The Northwest Film Forum, an organization dedicated to cinematic arts since 1995, is moving its Capitol Hill headquarters from The Little Theater, at 608 19th Ave. E., to 12th Avenue and Madison Street, in the building recently occupied by the Seattle Art Academy.
The move will triple the organization's space, providing two theaters, workshop space, film postproduction facilities, offices for filmmakers and more administrative space.
Two theaters in the new headquarters will be equipped for 35mm Dolby. The larger, 120-seat theater, also will have live performance space. The smaller, 49-seat theater will be dedicated to movies, but can be used as a lecture hall.
"It's really exciting," said Mary Erickson, director of publicity and promotion. "Right now we are in a really cramped space and it is harder to operate."
WigglyWorld Studios - Northwest Film Forum's production arm and the state's largest filmmakers' cooperative - will expand to include dedicated workshop space and more post-production suites.
The current facilities offer one filmmaker computer station, part of NWFF's mission to encourage and support independent filmmakers. The new facility will have three or four offices that filmmakers can rent with fax, copying and printing facilities, in addition to editing suites.
"It really helps local filmmakers get a jump on the business side of what they are doing," Erickson said.
Besides The Little Theater, the cinema also operates the Grand Illusion theater in the University District. After the move, the Northwest Film Forum will give up The Little Theater.
"We are not sure of plans for the old space," Erickson said. "We want an arts organization to take it over so the theater remains intact."
With a love for film, a county grant and an idea called WigglyWorld Studios, Northwest Film Forum began at the end of 1994. That's when Jaimie Hook and Deborah Girdwood used a King County Arts Commission grant to buy an editing table that they could offer free to Seattle filmmakers.
Less than two years later Hook learned that the Grand Illusion theater in the University District was for sale, and despite slender finances terms were reached to buy the 70-seat theater. The theater provided a public face for WigglyWorld, a regular income and a place to offer film classes and promote filmmaking in Seattle.
WigglyWorld bought the space that became The Little Theatre in 1998, and the theater opened its doors in January 1999. The 64-seat space has been used for theatrical performances and motion pictures.
The two theaters are the only independently owned art-house cinemas in Seattle. Many films shown at either location have never been seen before in the United States, while others may have had only a single festival showing. Screening these films is yet another part of the Northwest Film Forum's mission. Northwest Film Forum became the umbrella organization uniting WigglyWorld Studios and the two theaters.
The Northwest Film Forum artists work to make films that are not being made by mainstream cinema. An effort is made to promote a community-based vision of local filmmaking in the growing, and even thriving, Seattle film scene.
Seattle is a great climate if someone wants to use film as a form of expression, as an emotional form. WigglyWorld works to inspire local filmmakers to stay in the city if they are interested in film as a local art form. Mainstream filmmakers will likely need to go elsewhere to be successful.
Education is an important part of Northwest Film Forum's mission, and in the new headquarters workshop space will not compete with theater space. There also will be a dedicated film vault to house the organization's growing 700-title archive.
"We will be able to host more events with and in the Seattle film community," Erickson said. "We can collaborate with other organizations more easily than we can now."
The space also will provide a permanent office for Three Dollar Bill Cinema, sponsors of the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
No work has begun yet on the new space, which Erickson describes as "an empty shell," but it will host an open house Saturday, Dec. 6, from noon to 3 p.m.
"We are all really excited," Erickson said. "Everybody is happy that we are at the point where we can expand. People are really excited about having more facilities available and being able to utilize the organization more."
More photos of the space, and information about Northwest Film Forum, are available on the Web at www.nwfilmforum.org.
