Top Down Rooftop Cinema is an annual outdoor film series. Classic, campy, and always entertaining, films screen every Thursday night in August amid Portland’s ideal summer weather.

Thursday August 10th -- 1971's SHAFT

In 1971, famed photographer Gordon Parks followed up his quiet, semi-autobiographical film The Learning Tree with what is arguably the commercial and critical peak of blaxploitation genre filmmaking. Powered by Isaac Hayes’s Grammy Award-winning soundtrack, Shaft catapulted star Richard Roundtree into the zeitgeist as John Shaft, a New York City private dick who finds himself precariously positioned between rival Italian and Black gangsters while investigating a missing persons case. The film’s unexpected success spawned two sequels with Parks remaining on board for 1972’s Shaft’s Big Score! “Shaft’s brilliance is in the way its title figure’s confidence became contagious—both in the urban theaters where it was a hit and the dozens of blaxploitation films that would follow.”—Josh Larsen, Larsen on Film.

Join us atop the Hotel deLuxe’s parking structure at SW 15th and Yamhill for our 13th annual program of cinema under the stars. Doors open at 7 pm with food and beverages available for purchase from Aladdin’s Café, Brass Tacks Sandwiches, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Music begins at 8 pm and films begin around dusk. Entry for advance ticket holders is guaranteed until 8:30 pm. Advance tickets ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee entry after 8:30 pm. A limited number of chairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so feel free to bring a chair, pillow, or blanket, along with a light sweater or jacket. Advance ticket holders who arrive after 8:30 pm but are not admitted to the screening (in the case of a sell-out) may exchange their tickets for another Top Down screening. There are no refunds or exchanges for arrivals after the film begins (c. 9 pm) or for entirely missed screenings. Please, no pets or outside food or drink.

Each film will be preceded by a short film by a Northwest filmmaker.

Advance tickets are available at nwfilm.org: $10 general; $9 student/senior/PAM member; $7 Silver Screen Club Friend. Tickets at the door are $12 general; $11 student/senior/PAM member; $9 Silver Screen Club Friend.