One of the Lower Mainland’s most scenic cinemas is back for its second summer.
Deckchair Cinema, presented by The Polygon Gallery, returns to North Vancouver’s waterfront this week. On Thursdays this sunny season, film lovers are being welcomed to bring friends, food and drinks to Cates Deck, located in front of the gallery.
The series kicks off June 29 with Fantastic Planet, a 1973 experimental animated science-fiction art film directed by René Laloux, and is followed by other cult and art house movies including Cher and Nicolas Cage’s iconic date to the opera in Moonstruck, Olivia Newton-John-starring disco fantasy Xanadu and Interstella 5555, an anime adventure that visualizes a Daft Punk album.
Showings on the two-storey outdoor screen start at sunset, with music and entertainment leading up to curtain time. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets or low chairs. Admission is by donation ($10 each recommended) and includes access to The Polygon’s summer exhibition, Phase Shifting Index by Jeremy Shaw.
Cates Deck is a public space zoned for alcohol consumption, so guests can bring their own or buy drinks from local breweries and wineries at an outdoor “meet the makers” market.
Deckchair Cinema had a great response in its first year, says Polygon marketing manager Michael Mann.
“We almost immediately had a lot of people showing up for it,” he said. “The films are a bit different than other movie nights around the Lower Mainland. And I think people really responded to the adventurous programming we’re doing.”
This year’s programming is a mix of drive-in favourites and Criterion classics, Mann said.
He drew attention to John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. It stars Kurt Russell and James Hong and Kim Cattrall. As you may know, Cattrall grew up and has a home on Vancouver Island.
“It’s just a really fun and weird, pure popcorn flick from the 80s – a video store classic, I would say,” Mann said.
He also noted Whale Rider – about a young Māori woman seizing her destiny and saving her tribe in New Zealand – as well as No Bears, a meta-fiction work by Jafar Panahi, who is currently in prison in Iran for making the film.
“It’s a great community event and you’re going to see a really interesting movie and have fun with your friends. It’s almost as much a movie night as it is a social night,” Mann said.
In future years, Mann said the summer movie series will continue “indefinitely.”
Deckchair Cinema summer 2023 schedule
- June 29 – Fantastic Planet, 9:30 p.m.
- July 6 – Interstella 5555, 9:30 p.m.
- July 13 – What We Do In The Shadows, 9:15 p.m.
- July 20 – Whale Rider, 9:15 p.m., celebrating Squamish Amalgamation Day
- July 27 – Big Trouble In Little China, 9:00 p.m.
- August 3 – Xanadu, 9:00 p.m., celebrating North Shore Pride Week
- August 10 – Lovers Rock, 8:45 p.m.
- August 17 – Moonstruck, 8:45 p.m.
- August 24 – No Bears, 8:30 p.m.
- August 31 – Bullitt, 8:30 p.m.
