Pickford sells advance tickets online

The Pickford Film Center entered into the digital age of ticket sales this month, as advance tickets for the upcoming hit movie “Babies” went on sale at the Brown Paper Tickets website.
Since its opening in 1998, the Pickford has been a cash and check only institution, and tickets were only available at the ticket window which opens 20 minutes before showings.
The movie “Babies”, opening May 28, is expected to sell out shows during its first week in the theater so the Pickford opened up a presale location, said projectionist Carey Ross.
Directed by Thomas Balmès, “Babies” follows four infants from four different countries through their first year of life as a human nature documentary without narration, according to the Pickford website.
Brown Paper Tickets is an organization that boasts “Fair-Trade Ticketing,” with low service fees and at least 5 percent of profits donated to charity, according to the ticketing website. This service matches the Pickford’s non-profit themes.
The staff of the Pickford is using the “Babies” presale as a test-run for future online ticket sales. If enough tickets are sold, the staff may decide to have all showings open for presale, Ross said.
Tickets are available online for all shows from May 28 to June 3 with the price varying from $5.25 to $8.75 per ticket.

Pickford recieves tourism funding

The Bellingham City Council voted to grant $75,000 to the non-profit Pickford Film Center so that it can build a new larger cinema and a new tourism spot for downtown.

The Pickford Film Center is $75,000 closer to having the funding to bring its “dream space” to life, as the Bellingham City Council met Monday and voted unanimously in favor of a grant from the Tourism Fund.
This is the second of two grants received in the last week, the other being $250,000 from the state capital budget. Now, the organization only has $100,000 left to meet the goal of $3.25 million for the project, said Alice Clark, director of the Pickford Film Center.
The funds are going to help finish the development of a new cinema location on Bay Street. The project will create space for two screens, 250 seats, and a large lobby and café for concessions.
It has been estimated that the new location will bring 300 people per day to the downtown core, according to Carey Ross, Pickford projectionist.
The most recent grant of $75,000 from the Tourism Fund was supported by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. According to Monday’s City Council Agenda Bill, the new venues will “benefit all the arts and cultural organizations in Bellingham due to the volume of programming and visitors it brings to downtown, supporting both the Whatcom Museum and the overall Arts District as well.”
With the slogan, “More than Movies!” the Pickford Film Center is a non-profit arts organization that was started in 1998. It is powered 365 days a year by over 2,000 members and is sponsored by local businesses, Ross said. Rocket Donuts is one of the biggest sponsors, and the movie experience is complete with a chance to win a free pint of ice cream from Mallards Ice Cream, another contributor.
“It has a lot of personality and the people there really love their films,” said Brie Phillips, a Western student there to see the current playing movie, “The Runaways.” “It’s definitely an experience.”
Taxpayers worry where dollars are going
Recent additions to the funding have not come without controversy, however.
On April 25, The Bellingham Herald Editorial Board wrote an editorial describing the state’s $250,000 grant to the Pickford as a demonstration of the governor’s inability to prioritize.
David Huey, vice president of the North Pacific Division for 7-Eleven, Inc., said he hopes the Pickford does well, but that it is the wrong time to be spending taxpayers’ money on a project like this when cuts to education and other state programs are being made. Anytime an investment is made, it is debatable whether the outcomes will match what was expected, he said.
Supporters of the grant going to the Pickford have explained that the money came from the capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget. The operating budget covers the day-to-day state funded programs, such as state patrol, prisons and public education, while the capital budget goes to building projects and renovations, Huey said.
“Capital budget or operational budget, it’s still tax dollars,” Huey said. “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is not small jelly beans however you look at it.”
Pickford to help other businesses
The new Pickford project will not just benefit the organization itself, but instead will bring economic stimulus to all of downtown as people will eat dinner and get drinks after a movie, Ross said.
“I really want for our project to help revitalize the downtown because we think it’s an important neighborhood to do that in,” Clark said.
Steve Meyers, a projectionist for the Pickford, emphasized the visibility of the new location and that it would be a new tourism spot. Right now, the theater is hard to see unless it is the destination of choice already, he said.
“This is a time where things are starting to come back up,” Meyers said. “You have to put money into things that will bring more money later.”
Businesses near the new location are looking forward to the presence of a new hot spot in downtown, according to Jonathan Lawson, owner of the Black Drop Coffeehouse on West Champion Street. There is nothing bad about “more people coming to our little neck of the woods”, he said.
“I hope to capitalize on the increasing foot traffic,” Lawson said. If the shop’s revenues will increase, Lawson will be more than happy to see some of his tax dollars go to the Pickford, he said.
The Bay Street location is slated to open late this year, but further donations will be necessary to keep construction going, said Clark.
According to the meeting minutes, Council Member Terry Bornemann told the Bellingham City Council that he hopes the tourism funding will encourage donors to put money forward.
“They’re real close and this is the opportunity now to get behind it because the finish line is right there and it is a great project,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pickford on Cornwall Avenue is still up and running, with highlights from the Seattle Children’s Film Festival starting May 22 and a film titled “Babies” starting May 28.
Donations to the Pickford Film Center can be made online at www.pickfordcinema.org.

Creation and celebration: The Procession of the Species parade

Downtown Bellingham residents celebrated all forms of life on Saturday, as they marched as animals in the seventh annual Procession of the Species parade.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Wild animals made from recycled materials marched through Downtown Bellingham Saturday, as residents celebrated the seventh annual Procession of the Species parade.

From a family of unicorns, to jelly fish and a caterpillar, Bellingham residents young and old lined up at 3:30 p.m. outside City Hall ready to join together and show off their handmade costumes.

Missy Taylor, a regular spectator of the parade remarked on the community bonding that occurs each year.

“It is a cool community event that gives people the creative fuel to get people together,” she said.

The Procession of the Species began in Olympia in January 1995 to mark the 25th anniversary of Earth Day and to celebrate the renewal of the Endangered Species Act, according to the organization website. The celebration spread to Bellingham in 2003 and has since become an annual spring event.

“They come out to celebrate diversity of life and species,” said Keri Heagle of the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. “It is such a happy parade, I just love it!”

The parade started at Bellingham City Hall and headed down Commercial Street, West Holly Street and finally ended up at the Maritime Heritage Park for commencement activities, said the website. This year, joining the festivities was the Duke of Hominy Brass band, dressed in full white suits and tall furry hats.

The Bellingham Police Department estimated the crowd size to be between 800 and 1200 people last year, and there were even more people this year, Heagle said.

Saving the earth, one costume at a time

To help those who needed ideas to get started, the Procession of the Species artists held free workshops throughout April, teaching parents how to turn strollers into monsters and helmets into elephant masks. The workshops were free, although they accepted donations, and all materials provided were recycled, according to the Procession website.

Carol Oberton, director of the Procession in Bellingham, was dressed as a beetle made out of an old iMac monitor shell, onion bags and kite fabric for this year’s parade.

“I hate using plastic. I try to make a point of using materials that are going to be thrown away anyway,” she said.

The three rules rule

A favorite at the Procession was Doug Dodd’s raven with 10-foot wingspan mounted on a bike. This mode of transportation was used to respect the first of the Procession’s only three rules. “No motorized vehicles. No words, written or spoken. No live animals,” the website said.

“They keep the scale and ingenuity different. If you mount it on a car and drive it you experience it differently,” Oberton said. “It’s an interesting experience to be wearing a big puppet like that.”

As far as limiting spoken and written word, the goal is to avoid commercial sponsorship and politics so that people of all kinds can feel comfortable, according to Oberton.

“Every year some people you would never ever connect with can come together, you can experience who they are as a person with politics out of it,” she said.

Hoping for more help

One puppet was missed this year, however. The giant 12-foot spider made out of plastic bottles for the legs and an old two-person tent for the body was created collaboratively by sculptor Thor Myhre, Carol Oberton and others. It requires a person to man each of the legs, and in the off season lives in Fairhaven College’s Outback Farm, Oberton said.

This year, the spider got a break from the festivities, and was replaced by Myhre’s dragonfly, which could be powered by one person instead of eight.

According to Oberton, the Procession’s biggest competition is soccer, as families have games on the weekends and do not feel that they can commit to the parade. Their goal is to get more Western Washington University students involved, she said.

The Procession of the Species was sponsored by Start Here Community Arts and the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. Everyone is invited to attend or participate in next year’s events and no registration is necessary, according to the website.

See www.bpots.org for more information and picture archives.