Tuesday, December 24, 2013
By MICHAEL WALSH
Among the topics covered in Reeling Back's Local News section is B.C. Film History. To date there's only been one item listed (B.C. Film Firsts). The time has come to expand on that subject.
Almost 40 years ago, urban historian Chuck Davis asked me to write the article on feature film-making for his ambitious hometown encyclopedia, The Vancouver Book (1976). Caught up in his enthusiasm, I took it as an opportunity to create a list of every feature-length movie filmed, in whole or in part, in our province.
Because Chuck's specific focus was on the city of Vancouver (and because my piece was only one of over 200 features in his 500-page book), some judicious editing was necessary. It was decided to trim the text by eliminating all of the films shot outside of Greater Vancouver, some 40 titles.
Among the gems lost was the story of Kenneth J. Bishop and the 14 "quota quickies" that he produced in Victoria during the 1930s.
That was then. Now I have Reeling Back, a website devoted to the restoration of my published reviews and such lost works as Feature Films Made in Vancouver and British Columbia (1924-1975). The series of seven postings (from December 26 to January 1), will represent the first publication of the entire article.
On January 6, the website will be three months old and I will be, well, another year older. As Herbal Thought (the Rastafarian bicycle courier on the Dark Angel TV series) was fond of saying: "It's all good . . . all the time."
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