I have loved Vancouver — profoundly and with deep devotion — since long before I met her, thanks to a Cupid’s arrow delivered via network television.
I was born in Montreal and spent my teen years in a Toronto suburb. I was a geek, right down to the Urkel glasses, and like any good geek in the early 1990s, I lived for Vancouver-shot sci-fi fare such as Sliders and The X-Files.
Back then, I imagined Vancouver as a moody urban centre populated by paranormals and time travellers, where the natural and supernatural worlds ran wild and glass towers soared into the future.
When I moved to Vancouver in 2002, I wasted no time seeking out locations that I’d seen on The X-Files: City Square Mall, where Tooms had built his nest; the shark tank at the Vancouver Aquarium where Deep Throat and Mulder met in “E.B.E.”; the Ovaltine Café, where I wolfed down pie like Mulder had in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.”
And I’ll be honest: the fact that my long-distance boyfriend lived in my beloved as-seen-on-TV Vancouver played heavily into my decision to make this city my home.
I wasn’t the first — or the last — starry-eyed fan to seek out Vancouver filming locations in order to soak in that moviemaking magic. For years, fans have been devising their own DIY film tourism experiences — documenting their adventures on web sites such as Fangirl Quest — or engaging tour companies such as Fans of Vancouver to walk them around the city and point out locations featured in screen projects like Supernatural, Deadpool, Twilight, The CW’s superhero shows, and 50 Shades of Grey.
(And here's a hot tip for Stargate fans: a bus tour of Stargate filming locations will take place on September 17 as part of Gatecon. Find the details here).
But until last year, the city’s tourist bureau, Tourism Vancouver, didn’t have the funds to dedicate a full-time person to film tourism, says Sonu Purhar.
Purhar heads a rapidly expanding initiative at Tourism Vancouver that promotes the city as a destination for out-of-town film and television fans.
The crown jewel in the initiative is Filmed in Vancouver, a film tourism web portal that equips tourists with nearly a dozen itineraries bearing names such as Fifty Shades of Vancouver: A Fan Favourites Tour, Deadpool’s Vancouver, and Walk in the Steps of the Superheroes in Vancouver.
The idea is to get these tourists to filming locations — such as the alley in Gastown where Deadpool delivered beatdowns in Deadpool 2, or the Columbia Street building that housed Ana’s apartment in 50 Shades of Grey — where they can snap a couple of shots for Instagram, and then “go two blocks further and there’s this incredible cocktail bar.”
“My main goal is to use these films and TV shows as a catalyst to get people to come to Vancouver,” says Purhar. “When they get here, we want to show them that there’s so much more to do.”
It’s a strategy that’s worked for Ireland (home to Game of Thrones) and New Zealand (perhaps better known as Middle Earth in The Lord of Rings films), and it’s been executed with the blessing of the film and television industry, says Purhar — which is why tourists shouldn’t expect to see any filming at any of the sites listed on the itineraries.
“We’re respectful and mindful of the film industry’s need to keep massive numbers of people away from live filming sites,” says Purhar. She holds regular meetings with industry stakeholders like the Directors Guild of Canada and the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC “to ensure that everyone’s marketing efforts are aligned, that we’re doing something beneficial for everybody and we’re not surprising people with what we’re doing.”
The industry seems to be on board: Filmed in Vancouver’s banner photo — Deadpool against a Vancouver backdrop, arms wide open as if beckoning film tourists into a deep embrace — was created for the site by the team at 20th Century Fox.
And Deadpool isn’t just posing for pretty pictures in order to draw visitors to his hometown. “[The studio] had Ryan Reynolds and his PR team look over the creative that we did,” says Purhar. “They actually worked on it and sent it back with suggestions.”
Interested in partaking in an end-of-summer staycation of your own built around Vancouver filming locations?
Purhar suggests beginning your journey at the Sea to Sky Gondola (featured in Altered Carbon and The Magicians), the Orpheum Theatre (as seen in Supergirl, Timeless, Arrow, iZombie, and The Flash) or that prolific old chestnut, Gastown. Each location holds “a lot of iconic spots that people will recognize from film and TV productions,” says Purhar.
You probably won’t see any paranormals or time travelers — I never have — but you might just catch a hint of moviemaking magic in the air.
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I host a monthly film series at VIFF’s Vancity Theatre entitled Her Stories: Women Call the Shots. The series features films directed by women located anywhere in the world, selected and presented by our homegrown contemporary women filmmakers. The next installment of Her Stories takes place on September 2, when Ann Marie Fleming (Window Horses) will introduce Ulrike Ottinger's Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia; the screening will be followed by a Q&A – hosted by yours truly – and a social mixer. Details here.
