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Johann
07-19-2003, 04:18 PM
Last night I had the honor & sad occasion to see another art-house theatre close up for good. The Blinding Light!! Cinema on Powell street in Gastown held it's farewell bash and what a hell of a party it was.

Alex Mackenzie (a great filmmaker in his own right) started the theatre 5 years ago to showcase the experimental and the offbeat to the "underground" film community. While not exactly an art-house, (more of a hip garage) this theatre allowed films to be seen that would never get the chance anywhere else.
It was wonderful to see Alex "bang the gong" and smash the lightbulb pinata all in one night.

So what went down?

First, we had a twisted rendition of "Jingle Bells" sung by a 10 year old girl that had us laughing wildly. The other musical acts had a lot to live up to ;). The Precious Fathers BURIED the rest. The Hot Toddy Girls & The Sparrow were great, as well as Whyte Rawk, but the "Fathers" were sublime. They settled into a groove reminicent of Pink Floyd- all instrumental, all encompassing. We stomped and chanted "fathers fathers" for an encore, but Alex came out to the mike and said "they'd love to do an encore but they broke a string- and it was an important string". Sure....

And then there were the films.

I
A documentary on the ridiculous "Teen Beat" idols of the 80's: Menudo/Ricky Martin, Michael Damien, David Hasselhoff. It was an embarassing look at the tacky decade.
II
A ten minute animated short with live musical accompaniment from a girl named Amy. Sorry Amy, if you're reading this, but I forget your last name!!!!!! So sorry, you were the highlight of the night my dear. (She also made the paper mache lightbulb pinata that was smashed later on)
III
A doc. on that "sticker phenomenon" known as ANDRE THE GIANT HAS A POSSE. Very good doc.
IV
and the kicker:
a danish (?) porn film called "The Operation". Hard-core sex, but it was shot with heat-sensitive radar? It looked like the scenes in Predator when the Predator senses humans. Totally bizarre and totally cool at the same time.
It was a landamark night that I'll never forget. The beer was cheaper than at a bar, the women were very flirtatious and the crowd as a whole was so into it that you HAD to have a good time.

Thanks Alex, and good luck with your book and future film projects. You're leaving a hell of a void in Vancouver...

pmw
11-27-2003, 12:42 AM
What is Andre the Giant has a posse about? Are these stickers the Shephard Ferry "Obey" stickers or something else?

Wow, the Teen Beat doc sounds unreal. That cant possibly be available on video can it?

PS Sad to see another art house theater go down.

Johann
11-27-2003, 12:55 AM
Andre The Giant Has A Posse started when a bunch of skaters made t-shirts and stickers with the famous wrestlers' face on them and the words "Andre The Giant has a posse". They spray-painted that image on walls and buildings (like graffiti). Yes- the "Obey" Shephard Ferry stickers.

That Teen Beat doc was something you don't want to see. It doesn't matter if it's on video or not- it's tacky!