Today is Faith Stevens' last day at The Grand Cinema! After over five years of being on the team, we raise a toast to our favorite Project Producer & Lead Designer. Welcome to Part 2/3 of our feature on Faith.

Do you remember the first thing you ever made for The Grand in your role as graphic designer?
Might not have been the first, but graphics for our screenings (plural!) of the My Little Pony film.

What makes you a good graphic designer?

Hard work. And starting a project even if I don’t know how it’s going to go—having that confidence. I’m always learning and I never stop being curious.

First movie at The Grand?

One of the first ones I saw as a teenager was Painted Desert. I saw it with my mom. It was the worst movie to see with your mother. The main character makes out with a jaguar. 

How do you think your co-workers would describe you?

Definitely silly. I think my co-workers would describe me as super hardworking and nice to work with.

Favorite costume worn to The Grand’s Film Awards Party?

Faith as Lobby Boy Film Awards Party 2015
Lobby Boy from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Tell us some fun facts about you.

I lived in a school bus. I’ve traveled all over the world. I was in the movement arts: dancer, performer, choreographer.

Favorite dance film, or movie with movement?

Mother (dir. Bong Joon Ho) has some of the most beautiful movement in it. There’s always surprisingly weird snippets of great dancing like Napoleon Dynamite—the dance scene in that is amazing. Girl Asleep, an obscure Australian film: there’s some funky, funky dance in it. Really great. I really liked Thom Yorke’s ANIMA—this 2019 longform video dance piece. I like when dance movement is in things you don’t expect dance movement to be in, that’s almost the most enjoyable--when it’s integrated in that way. That’s how I think dance should be anyway, just in our lives.

Who’s your on-screen crush?

A lot. Pretty vocal about that. John C. Reilly’s up there. Definitely Tom Hardy. Paul Dano, I’m a fan of his. Joaquin Phoenix. Who isn’t in love with Charlize Theron in Mad Max? Denis Lavant—the movement in Holy Motors is great, and I haven’t seen Bad Blood but there’s this dance scene, I'm love with him in this. Tinda Swinton, Hollywood crush for sure!

What has changed since you started working at The Grand Cinema?

I’m amazed at how quickly and often things change. We try new things all the time—different programs or different film series. One of the biggest elements, though, is the changing of our city. There’s always an influx of people who have never been here before.

What will you miss?

I love being part of it all! The things that The Grand does, whether it’s contests or putting Valentine’s Day screenings together. It's all super fun—and meaningful, too. So many moments with kids, and Film Camp.

There was somebody who was a Science on Screen speaker. I hadn’t met him before, and we were chatting while setting up. He said he had brought his three-year-old daughter to My Neighbor Totoro during our Miyazaki series. It was her first time going to the movie theater. They’d accidentally gone to the theater with Japanese subtitles—not the one dubbed in English, so she couldn’t read it—but it was kind of perfect because it was overwhelming enough that she was even at a movie that she didn’t care. I’ll miss moments like that.

I feel fortunate to work in my own city and that I get to continue to do so. It’s meaningful to do meaningful work in the city I love I grew up in.

We’ll miss Faith, but she’ll be just down the road at the Tacoma Public Library as their new Graphic Arts and Public Information Specialist! We wish Faith the best of luck and thank her for the 5+ years of fantastic design, hard work, the wearing of many hats, and laughter brought to the team.