A Cinematic Getaway Between Vancouver and Seattle
Just south of the Canadian border, Bellingham celebrates film through a myriad of options.
Sipping spruce-tipped cranberry cider as a technicolour sunset illuminates the bay-facing patio, you polish off a red lentil quinoa sandwich with tzatziki. Minutes later, you’ll be relaxing in a stylish independent movie theatre, watching an award-winning foreign film or cult classic.
If this isn’t the scene you pictured in Bellingham, here’s a plot twist: the coastal Washington State city of 100,000 has an unexpected cinematic quality that belies its reputation as an I-5 highway pit stop. And a crowd-pleasing Bellingham Cider Company dinner, followed by silver-screen magic at the Pickford Film Center, is just one potential storyline for a fun getaway.
Bellingham hosts multiple festivals annually at the 1998-founded film centre, named after silent-movie superstar Mary Pickford. Events range from the Bellingham Children’s Film Festival (March) to Bleedingham (October), which celebrates horror flicks.
Cheryl Crooks, executive director of the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival (April), touted the latest edition’s success: “All but two of our 10 film programs sold out, the parties sold out, and our reception for director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) sold out.” Since debuting in 2017, Cascadia has presented the diverse films of more than 250 women, such as Maja Costa’s sci-fi short Mångata and Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq’s intimate family drama Àma Gloria.
Next door to the Pickford Film Center sits the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention. This interactive nonprofit attraction has an astounding collection of electrical artifacts from the 16th century to the mid-20th century. Highlights for movie buffs include a mock-up of the Titanic’s Marconi wireless room, lightning-bolt-infused performances of “The Imperial March” (Star Wars) using musical Tesla coils, and a rare RCA CT-100—the world’s first mass-produced TV set—from 1954.
The nearby Whatcom Museum’s People of the Sea and Cedar exhibition showcases Pacific Northwest Indigenous culture, including the Lummi and Nootsack peoples’ salmon restoration projects and contemporary artwork. There is a stylish nod to an Oscar-nominated epic western. Local artist Louie Gong’s Coast Salish pattern wool blanket is juxtaposed with the October 2023 cover of British Vogue. It shows Killers of the Flower Moon actress Lily Gladstone modelling that blanket alongside co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
For an entertaining retrospective on this area’s Wild West past, take a Good Time Girls “Sin and Gin” tour of Fairhaven. A 10-minute drive south of downtown Bellingham, Fairhaven sparkles with cute pottery and jewellery shops today, but the vibe was much grittier circa the late 1800s gold rush and railroad boom eras.
Afterwards, pop into Village Books, a lively independent bookstore occupying a three-storey red brick building. The film section stocks titles as eclectic as Jeff Yang’s The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America and Carrie Courogen’s Miss May Does not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius.
Food- and beverage-wise, Bellingham also abounds with hidden gems that can inspire cinema lovers. Love Ratatouille? Grab dinner at Estelle, Fairhaven’s critically acclaimed French bistro. Wild for Flash Gordon? Back downtown, the Old Town Cafe is a breakfast hot spot, steps from Alexei Ford’s gleaming 32-foot-long rocket sculpture at West Holly and Bay Streets. To celebrate When Harry Met Sally’s deli scene, the Old World Deli’s hearty pastrami sandwiches are the lunch of choice.
Ready to wrap for the day? The 1929-built Hotel Leo awaits with comfortable, spacious suites. Watch a movie in the hotel’s subterranean Clark Gable Theater, adorned with Casablanca and Skyfall posters. Or wind down with Amendment 21’s Prohibition-inspired cocktails, like the Mary Pickford (rum, maraschino liqueur, pineapple, grenadine).
The likes of Cannes and Toronto may remain the marquee destinations on the global film festival circuit, but Bellingham has quietly carved out its own slice of cinematic goodness.
Photography by Lucas Aykroyd.
