The Urban Condition with B-Town

Cinema Paradiso on 'The Drive'

One of the projects I have been running in the past month is to develop a cinema under an overhang that's part of an autobody shop on the drive. I'm running a two night (down from 6) film festival about how urban space is experienced and recaptured by us as city dwellers. It will be presented under the cover of the Hi-Light Autobody Shop on Commercial Drive at East Third Avenue the weekend of the 17th and 18th of June. Admission will be free.
The Program is as follows:

Saturday June 17th
5:00 pm Band


6:45 pm Metropolis (1926)
Fritz Lang's epic futurist classic of a robot led worker revolution helped define how we see the modernist city in science fiction film. Set in 2026, when the populace is divided between working classes, living deep underground, and the rich, who enjoy their skyscraping city of splendour. 124 min.







8:58 Amelie (2001)
Jean-Pierre Juenet's whimsical love story set against the beauty of central Paris. Audrey Tatou stars as Amelie, an imaginative young woman trying to find happiness for others through happenstance. 122 min.







Sunday June 18th
Car Free Day on Commercial Drive

4:30 Band

5:30 Band


5:50 End of Suburbia (2004)
The American Dream of tha spacious home, the neatly kept yards, and a multi car garage... who could argue with that? But, can world supply meet the demands of these suburbanite lifestyles? This documentary asks these along with what can be done before the consuming maw of the suburbs devours all that's left. 78 min.






7:15 Ikiru (1952)
Akira Kurosawa's masterwork of comedic tedium and the beauty of humanity. A bureaucratic city planner of the worst kind discovers that he has terminal cancer and, without telling anyone, sets out to change his life. 143 min.







9:40 Run Lola Run (1998)
Lola has 20 minutes to find and run 100000 deutchmars across the city to her mob debted boyfriend before his fate is sealed. A driving techno soundtrack builds as the camera follows Lola through the streets of Berlin. 81 min.

posted by B-Town @ 7:36 p.m.