Tuesday, January 19 7pm
CINEMA SALON: Imitation of Life with Bob Rennie
After a brief hiatus, Vancity Theatre’s longest running series, Cinema Salon, returns in a new quarterly slot, beginning January 19, 2016. Produced and presented by Melanie Friesen, Cinema Salon brings an outstanding member of the community to introduce his/her favourite film. The evening includes introductory commentary and contextualization from Melanie, an appreciation by the guest, and an audience Q&A session with light refreshments after the screening.
This month, we are screening one of the most celebrated of the gloriously stylized melodramas Douglas Sirk made in the 1950s, Imitation of Life is also a subversive masterpiece about race, social entrapment, and emotional desperation. Introduced by Melanie Friesen with guest presenter Bob Rennie. TICKETS
Thursday, January 21 6pm
The Mourning Time Disappeared FREE Lecture & Screening
The Vancouver Art Gallery, China Global and VIFF Vancity Theatre present The Mourning Time Disappeared, a 55-minute film by the Beijing-based artist Wang Jianwei and lecture with Alexandra Munroe, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art and Senior Advisor.
Wang’s art practice examines the contact between art and social reality. His highly innovative artworks consider space and time in elaborate ways, connecting theater, visual art and film. The Mourning Time Disappeared is inspired by Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis and explores the transformation of contemporary China, looking at how the boundary between reality and fiction can become blurred and abstracted.
Doors open 5:15; Lecture 6pm; Screening 7:30pm FREE – First Come First Served
Saturday, January 23 6:30pm TRICKS ON THE DEAD
Winner of last year’s VIFF BC Spotlight #mustseeBC contest (and by a substantial margin), Paterson’s docudrama delves into a little-known chapter of Canadian history. In 1916, as WWI raged on and the Allied forces suffered devastating casualties, 140,000 indentured Chinese labourers were charged with digging trenches and clearing the dead. Of this number, 85,000 members of what was called the “Chinese Labour Corps” were secretly transported from Vancouver to Halifax in locked trains and then shipped to the Western Front.
Director Jordan Paterson will be in attendance at this screening. TICKETS
Sunday, January 24 7:30pm
IN UTERO introduced by Gabor Maté
Bringing dramatic new insights to the old nature vs nurture debate, In Utero explores the advances in study of epigenetics, to show how our pre-birth experiences can make a lasting imprint. The film looks at how environmental effects are passed down through the generations through our genes, making it scientifically plausible that a traumatic event that affected your grandma could leave a mark on your genes.
About Gabor Maté : A renowned speaker, and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. TICKETS
Tuesday, February 2 6:30pm MEDITERRANEA
Two men make the dangerous journey from Africa to Italy for a better life, but then face hostility and violence in this shocking look at the life-and-death struggle of refugees.
“A powerful look at the migrant crisis in Europe.” Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Very impressive and valuable.” Godfrey Cheshire, Rogerebert.com
Professor Handel Wright, Director of Centre for Culture, Identity & Education at UBC, will moderate a panel discussion on the Contemporary African in Vancouver after this screening. TICKETS
Sunday, February 14 4pm
REEL ROMANCE: THE LOOK OF LOVE IN MOVIES Presented by Michael van den Bos
For movie lovers and eternal romantics, Vancouver film scholar Michael van den Bos presents Reel Romance, a vivacious Valentine to motion picture passions and peccadillos of the hungry heart. Michael will introduce a bevy of bewitching clips from classic cinema exploring that crazy little thing called love. From the seductive to the screwball, the starry-eyed silver screen romantics include Woody Allen, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Diane Keaton, Gene Kelly, Vivien Leigh, David Niven, Maureen O’Hara, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Barbra Streisand, and even John Wayne. TICKETS
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