Let’s remember when the very first Seattle International Film Festival opened, on this day in 1976 (May 14)
SIFF is easily my favorite arts festival. It’s the most attended film festival in North America, but it wasn’t always.
Per HistoryLink:
On May 14, 1976, the first Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) opens at the historic Moore Egyptian Theatre at 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street. The festival’s founders, Dan Ireland (d. 2016) and Darryl MacDonald, had taken over the Moore Theatre the previous year, cleaned it up, installed a new screen and sound system, and reopened it as the The Moore Egyptian in December 1975. They show a mix of classic Hollywood revivals and foreign films before launching the film festival, which will run from May 14 through May 31, 1976, and features films from several countries. SIFF stays at the Moore Egyptian for five seasons before relocating in 1981 to the Masonic Temple on Capitol Hill, which will be renovated by Ireland and MacDonald and renamed the Egyptian. The Seattle International Film Festival will grow to be one of the nation’s largest and continues to bring a wide variety of foreign and domestic films, both well-known and obscure, to Northwest audiences.
But wait, there’s more!
Although when Ireland and MacDonald leased the Moore Theatre in late 1975 there were several local theaters showing films of the type found at festivals, there was at that time, in Seattle, no annual festival as such. Ireland had helped program a festival in Vancouver B.C., shortly before and, in his words, the idea of a festival in Seattle “was always in the back of my mind” (Dan Ireland interview). But the two knew that when it came to film, Seattle was a “competitive town,” and if they announced a festival before having films committed, there was a substantial risk that someone would beat them to it. Said Ireland:
“So we kept it quiet. I basically went around and booked the festival with Darryl, through foreign contacts, through distributors in town, with the promise that they couldn’t tell anyone, and they all agreed to it. So, when we literally made our announcement that we were doing the first Seattle International Film Festival, they couldn’t do anything about it — otherwise we would have been jumped by someone else” (Dan Ireland interview).
The newspapers of the day reflect the secrecy, perhaps even subterfuge, that Ireland and MacDonald felt necessary to avoid being “jumped.” A small item in John Hartl’s “At the Movies” column in The Seattle Times on April 10, 1976, read:
“The Moore Egyptian Theatre is putting together a festival of ‘lost movies’ that have never been shown in Seattle, starting May 14. Most of the films will play one or two nights; tentatively scheduled are ‘Hedda,’ with Glenda Jackson, Louis Malle’s ‘Black Moon,’ Claude Chabrol’s ‘Just Before Nightfall,’ Luis Bunuel’s ‘Phantom of Liberty,’ Maximilian Schell’s ‘End of the Game,’ Lina Wertuller’s ‘All Screwed Up,’ Rainier Fassbinder’s “Fox and His Friends,’ and Dusan Makavejev’s ‘Sweet Movie.’ Details will be announced later” (Hartl, “At the Movies,” April 10, 1976).
No mention of an “international film festival,” much less the “First Seattle International Film Festival.” Just a casual press handout that a handful of “lost movies” were to be shown. But the truth was not long in coming; just two weeks later, on April 25, 1976, the headline on Hartl’s column announced, “First Seattle Film Festival Starts May 14 at the Moore.”
As SIFF begins another season in just two days, I’d invite everyone to follow the SunBreak’s SIFF coverage.
