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If you find yourself at Portland International Airport with time to kill, you can once again wait out that flight delay by watching a series of shorts hosted by the Hollywood Theatre.
After being closed for nearly 20 months, the historical venue’s airport microcinema is finally reopening Monday, Nov. 8.
Part of the pause on screenings had to do with the pandemic—no one wanted to encourage passengers to gather shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight space last year. But the mini theater also had to shut down temporarily, due to the airport terminal’s ongoing reconfiguration.
The microcinema can still be found in Concourse C, but now near gate C-13 instead of C-5. When the screen is lit up again next week, travelers will find that the cinema can now accommodate 22 people, up from 17. The Hollywood also upgraded the audiovisual system with 4K projection and Dolby Atmos sound.
Volunteer Steve Colburn, along with installer Control 4 and Triad speakers, led and oversaw much of the relocation, aided by a generous amount of donated equipment and services.
The Hollywood Theatre at PDX originally opened Feb. 23, 2017, making it among the few of its kind in existence, particularly in the U.S. The cinema hosts a slew of shorts by Pacific Northwest filmmakers, with the selections refreshing every quarter.
Starting Nov. 8, the venue will screen its winter 2020 program—cut short when the pandemic began—which includes films on everything from a local Bollywood enthusiast to Oregon’s coastal tide pool ecosystems to an origin story for the Flash made by a 5-year-old.