About
A tiny, artist-run screening room for experimental, DIY, and local film, set up in the old fireboat station's former bunkhouse. Each night is built around a filmmaker or artist, who is usually there in person to present the work, and programs range from short-film retrospectives to live cine-performances. Screenings are free. The Boathouse is a working studio building, not a business with regular hours, so it is open only on screening nights. The building is not ADA accessible: there are stairs at the front entrance, narrow hallways, and no grab bars in the bathroom. Contact the organizers with accessibility questions.
Boathouse Microcinema screens in The Boathouse, a long-running artists' studio space in a converted fireboat station on the east bank of the Willamette. Filmmaker Matt McCormick, who has kept a studio in the building since 2001, conceived the series and asked Chris Freeman to join; it launched in spring 2017 as a ten-week project and kept going when the first season drew crowds. In 2018 Freeman continued it with Amy Epperson and Shannon Neale, who sharpened its focus on queer and minority voices. The pandemic ended screenings until Freeman and Bryan Boyce revived the microcinema in 2025.
