Dennis J. Duffy

“A cedar panelled billiard room”: Suite 2, 1960 Robson Street Oscar [Burritt] mentioned that, in the hallway adjoining their apartment, [there] was a large walk-in refrigerator that also had a substantial freezer section. Oscar reported that this latter was i…

In mid-1940s Vancouver, a suite in an old mansion near Stanley Park was a social hub for creative people in the film society. Dorothy Burritt's film "Suite Two: A Memo to Oscar" (1947) records her home and the circle of friends that came to parties & film nights there. #bcfilm tinyurl.com/2z9baupm

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49TH PARALLEL (1941): Feature film scenes shot in Vancouver — and never shown Music: “Kura” by Maarten Schellekens (evocativesoundtrack.com)1 The above video clip comprises 8-millimetre amateur footage from August 7, 1940. It shows a production unit from Ortus Fi…

In August 1940 Ortus Films shot Vancouver scenes for the British feature "49th Parallel" (1941). An 8mm fragment depicts the shoot. Filmed across Canada, the picture was directed by Michael Powell & written by Emeric Pressburger—later famous as “The Archers.” #Cdnfilm #BCfilm tinyurl.com/3jsvz54u

Bats Out of Hell: A “Lost” Vancouver Film from 1937 by Oscar Burritt, Now Given a Fresh Coat of Paint In 1990, I was doing some archival film research under contract for the BC Archives’ audio-visual unit when I got in touch with Douglas S. Wilson, a Toronto film buff and collector. I was res…

"Bats Out of Hell," Oscar Burritt's first film, shows start of midget car racing @ Vancouver's Hastings Park. He shot it in 1937, hand-processed the footage, & never finished it. 88 years later, it's been organized, edited, cleaned up, & given an original musical score. #BCfilm tinyurl.com/yrvyayjc

A film trove: video of 1937 footage that Oscar Burritt shot & hand-processed (but never edited/finished), labelled "Bats Out of Hell." It shows midget-car-racing (6-ft-long cars) at Hastings Park, Vancouver. The source film had many processing & exposure issues, & MANY TAKES! #bcfilm #silentfilm

Sunday Afternoons at the Stanley Theatre (Vancouver, April 1940) This amateur movie records a Sunday afternoon film screening at the Stanley Theatre on Granville Street in Vancouver on 14 April 1940.  The occasion was the ninth screening of the fourth seaso…

I'm reposting this 1940 Stanley Theatre/Vancouver Film Society story from my blog. I've cleaned up some edits, bumped up the light levels, and (most importantly) added new musical tracks by David Mattison. (Some right pretty tunes, sir!) #silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm tinyurl.com/323wm6th

#BCfilm #CDNfilm PS: PLAY IT LOUD!

“DANCE, GIRL, DANCE!”: Another Pro-Rec Mash-Up Here’s another mash-up of “Pro-Rec” (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver — this time, from their annual public displays. The footage featured here is drawn from de…

Here's another mash-up of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver. The footage comes from annual public displays at Stanley Park and Maple Grove Park in 1945 & 1951. For this incarnation, it's been made jiggier with original music by my friend DAVID MATTISON. tinyurl.com/4m473sm6

JUMPING JILLS (Vancouver, B.C.): A Cyclone Newsreel Film Story (1950/2009) This clip is my own mash-up, based on some 1950 amateur footage shot at a Vancouver summer school for “Pro-Rec” instructors. They were being trained to lead classes in British Columbia&…

Revisiting my 2009 video mash-up JUMPING JILLS, which reworks unusual 1950 amateur footage of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation, a BC gov't program) instructors in training at a Vancouver summer school. TRIGGER WARNING: includes footage of folk dancing and human pyramids! #BCfilm tinyurl.com/2tcuw2sv

From 85 years ago: a fascinating amateur film made by three Vancouver cinephiles. "Three There: Galiano Island 1940," an "experimental travelogue/memoir," was shot by the trio during a long weekend on one of BC's Gulf Islands.
#Silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm

STORY/VIDEO LINK: tinyurl.com/3vrzksud

A. D. Kean was in Kamloops that Dominion Day, and was quoted commenting about that specific stagecoach. I wonder if this photo could be one of his?

STANLEY PARK (Coast Films, 1939) In 1939, five Vancouver film enthusiasts joined forces under the name “Coast Films,” and produced a silent colour documentary on Stanley Park, Vancouver’s celebrated urban oasis. …

Speaking of Vancouver films ca. 1940: here's a 1939 documentary about Vancouver citizens enjoying Stanley Park, captured in the brilliance of pre-war Kodachrome stock. It was made by a group of five amateur filmmakers under the name "Coast Films." #silentfilm #cdnfilm #BCfilm tinyurl.com/bdcsjhca

Thanks, Kelly. Still making it my project to try and find an audience for forgotten BC films. I suspect the BC history sites and Facebook pages wouldn't be very interested in something so esoteric.

Thanks, Christine! I'd had the tape for years and I thought it was time to get it out there, copyright or not. I also shared it on the Orphan Film Symposium Facebook page, but they don't seem to get a lot of traffic. Now trying to think of other sites where there would be interest.

Here you can view a Canadian experimental film from Vancouver [ca. 1940] that hasn't been seen publicly for decades. It's "and--", by Dorothy Fowler & Margaret Roberts of Vancouver. #silentfilm #cdnfilm #bcfilm tinyurl.com/yw2n357b

The 1949 documentary film "In the Daytime" is an impressionistic portrait of life in Vancouver on a summer day. Made by two talented amateurs, Stanley Fox and Peter Varley, it holds an important place in the history of British Columbia filmmaking. tinyurl.com/4p55w5r6

This reminds me of the Mexican-revolution-related films that appear in some of the NFPF's "Treasures from...Archives" sets.

Thanks a bunch. Now Hermione Gingold and Mary Wickes will haunt my frickin' dreams. AGAIN.

"Pick a little talk a little PICK PICK PICK PICK PICK."

What's the greatest line in cinema?

Yes--but Reagan isn't still USING it.

1. Where Are My Children? (Lois Weber, 1916)
2. The Grifters (Stephen Frears, 1990)
3. Bloody Mama (Roger Corman, 1970)
4. Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981)
5.Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) [because not every daughter deserves a kind mother....]

“This colorful view of a crowded reading room may show the 135th Street Library---now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture---where the country's first significant collection of African American literature, history, and prints opened in 1925. Everybody appears absorbed in their books, and the standing figure in the front looking at African art may represent the artist as a young man, delving deeper into his heritage.” Smithsonian American Art Museum

‘The Library’

1960, Jacob Lawrence

Italy - Wikipedia

Yes, Italy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy#F...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is all of us. His look is incredulous while Trump is speaking.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is all of us.

Uh... what about Italy and Japan, Doug? They were behind an awful lot of deaths, too.

You're not taking credit for the victory over Japan in August 1945? Gosh, you guys built and dropped those monstrous bombs--and you ALWAYS take credit for THEM! Read a book, you ignorant fuck!

The rest of the world was fighting fascism for more than two years before you got in because your own interests were threatened. Don't feet too fucking pleased with yourself, you a historical orange buffoon.

He demanded a "full throated apology"? EWWWWW. When I read that, all I can see is Trump pretending to fellate that microphone.

Foreign films aren't the problem. The biggest threat to Hollywood is the cascade of ill-conceived, poorly-written, overblown and overbudgeted remakes and comic book films that tank and hemorrhage cash, burning up good money that could be used to make a dozen smaller, well-crafted films. IMHO.