Gesa Power House Theatre

FILM GEEK
2024-01-17 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
FILM GEEK is a blast! A fun, funny emotional rollercoaster of a movie. Part cool film history, part moving personal history, FILM GEEK is a unique & compelling doc about fathers & sons and the movies that bind them. I loved it!
– Judd Apatow
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents FILM GEEK by Emmy and DGA award-winning director Richard Shepard on Wednesday, January 17 at 7 p.m.
The third time it has ever been screened for audiences, Walla Walla has the chance to see Richard Shepard’s moving personal documentary before it become unavailable to the public once more.
“Film Geek” is a joyous and emotional look back at a movie obsessed kid growing up in New York City, and his relationship with his mysterious father. Crafted entirely out of film clips from over 200 movies, as well as his personal archives, Emmy and DGA award-winning director Richard Shepard (“The Matador” with Pierce Brosnan) mines the material for clues to understand his own cinematic DNA.

About the Director: Richard Shepard is an Emmy and DGA-winning director/writer whose feature films include the Golden Globe nominated “The Matador” starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, “Dom Hemingway” starring Jude Law and Richard E. Grant, and “The Perfection” starring Allison Williams and Logan Browning which was named one of the best horror films of the year by Rolling Stone, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and New York Magazine.
In his career, Shepard has directed ten television pilots to pick-up including “Criminal Minds,” now entering its 17th season; “Ugly Betty” for which Shepard won the Director’s Guild award and Emmy award; the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”; and “Acapulco” for Apple, now in it’s third season.
Through its six seasons, Shepard directed twelve episodes of the Golden Globe winning HBO series “Girls”, including the controversial “American Bitch” episode for which Matthew Rhys received an Emmy nomination, as well as several Emmy nominated episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. He recently directed the final two episodes of the multiple Emmy nominated “Welcome to Chippendales” a Hulu limited series.
Shepard’s short film “Tokyo Project” starring Elisabeth Moss and Ebon Moss-Bachrach premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was bought by HBO, and his HBO documentary “I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale” was nominated for an Emmy award. His newest documentary, “Film Geek” recently premiered at The American Cinematheque.

Tickets ($15 Adults, $10 Students) are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Holy Frit
2024-02-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
The last time I was this entertained by an art documentary was Exit Through the Giftshop featuring none other than Banksy.
— Josiah Teal, FilmThreat
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents the acclaimed art documentary “Holy Frit” on Wednesday, February 21 at 7 p.m.
In this visceral three-year race against time, a talented, yet unknown L.A. artist, bluffs his way into winning a commission to create the largest stained-glass window of its kind. The problem is, he doesn’t know how to make it.
The documentary “Holy Frit,” directed by Justin S. Monroe, takes place in the chaos at Judson Studios, among the artisans who have devoted their lives to stained glass. This includes principal designer Tim Carey, who began as an oil painter. After netting a bid in 2014 to build a stained-glass window as big as a basketball court, Carey invites legendary glass maestro Narcissus Quagliata to the studio for two weeks, for a crash course in techniques. One such radical method is sprinkling “frit” (finely ground colored glass) across the completed panels. The “frit” fuses with the existing panels, creating painterly impressionistic effects. Everyone is outside their comfort zone.
Tickets ($15 Adults, $10 Students) are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Seattle Jewish Film Festival Shorts Program
2024-03-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, March 13 at 7 p.m., Gesa Power House Theatre proudly partners once again with the Seattle Jewish Film Festival for 2024’s short film showcase: Lights, Action, Community!
Centered around “Safe Travels?” (?טיולים בטוחים), this line-up has been curated by Walla Walla Movie Crush cofounder and our own Director of Film Programming Warren Etheredge.
We hit the road for many reasons: to seek, to escape, to grieve, to revive. Jews find deeper meaning in the phrase Lech-Lecha —Hebrew for “go forth” or “go to yourself”— the notion that, consciously or not, guides the characters in this program of shorts: from the addict who drags her friend on a quest to Tzfat, to the animated grandmother drag-racing to escape the law; from the man who drives a young woman to the border to a mother and daughter turn a trip to a big-box store into a referendum on familial hierarchies and desires.
The short films to be featured in this year’s festival are as follows:
IN THE GARDEN OF TULIPS
Julia Elihu | Narrative Short | US | 2023 | Farsi w/English subtitles | 14m
At the height of the Iran-Iraq War, Caroline takes a final car ride with her father through the Iranian countryside.
ARAVA
Sarah Meital Benjamin | Narrative Short | Israel | 2023 | Hebrew w/English subtitles | 27m
In 2000s Jerusalem, Arava reluctantly goes on a trip with her unpredictable best friend, Tzipi. Along the way, they’re confronted with the intricacies of their individual identities, hopes, losses, and their relationship to one another.
DEADLINE
Idan Gilboa | Stop-Motion Comedy Short | Israel | 2023 | Hebrew w/English subtitles | 13m
Two elderly women, offended by the disrespect they experience at the hands of society, become friends and revolt in this dark comedy.
SULAM
Noam Argov | Narrative Short | US | 2023 | Hebrew w/English subtitles | 11m
When an immigrant teen in Central Florida must help her mother before a school exam, tensions about belonging in and ease adapting to a new country bubble to the surface.
PLUS IN MEMORIUM: THE BOY (הילד)*
Yahav Winnerz”l | Short Drama | Israel |2023 | Hebrew w/English subtitles | 25m
*To honor the memory of Israeli filmmaker Yahav Winnerz”l, SJFF is one of many film festivals around the world presenting a special premiere of his final film. Winner was murdered on October 7 while bravely stalling Hamas terrorists so his wife and their one-month-old daughter could escape to safety. We find solace in celebrating his life and work.
Completed just a few months ago, THE BOY tells the story of a father and son dealing with rocket fire while living in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz bordering the Gaza strip. Winner’s prescient film won best cinematography at this year’s Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival.
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
A program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival runs March 2-17. For more information about the annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, visit SEATTLEJFF.ORG.

Vishniac
2024-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents the award-winning documentary Vishniac on Wednesday, March 27 at 7 p.m.
Vishniac follows ground-breaking 20th century photographer Roman Vishniac from his early years in tsarist Russia to his emergence as a modernist photographer in Weimar Berlin, his journeys across Eastern Europe before the war and his family’s dramatic escape to America in 1940. After the war, Vishniac’s documentation continued with photographs of Berlin in ruins and children in displaced persons camps. Then, in a stunning shift, he turned almost exclusively to scientific photography, where he made considerable contributions in the field of microscopy. His “Living Biology” series, funded by the National Science Foundation, features some of the first films depicting life through a microscope. They became a staple in the 1960s and 1970s in classrooms across the United States. The brilliant artist, however, is best known for his iconic images of Jewish life in Eastern Europe form 1935 and 1938, the last visual records of these communities before they were wiped out.
The film is narrated by Vishniac’s daughter, Mara Kohn Vishniac, born in Berlin in 1926. Her clear-eyed view of her father adds to the complexity of a man who was a sometimes-unreliable narrator of his own life story. She was his helper in the darkroom and his “alibi” for photographing Nazi propaganda with her posed innocently in front of it. Growing up her father’s shadow, Mara sought to break free of his grip, only to come around and embrace his legacy. Ultimately, she took responsibility for preserving his diverse and stunning body of work, a haunting eulogy to a world on the brink of destruction.
About the filmmaker: Producer/Director Laura Bialis is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her most recent film, Rock in the Red Zone (2015) is a personal view from the ground in Sderot, Israel, and an exploration into the lives of musicians creating in a conflict zone. The film was screened in over 80 cities worldwide. Bialis directed and produced the critically acclaimed documentary Refusenik (2007), a seminal film about the movement to free Soviet Jews, which was released theatrically in fifteen cities, broadcast on Israeli television, and was released on Netflix. Other projects include View From the Bridge: Stories From Kosovo (2008); and Tak For Alt (1998), the story of Holocaust survivor turned Civil Rights activist Judy Meisel, which was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, broadcast on PBS, and has been used extensively in high schools across the United States for Holocaust education. Laura holds a B.A. in History from Stanford University, and an M.F.A. in Production from the USC School of Cinema Arts.
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

Sometimes I Think About Dying
2024-04-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House presents award-winning romantic comedy-drama “Sometimes I Think About Dying” on Wednesday, April 17 at 7PM.
Lost on the dreary Oregon coast, Fran wastes her daylight hours in the solitude of a cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates, occasionally daydreaming to pass the time. She is ghosting through life unable to pop her bubble of isolation. And then Robert starts up at the company. He is new to town and the dynamics of the office. He is a naturally friendly person who keeps trying to chat with Fran. Though it goes against every fiber of her being, she may have to give this guy a chance.
Director Rachel Lambert and team craft beautiful cinema for this delicately told story of love for the socially awkward and emotionally challenged. The film is made all the more human by its lovely cast (that features Walla Walla’s own Rich Hinz), but this is most prominent in the penetrating eyes of lead actor-producer Daisy Ridley and the caring smile of lead actor, Dave Merheje. Sometimes I Think About Dying is an unexpected fable on the virtues of living.
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500. To join our +Power Club, learn more and click here.

Storm Lake
2024-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Friday, May 31 at 7PM, Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents the award-winning documentary Storm Lake, exploring the efforts of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Art Cullen and his family as they fight to unite and inform their Iowan farming community through their biweekly newspaper, The Storm Lake Times—come hell or pandemic.
Dark clouds hang over the cornfields of Storm Lake, Iowa, which has seen its fair share of change in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to town. Farmers blow their life savings on new equipment they hope will keep their livelihoods intact. Migrant workers flock here—welcome and not—for their slice of the American Dream. The people of Storm Lake confront a changing and precarious existence. Enter: Art Cullen and his family members who deliver local news and editorials on a shoestring budget for their 3,000 readers. This paper means a fighting chance for their beloved hometown, and by hook or by crook, they’ll make the most of it. There’s simply too much at stake. Skip Nichols and Warren Etheredge will join us for a discussion panel following the film!
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling 509-529-6500. To join our +Power Club, learn more and click here.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
2024-06-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents award-winning drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell on Wednesday, June 12 at 7 p.m.
Winner of the prestigious Camera d’Or for best first film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the enthralling Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell from Vietnamese filmmaker Pham Thien An is a reverie on faith, loss, and nature expressed with uncommon invention and depth. It’s a simple tale told with visual complexity: after a car accident claims the life of his sister-in-law and leaves his 5-year-old nephew an orphan, a thirty something man named Thien (Le Phong Vu) leaves Saigon for a trip back to his rural hometown. During his meditative, wandering visit, Thien wrestles with his own agnosticism in the face of others’ religious beliefs, summons memories of his long-disappeared brother, and reconnects with a former girlfriend who now lives as a nun at a Christian church and school. With its drifting camera, evocative use of natural light, and gratifying perambulatory nature, this is a film with the power to readjust one’s perceptions of the world around us.
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling 509-529-6500.

Late Bloomers
2024-06-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Late Bloomers on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 7:00PM
Louise (Karen Gillan), an aimless, 28 year-old Brooklynite, recently single, sort of a musician, depressed without admitting to it, drunkenly falls while doing something stupid and breaks her hip. This lands her in a physical therapy ward full of people twice her age. There, she meets Antonina – a cranky elderly Polish woman (Małgorzata Zajączkowska), who speaks no English. Louise gets a job caring for her. Neither woman loves the arrangement but it’s time to face the truth about aging. We all have to grow up sometime.

Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling 509-529-6500.

The Linguini Incident
2024-07-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents The Linguini Incident on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 7:00PM
Lucy (Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction) is an underpaid waitress at “Dali”, a terminally hip New York City restaurant, who’s seriously in need of cash. Dali’s new, mysterious, charming (and very in debt) bartender, Monte (David Bowie, The Hunger) needs to marry someone, anyone, by the end of the week… or else.
Together they join forces— along with Lucy’s lingerie designing best friend, Viv (Eszter Balint, Stranger Than Paradise) — to rob the popular eatery and solve their financial woes. However these three are far from master criminals and they soon learn that in robberies, as in love, things never go as planned.
This “lively and amusing” (Los Angeles Times) romantic caper co-stars Andre Gregory (Demolition Man), Buck Henry (Heaven Can Wait) and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) and features “David Bowie’s zaniest most underrated film role” (Collider) in this engaging romantic comedy from acclaimed director Richard Shepard (The Matador) in this never before seen director’s cut.
Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and are available online or by calling 509-529-6500.

Enormous: The Gorge Story
2024-08-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Presented by Gesa Power House Theatre in association with the Walla Walla Movie Crush.

Despite overwhelming odds, a small family winery — with a makeshift plywood stage — eventually became “The Gorge,” a Pollstar, Billboard, and ACM winning music venue. ENORMOUS: THE GORGE STORY follows the stories of Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, and many others — all of whom have legendary pasts at the venue.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for students), and can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

Majority Rules
2024-10-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, October 2, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre is proud to present the documentary Majority Rules.
Alaska is gearing up to do something that no other state has ever done: Adopting a pair of election reforms that will eliminate traditional party primaries and allow voters to rank their candidates by preference. Just as election workers, citizens, and politicians are beginning to adapt to this new system, the state’s longest-serving Congressman unexpectedly dies, creating an open seat and prompting a special election that will test this system months earlier than expected. As dozens of candidates –including former Governor Sarah Palin– jump into the race for the highly coveted seat, everyone must learn how these new voting reforms will change the rules of campaigning and winning. The surprising outcome in that special election leads to a groundswell of support for election reform in other states and fierce pushback from political parties and partisans, just as the Alaska general election gets underway.
Veteran political documentary filmmaker AJ Schnack (Caucus, Convention) returns to the campaign trail asking whether these new Alaska reforms, an all-candidate open primary and an instant runoff general election, might be a prescription for what ails the American democratic experiment. Traveling across the country, Schnack and his crew interview reform supporters and opponents, looking at where these reforms are already in place and where they may soon be adopted. The resulting film answers two of our nation’s most pressing questions: How did the American electoral system become so dysfunctional, and can changes to how we vote change our entire system for the better?

Reserved tickets will be available for $15 ($10 for students) on August 15th, either online or via the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Above the Trees
2024-10-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, October 16, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre presents Above the Trees.
When a good man is assaulted and left in a serious coma, his best friend and local boxer is charged with the crime. The story follows a mosaic of people linked to the tragedy, while the criminal trial unfolds in Jackson County.

Directed by Gary Lundgren. Starring Danielle Kelly, Julian Remulla, Luis Rodriguez, Danforth Comins, Barret O’Brien. Filmed on location in the Rogue Valley.

Reserved seating tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and will be available on August 15th, online or by calling 509-529-6500. Want early access to tickets? Join our +Power Club; click here to learn more!

Sunset Road
2024-11-13 19:00 - 21:00 | WA
On Wednesday, November 13, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre presents Sunset Road.
Sunset Road is a comedic romp through Washington wine country – inspired by Romeo and Juliet – but instead of the Montagues versus the Capulets, these sparring wine families make rival Merlot and Cabernet.
Reserved tickets will be available for $15 ($10 for students) on August 15th, either online or via the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
2024-12-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, December 11, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre presents Chronicles of a Wandering Saint.
In this bighearted supernatural comedy set in a tiny Argentinian town, a devout yet competitive woman devises a plan to stage a miracle, hoping it will lead her to sainthood. But as her grand unveiling approaches, an unexpected event reveals the hidden magic of her world, leading her to question everything she once took for granted.
Nominated for three 2024 Independent Spirit Awards and an award-winner at SXSW, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint is a humorous and thought-provoking journey into faith and self-discovery.
Reserved seating tickets are $15, with a student rate of $10. These are available online or by calling the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Don’t miss this enchanting cinematic experience!

Know Your Place
2025-01-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, January 15th, Gesa Power House Theatre presents the film Know Your Place.
Set against the rapidly changing landscape of Seattle, Know Your Place is a poignant slice-of-life drama following 15-year-old Robel Haile, an Eritrean-American boy, as he embarks on a seemingly simple errand that transforms into an emotional journey. Tasked with delivering a huge and heavy suitcase across town, destined for a sick family member in his parents ‘homeland’, Robel and his best friend Fahmi must navigate Seattle’s evolving streets while confronting themes of family responsibility, identity, and the dislocation caused by economic displacement.
The film explores the essence of home—what it means to a young boy at a time of personal transition and to a city undergoing significant redevelopment. Director Zia Mohajerjasbi captures Seattle’s beauty and reflects on the dissolution of communities, making Know Your Place both a love letter and a lament for a hometown in flux.

Director Statement
It is personal as an attempt to capture the beauty of the place that raised me and those I keep company with, in this moment of rapid transition; in which the disappearance of the familiar continues to gain momentum with increasing scope and intensity. The dissolution of community, economic displacement, and redevelopment of legacy neighborhoods has made part of the city to which I’d been intimately connected almost unrecognizable. This film is about capturing some sense of what Seattle is, what it has been, what it is becoming. It is a film about home.
Through an intimate narrative lens and characterization, “Know Your Place” depicts impermanence as a relative experience. The film centers this experience through the eyes of Robel, an Eritrean-American boy of 15 years, at a time of transition in his own life, within the greater transitional context of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. The film’s key performers are almost all first-time actors or second-time collaborators with me. I am unwaveringly committed to a methodology that embraces storytelling as a universal human trait. As tools to filmmakers become more available, the localization of cinema is vital – adding nuance, specificity, potency and authenticity to stories represented in film. No story is “too small”.
In essence, “Know Your Place” is an exercise in this process – reflecting the possibilities of storytelling in cinema that is grounded in community, friendship and ongoing cultural exchange. This film is as independent and homegrown as it gets: a diverse cross section of our city’s inhabitants, collaborating to bring a story of ‘home’ to life in a way that honors the beauty of our shared space, and the nuance of the individual experiences contained within it.
– Zia Mohajerjasbi, Seattle, WA, September 2022
Reserved seating tickets will be available for $15 ($10 for students) either online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500, starting on November 15th, 2024.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!

Funke
2025-01-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, January 29, at 7PM, Gesa Power House Theatre presents Funke.
Acclaimed Chef Evan Funke mounts his culinary comeback – an ode to the dying art of handmade pasta – on the most competitive street in America where he finds himself fighting to fulfill his artistic destiny while battling the impossibly volatile LA restaurant industry.

Reserved seating tickets ($15 adults, $10 students) will be available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500, starting on November 15th.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

The Thinking Game (Film)
2025-02-02 19:00 - 21:00 | WA
On February 2nd, 2025, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre will present the documentary The Thinking Game.
The Thinking Game takes you on a fascinating journey into the heart of DeepMind, one of the world’s leading AI labs, as it strives to unravel the mysteries of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, founder Demis Hassabis and his team are relentlessly pursuing the creation of AI that matches or surpasses human abilities on a wide range of tasks. Filmed over five years, the documentary puts viewers in the room for the pivotal moments of this quest, including the groundbreaking achievement of AlphaFold, a program that solved a 50-year grand challenge in biology.
The Thinking Game captures the exhilaration of historic breakthroughs like AlphaFold, the crushing weight of disappointment during setbacks, and the unwavering pursuit of knowledge that defines Demis’ commitment to scientific innovation. This film invites viewers to witness one of the most important scientific adventures of our time, exploring the potential of AGI to reshape
our world.
Reserved seating tickets (Adults $15, Students $10) are available for purchase online, or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500. Additionally, members of the IRL Movie Club can use the promo code IRLCLUB at checkout to purchase a ticket for only $5! Not a member? You can still use the code, and you’ll automatically join the IRL Movie Club for free, and be registered to the email list to hear about future events! Learn more about the IRL Movie Club here!

ULTIMATE CITIZENS
2025-02-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On February 12, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents the film ULTIMATE CITIZENS.
ULTIMATE CITIZENS is the story of Jamshid Khajavi, an extraordinary 65-year-old Iranian American public school counselor who uses the sport of Ultimate Frisbee to help children heal. In an America where many families are quietly, barely getting by, Mr. Jamshid coaches an underdog team of kids on their way to compete in the world’s largest youth tournament. ULTIMATE CITIZENS is a celebration of resilience and belonging, and the third independent feature documentary from award-winning filmmaker Francine Strickwerda.

Reserved seating tickets ($15, $10 for students) will be available on November 15th, online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Jess Plus None
2025-03-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On March 12, 2025, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre presents the comedy film Jess Plus None.

Jess (Abby Miller, Justified), a reluctant maid-of-honor attends her best friend’s off-the-grid wedding in the woods, where she’s forced to confront her ex-girlfriend, her more successful college friends, and every horrible choice she’s made in her life so far, until a chance meeting with an elusive park ranger (Matt Walsh, Veep) shows Jess the real force of nature at this wedding…might be her.
“Screwball comedies feel like something from a bygone era, but Mandy Fabian’s directorial debut JESS PLUS NONE manages its tones masterfully while giving us a flawed but relatable protagonist who’s simply doing the best she can. If you’re not laughing, you’re cringing, and that makes it a screwball comedy through a contemporary lens.” – SQF
Reserved seating tickets ($15, $10 for students) will be available starting November 15th, online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!

Take One Thing Off (film)
2025-03-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Friday, March 14, at 7 PM, Gesa Power House Theatre will present Scout Durwood’s digital series, Take One Thing Off.
An existential odyssey based on the original music from cabaret singer/bon vivant Scout Durwood’s debut studio album, Take One Thing Off is a twenty-two episode digital series combining music videos and narrative sketch following Scout’s transition from performing in dive bars and supper clubs in NYC to the City of Angels where IRL is IR-relevant forcing her to step onto the biggest, strangest stage she’s encountered so far: The Internet.
Synopsis
Take One Thing Off features eleven comedy vignettes paired with eleven original music videos from Scout Durwood’s debut studio album with Blue Elan Records. The series follows the life of chanteuse/bon vivant Scout Durwood, who has spent most of her adult life singing in New York supper clubs and dive bars, fostering a meaningful connection between audience and performer. Now living in Los Angeles, where IRL seems IR-relevant, she’s stepping onto the biggest, strangest stage of all: The Internet.
In this twenty-two episode digital series, Scout traverses the deserts of YouTube tutorials in her episodes Make-Up Tutorial, DIY Cupcake Bra and Scout on Scout. She opines on the chemical reactions society has labeled “romance” in her ballads Here We Are and Falling in Love, and delves into the complicated nature of female friendships in Frenemies. Take One Thing Off is as esoteric as it is slapstick; as high- concept as it is low-brow. You’ll laugh. She’ll cry. Grown men will drink wine from a baby pool. So be the strange you wish to see in the world, and in the immortal words of Coco Chanel, “after you dress but before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

Reserved tickets will be available for $15 ($10 for students) starting November 15th, either online or via the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!

Seattle Jewish Film Festival Shorts Program
2025-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, April 2 at 7 p.m., Gesa Power House Theatre proudly partners once again with the Seattle Jewish Film Festival for 2025’s short film showcase, HASHIVENU: RETURN US. This collection of short films was curated by our Director of Film Programming, Warren Etheredge.
When people speak of grit, they usually mean the power of perseverance. From a secular mindset, grit is a manifestation of stick-to-it-tiveness. For this block of short films, we explore a more divine form of resilience, hashivenu—a reaffirming of faith in challenging times of grief or crisis.
For SJFF’s 30th Pearl Anniversary, this strand of seven cinematic gems exhibits the transformation through adversity to resilience (Rated PG-13).

A program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival runs March 22- April 6. For more information about the annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, visit SEATTLEJFF.ORG.

Burden of Dreams
2025-04-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Burden of Dreams captures legendary director Werner Herzog’s filming of his most ambitious film Fitzcarraldo, in which an entrepreneur (Klaus Kinski) endeavors to push a steamship over a mountain to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle, one thousand miles away from civilization.
Featuring visceral interviews with Herzog, Burden of Dreams which was held by Roger Ebert as “one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie” depicts the full range of Herzog’s unflinching vision spanning four years of production, despite all odds, such as the lead actor (Jason Robards) who had to leave the set after 40% of the shoot was completed and ultimately was replaced by Herzog’s muse, Klaus Kinski. Most notoriously, the film features a jaw-dropping sequence featuring Herzog requiring hundreds of native Campa, Machiguenga, and Aguaruna people to pull a full-size, 320-ton steamship over a small mountain. The result is an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema’s most fearless directors.
Blank’s interviews with Herzog, bring context and backstory to his personalized style of “ethnographic filmmaking,” which values Peru’s native, Campa, Machiguenga, and Aguaruna people and their Old World culture as much as it does Herzog’s perilous enterprise. Blank’s appreciation for the jungle comes through in his uninflected photography of insects, birds, and even the feet and faces of his Peruvian subjects – as frequently set against the classical music that Herzog used in Fitzcarraldo.

Reserved seating tickets ($15, $10 for students) will be available on February 15th, online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

Art For Everybody
2025-04-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m., Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Art For Everybody. Thomas Kinkade’s pastoral landscapes made him the most collected and despised painter of all time. After his shocking death, his family discovers a vault of unseen paintings that reveal a complex artist whose life and work embody our divided America.
You’ve seen his cozy cottages, idyllic gardens, and welcoming village streets on everything from canvas to commemorative plates. Both celebrated and disparaged for his kitschy signature settings, the “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade rocketed to popularity in the ‘90s by marketing himself to American evangelicals and pitting himself against the elite art establishment.
Yet beneath the pristine public persona were demons that would drive him to alcoholism, scandal, and death from an overdose in 2012. After his passing, Kinkade’s daughters uncovered a trove of unseen, unexpectedly dark paintings, a discovery that launched an investigation into their father’s true personality.
Through the voices of skeptical critics, adoring fans, and Kinkade’s closest friends and family, ART FOR EVERYBODY digs deep into Kinkade’s life and work to elucidate the real man behind the persona. Accomplished editor Miranda Yousef’s directorial debut is an insightful documentary that peels back the layers of Kinkade’s facade, delivering a portrait of a complex man divided by the same forces that continue to pull us apart as a nation.

Reserved seating tickets ($15, $10 for students) will be available on February 15th, online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our e-mail list (at the bottom of this page)!

No Other Land
2025-05-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
On Wednesday, May 14 at 7 p.m., Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents No Other Land.

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community’s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families – the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.
For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with an Israeli journalist who wants to join his fight. No Other Land is an unflinching account of a community’s mass expulsion and acts as a creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.
Reserved seating tickets ($15, $10 for students) will be available on February 15th, online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

The M Factor
2025-05-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Join Gesa Power House Theatre for a FREE community event on Sunday, May 18, 2025 for the documentary, The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause, as we celebrate Women’s Health Month. This film confronts the neglected menopause crisis, challenging societal and medical shortcomings, and advocating for a revolutionary approach to women’s health in America where she’s prepared for midlife. Produced by Women in the Room Productions and Take Flight Productions, “The M Factor” aims to educate and empower women to seek proper healthcare support.
Menopause is a silent epidemic that affects the health and well-being of millions of American women. In addition to experiencing traumatic physical symptoms, women are struggling with the related stresses of billions of dollars in lost wages, upended careers, family disruptions, and emotional chaos.
There will be a live Q&A panel following the film.
Reserved seating is strongly encouraged for this event to guarantee your seat! RSVP online, or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

Meanwhile
2025-05-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Meanwhile on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 7PM.
A docu-poem in six verses, this film is a groundbreaking, immersive, nonlinear, and dynamic collaboration by Jacqueline Woodson (text), Meshell Ndegeocello (soundscape), Erika Dilday (support), M. Trevino (structure), and Catherine Gund (direction). A rare cinematic meditation on how race, racism, and resistance shape our shared breath, not just in moments of violence but in the enduring, pervasive legacy of that risk, it combines artists’ expressions with historical and observational footage to unveil the profound impact of white supremacy on our human connections.

“This is not a love letter to this country. But to us inside this country. We see us. We love us. We make eye contact and nod to us.”
Jacqueline Woodson, narrator
Reserved seating tickets starting at $15 ($10 for students) ise available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.
Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!

Your Fat Friend
2025-06-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Your Fat Friend on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 7PM.

The rise of Aubrey Gordon, from anonymous blogger to best selling author. Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way that we view fatness. A film about fat, family, the complexities of change and the deep, messy feelings we hold about our bodies.
Made over 6 years, director Jeanie Finlay charts the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to NYTimes best selling author and beloved podcaster. Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way we see fat people and the fat on our own bodies.
Her life changing work has brought her an ardent, international audience but also threats to her life. One of her biggest challenges is getting her parents to listen.
“A beautiful film about messy feelings”
– Letterboxed Crew
“Everyone should watch it”
– The Film Experience
“Another joyously insightful, subversive and ultimately uplifting documentary from the great Jeanie Finlay”
– Mark Kermode

Sabbath Queen
2025-09-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Sabbath Queen on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 7PM. This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission. A q&a session with Director and Producer, Sandi DuBowski, live on the Gesa Power House Theatre stage will follow this screening!
Filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.
Sabbath Queen joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century.
This film is directed and produced by Sandi DuBowski.

All God's Children
2025-09-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents All God’s Children on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at 7PM. This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission.
In an unprecedented attempt to heal centuries of racism and antisemitism, and combat the rising racial and ethnic tension in their Brooklyn communities, the largest reform synagogue and the oldest black Baptist Church attempt to unite their congregations and bring about peace, by becoming family. Shot over five years by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner, ALL GOD’S CHILDREN follows her sister, activist Rabbi Rachel Timoner, and her Congregation Beth Elohim’s partnership with Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman of Antioch Baptist Church as their faith is put to the test, and both congregations struggle not to let their differences drive them apart. Though it’s a fraught partnership, they refuse to walk away, no matter how hard it gets, and ultimately emerge with an inspiring model for how other communities might build bridges across religious, economic and class divides to foster enduring, powerful partnerships.

“I began what became ALL GOD’S CHILDREN as a short film called REBEL RABBI in 2019. I was inspired by my sister’s Rabbi Rachel Timoners determination to do whatever she could to set things right in the world. As a Rabbi, she had been arrested eight times in the last couple of years for leading nonviolent protests, but I knew Rachel’s primary mission was always to fight racism, dating back to our childhood in the segregated South.
Shortly after we started filming, she had a meeting with Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman, and they set about an unprecedented partnership to try to stop racism and antisemitism in their Brooklyn communities by becoming family – so following Rachel and Robert’s mission became our focus, and boy was it a tumultuous ride!
Five years later we have emerged with a feature film which I believe is an inspiring example of how to foster enduring dialogue and the power of partnership, across all differences – religious, racial, or economic.” — Ondi Timoner. Director/Producer/Editor/Writer
Reserved tickets will be available for $15 ($10 for students) on May 15th, either online or via the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!

Feel It All
2025-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Gesa Power House Theatre, 111 North 6th Avenue, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Gesa Power House Theatre proudly presents Drew Petersen, and his film, Feel It All, on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, at 7PM. This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission and an event sponsorship from Greater Health Now.
Along with CBS news host Spencer Wilson, Petersen recently won an Emmy for a news spotlight on his story.
The story
Feel It All chronicles professional skier Drew Petersen’s journey from the depths of suicidal depression to finding purpose, strength, and resilience by setting a goal to run the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon. Through blending the experience of skiing the highest 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado that surround the Leadville 100 course with the emotional, immersive story arc of running one of the most iconic 100-mile ultramarathons on the planet, the film shows how within the struggle of living with mental illness lies an opportunity to access an infinite, inexhaustible well of strength to achieve our limitless potential. The film aims to ultimately create powerful cultural change around mental health awareness and suicide prevention.
The Mission
The mission of Feel It All is nothing short of powerful, lasting cultural change of breaking down the stigma around mental health and suicide in order to create a culture that honors and prioritizes mental health in order to save lives and help us thrive as individuals, communities, and as a society.

Reserved tickets are available NOW for $15 ($10 for students) on May 15th, either online or via the Box Office at 509-529-6500. Want to receive early notice and access to ticket sales? Join the +Power Club (highest priority) or sign up for our email list (at the bottom of this page)!
