Now Playing at the East Van VODVILLE

dbynoe · January 1, 2025, 4:05am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

There were too many to choose from.

So we didn’t.

It’s that time of year, and boy, are there ever a lot of old Christmas and seasonal movies! Here are 29 of our favourite scenes.

We’d love for this list to grow year after year, so if your favourite isn’t on the list, please send us a message, and we’ll do our best to put it on next year.

vodvilleEV@gmail.com

@littlefreecinema on Insta & Bluesky

YULETIDE CAROLS CHAOS

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) “One More Sleep ‘til Christmas”
Elf (2003) “You sit on a throne of lies!”
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) “What does it mean?”
National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation (1989) Sledding scene
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) Christmas tree shopping
Father Christmas (1991) Santa Claus vanlife.
Pelíšky (Cosy Dens) (1999) the bathroom scene.
Christmas at Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1988) k. d. Lang guest stars
The Night Before Christmas (1905) vintage Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) “Making Christmas”
Hogfather (2006) Miracle on Turnwise Broadway
Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Three Wishes for Cinderella) (1973) snowball scene
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) Marley & Marley
Elf (2003) Snowball fight
Father Christmas (1991) Snowman dance
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1966) Noisemakers
Christmas at Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1988) Grace Jones guest stars
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) “Feels like Christmas”
Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Three Wishes for Cinderella) (1973) the ball
He-Man & She-Ra A Christmas Special (1985) Skeletor learns the true meaning of Christmas
The Wind in The Willows (1983) Mr Toad’s wild ride.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Your uber eats order is here.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) The Island of Misfit Toys
Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas (Community S2) (2010) That’s What Christmas is For
Bylo nás pet (There Were Five of Us) (1994) Sledding
Pelíšky (Cosy Dens) (1999) 370 cm Kodiak bear
Hogfather (2006) bogeyman, GNU Pterry
Santa Claus (1898) No, not a typo, this one’s OLD
Die Hard (1988) You know we had to. Merry Christmas.

P.S. Its up for till Middayish on the 31st, sorry for the late talk update.

dbynoe · January 14, 2025, 4:59am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

24 from ‘24
We’ve had 17 theme weeks since we soft launched the theatre way back at the end of June. In case you missed them, here are some of our favourite clips, plus a few “new” ones from the folder of misfit clips that finally get to fulfill their Vodville destiny (marked with * )

Happy New Year friends, and thanks for all the love and support. Here’s to much more to come!

Le Grand Amour (1969) - remember to rotate your mattress for optimum road handling [4:46]
The Mark of Zorro (1920) - rooftop chase buckles all the swashes [4:15]
*Everything Is Rhythm (1936) - a pianist with a tiny man [3:24]
Le Voyage à travers l’impossible (1904) - we all live in a cutaway submarine [3:06]
Every Day’s a Holiday (1937) - Mae West in a two story sequin gown [4:41]
Girl Shy (1924) - speeding streetcar shenanigans [3:59]
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) - Catbus. [2:44]
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) - I went to a kaiju fight and an opera broke out [4:04]
Metropolis (1927) - The transformation scene is too perfect for a snarky comment. No notes. [3:00]
House Hippo PSA (1999) - very real nature documentary [1:01]
La Petite Fille et Son Chat (1900) - OG cat video [0:55]
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962) - your tale must be at least this tall to ride the cannon ball [2:33]
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - run away! run away! [0:31]
Ultraman, episode 14 (1966) - kiester rocket hand puppets [2:41]
The Battle of the Century (1927) - The pie fight to end all pie fights. [3:42]
Pom Poko (1994) - when your fright parade is a surprise hit [3:17]
Christmas in July (1940) - there is no limit to mankind’s ingenuity (in beds!) [1:20]
The Girl on a Broomstick (1972) - Czech New Wave Harry Potter [1:31]
*Seven Chances (1925) - The Bachelor was more sporting in 1925. [2:18]
Invention for Destruction (1958) - the 24 FPS news cycle [2:16]
As Long as You’ve Got Your Health (1966) - this spray does everything! [4:26]
*Every Day’s a Holiday (1937) - Women in butterfly costumes swinging from the rafters? That’s our kind of party. [1:45]
*Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - the cartoon crossover only a highly trained team of attack lawyers could pull off [2:40]
Limelight (1952) - the slapstick crossover only a highly trained pair of attack vaudevillians could pull off [3:18]

dbynoe · January 20, 2025, 2:05am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This week, we’re proud to present four beautiful short films by a local artist.

Jackie Dives is a multi-disciplinary artist working within photography, video, performance, and installation. She uses both auto-ethnography and collaborative storytelling to address themes of social justice, trauma, grief, identity and community.

Her work has been recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts, the B.C. Arts Council, and the Digital Publishing Awards, and has been exhibited and screened internationally including in venues such as the Burrard Arts Foundation (Vancouver), Gallery Gachet (Vancouver), and the Maysles Documentary Center (New York). Her clients include The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post and The Guardian, among others.

Four Films by JACKIE DIVES

Bonnie Says (2020) is a short autobiographical film I made during the first lockdown of the Covid 19 pandemic while living alone (with my cat, Kitten). I photographed the grief, anxiety, mundanity, and also the humour of life on both digital and analog cameras. The audio for the film was recorded from my balcony during the 7 o’clock cheer.

Tall Tree (2022) is a short film about the experience of travelling alone as a woman. It was created using a super 8 camera, a camcorder, and audio recordings sent in from women who answered a call out for stories about travelling solo.

Buttertubs Drive (2022) is a collection of clips made in the wake of my father’s death from an accidental drug overdose. The clips were filmed using a super 8 camera and camcorder, and filmed while I was at an artist residency in Duncan, B.C., driving around Vancouver Island visiting places my father and I went together when I was a child.

Garden Party (2020) is a micro film created during an artist residency in Mexico City, and is a meditation on aging as a woman.

jackiedives.com
Insta: @jackiedivesphoto
jackiedives.bsky.social

dbynoe · January 26, 2025, 1:45am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

We’re so glad to have you as neighbours.

Fear not, we’re not going to make a habit of turning this thing into a political soap box.*

But with all that’s happening, here are some films that feel especially relevant right now.

None of this is new. None of this is undefeatable.

Please be kind to one another and know that we love and appreciate you all.

We’re still figuring out what our role is in the neighbourhood. Are we a delightful escape from the noise? A platform for discussion and activism? All of the above and more? We’d love to hear your input as we navigate that balance.

You can reach us at vodvilleEV@gmail.com

Subject to strong feedback one way or another, we are planning to keep this show up ~~until Wednesday.~~ until Friday.

Good Neighbours

First up, we have the La Marseillaise scene from 1942s’ Casablanca. Set in the titular Vichy (the puppet regime, not the sunscreen) controlled city, many of the actors and extras in this scene were European exiles and refugees who fled Nazi Germany.
Set around a loudmouth peddling simple answers, outright lies, and convenient scapegoats, we present a scene from the 1943 US Army propaganda film Don’t be a Sucker.
Yeah, we know, nobody loves a dream ballet, but this one is special, and it stars Charlie Chaplin! It’s the bouncing globe from the 1940 satire, The Great Dictator.
We have Radio Raheem’s love/hate speech from Spike Lee’s 1989’s Do the Right Thing speaking on taking a considered response to the cycle of violence.
By very popular request, here is Chaplin’s passionate final speech from The Great Dictator.
Finally, we’re serving up three juicy slices of Canadian Bacon, from 1995. How are 30 year old jokes this on the nose? There are only so many ways to divide people, while the ways to connect are infinite.

dbynoe · January 29, 2025, 7:13pm

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This week, A selection of film scenes from 1929!

On January 1, all films published 95 years ago lose their copyrighted restrictions and enter the public domain. This year, the crop of 1929 can now be freely used to display, remix, and build upon. In the USA.

Due to a legal Gordian Knot involving the Bern Convention, a series of treaties, and the “rule of the shorter term” being exempted for works from the USA and Mexico. Public domain American films may still be copyrighted here, specifically if, (due to CUSMA, 2020) the “authors” (and it’s legally a bit vague who all this is for a motion picture) of the work died after 1971. It’s a mess.

Result: a 20 year public domain hiatus in Canada, with no new works entering public domain until 2042. So unless that changes, we at the Vodville look forward to celebrating a real public domain day in Canada with you then.

THAT SAID, we get around all this by exercising our rights as granted by the Fair Dealing provision of the Copyright Act (1985). Here’s some non-substantial portions of possibly still copyrighted films presented non-commercially, and for educational and/or critical purposes.

Public Domain Day 2025: Films of 1929 if you‘re American

First up, we have Auld Lang Syne from Jungle Rhythm, an early Mickey Mouse film animated by the man behind the mouse himself, Ub Iwerks
1929 was the last year the major studios produced silent films, talkies were in, and the previous sound on disc process (yup, actual vinyl records synced to a film projector) was being supplanted by a variety of ways to get the sound onto the film itself. Here we present Finding His Voice, a helpful animated explainer about how Western Electric pulled this trick off.
Now that sound was in, the studios needed content, and why make new when you can recycle the works of many famous musicians and Vaudeville entertainers (some graced the stage of Vancouver’s First Pantages Theatre). Here we have a scene by George Burns, and the writer and brains of the outfit, Gracie Allen from their famous bit, Lambchops.
While Hollywood was recycling, the Soviets were innovating, here we present a city scene from the experimental documentary Man with a Movie Camera, directed by Dziga Vertov. No script, no actors, just city life in Russia in the 1920’s.
Getting back to Hollywood Vaudevillians, it’s the shirt song from the Marx Brothers’ The Cocoanuts. Laundry day at our house just got more musical.
Proof positive that unintelligible announcements for transit systems are at least a century old tradition, we have Laurel and Hardy in Berth Marks
Gabbo GABBO GABBO! ahem, The Great Gabbo, is a film about a ventriloquist and his dummy. It’s great, but those bits were creepy, so here’s the for sure not strange Web of Love song instead.
The Walt Disney company is famously litigious when it comes to copyright, but we like living dangerously, so here’s a titch over 10% of Wild Waves. Singing seals, animated by Ub Iwerks, music by Carl Stalling (who died in 1972)
Back to The Cocoanuts for an expertly played cash register and bike horn.
We finish up with the Carousel Scene from Man with a Movie Camera, (the whole movie is flat out amazing by the way).

dbynoe · February 20, 2025, 9:04pm

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This week, a Spring Festival Celebration!

It’s the second new moon after the winter solstice, and that means that if you follow a lunar or lunisolar calendar, it’s New Year’s!

In consultation with our community at the Vancouver Hack Space, we’re pleased to bring you a selection of movies and TV shows about or related to the Spring Festival season. Lion dances, slapstick action clips, diaspora dramedy, and more!

We tracked down the original language versions wherever we could, but sometimes you just have to dub what you have to dub.

If you know of some media that you think belongs here,
please let us know! vodvilleEV@gmail.com

Happy Lunar New Year 2025!

First up, how about a quick introduction to the rules of the lion dance from 1981’s Martial Club, directed by Lau Kar-leung, the director and fight choreographer behind such kung fu classics as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Eight Diagram Pole Fighter.
Requested by a Hack Spacer who says the scene at the inn reminds him of going for New Year’s dim sum with his family, it’s the greatest food fight to erupt before the food has even arrived… from 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Phil, if you’re reading this, what kind of restaurants were your parents taking you to?!?!
Next we have a lion dance from the 1981 film Dreadnaught. Directed by Yuen Woo-ping who went on to do fight choreography for films like The Matrix, and Kill Bill.
A second lion dance from Dreadnaught; this one goes out to everyone who saw the Milk Crate Challenge and thought, “That looks like fun!”
What do you do when your classical epic martial arts film runs over budget and the producers are nervous? Well if you are Wong Kar-wai, you bring in your friend Jeffrey Lau to direct a low budget action comedy film using the same story and most of the same actors to cash in on that New Years holiday film money. Here we have a scene from 1993’s The Eagle Shooting Heroes.
From Season 2 of Fresh off the Boat, it’s an informative excerpt from “Year of the Rat”
Another banger from The Eagle Shooting Heroes. Great actors, low budget slapstick, what’s not to love?
From Season 4 of Fresh off the Boat, it’s survival of the fluentest in “Ride the Tiger”
Notable as the only collaboration between martial arts legend Jet Li and director Lau Kar-leung, 1986’s Martial Arts of Shaolin also features a stunning lion dance.
Finally, we have a lion dance from Jackie Chan’s 1980 film, The Young Master

That’s a lot of lion dance. We wish you wealth and good fortune in this Year of the Snake!

dbynoe · February 20, 2025, 9:23pm

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This one goes out to all the weirdos.

It’s dark right now, in so many more ways than one. So we’re leaning in, so hard that we pop right out the other side.

We considered celebrating Valentine’s day by showing some cute romantic stuff on this cute little theatre, but were concerned that it might create a singularity that would tear a hole in the fabric of time and space.

Gothic Romance

First up, some candelabra arms inviting Belle to be their guest, in Jean Cocteau’s 1946 masterpiece Beauty and the Beast. [2:33]
Next we bake some valentines cookies in Tim Burton’s 1990 film Edward Scissorhands with a special appearance by The Merchant of Menace himself, Vincent Price. Personally, I don’t think that the batter mixer machine is mixing things properly, he’s going to get lumpy cookies. [2:08]
We return to Beauty and the Beast for a quiet dinner party, and some boundary setting. Fun fact, the Beast’s makeup took over three hours to apply and the actor, Jean Marais, survived on soup because the fangs were glued to his teeth. [2:34]
Next we have a romantic dance in 1964’s The Addams Family tv series. For a disembodied hand, Thing is pretty hip. [1:38]
Speaking of dances here is a ballroom scene from Mel Brooks’ 1995 film Dracula: Dead and Loving It. This film was the only collaboration between him and Leslie Nielsen. [3:17]
Showing is always better than telling, in this fiery dance scene from Addams Family Values 1993 [3:38]
A boy, a girl, and an ornate piece of Victorian automata from Crimson Peak (2015), suggested by our neighbour Monique across the street at Deadly Couture. [1:23]
Another great suggestion from Monique, this train scene from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) is pure gothic Mood. [1:54]
Nothing says I love you like a two story tall ice portrait, it’s another scene from Edward Scissorhands. [1:44]
Romantic walks in the garden are always nice, it’s back to 1946’s Beauty and the Beast. If you are wondering how they puppeteered the Beast’s ears in the era before radio controlled servos? Simple, they got the technical director, René Clément, to manipulate them from behind with wooden sticks. [2:14]
It’s often a problem when people do EXACTLY what you tell them to do, as Dracula finds out here in Dracula: Dead and Loving It.[2.31]
What would a gothic romance be without a misunderstood protagonist having a good solid lament in a cemetery with prehensile landscaping? It’s The Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993 [3:44]
We return to Addams Family Values for a frank examination of work/life balance. [1:04]
Bringing it home with the true love between misfits, we return to The Nightmare Before Christmas [1:22]

New Experiment: Vodville After Dark

9 pm to 5 am (we want your feedback! Email vodvilleEV@gmail.com)

Brittney Appleby (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker with a primary focus in experimental analogue film and photo techniques. Brittney works with 16mm, Super 8, 35mm photo film, polaroid and wet plate collodion (tintype) photography. They are inspired by the materiality of analogue practices and incorporate their background in painting, drawing and printmaking into their films and photographs. Additionally, Brittney draws inspiration from nature by creating botanical cyanotypes and using plant based eco-developers to process film. Other common themes Brittney explores in their work are the body, chronic illness, femininity and memory.

Their work has been featured in festivals across Canada including WNDX Festival of the Moving Image, ACCESS Festival, Dawson City International Short Film Festival, Edmonton Underground Film Festival and Gateway Film Festival in Peterborough, Ontario. Internationally their work has screened at the Hungarian Disability Film Festival in Budapest, CINEM’aMOSTr in Portugal, Silver Dusk 5 and Sister Midnight ll Festival in Los Angeles, California, Lateral Film Festival in Cosenza, Italy and in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the Red Dawns 25th Annual Queer Feminist Film Festival.

Brittney holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from Langara College and graduated with their BFA majoring in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Spring 2021. Brittney currently resides on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nations, otherwise known as Vancouver, BC.

Garden Salad (2020) An experimental analogue take on how to make a garden salad. Collaboration between Brittney Appleby and Svava Tergesen shot on 16mm film and hand processed.
Black Bird (2021) Black Bird captures a community of crows living in East Vancouver and pays homage to their iconic presence in the neighborhood - commissioned by Echo Park Film Centre North and Cineworks for their Vancouver Minute Project 2021. Shot on Super 8 and eco-processed.
Paris Model (2021) Using a combination of 16mm found footage and experimental film manipulation techniques to create a macabre and haunting image, Paris Model asks the audience to contemplate mortality and the temporality of the flesh. The ghostly figure of the model fades in and out of recognition, skin bubbling and dissipating, adding a disturbing yet exciting element to the striptease being performed for the viewer. In addition to this the film also seeks to distort and disrupt the viewer’s gaze of feminine bodies and asks the viewer to consider the way in which they view and support sexual autonomy. The original film was created for a kinetoscope machine otherwise known as a “peep show” or “girly loop” film in the 1940’s.
Telephone Tease (2020) Telephone Tease - 16mm found footage film originally used for kinetoscope machines for adult peep show entertainment. Digitized and edited by the artist.
Resting Place (2023) For those living with invisible illness we often find ourselves repetitively returning to rest. Resting Place captures the filmmaker returning to bed, reflecting on their experience living with chronic illness. The work utilizes multiple exposures to illustrate the ritual of rest. Shot on 16mm film and eco-processed .

dbynoe · March 5, 2025, 5:38pm

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

It’s Superb Owl ~~Sunday~~ Week!

We had great plans to sync this up with a certain major sportsball event, but then we got sick and decided to prioritise self-care and pathogen containment.

Good news though, we got better, and now there are no more hand-egg matches to distract you from the magnificent superlativeness of these owls.

Aren’t these Owls Superb?

Attention class, “Professor Owl” will now give us an introductory lesson about Melody in this excerpt from the 1953 animated short. [1:44]
Next we meet “Bubo” the mechanical owl, created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen for his final film 1981’s Clash of the Titans (the movie has so many great monsters!). [2:18]
Next we meet the little bird that just wants to sing, it’s the “Jazz Owl”, from 1936’s I Love to Singa. [1:43]
David Attenborough gives us the play by play as adorable fluff balls fall out of trees in Episode 10, of 2006’s Planet Earth, Seasonal Forests. [1:58]
Next we have Bird Bandit Band leader himself “The Owl” from Robert Kane’s (yes, one of the guys who created the original Batman comic) 1966 tv series Cool McCool. [1:19]
We go to the Soviet Union, 1972 to meet “Owl” from Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day. Fair warning if you watch the rest of the film… Soviet Eeyore is Final Boss Eyore. Have an emergency ration of chocolate ready to go before attempting. [2:41]
A textbook example of humansplaining as we meet Merlin and his pet talking owl “Archimedes” from 1963’s The Sword in the Stone. [2:08}
Next we join (Canada’s own, though he was American then) Billy Newton-Davis as he salvages an absolute banger of a song from lyrics written by a government committee. Its “Woodsy Owl” from 1977’s US Forest Service film Help Woodsy Spread the Word. [2:22]

dbynoe · March 15, 2025, 1:52am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This week in honor of National Women’s day we are launching a new ongoing series celebrating women’s contributions to filmmaking.

Women have been directing films from the very beginning, sharing their perspective, and insights.

Early directors, like France’s Alice Guy-Blaché, Austria’s Luise Fleck and Italy’s Elvira Notari produced hundreds of films that helped define the visual language of cinema. However by the 1920’s, the financial industry took over the majority of the American studios, and the number of female directors in Hollywood fell to just two, Lois Weber and Dorothy Arzner.

The quest for parity is ongoing.

This week we’re examining the dialogue between early films by women (1890s-1930s) and more contemporary female driven-works (1990s-2025)

Thanks go out to Avy, Janet (no, the other one), and Cy from the hackspace womens +non-binary slack channel for their excellent film suggestions. If you are a woman or non-binary hackspacer who would like an invitation, just Slack message @metal_janet. Trans women are women, trans men are welcome.

We want this to be an ongoing series, so please send us your suggestions! vodvilleEV@gmail.com

The Female Gaze - Part I

82 years before the riot-inspiring brassicaceaen dolls that haunt my nightmares to this day, there was La Fée aux Choux (1900), copying from Wikipedia here: “arguably the world’s first narrative film, and the first film directed by a woman”. That woman was Alice Guy, who first filmed it in 1896, then when that print was lost, again in 1900 and 1902. [1:10]
We cheer for loving who you love in the 1999 conversion camp comedy But I’m a Cheerleader by Jamie Babbit. [2:10]
We go to Dorothy Arzner, who directed 20 films from 1927 to 1943. In that period there was only one other female director working in Hollywood, Lois Weber. Here Arzner directs Kathryn Hepburn (in her second film role) as a famous aviator, and strong independent woman in 1933’s Christopher Strong. [2:37]
It’s Cavendish’s daring escape from the nursing home in 2012’s Cloud Atlas directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer. [3:04]
More Arzner brilliance, featuring the invention of the boom microphone to allow Clara Bow to move around. It’s 1929’s The Wild Party. If an overly inebriated guest is creepin and harshin the mellow, just give em the dizzy. [1:51]
Much of this movie was filmed in Vancouver, including Joe’s Cafe just around the corner. But we aren’t showing any of that… instead we go to San Francisco for the bougie restaurant scene with a fantastic cameo in 2019’s Always Be My Maybe directed by Nahnatchka Khan. [3:28]
See that subtle off white coloring? the tasteful thickness of it? Why it must be the satirical business card scene with a thoughtful take on the phalometrics of business culture. From Canada’s own Mary Harron, from her 2000 film American Psycho. [2:12]
Early use of split screen, a car chase, and hitchcockian suspense 14 years before that young whippersnapper directed his first thriller? Oh yes! It’s the break in scene from Lois Weber’s brilliantly directed 1913’s film Suspense codirected by Phillips Smalley. *picture integrity heads up; we excised one intertitle. [2:29]
LOCAL ARTIST A short by local filmmakers Noelle Lee and RCHRDY, See You I Look (2025) is an intriguing, unsettling little gem that resists easy answers. You can find them on insta at @noael_ly and @rchrdy
Love is not always easy, especially when you are an international super criminal with feelings towards an operative of a secret clandestine military organization of highschool girls tasked with hunting you down, its Angela Robinson’s 2004 film D.E.B.S. [2:26]
We are going back to Arzner’s Christopher Strong, but this time the star of the show is the silver moth costume designed by the absolutely prolific costume designer Walter Plunkett for Kathryn Hepburn [2:42]
One good gown deserves another, as we finish with the labyrinth scene from Sally Potter 1992’ film, Orlando. [2:47]

dbynoe · March 26, 2025, 12:31am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

RETURN OF The Art of ~~War~~ Pie

It’s mid-March and we are feeling an irrational craving. So this week we are doing an extended deep dive into the noble art of hitting someone in the face with a custard pie.

Featuring 5 old old favourites, and 6 new old favourites.

First up, Buster Keaton instructs us in the finer points and techniques of the pie toss in a 1964 interview with CBC Television (2:12)
Here is the master himself, Buster Keaton, recreating the glory days of silent film in 1939’s Hollywood Cavalcade. (3:14)
A rare example of a zombie pie fight, from George A. Romero’s 1978 film, Dawn of the Dead. (0:51)
Want to see what chaos ensues when you supply over three thousand weaponized pies to a bustling city street? We’ve got you covered in this clip from The Battle of the Century, 1927 (3:42)
-ed: and it keeps going after this
Ahh, the noble art of diplomacy… finding common ground, building relationships, earning mutual trust… but we’re not here to see any of that. Instead, let’s posture, shout, and have a food fight. It’s Charlie Chaplin’s ever perennial 1940 classic, The Great Dictator. (2:52)
Observe: that gesture has never meant “my heart goes out to you” it means “I am a fascist, and an asshole”
You know it’s a Mel Brooks film when the action busts through the fourth wall, straight through several sound stages and into the studio commissary. It’s 1974’s Blazing Saddles. (1:15)
At what point do pie ingredients become a pie? We examine this philosophical quandary in this deconstructionist pie fight from 1991’s Fried Green Tomatoes by Jon Avnet. Secret’s in the sauce. (2:24)
Next we join Charlie Chaplin playing a bumbling new hire learning the ropes in the very early days of film. Behind the Screen, 1916 (2:44)
Ever looked at the violence that rocked prohibition era America and thought “this would make a swell children’s musical comedy?” No? That’s because it’s not the seventies and you are not Sir Alan Parker. We gleefully present the speakeasy pie shootout from 1976’s Bugsy Malone (1:36)
What’s better than 3,000 pies? How about 4,000 pies! It’s 1965’s The Great Race by Blake Edwards. Word to the wise, if you are going to break for the weekend mid pie fight, forget continuity and clean up first, otherwise Monday morning will be… memorable. If bad on-set food-related choices are made above your pay grade, bring mint oil or Vick’s vapor rub for under your nose. You’re welcome. (3:54)
Robin Williams’ performance is the best special effect in this scene, narrowly edging out a pallet’s worth of Cool Whip and food dye in Steven Spielberg’s Hook, 1991. (3:02)

Arrgh · March 26, 2025, 9:28pm

If you haven’t seen it, The Railrodder - NFB (“one of his final roles”) is delightful

Janet · March 26, 2025, 9:51pm

Blazing Saddles…so good.

Metal_Janet · March 28, 2025, 3:14am

Apparently we don’t qualify for the NFB’s “non-commercial community screenings” program… they didn’t clarify why. It’s an ongoing discussion, and we don’t want to poke the bear with an unauthorized showing until it’s sorted out.

The Railrodder is too short to for us to use the fair dealing exemption effectively.

dbynoe · April 8, 2025, 2:14am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

RETURN OF The Art of ~~War~~ Pie

Trains, trams, and trolleys

This week, we’re pleased to bring you a selection of movie scenes featuring trains, trams, trolleys and rail transport in general.

April 2 is World Autism Acceptance Day, and to celebrate, this will be an unabashed info-dump deep-dive into two our own autistic special interests, trains and filmmaking. (yes, that’s right… this scale model historic theater, showing often-obscure old film clips, that exploits a specific carveout of Canadian copyright law, and tends to focus on the technical craft of filmmaking, is a product of neurodiverse creators.)

We’ll be making fewer of our usual concessions to brevity in our write ups this week. Let us know if the longer form is something you’d like to see more of.

vodvilleEV@gmail.com

We would especially like to give a big shout out to all those out there with special interests. People willing to do and share the deep dive research needed to create the ultimate list of appearances in film by cats (catsonfilm.net), trains (moreobscuretrainmovies.movie.blog), or model ships (www.modelshipsinthecinema.com). Thank you for doing the hard work that makes running an art project like this so much easier.

Also, as of Sunday the 24th of March, our view count (we only tally views over 20 seconds) is over 9000! Thanks for coming to see us.

As will become apparent in this collection, Buster Keaton also had a love for trains, possibly fomented in his youth as a traveling vaudevillian. He chose to set Our Hospitality, a comedy about the Hatfield–McCoy feud in 1830, shortly after the introduction of Stephensons Rocket, an innovative early 0-2-2 steam locomotive. The locomotive here is a functional replica commissioned for the 1923 film. Fun to think that in 2025, we are further away from Keaton’s film than he was from the original Rocket. [3:10]
Ah, the earnest melodrama of silent film… a top hat wearing, moustache twirling villain ties the leading lady to the train tracks… will our plucky hero save the day?!? Except that’s not quite right… Although we associate this trope with silent film melodrama, it was strictly the domain of silent film spoof comedy. By the time popular film exploded in the 1890s, attempted murder by train track was ALREADY a worn-out cliche, stemming from an 1867 stage play (Under the Gaslight), and copied ad-absurdum. (Some cardboard train tracks and an off-stage whistle offered unmatched peril per dollar, and the effect was very popular with the punters.) So when Clarence G. Badger made Teddy at the Throttle in 1917, it would have been roughly equivalent to a movie like The Naked Gun or Weird: The Al Yankovic story, as were most of the silent spoof comedies produced by Mack Senett in this era. [3:49]
1998’s The Fugitive spoof Wrongfully Accused was shot in Vancouver, with a star turn by locomotive #3607, a BC rail GE B36-7. This is Pat Proft’s only directorial credit; he is better known as the writer behind such classics as The Naked Gun, Hot Shots!, and the Star Wars Holiday Special. [4:06]
Keaton is most known for his insane stunts, which this clip has in spades, but I’ve always been most impressed by his deadpan facial expressions. It’s the disappearing, reappearing, disappearing rail car in The General. Despite Keaton’s attempts to secure the use of the original locomotive from the civil war, his request was denied when the owners found out that the film was a comedy. [3:11]
The Titfield Thunderbolt - Ahh the English spring, green grass, content sheep, and the steam engines are in rut. Here we see a GWR 1400 class 0-4-2T locomotive vie for territory (and the rights to transport the mail) against a truck and a steam traction engine fielded by a rival bus company. [4:05]
My first summer job was as a conductor on a 1910 electric street car. I drove in the afternoons when the motorman took a nap. So I can offer my professional opinion that this street car chase scene from 1924’s Girl Shy staring Harold Lloyd is abject insanity. [3:59]
Many years ago artist Ken Lum did an arts residency at the Banff Centre when I was working there as a studio assistant, and the film screenings that he put on were part of the inspiration for the Vodville project. The first film screening of his that I attended was 1927’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. I love the transition between the country and the city in this streetcar sequence. [3:25]
The train scene from Studio Ghibli’s classic Spirited Away. [3:20]
The Pride of Pikeville Alfred J. Goulding 1927 Come for the train stunts, stay for the pun-tastic intertitles. [1:04]
Lets climb aboard an SNCF 4-6-2 steam locomotive as it steams into Le Havre station in this scene from the French realist classic La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) directed by Jean Renoir in 1938. [4:08]
Come one, come all and witness the most expensive single shot in silent film history, (over $750,000 when you factor in inflation). It’s the burning bridge collapse in The General. [1:11]
La Bataille du rail (The Battle of the Rails), 1946 This film focuses on railway workers in nazi occupied France, and their efforts to sabotage German military transport. If you are wondering how they created the highly realistic effect of this incredibly realistic train crash, well, let’s just say the nazis left in a hurry and, uh… finders keepers. [1:39]
Play Safe 1936 Here we find the dreams of a rail fan. It explains so much. [3:10]
This scene from The General may look serene and graceful, but in reality, it’s one of the most dangerous stunts ever committed to film. Wheel slippage on startup is a common issue with steel wheels on steel rails, and the slightest throttling error by the engineer would have quickly turned the coupling rods into a Keaton catapult. All of the engineers at the railyard refused to take part in the stunt, except for one very old-timer, whose even-handed performance we see recorded here. [1:06]
Chasing Choo Choos. All I can say is that these stunts are absolute insanity. [2:31]
We join the chase already in progress, having already claimed 2 produce stands, and turned several cars into instant convertibles, and 1924’s Galloping Bungalows only picks up steam from there. Near as I can tell the locomotive is the AT&SF 4-6-2 Pacific #1376 (the dashed numbers denote the axle arrangement, leading-driven-trailing), a four cylinder express passenger locomotive. Later the locomotive was converted to a streamliner, and made an appearance in the 1941 Laurel and Hardy film Great Guns. Re-use, and recycle! [2:08]
Here we have a locomotive (and several other conveyances) chase from the 1922 Mack Sennett comedy Gymnasium Jim, after a thief makes an unwise decision to steal a boxer’s purse. [2:40]
Motion blur (when a moving object or background streaks across the screen) is a well-accepted optical effect that sells the idea of movement in film. So well-accepted, that when it’s absent, fast motion looks really weird. It’s easy enough to create this effect in live-action filmmaking, just leave the shutter speed reasonably slow and film something moving. But what if you’re filming a high-speed scene using stop motion animation, where the film is made up of a series of photos of still scenes, with puppets moved slightly in between shots, and there’s no motion to blur? For this scene from 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, Aardman Animation used cool trick to create a motion blurred background in-camera… they used a motion control rig to move the train and camera simultaneously during each shot. The background used was only 30 feet long, so they had to use foreground props to cover up the cuts whenever a shot ran for more than a second or so. [2:54]

dbynoe · April 18, 2025, 2:44am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

This week, we are pleased to be turning the theatre over to Titmouse Animation!

5 Second Day… Night!!! is BACK
With New Animated Shorts – Now Smaller Than Ever!

To celebrate 25 Years of Titmouse Animation & the upcoming premiere of our annual 5 Second Day…Night!!! animation showcase, we’re thrilled to present a special, micro-preview of this year’s program with the shortest shorts from our Vancouver studio animators, in the shortest theater that we could find, ahead of the April 15th screenings at the Rio Theatre.

But what is 5 Second Day?

5 Second Day is a longstanding annual Titmouse tradition where we shut down production across our Vancouver, LA, & NYC studio locations for 24 hours, to give our artists a fully paid day to unleash their most quirky, beautiful, bizarre, and laugh-out-loud ideas. No studio notes. No restrictions – aside from having to be 5 Seconds or longer in length. Just pure creative freedom. Plus, every short remains 100% owned by its creator(s)! Want to know more?
Visit our website for more information.

How can I see the FULL 5 Second Day…Night!!! showcase?

The Vancouver premiere of the FULL 5 Second Day…Night!!! program (which also includes additional shorts created by our NYC & LA artists) will take place Tuesday April 15th at the Rio Theatre. Showtimes at 6:30PM and 9:30PM.
  TITMOUSE PRESENTS: 5 SECOND DAY… NIGHT!!!
TUES, APRIL 15 | RIO THEATRE (1660 E BROADWAY)
EARLY SHOW: 6:30 PM (DOORS: 6:00 PM)
LATE SHOW: 9:30 PM (DOORS: 9:00 PM)

Featuring the following films:
Note that films in Bold Italic are only available between 9pm and 5am, the rest are playing 24/7

A Space Fartissey - Vince Cosenzo
Badminton - Alexandre Pelletier
Baldin - Saadiq Quraishi
Bee OK - Jenny Weightman
Belas Palavras Brasileiras - Arthur Stickel
Birth of Amphitrite - Nicolas Briellmann
Burgatory - Cristian Jonsson
Chutta - Ridda Khan
Dry Socket - Billy Kerrigan
Filipino Folklore: Batibat &
Filipino Folklore: Tiyanak - Jenn Brisson
Found Footage - Federico Panella
Forest Invasion - Jordan Theberge
Frog Dashcam Footage - DJ Crumrine & Alex Phan
Game Recognize Game - Andrea Garza
The Garden Knight VS IntoxiKatie - Tim Larade
Get Peas - Quinn Taketa
Goodnight - Renee Calvert
Grappling Hook - Bajan Oates
Grubby’s Bad Idea - Sean Covernton
Hey Mister Dog - Denis Moric
I’m Living with Ghosts - Tommy Ho
Laser Smooth Dodge - Martin Nguyen
Little Mothman 2 - Emily Strasser
Microorganisms: Surviving - Biancca Ozawa
Monday Groove - Holly Giesbrecht
Moon Raccoon - Matt Gilligan
Motivation - Esther Park
Mr.Popcorn & Leeloo - Aminata Joseph
Nat 20 #1-3 - Marcy McVittie
Nausea - Geena Heinrich
The Neverending Quackery - Jordan Barnes-Crouse
Overheard in Mt. Pleasant - Ivan Lim
The Rats of Burrard Station - Luisa Roscuata
Recipe for Disaster - Jisoo Shin
Soothing Sealscapes - Jena Stillwell, Theresa Laycock, Tahlia Ollenberger,
Angela Popoff, Niina Teto
Storytime with Grandma - Erika & Bruna Carvalho
Stump & Durrow - Denver “Pallas” Bexson
This Weird Dream I Had - John Guy
T (Rex) Ball - Haley Pihowich
Titular Mouse - J. Alan Baker
Toilet Time - Jonathan & Tidus Moxness
Twenty Twenty Thrive - Alexis Hidlebaugh
What it Feels Like - Raymond Dunster
Whatcha Drawing #1-4 - Geneva Poon
U STINK!!1 - Adriel Forsyth
Ugly Bugly Boys - Oliver Moore

dbynoe · April 18, 2025, 2:49am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.
Wednesday, April 16, one day only!

8 Short films by Indigenous filmmakers

Reel Canada reached out a few weeks back and asked if we’d be interested in being an official partner for National Canadian Film Day.

After we’d confirmed that they understood that we are the approximate size of a shoebox, we agreed.

They have an excellent collection of films by Indigenous filmmakers, managed by Ariel Smith (Nêhiyaw), and we’re proud to be showcasing eight of the Vodville-sized ones.

Grandfather on the Prairies (2018) Experimental animation

Director: Andrew Genaille (Sto:lo & Ojibway)
TikTok: @andrew.genaille1 Insta: @andyfg123

Jason meets his great-great-greatgrandfather and soon finds himself in a hilarious debate about what it means to be a hunter.

Dancers of the Grass (2009) Stop motion animation

Director: Melanie Jackson (Métis/Saulteaux)

Spectacular stop-motion animation breathes life into a traditional dance.

Walk-in-the-Forest (2009) Animation

Director: Diane Obomsawin (Abenaki)

This whimsical animation, reminiscent of NFB classics, follows a medicine man called Walk-in-the-forest on a walk in the woods that leads to the discovery of an intriguing secret world.

Tussle (2021) Animation

Director: Christopher Grant (Mi’gmaw)
TikTok @xoradmagical & Insta: @xoradmagical

In this hauntingly beautiful hand-drawn animation, simple shapes form increasingly complex entities, all set to an immersive and powerful score by the filmmaker. Playful forms must merge together in an anxious wrestle for unified harmony, no matter how difficult.

Traditional Healing (2013) Animation

Director: Raymond Caplin (Mi’qmaw)

In this beautiful animation, a woman’s sacred healing dance causes a miracle to occur in an otherwise bleak and devastated environment.

Aboriginality (2007) Animation, live action, CGI

Dominique Keller, Tom Jackson (Cree)

A young boy is transported through his television set to the scene of a traditional Indigenous hoop dance, encountering his family’s cultural heritage in a new way.

Little Thunder (2009) Animation

Alan Syliboy (Mi’qmaw), Nance Ackerman
Insta: @thundermakersband

Inspired by the Mi’kmaq legend “The Stone Canoe,” this coming-of-age story follows a boy who reluctantly sets out on a canoe trip by himself, as a rite of passage into adulthood.

Sisters and Brothers (2015) Documentary, Drama, Experimental

Kent Monkman (Cree)

In a pounding critique of Canada’s colonial history, this short film draws parallels between the annihilation of the bison in the 1890s and the devastation inflicted on the Indigenous population by the residential school system.

dbynoe · April 28, 2025, 6:19am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

Rider Reels Revue

Special guest curator Melanie (Melly) Kage, curator and host of One Time I Rode motorcycle storytelling nights

One Time I Rode – A Motorcycle Storytelling Night is an event series curated by Melanie Kage. The event takes place twice a year at different venues in Vancouver, BC. There are always five scheduled storytellers who share their tales (reading a text or talking freely), followed by an open mic for spontaneous participants. There are only two rules for participation: 1) The story should not be longer than 10 minutes 2) It must be about motorcycles

The next event, Volume 12, will happen in June in East Vancouver.

Follow https://www.instagram.com/one_time_i_rode/

The Slide

Akira (1988): Customized Japanese sport bike heavily inspired by Honda CB750F
Nope (2022): Energica Eva Esse 9

The sideways slide to a stop that Kaneda performs on his bike in the 80s anime cult classic Akira occurs only a few minutes into the film during a chase with the rival Clown gang, and has been referenced in pop culture many times since then. Emerald Haywood swings her electric motorcycle into the power slide during the final act of Nope in a cloud of dust after racing through the desert, luring an alien behind her to capture it in the perfect camera shot. The motion and dramatic framing are the same in the original and the homage, as is the meaning the stunt move conveys in both pictures: control amid chaos, heroic confidence, and rebellion.

American Roads

Easy Rider (1969): Choppers built from 1950s Harley-Davidson FL Hydra-Glides
My Own Private Idaho (1991): 1974 Norton Commando 850

Both Easy Rider and My Own Private Idaho aren’t classic Hollywood narratives or spectacles but low-budget, independent films featuring countercultural themes and unconventional storytelling. Wyatt and Billy are rugged outlaw bikers, lost and looking for a freedom that is inaccessible to them as men who challenge the societal norms of America in the 60s—they ride to get away from the restraints of the time. Thirty years later, Mike and Scott also struggle with their life as street-walking outcast sex workers, searching for belonging and connection while still challenging traditional masculinity—they ride without aim. Motorcycles are meaningful vehicles used to negotiate individual identity, relationships with others, as well as landscapes and quintessentially the whole world.

Canadian Roads

First Blood (1982): 1982 Yamaha XT250
One Week (2008): 1973 Norton Commando 850

The chosen scenes from the first-ever Rambo film and the only Canadian motorcycle road movie both show the mountainous backdrops and rural charm of Hope, BC. Look closely, and you see the same motel in the background of Sylvester Stallone’s action-packed two-wheeled escape through the main streets of the small town that Vancouver’s own Joshua Jackson rides by on his thoughtful trip of a lifetime from Toronto to Tofino. However, while First Blood is set in a fictional place in the States and disconnected from the actual filming location, One Week emphatically names Hope and other towns along the cross-country journey and pays tribute to the local sights and culture.

Gangs/Connections

Mad Max (1979): Customized 1970s Kawasaki Z1000s, KH250s, and Honda CB750s
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): Customized Yamaha YZF-R1, Yamaha WR250s, YZ250s, and Tenere 660, GasGas bikes, a Honda Goldwing, and a Royal Enfield

There are motorcycle gangs, like The Nightriders in the original Mad Max movie, and there are people connected by motorcycles, like the War Rig crew in the fourth instalment of the franchise, Fury Road. The bad boys, led by Toecutter, invade a village and simply terrorize it to survive in the post-apocalyptic savage society of the film. Anarchy, revenge, and violent power go well with the visuals of their aggressive customized race bikes: angular fairings and cowls, extended forks, low bars, raw paint jobs. However, the resistant women riders, led by Furiosa, add salvaged metal pieces, practical accessories like ropes, panniers, and extra fuel tanks to their modified off-road motorcycles. They do not thrive on the dystopian chaos but stick together in solidarity, empowering each other in hopes of escaping the oppressive rule of the warlords.

The Black Leather Coverall

(After 9 pm)The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968): 1966 Harley-Davidson FLH Electra Glide
Matrix: Reloaded (2003): Ducati 996 built between 1999 and 2002

Rebecca, The Girl on a Motorcycle, is the dreamer, tragic heroine, and object of desire in this romantic drama. She is taught how to ride by her lover, and then uses the bike—one of the largest and heaviest in production at the time—to try to break free and liberate herself, sexually and personally, but ultimately fails to do so and fatally crashes in the end. The lingering close-up shots of her black leather coverall embody the male gaze taking her down. They are replaced by slow-motion and tracking shots following Trinity, the skilled hacker in the Matrix Reloaded blockbuster. She quickly learns how to master her motorcycle—one of the most powerful and high-performance sports bikes of its era—via download during a dynamic chase through highway traffic. Still, her body in the iconic suit remains the aesthetic focus, despite her capabilities and empowerment.

dbynoe · May 16, 2025, 5:44am

Previously at the East Van VODVILLE

Click here for the latest show.

Workplace Safety

April 28th is the National Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace.
https://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning
https://dayofmourning.bc.ca/
As professionals in the ever-rushing film industry, the Vodville’s proprietors are no strangers to workplace injury, near misses, and lost colleagues, which is why we’re taking the opportunity to highlight the day, and the importance of strong workplace safety cultures, backed up by strong labour rights and legislation, provincially and federally.
To get folks thinking about workplace safety, we’ve put together a collection of films that each deal with a different aspect of workplace safety, some humorous, some more serious, none gory.
You always have the right to refuse unsafe work, and it’s always worth taking the time to document the reasons for your refusal.
Nothing you do in the workplace is so important that it’s worth risking the kind of injury that will divide your life into before/after.
Stay safe, friends and neighbours.

Proper supervision is essential when introducing new workers to a job, as we see in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, 1936 [1:36]
Dziga Vertov’s 1929 Soviet film Man with a Movie Camera… spot the moment when the location safety rep starts furiously gesturing for the camera op to get further away from the stream of molten iron… a good illustration of why it’s important not to work alone. [2:07]
For crowd-related danger, try selling some loss-leader eggs in this economy. It’s Juzo Itami’s utterly unique and charming Supermarket Woman, 1996. One viewing per customer, please. [2:29]
Next we go to 1920’s Don’t Weaken for a textbook example of creating a hostile work environment. Workplace bullying is an often overlooked but key factor in negative health and safety outcomes. If you’re in a position to set culture, you have the power to save lives and limbs. [2:30]
Gosling season is coming up, and that means the geese will be more elbows up than usual. You’ve been warned. Down on the Farm, 1920 produced by Mack Sennett.
Some animals, especially if they’re indoors and in large numbers, can create enough noise to damage a worker’s hearing. [1:35]
Black Oxfords 1924. Here we see a poor banker, bravely foreclosing on a small farmstead to save the shareholders profits, being beset by wild goats.
Working with or around animals, workers can experience injury and/or illness. Animals can kick and bite, step on a worker, or squeeze a worker against a wall or fence, causing serious — and sometimes fatal — injuries. [3:18]
Galloping Bungalows 1924. Beware of construction shortcuts, whether you’re a construction worker, realtor, or potential buyer. And this one wasn’t even a presale! [2:38]
One would think a customs worker would know not to throw strange liquids found in travelers bags at the face of their supervisor but here we are… It’s the MSDS sheet-lacking customs scene from Pierre Étaix’ brillant 1965 film Yo Yo. [1:46]
Speaking of danger, let’s check in on the special effects department. This sequence from 1923’s The Dare-Devil shows what we call a Poor Man’s Process rig, essentially a way of replicating the visual effect of a moving vehicle processional trailer while stationary. It often consists of moving lights or backdrop, and most crucially, a 4x4” wooden post resting on an apple box to shake the daylights out of whatever vehicle the actor is on. A hundred years on, and it’s still the go-to for getting the shots done on budget. Communication is key. [1:13]
We go to the O.G. door dash in 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service for a rainy night food run. It doesn’t look like she is wearing proper clothing for the weather and is at risk of hypothermia. [2:43]
You know what more industrial safety training films need? Heavy equipment, a cast of Hollywood stunt performers, and an absolutely epic slide guitar & banjo sound track. Are you ready to learn some heavy mechanic safety, or are you going to Shake Hands with Danger? 1980. [2:49]
Finally we go to the 1940’s screwball classic His Girl Friday, where Rosalind Russell gives an amazing performance as Hildy Johnson, telling her boss exactly what he can do with this job. Remember, you always have the right to refuse unsafe work. [3:23]