Of course Portland should be the testing grounds for the concept of independent and foreign films shown in intimate, stylish theaters with good, locally-sourced food, wine, and a full bar. We are a film town, among the highest per capita filmgoing audience of any US city, with organizations like Peripheral Produce, presenters like Cinema Project, and the nationally-known NW Film Center that matches in programming the good that it does in both education and making filmmaking resources available to Portland’s tremendous pool of filmmaking talent.
We have had the McMenamins theaters bringing the funk (and the food and beer) to the movie-going experience, but Living Room Theaters (341 SW 10th) is heading in a different direction.
Felix Martin, Ernesto Rimoch and Diego Rimoch (two of whom are accomplished filmmakers) asked themselves, “What do we hate about going to the movies?” and set out to answer their complaints point by point. Why couldn’t the lobby be a place for lingering before and after the movies? Why can’t movie food reflect the quality of cuisine to which Portlanders are accustomed? Why can’t the theaters themselves feel more intimate and welcoming? And how can we see more of the kinds of independent and foreign films we crave on the big screen?
In the space designed by Karen Niemi, associate principal at Fletcher Farr Ayotte, the lobby promises to be extraordinary. On our hard-hat tour this week, we could get a sense of the scale of the beautiful undulating cedar wall�LR calls it a “curtain”�that winds from the sidewalk on Stark in through the lounge area and out again onto NW 10th. Designed to make lingering desirable, with living room-style furniture groupings a granite fireplace and huge windows open to 10th and Stark, the feel of the lounge (a.k.a. the theater lobby) could be both be-seen and cozy.
The theaters themselves (there are six) each seat fifty in both large reclining seats and at intimate low-lit tables. Waitstaff will bring drinks (there is a full bar) and selections from the menu that include various tapas developed, as the chef, Fabrizio says, so that they are healthy, can be eaten without utensils, and won’t make a mess on your flash ensemble. We tried crab in rice wrappers and Thai salad rolls served not with peanut sauce but soy.
The difference here is in both style and substance. While the theaters promise a more high-end theatergoing experience than currently available in Portland�and this may be the initial conversation that many have about the Living Room Theaters�what’s really happening at Living Room Theaters is on the screen. And you will exclusively see independent and foreign films, classic films and local films at the Living Room Theaters.
Portland’s Living Room Theater is the first all-digital and only-digital theater in the country. The interesting tandem bit about this is that the owners have developed a way to inexpensively digitize independent films, in place of the expensive prints that even the most cash-strapped independents have to commit to in order to get their films seen. Their proposed network of Living Room Theaters that can screen films of independents like our Matt McCormick, Nick Peterson, Andy Blubaugh, and Holly Andres will be the real boon for both viewers (who don’t have to wait for film festivals to get a good dose of independent and foreign films) and independent filmmakers who will have new audience and avenues of distribution.
During the hard-hat tour this week, the place was swarming with more crews shoehorned into a small space, stringing cables, spackling walls, dragging important things here and there and climbing scaffolding. The flurry of activity is at a peak as the theaters are scheduled to open with a soft launch in just weeks.
Located in the West End, neighbor to the incoming Ace Hotel, to Masu, Odessa, and American Apparel, and just across Burnside from Powell’s and the new Gerding Theater at the Armory, Living Room Theaters seems positioned to be a jewelbox both in form and function.
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