Rainier Club Film Series

From 2017 to 2022, I managed the Art Film Series for the Rainier Club in Seattle. The Rainier Club is a private members-only club that was founded in 1888, and has hosted events for the city’s elite, as well as presidents and prime minsters, actors and artists, captains of industry and philanthropists. I became a member shortly after moving to Seattle, in 2004. During my time there, I was involved with several of the activity committees, principal among which was the Arts Committee. As the club’s resident film buff, I was put in charge of their monthly movie night at the club. During my five-year tenure, I worked diligently to select movies that I thought had great artistic merit, were perhaps a little lesser known, and would appeal to a general audience and spark conversations.

With each film, I started putting together little introductory presentations to help add some context and background information to the films we were watching. Starting in 2019, I started recording these introductions as short videos that could be played before the movies. In total, I recorded over five hours of content! Here they all are, collected together for the first time (along with some behind-the-scenes stories). I hope these videos inspire you to check out these films and maybe discover some new favorites!

2009, directed by Don Hahn

My last-ever Rainier Club movie intro! It was bittersweet, but you knew I had to end with a Disney documentary. When I found the footage of the opening of Euro Disney, I never realized how cringe Michael Eisner’s attempt at French is! I used my annual pass to get into the park before it opened to the general public, and I really lucked out on the beautiful weather. As this was my final video, I included a few outtakes for fun . I got attacked by huge bumblebees (and had the gayest reaction ever). And, right as I was finishing up, the loud opening announcements and fountains started, ruining that take.

2018, directed by Marielle Heller

It seemed serendipitous that there was a direct connection between this movie and the first one in this series, so that was fun to point out, like a little hidden Easter egg. Somewhere along the way, I had gotten the note on one movie (I can’t remember which one now) that they “really hated that movie because the main character was so unlikeable.” This movie is the summa of “unlikeable” main characters, and I was a little afraid to show it. Hence, my warning about that at the end of the intro. Also, I got to brag that Porto has “the world’s most beautiful McDonald’s” (though, personally, I think the one in Budapest is even nicer).

2001, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

One thing I remember about putting this intro together was that I was determined to show the original Star Wars opening crawl, without the “Episode IV” label that was added later. It took a lot of searching to find a good-quality copy that wasn’t a fan re-creation. But, when you listen to the original music, it sounds very tinny and a little off-key. I ended up super-imposing the music from “Episode VII: The Phantom Menace” over it, and it worked out pretty well. While the film is good, I was very lucky to have seen Carrie Fisher perform her show live in Seattle and in Toronto, and that was an experience I’ll always cherish.

2019, directed by Lulu Wang

Derek and I moved to Porto in February of 2022, and I was excited to have some new locations from which to film! This was the most recent film I ever showed at The Rainier Club. I have to admit that I “phoned it in” a little on this one, relying a lot more on the behind-the-scenes interviews from the DVD. We were still in the process of unpacking and getting the new house set up, and I just didn’t have enough time to do all the research I would normally do. Still, I think it came out okay.

2016, directed by Raoul Peck

I usually showed a romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day, but since February is also Black History Month, I decided to honor that this year instead. I had originally shot this intro at the “Padrão dos Descobrimentos” in Lisbon, which is a monument dedicated to famous Portuguese explorers. Despite being an Instagram-able tourist attraction, it has a remarkably racist past, not only in terms its subject matter, but also in its design and construction. Unfortunately, that took up so much time to explain that I didn’t have enough time left to talk about the movie. So, I ditched that whole filmed intro, and re-shot it in another part of town.

1998, directed by Julia Sweeney

After my first aborted attempt, I finally got to film an intro at the Jerónimos Monastery without getting knocked over by wind. I also invested in a fluffy cover for my lapel microphone, which was a real game-changer for being able to record outdoors without having to do a million takes. For this movie, I’ve listened to the audio CD version dozens of times, and I think it’s a better performance of the material. I had the crazy (in retrospect) idea to dub the CD version over the film, but I got about ten minutes through it and gave up, because trying to synch up each individual spoken word gave me the worst headache I’ve had in years.

1997, directed by Errol Morris

It was exciting shooting this intro at the 2021 world’s fair in Dubai! Having been to three world’s fairs now (Milan 2015, Dubai 2021, Osaka 2025), I can definitively say that Dubai put on the biggest and best show (so far). For our first documentary, I probably should’ve gone with “The Fog of War”, which is a better Errol Morris film in most respects. But, I really have a soft spot for this early work. I love how it weaves together four seemingly unconnected stories, with stock footage used in an almost hypnotic way. To me it really is a work of art.

2003, directed by Billy Ray

I resumed my attempt to get out and about and film these intros on location at different historical venues around Lisbon. Choosing movies based on true stories worked out well for me since it meant there was a lot more documentary material to work. And, while I love Hayden Christensen in this film, I couldn’t resist adding some clips of his “acting” in the Star Wars prequels. My only regret is that I didn’t use the infamous “I don’t like sand” monologue from “Attack of the Clones”.

2002, directed by Andy Picheta

For my final film series for The Rainier Club, I took a risk and tried something other than just traditional narrative movies. I have to thank Kyle Barber for exposing me to a whole world of live-theater talent and music, including the audio version of Elaine Stritch’s one-woman Broadway show. Around this time, I also started using a “teleprompter” app on my phone to read the script, rather than having to memorize it or consult notes. It made things a *lot* easier, but it had it’s own learning curve, as you can tell by my slightly stilted delivery.