Dan Ireland, RIP

[sandik]

Ireland has died, and I am sad. He's probably better know in the wide world as a director (The Whole Wide World) and for his other work in Hollywood, but in my corner of the map he made his biggest mark as a co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival.

Seattle was a film-going town before SIFF, but it really jumped us up to a much higher spot in the business. I've seen so many films at the fest that I would otherwise have missed.

Damn.

[dirac]

I am so sorry, sandik. What a loss, and at such a relatively young age, 57.

Seattle was a film-going town before SIFF,

Yes, indeed. Seattle and a critic, William Arnold of the Post-Intelligencer, played a crucial role in saving a wonderful movie, The Stunt Man. In the seventies such things could happen.

Arnold had made it clear before he left Bel Air that he loved The Stunt Man and vowed to do whatever he could to help the picture succeed. It wasn’t until Rush showed up at the Overlake with the movie’s seven reels of film under his arms, though, that he realized how powerful the critic’s endorsement could be. By splashing the movie across the cover of the P-I ’s weekend entertainment guide the day before (“I didn’t have a boss, so I just did what I wanted to do,” he says) and raving in his review that it was “an affirmation of hope for an exciting new American cinema in the 1980s,” Arnold drew a movie-geek mob of hundreds to Bellevue.

[sandik]

The Stunt Man ran forever, as did The King of Hearts, Chariots of Fire, Hearts and Minds, and so many others. We've been very fortunate -- we've had perceptive critics and small theaters willing to take risks on small or quirky films (disclosure -- my sister was a co-owner of one for a few years in the 80s). And for many years the local university ran a fantastic film series, with a great mix of classic and current works. In the pre-video days (yes I know how old I am) it was astonishing how much we were able to see.