(film reel clicking) (music) - Movies are moving history.

It's not just the history of what we've done, but history of what we all go through in our lives.

- Hello, your grace.

- And cinema is the ultimate art form.

- Oh, the marquee.

Everybody likes to show a movie that they love to a friend, and being able to do that to 400 people, it's special.

It's not just watching a movie, it's a night out.

I'm Dan Halstead.

I'm the Head Film Programmer here at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

At the age of 18, I got a job as a projectionist, and I was excited to find out that there's a job that you just watch movies and handle film, and you don't have to deal with people.

And I thought, I'm gonna do this for the rest of my life.

The Hollywood opened in 1926.

It was originally, I think, 1,500 seats, but it was originally silent films with an organ and an orchestra, and then vaudeville, before some of the movies.

And then in the 60s, this was a cinerama theater that used three projectors running at the same time to project a gigantic image.

Then in the 70s, the theater was chopped up into three different auditoriums, and then it became a second run theater.

So it really followed, everything that happened in film history happened in this building.

(sirens wailing) In the mid-90s, there was a building next door that burned down, and the theater was almost burned down at the same time, and it was owned by a chain theater at that time, and I think they finally threw in the towel on the business.

And so they sold it to a group that started a nonprofit to save the Hollywood Theatre.

So, this is in our main projection booth.

These are our Norelco projectors that run 35 millimeter and 70 millimeter.

These are the greatest film projectors ever made.

Been here since the early 60s.

We've already had to replace our digital projector, but the film projectors are still here.

You put a reel of film at the top, the film goes through the projector.

The intermittent sprocket is pulling the film in at 24 frames per second, giving the illusion of movement.

It's usually 16 to 18 minutes per reel.

So, but you know, some movies can be 10 reels long, so it's a lot of work for the projectionist.

And new problems arise all the time.

It's unbelievable.

Our technical director actually describes it as a very monotonous job with moments of sheer terror.

(film reel clicking) (projector whirring) (dramatic music playing) People have responded very well to 70 millimeter.

It's guaranteed sellout, anytime we show 70 millimeter.

You know, we have our own print of "2001: Space Odyssey", which we paid to have a brand new print made that then we show whenever we want.

This is the film archive.

It's where I store all my 35 millimeter prints and the prints that belongs to the Hollywood Theatre as well.

And it's perfect film storage down here.

It stays the same temperature all the time.

This is our 70 millimeter print of "2001: Space Odyssey".

It's 10 reels long.

This is what, so, this is what 70 millimeter looks like.

So, that's one reel of 70 millimeter.

So, that's only about 15 minutes of film, maybe not even that much.

So, that's the difference in size.

So, there's one reel of 35 versus one reel of 70 millimeter.

Now 35 millimeter is so great, but 70, especially when something's shot in this format and then projected in it, it's just, it's the best quality image you can have.

It's interesting that Portland's such a movie watching town.

I do think part of it is because it rains all the time.

Outside of that, I don't know.

We just have this weird outsider culture that loves movies, and not just the classic films, but we can show obscure stuff, and we can show just really fun, oddball movies and we can draw a crowd.

Even quite a few of the special guests that I've brought up from LA, they come here and they're shocked.

They're like, "How do you have so many people showing up here?

How do you have Movie Madness?"

- My name is Matt Parnell and I'm the managing director and head curator for Movie Madness.

We've been here since 1991.

We're one of the biggest video stores in North America.

I'd like to show you around a little bit.

This is our new release area.

This is where all the brand new movies that come out, this is the first place you'll find 'em, is on this shelf here.

Across from that area, we have our community curated shelves.

This is where we have different community members giving us their choice picks.

We come over this way.

We walk by our animation section, our comic book superheroes area, and into the classics.

The best picture from every year from 1927 all the way up until last year is gonna be found right here.

We have over 94,000 movies here at Movie Madness.

So, you can spend a lot of time perusing the shelves.

As I'm walking through the foreign section, there's this big open display case right here that has a lot of memorabilia in it that all belongs to Mike Clark, the founder of Movie Madness, who founded it in 1991.

He started collecting these costumes in 1994.

- My wife actually used to work at Movie Madness in the 90s.

Then in 2016, Mike Clark said that he wanted to sell.

It was time for him to retire.

He didn't wanna liquidate the store, he wanted to sell it.

And so my wife actually came up with the idea of why not sell it to The Hollywood and bring it under The Hollywood's nonprofit.

- When The Hollywood took over, we weren't looking at ourselves so much as a retail business anymore, but more of like a resource for the community.

And we all started to kind of reframe our thinking of ourselves and realizing, like, this is a film archive.

We're not just here to collect money from people so they can rent a movie.

But for us it's really important to think about protecting that archive and making it available to the public to enjoy.

Thank you.

(planes whooshing) (announcer speaking over PA) - My name is Ted Hurliman.

I'm the Director of Education and Special Projects at the Hollywood Theatre, which I think is maybe one of the best jobs in the world.

The airport reached out to us, and it seemed like an amazing opportunity 'cause we're at the crossroads of, I dunno, how many travelers going any which way, and they get to sit in there, they get to watch the movies, we get to reach out to local filmmakers and show their things.

- We have an open call through the Hollywood Theatre.

We're focused really on artists in the region and what's happening here in the Pacific Northwest.

I think a lot of the nation may not know how much is happening here in Portland and in the region, and it's a great way to share that with travelers.

(music) - [Dan] RZA has a real passion for cinema, and one of the things he was interested in is I have the only known 35 millimeter print of "The Mystery of Chess Boxing", which is a classic kung fu film, and then RZA, while he was on tour with the Wu-Tang Clan, he said, "Hey, while I'm in Portland, why don't we do a screening of the film?"

♪ Earn my respect ♪ ♪ Yours I collect with finesse ♪ ♪ Finesse, finesse ♪ - [Dan] That, again, is an obscure film, but it sold out in just a matter of minutes.

He's a filmmaker, he is a director, he is an actor.

He is one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time.

Please welcome to the stage, the RZA!

(audience cheering) ♪ ... with finesse, finesse, finesse ♪ ♪ Jump, jump, jump it ♪ [RZA] Thanks everybody, thank you, so cool.

- I mean, that communal experience of watching the movie together is what makes watching a movie in a theater powerful.

There's something about that, the electricity in a crowd, feeling the impact with other people.

So, what I hope is people come here, see a film they've never experienced, then they'll go to Movie Madness and find more movies by the same director, or from that same genre.

I just want my love of cinema to keep spreading to other people and to keep cinema alive.

♪ Jump ♪ ♪ Jump, jump, jump ♪ ♪ Jump it ♪ ♪ Jump, jump, jump ♪