The GOODS from The Waldorf Hotel

Vancouver, BC | The Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself series is the first comprehensive showing of some of the earliest, most ambitious and strangest films shot in Vancouver. It is presented by local arts researcher Elvy Del Bianco, who has spent the last year and a half identifying and acquiring Vancouver-set films, and features notable guest speakers, including author Fraser Nixon and actor and UBC professor Tom Scholte. Michael Turner’s On Location 1 (Elvy Del Bianco’s Annotated Film Collection) will screen weekly before each film. Get all the details after the jump…

Official Details

Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself series screens every Monday launching April 11, 2011. Visit our website for the full schedule with descriptions of each film.

7pm — Doors
7:30pm — Introductory Presentation by Special Guest Speaker
7:50pm — Screening
Screenings continue each Monday through June 13, 2011 — Admission is by Donation

About Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself

“Vancouver never plays itself on film.”

It’s a popular, often-repeated complaint -despite the hundreds of feature films that have been shot here, Vancouver rarely plays itself but stands in as a generic North American city, or a generic Pacific Coast city, (sometimes referred to as “Seacouver” by the Hollywood-based industry), or –with or without the assistance of second unit photography or CGI or both- substitutes for somewhere else, be it Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, or even New Dehli.

It seems strange that a city so obsessed with its image is continuously denied the opportunity to present itself in a significant contemporary medium.

In reality, almost 150 feature films have been set in the Greater Vancouver area. Beginning with 1949’s Johnny Stool Pigeon, these represent a diverse array of productions: local independents, Hong Kong action spectacles, and Bolly- and Hollywood features; from low budget horror films and comedies to the efforts of auteurs such as Robert Altman, Dennis Hopper, Claude Jutra and Bob Fosse. Taken as a whole, these films -covering almost half of the city’s history since its incorporation- represent an impressive catalogue of images and stories about the place we call home.

However, it’s mostly a hidden history. The limits of Canadian film distribution means that most of these films were never presented to a wide audience. Many of the earliest exist only as reels in the national archive; many others never made the digital transition and are only available on VHS tapes –a format not renown for quality or longevity; and while some may surface now and again on a Canadian specialty channel, many others have disappeared altogether. Our stories have gone largely unwatched and unappreciated.

About Michael Turner’s On Location 1

Michael Turner’s On Location 1 (Elvy Del Bianco’s Annotated Film Collection), produced for the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011, is composed of “pitches”: the collector’s one-line synopses for each of the 160 films set here. Accompanying this credit roll is the theme to British Sunday Theatre, a weekly film series shown on local television channel KVOS during the 1960s and 70s. British Sunday Theatre reminds us how it was not that long ago that Vancouver was understood as a more homogenous place where culture was received, rather than generated.

About The Waldorf Hotel

The Waldorf Hotel
1489 East Hastings, Vancouver, BC
Telephone: 604.253.7141
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.waldorfhotel.com
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Gallery

The People

Tom Anselmi – Director
Ernesto Gomez – Director
Daniel Fazio – Design and Brand Manager
Nicolas Rossel – General Manager
Cesar De La Parra – Executive Chef
Steve Da Cruz – Beverage Program Director
Kurtis Kolt – Sommelier
Kasha Marciniak – Booker and Production Manager
Lizzy Karp – Communications Director

About The Waldorf

After 63 years in business, East Vancouver’s Famous Waldorf Hotel has been reimagined as a creative compound where contemporary art, music, food and culture convene under one roof. Special events, unique spaces, great food and hospitality. There’s always something happening at The Waldorf.

Press

“While offering a nod to the hotel’s Polynesian lineage, the Waldorf redux has mercifully sidestepped kitsch to emerge as a landmark destination for creative travelers. A haven for artists, musicians and cultural thrill-seekers, the Waldorf offers an experience not easily forgotten, one that makes you feels as though you’re vacationing in New York rather than the heart of Vancouver’s east side.” – Globe and Mail

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