Vancouver’s most enduring cultural institutions are being honoured
Sunday night with a free downtown screening of the classic Charlie
Chaplin film “The Circus.”
The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) decided to fête
private purveyors of books, music, art, and movies that have been
around for 25 years or more, just in time for a slough of recently
announced store closures and funding shortfalls.
The Book Warehouse is among the 25 honourees, along with other longstanding,
unique local retailers such as MacLeod’s Books, Black Dog Video and Zulu
Records.
“It’s fantastic, and what I hope what people realize from
this is that all of these arts groups especially need an audience,” said
Book Warehouse founder Sharman King, who said he plans to attend the
VIFF celebration. “They don’t exist unless people come to them, and so
because we’re all sort of a community, we really need to support each
other, which by and large we’ve done.”
VIFF’s timing is
especially prescient because of recent announcements that the Vancouver Playhouse is going under, the 34-year-old Ridge Theatre will soon be
demolished to make way for new condos, and after 32 years in business,
the Book Warehouse’s four locations are closing because its owners are
ready to retire. Although the latter isn’t in financial trouble, King
said it’s a tight-knit community and everyone needs to pull together to
keep Vancouver’s arts scene alive.
“We need the support of our
audiences, and the Playhouse is sort of maybe an example of that,” he
said. “It’s a really use-it-or-lose-it situation. If we don’t support
what really defines our civilization, and our culture, then it goes
away.”
The
free screening of “The Circus,” rarely now seen on the big screen,
starts with opening remarks at 7 p.m. at the Vancouver International
Film Centre at 1181 Seymour St.
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