Special Events and Series

We’re Moving!

Our lease was not renewed in 2025 and we have moved out of 1403 NE 50th. Plans are underway to relocate the cinema and we need your help to build an even grander Grand Illusion!

Now Playing

Desert Hearts

Donna Deitch · 1985
91min · digital
  • Tuesday, Jun 3, 2025, 7:15pm

Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle

40th anniversary of Donna Deitch's landmark classic!

Deitch’s swooning and sensual first narrative feature, DESERT HEARTS, was groundbreaking upon its release in 1985: a love story about two women, produced and directed by a woman. In this 1959-set film, adapted from a beloved novel by Jane Rule, straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to file for divorce, but winds up catching the eye of someone new: the younger, free-spirited Cay (Patricia Charbonneau)--touching off a slow seduction that unfolds against a breathtaking desert landscape. With smoldering chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by Robert Elswit, DESERT HEARTS beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candor.

Desert Hearts remains one of cinema’s greatest lesbian love stories.” Heather Hogan, Autostraddle

“Startlingly intimate and unabashedly erotic.” Michael Rechtshoffen, The Hollywood Reporter

“When is a film not just a film? When it’s a cultural and sociological icon like Desert Hearts.” Lydia Marcus, The Advocate

Lucky

John Carroll Lynch · 2017
88min · digital
  • Monday, Jun 9, 2025, 7:15pm

Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle

Starring the legendary Harry Dean Stanton and featuring a supporting performance by David Lynch, LUCKY follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. Having out-lived and out-smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky (Stanton) finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch's directorial debut, LUCKY is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality, and human connection.

An addendum to To Live Is To Dream: A Northwest Tribute to David Lynch.

“There’s an extra-dramatic thrill to watching [David Lynch and Stanton], who have known each other for at least thirty years, play old friends… Love and respect light every moment.” Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

Lucky is a remarkable film, a living testament to the talent and formidable screen presence of the late Harry Dean Stanton. I think we are the lucky ones to have such a beautiful film to remember the actor by.” Leonard Maltin

Coming Soon

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset double feature

Richard Linklater · 1995/2004
181min · digital
  • Monday, Jun 16, 2025, 6:30pm

Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle

Richard Linklater's classic romance, BEFORE SUNRISE, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Join us for a double feature of it and the beloved follow-up, BEFORE SUNSET, on June 16th, the date Jesse and Céline first came into each others' lives.

BEFORE SUNRISE opens with a chance encounter between two solitary young strangers. After they hit it off on a train bound for Vienna, the Paris university student Céline (Julie Delpy) and the scrappy American tourist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) impulsively decide to spend a day together before he returns to the U.S. the next morning. As the pair roam the streets of the stately city, Linklater’s tenderly observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love, from the first awkward stirrings of attraction to the hopeful promise that Céline and Jesse make upon their inevitable parting.

In the breathtaking follow-up, Céline tracks down Jesse, now an author, at the tail end of his book tour in Paris, with only a few hours left before he is to board a flight back home to the States. Meeting almost a decade after their short-lived romance in Vienna, the pair find their chemistry rekindled by increasingly candid exchanges about professional setbacks, marital disappointments, and the compromises of adulthood. Impelled by an urgent sense of the transience of human connection, BEFORE SUNSET remains Richard Linklater’s most seductive experiment with time’s inexorable passage and the way love can seem to stop it in its tracks.

“Taken together–which they should be–Before Sunrise and Before Sunset make up one of the supreme movie romances of the post-’80s era, an affair of the film and flesh to make the heart leap and the mind dance.” Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

Hundreds of Beavers

Mike Cheslik · 2024
108min · DCP
  • Thursday, Feb 27, 2025, 8:00pm
  • Thursday, Mar 27, 2025, 8:00pm
  • Thursday, Apr 24, 2025, 8:00pm
  • Thursday, May 29, 2025, 8:00pm
  • Wednesday, Jun 25, 2025, 7:00pm

Screening location: Central Cinema – 1411 21st Ave, Seattle

🎶Summer beavs make me feel fine🎶 Sixteenth encore screening!

Our friends at Central Cinema are generously helping us keep the beavers gnawing away while we search for a new home. 60% of ticket sales go to our relocation fund!

In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

Created by Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the duo behind the modern cult hit LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER (2018).

Named one of the 10 best movies of 2024 by Ty Burr of The Washington Post and Amy Nicholson of The Los Angeles Times.

“Starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable… embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distills it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.” Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

“It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.” Dennis Harvey, Variety

“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin

Harley Flanagan: Wired for Chaos (with Harley Flanagan in-person)

Rex Miller · 2024
96min · DCP
  • Monday, Jun 30, 2025, 6:30pm
  • Monday, Jun 30, 2025, 9:00pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

Exclusive screenings of the brand new documentary about Cro-Mags founder Harley Flanagan, with Harley and his wife and manager, Laura Flanagan, joining for in-person Q&As after each showing!

Founder of the pioneering band Cro-Mags and a legend of the NYC Hardcore scene, Harley Flanagan is a punk rock icon who has defied the odds and come out the other side. But while his career has been a no-holds-barred ride, WIRED FOR CHAOS isn’t just about the music, it’s about a man forged in fire – a survivor of neglect, sexual abuse, drugs, violence and PTSD – who’s lived to tell the tale.

Featuring interviews with Henry Rollins, Flea, Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains, and more!

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!

“Chances are if it happened in New York and it was important and interesting, Harley Flanagan was somewhere in the room.” Anthony Bourdain

“This film floored me… It’s a glorious portrait of the human spirit and of a person’s ability to change for the better.” Steve Kopian, Unseen Films

Showgirls

Paul Verhoeven · 1995
131min · digital
  • Sunday, Jul 13, 2025, 7:00pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

30th anniversary of the legendary cult classic!

Running from a troubled past and possessed of a raw and riveting dancing talent, Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) is soon introduced to the arena of the sensual, pulsating stage shows on the storied Las Vegas Strip, and the powerful men and women who run them. One of those drawn to Nomi’s beauty and talent is Zack (Kyle MacLachlan), the ambitious entertainment director at the Stardust. Another is Cristal (Gina Gershon), the glamorous, coke-snorting star of the stage show “Goddess,” who may make Nomi… or break her. As the complex bonds of jealousy and love form between them, Nomi is drawn deeper into the world she so desperately desires and the allure of the spotlight she craves. It’s a world of passion, power, and personal moral choices where everything–and everyone–has a price.

Part of our Summer Camp series at Here-After.

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!

Showgirls is one of those movies that doesn’t so much divide opinion as defy it.” Steve Rose, The Guardian

Showgirls is the north star of camp.” Joshua Goodstein, Screen Speck

Little Darlings

Ronald F. Maxwell · 1980
96min · digital
  • Tuesday, Jul 29, 2025, 7:30pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

Tickets on sale soon!

45th anniversary of the woefully underseen summer camp classic!

In the fleeting summer days of 1980, fifteen-year-old girls Ferris (Tatum O’Neal) and Angel (Kristy McNichol) attend Camp Little Wolf outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Coming from different walks of life, with the privileged Ferris at odds with the scrappy, streetwise Angel, the two immediately end up in a disagreement during their bus ride to camp, which is only exacerbated by their lodging accommodations once they arrive, bunking next to one another. Fueled by their competitive peers, the two enter into a contest to see who will lose their virginity first. Through the trial, the two learn as much about each other as they do themselves, turning a ribald competition into budding days of friendship.

Long elusive on home video, LITTLE DARLINGS was recently restored from archival elements and looks more pristine than ever. This charming teen sex dramedy is an evocative, funny, and surprisingly tender antidote and precursor to the more raucous (and masculine) sex comedies of its era, full of more earnestness and sophistication than its original advertising might lead one to believe. Written by Dalene Young and Kimi Peck, and featuring supporting performances from Armand Assante and a very young Matt Dillon, LITTLE DARLINGS is the epitome of an underrated gem.

Part of our Summer Camp series at Here-After.

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!

“…what’s truly ahead of its time about this cult classic is the respect it showed for the vulnerabilities and preternatural wisdom of a generation of girls forced to grow up fast. O’Neal and McNichol share a magnetic chemistry but McNichol, in particular, delivers a fierce, iconic performance that sparked countless young gay crushes.” UCLA Film & Television Archive

Polyester (in Odorama!)

John Waters · 1981
86min · digital
  • Tuesday, Aug 12, 2025, 7:30pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

IT’S SCENTSATIONAL!

For his first studio picture, filth maestro John Waters took advantage of his biggest budget yet to allow his muse, Divine, to sink his teeth into a role unlike any he had played before: Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw, a heroine worthy of a Douglas Sirk melodrama. Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine turns to the bottle as her life falls apart—until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow (vintage heartthrob Tab Hunter). One of Waters’ most hilarious inventions, POLYESTER is replete with stomach-churning smells, sadistic nuns, AA meetings, and foot stomping galore.

Each attendee will get an official Odorama card at the door in order to smell along with the movie. With Odorama, smelling is believing!

Part of our Summer Camp series at Here-After.

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!

“It’s a very funny [movie], with a hip, stylized humor that extends beyond the usual limitations of [Mr. Waters’s] outlook.” Janet Maslin, The New York Times

But I’m a Cheerleader

Jamie Babbit · 1999
91min · digital
  • Tuesday, Aug 26, 2025, 7:30pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

Tickets on sale soon!

A gaudily-colored camp-romp satire, Jamie Babbit’s beloved queer comedy stars Natasha Lyonne as Megan, a high school senior with a secret eye for her fellow cheerleaders. Hoping to nip their daughter’s nascent lesbianism in the bud, Megan’s parents send her to the True Directions conversion therapy camp, where she winds up meeting and falling for the rebellious Graham (Clea DuVall). Adding to the fun is a crackerjack supporting cast featuring Cathy Moriarty, Melanie Lynskey, Michelle Williams, and an out-of-drag RuPaul as the camp’s ostensibly cured counselor.

Part of our Summer Camp series at Here-After.

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!

Center Stage

Nicholas Hytner · 2000
116min · digital
  • Tuesday, Sep 9, 2025, 7:00pm

Screening location: Here-After (21+) – alley entrance, 2505 1st Ave, Seattle

Tickets on sale soon!

25th anniversary of one of the greatest dance movies ever made!

A dozen adolescents begin their training at the renowned American Ballet Academy, where they encounter tremendous physical and mental stress while vying for a coveted spot in a celebrated dance company. Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull) has talent but the wrong proportions, the fiery Eva Rodriguez (Zoe Saldaña in her feature film debut) can’t seem to get along with her instructors, and Maureen (Susan May Pratt) is having a hard time enduring the emotional highs and lows that accompany ballet school.

Along with Schull, the film features a bevy of real-life professional dancers, such as Ethan Stiefel and Sascha Radetsky, both of whom were principals with the American Ballet Company. And although it’s far from the first film one would think of when considering campy movies, CENTER STAGE could conceivably be described as camp-adjacent. Regardless of its camp credentials, our Summer Camp series provides as good an opportunity as any to showcase this cult classic for its silver anniversary.

Please note: Here-After is a 21 and over establishment. The entrance is via the alley in back of The Crocodile building. Get there early to order tasty beverages from the bar and delicious food from Tat’s Deli!