V.I.A. has come on board as a co-sponsor of the amazing Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself film series that's screening at the Waldorf Hotel! It's the first comprehensive showing of some of the earliest, most ambitious and strangest films shot in Vancouver and it happens every Monday at 7 PM for the next few weeks. The series 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 will feature notable guest speakers. Michael Turner’s On Location 1 (Elvy Del Bianco’s Annotated Film Collection) will screen weekly before each film, and we're priming it here on the blog by offering Elvy's thoughts on that week's title.
This week's film is Explosion, and here's the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptP00U6Avw
And here's the synopsis and some thoughts from Elvy:
After his brother is killed in Viet Nam, emotionally disturbed Allan Evans flees his wealthy-patriotic-overbearing father and the US for sanctuary in Vancouver. He is soon befriended by Richie Kovacs, a draft-dodging lothario living large in Lotusland -on the cheap. They steel a car, they employ said car in a mock bullfight, and they run afoul of The Man, with terminal consequences.
Explosion was filmed in 1969 –the same year as Robert Altman’s That Cold Day in the Park. But where Altman’s early work has been largely credited with seeding Hollywood’s film colony in Vancouver, Explosion has all but been forgotten.
Certainly, it’s a bizarre artifact. A Canadian (that is Toronto)/US production, with an exploitation film-sized budget, employing old-school Hollywood moviemaking laced with late 1960’s experimental elements, attributing a decidedly strange psychological condition to its main character, and co-staring future Canadian TV game show host Robin Ward: lurid and melodramatic.
Its unique pedigree aside, Explosion has its appeal. It’s the only film to touch on the migration of Viet Nam War conscientious objectors to Vancouver. (Thousands of these objectors settled in the Lower Mainland -including civic activist Jim Green and author William Gibson.) To that add scenes of ‘60s youth culture, protests, and flophouses, with some moments of real tension and good performances by Gordon Thomson and exploitation journeyman Don Stroud.
Completely unavailable –officially- for many years, a DVD of Explosion, sourced from a VHS tape of questionable quality, recently surfaced on Modcinema.com.
Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself series screens every Monday launching April 11, 2011, Admission is by Donation
7pm—Doors
7:30pm—Introductory Presentation by Special Guest Speaker
7:50pm—Screening
