illusion. I remember that The Grand Illusion was one of the greatest little discoveries I made during my time as a student at the University of Washington. It's just this little gem of a place tucked away in a corner that looks like it should be a coffeehouse instead of a movie theater.

BA: It's definitely kind of like you walk into another little weird world or something. The Grand Illusion is such a weird little unique place.

SMF: Being an "unintentional lifer," as you say, do you see it as part of your legacy volunteering at the theater to help shepherd it to what will hopefully be its permanent home?

BA: I've never moved a theater or made a new place for one. I just work a day job that has nothing to do with working at a movie house or running a business. But while I've done a lot for the place, I guess I never really thought it would be a legacy-type thing. I tend to be fairly anonymous, and that's by choice. But now I have to do these interviews and talk to people, which is fine. And I'm happy to do it, but I've kind of always preferred to be in the background. The Grand Illusion exists because of what it is and the people who make up the audience. It's not about me being there. When we move this place and find its new home, my hope is that I can then hand the theater off to the next generation. That's what I want my legacy to be.

SMF: A crazy thing that I don't think a lot of people know: it's not like The Grand Illusion struggles to survive each month. It's a successful movie theater, which is no small thing nowadays. It's a popular theater. Screenings tend to be full.

BA: That's right. I think is probably important to note that the whole thing of us having to move [is] not because of the financials or anything. We may be a nonprofit, but as a business, we're successful, in large part thanks to those thirty-some people who show up and run the place every week. We're profitable. We're a successful place.

I mean, part of that is thanks to the programming. Trevor Brandt, the programmer, [has] tapped into a bunch of stuff. There's a good kind of cadence to it all and how the calendar works. That's a big part of it, too, just having good movies to show. So, kudos to them, the entire programming team.

Part of the reason of just going for it and announcing that we have to move is like, yes, we can continue to make money and take in donations. We're going to keep programming and showing a great variety of films all the way up to our last day in this space, January 30 of next year. This will help us when we do have to build a new auditorium.

SMF: And that brings us to another misconception, that theater is going to be 100% closed until it reopens in a new space. That's not exactly true, is it?

BA: No. It is not. It was never that we were ever going to close and cease to be an organization showing movies and that kind of stuff. We figured, if we're going to have to close, we can at least do pop-ups around town while we get the new space ready.

We're still working out those details, but Northwest Film Forum - and, let's be clear, without them, there wouldn't be a Grand Illusion, because they took it over in the '90s, fixed it up, and made a good deal to sell the infrastructure to the nonprofit that runs it now - they've been really great about wanting to help out however they can. It's in the works to kind of use them as sort of a pop-up home base. That's exciting.

I don't know what the frequency of these shows would be, but we plan on taking over one of their cinemas and show whatever movies would have been on our calendar. I don't know if it'll be a money-making type of thing, because we'd still pay rental fees - in any venue we do this at. But we want to stay on the minds of our supporters while also giving something back to the community.

The planning for all of this is still taking shape. That plan will be announced later, probably in December or January of next year. But the plan is not to close. The plan is to stay active by doing these things until we find this new place, build it, and open it up.

SMF: How important is it to maintain the ambiance and the history of the current Grand Illusion when you do move into that new space?

BA: I think it's a huge part of it. Everybody who volunteers there probably agrees that we don't want to create some swanky new space or something. We want to be able to kind of funkify it up a little bit. We're still going to have the red curtains all over the walls and the tin ceiling. But the seats that we have now? They're so old, so I think we would get new ones, but we would want to make sure that they are still decorative in the same way as they are now. Just modern and probably way more comfortable. [laughs]

But, yes, definitely we want to keep that ambiance [and] the whole vibe of the current auditorium. I think as long as we don't push to grow too much bigger, we will be able to maintain that kind of feel.

SMF: Does that mean the loveseat makes the move?

BA: I don't know if the loveseat would make the move, but I would like to see the new space have a love seat. Just probably a new one. We'll see. It hasn't really come up yet, but do I feel like that's part of the charm of The Grand Illusion is that there's a loveseat in there. So, I'll try. I'll definitely make my case for it, and we'll see if everybody agrees. I mean, it's just two seats. It's not like we're putting in a row of love seats. [laughs]

SMF: At the very least, shouldn't the original loveseat be donated to one our local museums?

BA: I think so. We'll have to see. Maybe we could get it in MOHAI or something.

SMF: I think another vital part of The Grand Illusion and its history is that it has served all of Seattle's rich cultural makeup and diversity. You show everything from archival works to new releases, to the latest LGBTQ films to Grindhouse Cinema. You have the Erotic Film Festival. How vital is it to maintain those relationships with the cultural aspect of Seattle's rich cinema history when you move?

BA: We've always tried to show as wide an array of movies as possible. It seems like Seattle [has] shown up for all of the stuff we program. I feel like people appreciate that we're showing such variety. It's important to us from the philosophical programming perspective to showcase everything: wide viewpoints, different films made by a wide array of people. The stories, and the actual filmmakers, they aren't just cis, white, heterosexual men. This is important to me. It's important to us at The Grand Illusion. As long as Seattle thinks this type of diverse cultural variety is important enough to support us, we'll continue to program our calendar that way. Absolutely.

SMF: The most important question: How can people help?

BA: There's a link on our website. It's a little bulletin at the top that says we're moving, and you can find the whole story there. It's like, here's what happened and here's what you can do to help.

But the biggest thing? Keep seeing movies at The Grand Illusion while we're still operating and in our current location! The last screenings will be on January 30. While we will be closed in February, hopefully during that period, we'll kick off this Northwest Film Forum pop-up screening schedule. So while we would have stopped at our current location, we'll have something new happening for fans of the theater already planned and programmed.

People can also donate to help with the move. We've got a link to donate also on our website.

Also, while we've had a more expanded membership program with different participation levels, we've minimized and streamlined that to the single $40 level for right now, which is completely tax-deductible. That's another great way to help out the theater. It's kind of a donation, but instead of just donating, you get a discounted ticket at the screenings, and we'll be able to honor that discount at pop-ups and our other events.

But I do think the biggest thing is just coming to see movies and helping us enjoy our last few months at our current location. Come out and visit us. You'll have a great time.

The Grand Illusion is open with a full calendar of films and special events though January 30, 2025. For more information on the theater, its calendar of events, tickets, and how to get more involved with its upcoming move, please go to https://grandillusioncinema.org

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