PTFF News
Newsletter Archives
10 July 2007
ContentsUptown Theatre Joins Film Festival
The Port Townsend Film Festival and the Uptown Theatre have joined forces for the eighth annual weekend celebration of film scheduled for September 28-30.
The Uptown, located on Lawrence street in the uptown business district, will serve as the festival's largest venue, replacing the high school auditorium which has been used the past five years.
The festival's most recently-established venue called the Drop-In Theatre is a more or less floating facility developed in close approximation to the larger facility and will be housed this year in the Port Townsend Community Center, also in the Uptown business district. It operates on Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons only in a continuous-run format that is free to anyone interested.
The festival also plans to block off a portion of Polk Street for the weekend to provide space for food and other associated vendors.
"We both think by returning to the business district proper, we'll be able to create a similar block party atmosphere that we have downtown on Taylor Street," Peter Simpson, director of the festival, and Sharon Wiley, owner of the Uptown, told representatives of Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce at their Monday luncheon.
"If we can use this opportunity to attract some much deserved attention to the Uptown District, that's what we would like to do," Sharon Wiley added.
It will also make access to the two centers of activity more easily available. "But we'll still have shuttle service," Simpson noted.
Other venues used or created by the festival include the Rose Theatre and its companion, the Rosebud Cinema, on Taylor street downtown. The Pope Marine Park building across from City Hall on Water and Madison streets will be once again converted into a theatre for the weekend and Taylor street will be blocked off between Water and Washington streets for festival goers to assemble for theatre access, social activity, usic performances, and watch the evening outdoor theatre while seated on straw bales and other make-shift seating.
The festival has grown considerably in its eight year history. The first festival in 2000 included the two Rose theatres, the Taylor Street outdoor theatre, and the gymnasium at the Port Townsend Community Center uptown which was magically transformed into a 350-seat theatre. But it took scores of volunteers a full week to build it and three days to take it down.
"After two years, volunteers became less eager," Simpson said. That's when the festival moved its largest venue to the high school auditorium.
In 2000, the festival showed a total of 24 feature-length films.
In 2006, the festival presented 27 feature-length films, seven programs of short films, six panel discussions and two workshops, the live broadcast of the National Public Radio-program, West Coast Live!, and a Sunday morning awards program. Another 18 films were screened at the Drop-In Theatre.
"One thing we've been noted for is our blend of yesterday and today, classic and new films, historic theatres and converted venues," according to Simpson, citing a 2005 quote from Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times movie critic. "The Port Townsend Film Festival always takes you on a journey backward, in the best possible way . . . ."
"Having the Uptown join our annual festival is important to us if for no other reason than to help us maintain our tradition of honoring both the past and the present," Simpson said. "I think it's a terrific partnership."
"Our family has been in the theater business in this town for more than 60 years and we're looking forward to this exciting new chapter in the history of the Uptown," Sharon Wiley said.
The 60-year-old Uptown was also a converted facility, created out of an old dance hall built by the Oddfellows Lodge. It eventually was turned into a roller skating rink with music provided by an organ located in a Romeo and Juliet-style balcony, part of which is still visible. The original hardwood floor is still in place, having been covered by a raked, or sloped, theatre floor.
The Uptown was developed in 1947 by Sharon Wiley's parents, Ernie and Geneve Thompson, who sold the business to their daughter and her husband, Dick Wiley, in 1969.
"Because it will bring the festival centers of operation as close together as they've always been, this partnership is the best thing that's happened to us in years," Simpson noted. "It's one of those win-win situations."
��Lou Gossett Jr Returns to Port TownsendIn January of this year, actor Lou Gossett Jr returned to Port Townsend after a twenty-six year absence. In 1981, Gossett and fellow actors Richard Gere and Debra Winger spent most of the spring filming AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN at Fort Worden State Park and various Port Townsend locations.
As Gossett walked around the Fort, he displayed a clear and accurate memory for the location of specific scenes in the film. He remembered the barracks door from which his first shot was filmed. He pointed to a spot on the parade ground where David Keith, doing pushups, referred to ���that bodacious set of ta-tas��� of Debra Winger walkin by. ��He recognized without hesitation the balloon hanger that has since morphed into McCurdy Pavilion where he and Gere duked it out at the end of the film.
Gossett was not here out of nostalgia, but rather to film a special feature segment of the 25th anniversary edition of the film on DVD. Paramount flew Gossett to Port Townsend for the segment that includes a number of Port Townsend residents, most of whom served as extras in the film: Lowell and Barbara Bogart, Donna Corey, Ruffin LeBrane, Tim Jones, Brent Shirley and Peter Simpson.
Other special features on the anniversary disc include a running commentary by Director Taylor Hackford, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN: 25 years later, true stories of military romance, the music of the film, Gere and Gossett: Hand-to-Hand Combat, and a photo gallery.
Copies of the film are available
at the usual stores. PTFF has two copies in its film library available for
check out by members.