They really don't make movies like this John Houston classic anymore

Fall Guide: Film Listings

If you missed the Radiohead show in Vancouver in August, be sure to check out Thom and co. as part of the From the Basement concert films at SilverCity. The screening series features independently produced concert videos of performers like Thom Yorke, the White Stripes and the Shins (October 1), plus Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Sonic Youth (October 8) and PJ Harvey, Super Furry Animals and a special one-hour Radiohead performance (October 22), to mention but a few bands who will be beamed onto the big screen at those shows. Following on the heels of that is inDEF, also at SilverCity, which features Canadian groups like the Joel Plaskett Emergency and the Great Lake Swimmers (November 5) and Alex Cuba and Royal Wood (November 19).

In honour of Mental Illness and Homeless Action weeks, Movie Monday has two special events with Vancouver homeless activist Judy Graves. October 6 at the Eric Martin Pavilion is a screening of radical interventionist doc The Devil Plays Hardball paired with The Schoolhouse, a six-minute film about “wet” housing in Toronto, followed by a discussion about causes of and solutions to homelessness. On October 7 at St. John the Divine, Graves and a host of local speakers will participate in a panel discussion after a screening of Out of the Shadow, a documentary about filmmaker Susan Smiley’s mother’s battle with schizophrenia. Online sketch comedy group Loading Ready Run also celebrate their five-year anniversary at the October 18 installation of Movie Monday with a Q&A;session, LRR merch and screenings of favourite sketches of the past, bloopers and all-new material.

The Francophone Society continues their twice-monthly French film night October 3 with Lucky Luke: Go West at the Victor Brodeur School. While they haven’t nailed down the full fall lineup, look for French films every first Friday and third Thursday of each month. And here’s a fresh idea: splash on over to the Oak Bay Rec Centre come October 15 for a “Dive-In” movie screening of Jaws on the pool deck. (Da dum, da dum . . . )

In other screening series, Film Noir at the Superior Cafe is happening every second Wednesday, with classics like The Maltese Falcon (October 8), Black Angel (November 5), Slightly Scarlet (November 19) and a special New Year’s Eve screening of Casablanca.

Open Cinema also launches their season by pairing up with MediaNet’s inaugural Eco Doc program on October 8 at the Event Centre. The evening features screenings of 12 brand new local environmental documentaries. Speaking of MediaNet, don’t miss their annual Edges Festival of Media Art, happening November 13-19 at the Community Arts Council Gallery.

If you’d rather be behind a camera than in a theatre seat, there are plenty of workshops and contests slated for the fall to sharpen your focus. The Victoria Film Festival’s six-week FilmCAN mentoring program for high school students starts in November and they’re still looking for entries for their annual My Victoria: A City’s People competition, where filmmakers of all ages and skill levels are invited to make a one-minute film about living in Victoria—and if you want to enter but are a beginner, check out VFF’s three Intro to Short Filmmaking classes, starting November 4.

Meanwhile, Cinevic is also hosting a slough of workshops this fall, with some notables being a two-day workshop on how to work with the National Film Board hosted by Yves J. Ma (Eve and the Firehorse) in late October and a special effects makeup class with Erin Freose on November 5.