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What Do the Films of BC Represent to Us?

In the final edition of ‘The Image Before Us,’ our collective memory is reflected, and challenged.

The Cinematheque 11 Jan 2023TheTyee.ca

Two people holding hands skip along a beach in a faded, sepia-tone, century old photograph.
The 1914 film In the Land of Head Hunters, directed by Edward S. Curtis, was the first feature film in North America to feature an entirely Indigenous cast. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Stimulated through an annual series, Vancouver’s Cinematheque has asked the question: What are the cinematic narratives of here?

This year marks the seventh and final instalment of the series "The Image Before Us," aptly titled "The Finale.”

There are five offerings as a response to that question: In the Land of the Head Hunters (Jan. 11); The Grey Fox (Jan. 11); Cariboo Country: How to Break a Quarter Horse + The Education of Phyllistine (Feb. 1); Madeline Is... (Feb. 22); and I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Feb. 22).

Many of the most memorable and significant films from the first six seasons will also be screened, in an effort to show how the culture and community of B.C. continues to evolve, define and reflect itself through media.

Below is an excerpt from the original catalogue essay by Harry Killas from the first season in 2015, reprinted in commemoration of the finale.

The series of screenings — a history of film in British Columbia, with emphasis on a history, not the history — is inspired by one of my favourite films, The Image Before Us, written and directed by poet, scholar and filmmaker Colin Browne.

In this documentary essay film, within the genre of the compilation film, Browne investigates and gently critiques the images of Vancouver that have been presented to us in many historic motion pictures, primarily newsreels and travelogues, produced in and about B.C.

“What is the image before us?” Browne asks. “And how did it get that way?” How do we “read” our own films? If one focuses on this story or that image, what about the stories and images that have been left out? What stories and images have been presented and persist in our imaginaries of here? What others are not presented and consequently need to be?

Browne’s rich, condensed and ultimately moving work asks these questions and sets up our series: What do the films of British Columbia represent to us, and what are the cinematic narratives of here?

This series contains a bias, a bias towards the social context of peoples in B.C. and towards the realistic image, reflected in my own interests and work as a filmmaker and educator. Themes and sub-themes weave and, I hope, reverberate through these screenings: Indigenous stories, characters and “contact”; the manufactured image; the American archetype; the pictorial and the anti-picturesque; the intensely local and the intensely global. Come to these screenings and be inspired, entertained and amazed.

Harry Killas is a Vancouver filmmaker and associate professor in film and screen arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Killas is grateful to Colin Browne for his curatorial assistance on this season of 'The Image Before Us.'

About the Cinematheque

Founded in 1972, the Cinematheque is a film institute and media education centre devoted to understanding the art and history of Canadian and international cinema and the impact of moving images and screen-based media in our lives.

Our public activities include a year-round calendar of curated film exhibitions devoted to important classic and contemporary films and filmmakers; and an array of community outreach programs offering interactive learning opportunities in film appreciation, filmmaking, media literacy and critical thinking. [Tyee]

Read more: BC Politics, Film

This article is part of a Tyee Presents initiative. Tyee Presents is the special sponsored content section within The Tyee where we highlight contests, events and other initiatives that are either put on by us or by our select partners. The Tyee does not and cannot vouch for or endorse products advertised on The Tyee. We choose our partners carefully and consciously, to fit with The Tyee’s reputation as B.C.’s Home for News, Culture and Solutions. Learn more about Tyee Presents here.

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