Celluloid Seattle: A City at the Movies was the first exhibit to examine the city’s relationship with film. Curated by celebrated Seattle critic Robert Horton, this unique exhibition explored both the image of Seattle captured in films, and how the idea of going to the movies has changed in the city over the years.
From a far-flung Western outpost to being hip, grunge-loving and trendy, Seattle’s image in the movie imagination has changed over the years. Likewise, the city’s residents’ movie-going habits have changed with popular culture from the grand single-screen downtown palaces to mega-multiplexes and back to the intimate theaters of nonprofit film societies.
Along with film clips and historic artifacts, the exhibit allowed visitors to truly engage with the historic movie experience through a set of recreated mini-theatres, interactive games, and activity kiosks.
Throughout the years, Seattle has been imagined in many different ways. Celluloid Seattle highlighted those films and television shows.
Seattle was initially represented as a gritty frontier town, but that all changed with the 1962 World’s Fair.
Edison shorts
Tugboat Annie
The Far Country
North to Alaska
It Happened at the World’s Fair
In the 1970s and 80s, depictions of Seattle changed from economically-strapped and scruffy to a stylish film-noir setting.
McQ
Scorchy
Harry and the Hendersons
Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Parallax View
Cinderella Liberty
Streetwise
American Heart
Fabulous Baker Boys
House of Games
Trouble in Mind
The Slender Thread
At the turn of the 1990s, Seattle suddenly became hip, and movies followed to take advantage of it’s it factor.
Say Anything…
Georgia
Life or Something Like It
Sleepless in Seattle
Disclosure
Firewall
Assassins
The Ring
Mad Love
Singles
The Vanishing
10 Things I Hate About You
Highway
Eclipse
Love Happens
Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me
50/50
Chronicle
Seattle has always had its homegrown filmmakers who have created their own authentic versions of the city.
Black and Decker Hedgetrimmer Murders
Beyond Kabuki
Shredder Orpheus
Hype!
Money Buys Happiness
Inlaws and Outlaws
The Business of Fancydancing
Buffalo Bill’s Defunct
Police Beat
The Heart of the Game
Outsourced
Great Speeches from a Dying World
Humpday
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Wheedle’s Groove
About a Son
Pearl Jam Twenty by Cameron Crowe
Grassroots
Television has also had its hand in imagining Seattle, although it followed the same path as movies and Hollywood.
Here Come the Brides
The Night Strangler
Twin Peaks
Frasier
Rose Red
Grey’s Anatomy
Dark Angel
The Killing
The Simpsons
Celluloid Seattle: A City at the Movies was curated by Robert Horton.
MOHAI.org aims to support every possible visitor, but you may experience some technical difficulties.