This morning I was raving about the Roseway (and their summer-long 2D-only policy), but one of Portland's other great independent theaters is the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy). Over the past few years, the not-for-profit Hollywood's been on a streak of massive improvements, spiffing up the historic building and coming up with a daunting amount of varied, inventive programming. Now they're stepping up their game with three digital projectors that'll look significantly better than the ones they have now. Via their Facebook page:

Thanks to grants from several area foundations and funding generated by the theatre and its board, the Hollywood has raised $161,650 to convert to industry compliant HD Digital Cinema Projection systems. It’s perhaps the biggest change in the movie industry since the transition from silent films to talkies.

The Hollywood will remain of the country's few remaining bastions for 35mm—they'll be keeping 35mm projectors in two auditoriums (including the biggest and best auditorium, on the ground floor), as well as adding a 16mm projector to one of the auditoriums. But the really exciting thing is that they'll be upgrading their big auditorium to show 70mm prints.

Right now, the only place in the Pacific Northwest to see 70mm—when it screens, which is exceedingly and increasingly rare—is at Seattle's Cinerama; me and some dumb buddies drove up there to see The Master in 70mm, and while seeing that film in the format it was shot in was totally worth it, it was also a pain in the ass to drive up to Seattle just to see a movie. Programmer Dan Halsted promises a 70mm film series coming to the Hollywood this fall, once they're all set up; I can't wait to see what they line up. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for 2001.

UPDATE: Just got this in an email from Halsted, which I think is interesting, because it involves THIEVING PROJECTIONISTS! So here's some more background on the 70mm business.

Yeah, the Norleco AA11 projectors in the main theater originally ran both 35mm and 70mm. Some of the 70mm parts were stolen by former projectionists over time, since 70mm hasn't been run at the Hollywood for decades. We've been tracking down everything we need, we're almost there. I've been talking with some studios about available 70mm prints, it's going to be pretty awesome.

FUN TRIVIA FACT! In the image above (click to make it bigger), see those two weird little rooms to the far left and far right of the image? Back when the Hollywood was a single-screen theater (the upstairs was the balcony), those creepy little closets housed 35mm projectors so that the Hollywood could play films in the Cinerama format, which used three 35mm projectors running at the same time! Crazy, right! Anyway, that's all. I just think that's neat.