OPENING AT THE GRAND ILLUSION!

[WigglyWorld]

WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS!

The GRAND ILLUSION CINEMA's GRAND RE-OPENING GALA happens Friday, June
26th at 8pm.

Host Randy Finley (founder of the original Grand Illusion and Seven
Gables Chain) will inaugurate the re-opening with a brief history of the
30 year old cinema.  Thanks to the installation of our upgraded and
improved projection booth, the feature film of the evening is an
extremely rare and special 35mm screening of a program we would not have
been able to show on our former system:

BUSTER KEATON'S THE CAMERAMAN, preceded by a beautiful new 35mm print of
Keaton's short, ONE WEEK.  

A celebration of the theatre, its history, and our new look will
commence in the cafe with food and drink after the films.  

TICKETS ARE $25 and available now at Scarecrow Video as well as the
Grand Illusion.

The remodelling and gala event have many to thank, especially the King
County Arts Commission, Hanauer Family Foundation, Microsoft Foundation,
the many volunteers who helped with the renovation, our loyal patrons,
Randy Finley, Alpha Cine, and Scarecrow Video.  
*	*	*

STARTING SATURDAY, June 27th...LOCAL SIGHTINGS!!!!

The Grand Illusion is proud to present a double feature of films made
here in Seattle:  

THE UNDERSTUDY, a feature by Scott Crocker is a delightful screwball
comedy about Sam Bennet, a frustrated, near-alcoholic thespian doomed to
play understudy to Hamlet in an extended-run show.  Distraught over his
role in Life, Sam tries to bury himself at sea, only to wash back up on
shore.  His fateful rescuer is a lonely Hungarian woman, Marta, who has
immigrated to the US with her criminally-minded, deceitful husband,
Arpad.  When Sam awakens in her apartment, however, he is completely
amnesiac--save for a mutated memory of himself as "Ham", and a working
knowledge of all the lines from the Elizabethan tragedy he'd never been
allowed to perform.  An unusually accomplished first feature, THE
UNDERSTUDY boasts stunning cinematography, a complex interweaving of
bawdy Shakespeare and modern life, and an infectious original score
inspired by Gypsy jigs and reels.  Plays daily at 5&9pm with weekend
matinees at 3pm.

NEW SUMMER SHORTS PROGRAM, an 84 minute program featuring a unique
selection of nine shorts, four of which were post-produced with help
from WigglyWorld.  Todd Downing's DIRTY BABY DOES FIRE ISLAND (NY)
concerns a doll who encounters gay sex, takes poppers, and goes more
than a little mad.  Katherine Enos' PLEASURES OF THE BLINKING EYELIDS is
a meditation on movement and being burnished by the libidinous
ontologies of philospher Alphonso Lingis.  PROGRESS, by Web Crowell, is
an epic story of technology gone Awry, and two Luddites who are,
tragically, Mechanical.  Jesse Howard's STRIKE MY KEY explores a 13 year
old girl's quest for understanding music.  Blake Hellman's COOKING UP A
STORM is the story of a father and son who cook up some "rainy day
cookies" from a magic cookbook.  Karen Rodriguez's BACK SEAT VIEW is a
film about an 8 year old girl's assimilation of adult events into her
child world, as she acts out one morning at a church bazaar, and John
Irick's COMMON GROUND is a dramatic short about a son confronting his
father on his visit home.  The finale of the program is THE REASONING OF
ARRANGEMENTS, by Robert Graves (GI Late Nite Programmer), about a hat, a
coat, and a cane.  SUMMER SHORTS play daily at 7pm with 1pm weekend
matinees.  

THE LOCAL SIGHTINGS PROGRAM WAS SPONSORED BY THE WA STATE ARTS
COMMISSION, WIGGLYWORLD STUDIOS, and THE KING COUNTY ARTS COMMISSION.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
******** NORTHWEST FILM FORUM ***********
WIGGLYWORLD studios/GRAND ILLUSION cinema
1004 Turner Way East
Seattle, WA  98112
office: 206/329-2629
cinema: 206/523-3935
fax: 206/329-1193
http://www.wigglyworld.org
email: wigworld at nwlink.com