Dennis J. Duffy
@djduffy.bsky.social
Retired audio-visual archivist (ca. 2017). I write about BC & Canadian film history (& maybe Japanese cinema) and hope to find an outlet for my ramblings. Meanwhile my blog, Seriously Moving Images, is at https://movingimagesweb.wordpress.com
Pinned
Dennis J. Duffy
@djduffy.bsky.social
· Sep 17
“A cedar panelled billiard room”: Suite 2, 1960 Robson Street
Oscar [Burritt] mentioned that, in the hallway adjoining their apartment, [there] was a large walk-in refrigerator that also had a substantial freezer section. Oscar reported that this latter was i…
tinyurl.com
In mid-1940s Vancouver, a suite in an old mansion near Stanley Park was a social hub for creative people in the film society. Dorothy Burritt's film "Suite Two: A Memo to Oscar" (1947) records her home and the circle of friends that came to parties & film nights there. #bcfilm tinyurl.com/2z9baupm
In mid-1940s Vancouver, a suite in an old mansion near Stanley Park was a social hub for creative people in the film society. Dorothy Burritt's film "Suite Two: A Memo to Oscar" (1947) records her home and the circle of friends that came to parties & film nights there. #bcfilm tinyurl.com/2z9baupm
“A cedar panelled billiard room”: Suite 2, 1960 Robson Street
Oscar [Burritt] mentioned that, in the hallway adjoining their apartment, [there] was a large walk-in refrigerator that also had a substantial freezer section. Oscar reported that this latter was i…
tinyurl.com
September 17, 2025 at 5:42 PM
In mid-1940s Vancouver, a suite in an old mansion near Stanley Park was a social hub for creative people in the film society. Dorothy Burritt's film "Suite Two: A Memo to Oscar" (1947) records her home and the circle of friends that came to parties & film nights there. #bcfilm tinyurl.com/2z9baupm
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In August 1940 Ortus Films shot Vancouver scenes for the British feature "49th Parallel" (1941). An 8mm fragment depicts the shoot. Filmed across Canada, the picture was directed by Michael Powell & written by Emeric Pressburger—later famous as “The Archers.” #Cdnfilm #BCfilm tinyurl.com/3jsvz54u
49TH PARALLEL (1941): Feature film scenes shot in Vancouver — and never shown
Music: “Kura” by Maarten Schellekens (evocativesoundtrack.com)1 The above video clip comprises 8-millimetre amateur footage from August 7, 1940. It shows a production unit from Ortus Fi…
tinyurl.com
September 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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In August 1940 Ortus Films shot Vancouver scenes for the British feature "49th Parallel" (1941). An 8mm fragment depicts the shoot. Filmed across Canada, the picture was directed by Michael Powell & written by Emeric Pressburger—later famous as “The Archers.” #Cdnfilm #BCfilm tinyurl.com/3jsvz54u
49TH PARALLEL (1941): Feature film scenes shot in Vancouver — and never shown
Music: “Kura” by Maarten Schellekens (evocativesoundtrack.com)1 The above video clip comprises 8-millimetre amateur footage from August 7, 1940. It shows a production unit from Ortus Fi…
tinyurl.com
September 14, 2025 at 2:35 AM
In August 1940 Ortus Films shot Vancouver scenes for the British feature "49th Parallel" (1941). An 8mm fragment depicts the shoot. Filmed across Canada, the picture was directed by Michael Powell & written by Emeric Pressburger—later famous as “The Archers.” #Cdnfilm #BCfilm tinyurl.com/3jsvz54u
"Bats Out of Hell," Oscar Burritt's first film, shows start of midget car racing @ Vancouver's Hastings Park. He shot it in 1937, hand-processed the footage, & never finished it. 88 years later, it's been organized, edited, cleaned up, & given an original musical score. #BCfilm tinyurl.com/yrvyayjc
Bats Out of Hell: A “Lost” Vancouver Film from 1937 by Oscar Burritt, Now Given a Fresh Coat of Paint
In 1990, I was doing some archival film research under contract for the BC Archives’ audio-visual unit when I got in touch with Douglas S. Wilson, a Toronto film buff and collector. I was res…
tinyurl.com
August 3, 2025 at 5:10 AM
"Bats Out of Hell," Oscar Burritt's first film, shows start of midget car racing @ Vancouver's Hastings Park. He shot it in 1937, hand-processed the footage, & never finished it. 88 years later, it's been organized, edited, cleaned up, & given an original musical score. #BCfilm tinyurl.com/yrvyayjc
A film trove: video of 1937 footage that Oscar Burritt shot & hand-processed (but never edited/finished), labelled "Bats Out of Hell." It shows midget-car-racing (6-ft-long cars) at Hastings Park, Vancouver. The source film had many processing & exposure issues, & MANY TAKES! #bcfilm #silentfilm
July 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
A film trove: video of 1937 footage that Oscar Burritt shot & hand-processed (but never edited/finished), labelled "Bats Out of Hell." It shows midget-car-racing (6-ft-long cars) at Hastings Park, Vancouver. The source film had many processing & exposure issues, & MANY TAKES! #bcfilm #silentfilm
I'm reposting this 1940 Stanley Theatre/Vancouver Film Society story from my blog. I've cleaned up some edits, bumped up the light levels, and (most importantly) added new musical tracks by David Mattison. (Some right pretty tunes, sir!) #silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm tinyurl.com/323wm6th
Sunday Afternoons at the Stanley Theatre (Vancouver, April 1940)
This amateur movie records a Sunday afternoon film screening at the Stanley Theatre on Granville Street in Vancouver on 14 April 1940. The occasion was the ninth screening of the fourth seaso…
tinyurl.com
July 25, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I'm reposting this 1940 Stanley Theatre/Vancouver Film Society story from my blog. I've cleaned up some edits, bumped up the light levels, and (most importantly) added new musical tracks by David Mattison. (Some right pretty tunes, sir!) #silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm tinyurl.com/323wm6th
Here's another mash-up of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver. The footage comes from annual public displays at Stanley Park and Maple Grove Park in 1945 & 1951. For this incarnation, it's been made jiggier with original music by my friend DAVID MATTISON. tinyurl.com/4m473sm6
“DANCE, GIRL, DANCE!”: Another Pro-Rec Mash-Up
Here’s another mash-up of “Pro-Rec” (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver — this time, from their annual public displays. The footage featured here is drawn from de…
tinyurl.com
July 23, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Here's another mash-up of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver. The footage comes from annual public displays at Stanley Park and Maple Grove Park in 1945 & 1951. For this incarnation, it's been made jiggier with original music by my friend DAVID MATTISON. tinyurl.com/4m473sm6
“DANCE, GIRL, DANCE!”: Another Pro-Rec Mash-Up
Here’s another mash-up of “Pro-Rec” (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver — this time, from their annual public displays. The footage featured here is drawn from de…
tinyurl.com
July 23, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Here's another mash-up of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation) footage from Vancouver. The footage comes from annual public displays at Stanley Park and Maple Grove Park in 1945 & 1951. For this incarnation, it's been made jiggier with original music by my friend DAVID MATTISON. tinyurl.com/4m473sm6
Revisiting my 2009 video mash-up JUMPING JILLS, which reworks unusual 1950 amateur footage of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation, a BC gov't program) instructors in training at a Vancouver summer school. TRIGGER WARNING: includes footage of folk dancing and human pyramids! #BCfilm tinyurl.com/2tcuw2sv
JUMPING JILLS (Vancouver, B.C.): A Cyclone Newsreel Film Story (1950/2009)
This clip is my own mash-up, based on some 1950 amateur footage shot at a Vancouver summer school for “Pro-Rec” instructors. They were being trained to lead classes in British Columbia&…
tinyurl.com
July 20, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Revisiting my 2009 video mash-up JUMPING JILLS, which reworks unusual 1950 amateur footage of "Pro-Rec" (Provincial Recreation, a BC gov't program) instructors in training at a Vancouver summer school. TRIGGER WARNING: includes footage of folk dancing and human pyramids! #BCfilm tinyurl.com/2tcuw2sv
From 85 years ago: a fascinating amateur film made by three Vancouver cinephiles. "Three There: Galiano Island 1940," an "experimental travelogue/memoir," was shot by the trio during a long weekend on one of BC's Gulf Islands.
#Silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm
STORY/VIDEO LINK: tinyurl.com/3vrzksud
#Silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm
STORY/VIDEO LINK: tinyurl.com/3vrzksud
July 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM
From 85 years ago: a fascinating amateur film made by three Vancouver cinephiles. "Three There: Galiano Island 1940," an "experimental travelogue/memoir," was shot by the trio during a long weekend on one of BC's Gulf Islands.
#Silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm
STORY/VIDEO LINK: tinyurl.com/3vrzksud
#Silentfilm #BCfilm #Cdnfilm
STORY/VIDEO LINK: tinyurl.com/3vrzksud
Here you can view a Canadian experimental film from Vancouver [ca. 1940] that hasn't been seen publicly for decades. It's "and--", by Dorothy Fowler & Margaret Roberts of Vancouver. #silentfilm #cdnfilm #bcfilm tinyurl.com/yw2n357b
July 6, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Here you can view a Canadian experimental film from Vancouver [ca. 1940] that hasn't been seen publicly for decades. It's "and--", by Dorothy Fowler & Margaret Roberts of Vancouver. #silentfilm #cdnfilm #bcfilm tinyurl.com/yw2n357b
The 1949 documentary film "In the Daytime" is an impressionistic portrait of life in Vancouver on a summer day. Made by two talented amateurs, Stanley Fox and Peter Varley, it holds an important place in the history of British Columbia filmmaking. tinyurl.com/4p55w5r6
June 30, 2025 at 9:46 PM
The 1949 documentary film "In the Daytime" is an impressionistic portrait of life in Vancouver on a summer day. Made by two talented amateurs, Stanley Fox and Peter Varley, it holds an important place in the history of British Columbia filmmaking. tinyurl.com/4p55w5r6
Reposted by Dennis J. Duffy
‘The Library’
1960, Jacob Lawrence
1960, Jacob Lawrence
May 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM
‘The Library’
1960, Jacob Lawrence
1960, Jacob Lawrence
Reposted by Dennis J. Duffy
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is all of us.
May 6, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is all of us.
Foreign films aren't the problem. The biggest threat to Hollywood is the cascade of ill-conceived, poorly-written, overblown and overbudgeted remakes and comic book films that tank and hemorrhage cash, burning up good money that could be used to make a dozen smaller, well-crafted films. IMHO.
May 5, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Foreign films aren't the problem. The biggest threat to Hollywood is the cascade of ill-conceived, poorly-written, overblown and overbudgeted remakes and comic book films that tank and hemorrhage cash, burning up good money that could be used to make a dozen smaller, well-crafted films. IMHO.
#silentfilm Newsreel footage from May 1915.
110 years ago this week, nine months into the #GreatWar, anti-German sentiment boiled over in the streets of Victoria, BC, after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. #cdnhist #bchist tinyurl.com/64j37k9jnine
The Great War in Victoria: The Lusitania Riots, May 1915
110 years ago this week, nine months into the First World War, anti-German sentiment boiled over in the streets of Victoria, BC. The above video clip comprises silent film footage from the riots th…
tinyurl.com
May 3, 2025 at 8:30 PM
#silentfilm Newsreel footage from May 1915.
110 years ago this week, nine months into the #GreatWar, anti-German sentiment boiled over in the streets of Victoria, BC, after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. #cdnhist #bchist tinyurl.com/64j37k9jnine
The Great War in Victoria: The Lusitania Riots, May 1915
110 years ago this week, nine months into the First World War, anti-German sentiment boiled over in the streets of Victoria, BC. The above video clip comprises silent film footage from the riots th…
tinyurl.com
May 3, 2025 at 2:50 AM
110 years ago this week, nine months into the #GreatWar, anti-German sentiment boiled over in the streets of Victoria, BC, after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. #cdnhist #bchist tinyurl.com/64j37k9jnine
#cdnhist May Day 1938 Vancouver BC
Silent film by Oscar Burritt, edited by @djduffy.bsky.social of the 1938 May Day parade in Vancouver offers commentary on the growing fascist threat in Europe. Footage shows Vancouver citizens and labour organizations marching, banners high. #bchistory #bclabour #bcpoli
May Day parade, Vancouver (May 1, 1938): edited version
Shot by amateur filmmaker Oscar C. Burritt, this fascinating footage shows Vancouver citizens and organizations marching in a mass May Day parade through dow...
youtu.be
May 2, 2025 at 11:27 PM
#cdnhist May Day 1938 Vancouver BC
Hey Jeff Bezos. Can Amazon please calculate the tariff that would be charged if you wanted to import a fucking SPINE???
April 29, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Hey Jeff Bezos. Can Amazon please calculate the tariff that would be charged if you wanted to import a fucking SPINE???
Reposted by Dennis J. Duffy
If Pierre Poilievre actually lost his seat, tonight could very well be the first time he's ever pleasured a woman.
April 29, 2025 at 3:32 AM
If Pierre Poilievre actually lost his seat, tonight could very well be the first time he's ever pleasured a woman.
The wonderful #SilentFilm star Sumiko Mizukobo; she made 39 films before retiring from the screen as the Japanese film industry transitioned to sound. She is best remembered for her luminous appearances in Naruse's Apart from You and Ozu's Dragnet Girl (both 1933).
April 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM
The wonderful #SilentFilm star Sumiko Mizukobo; she made 39 films before retiring from the screen as the Japanese film industry transitioned to sound. She is best remembered for her luminous appearances in Naruse's Apart from You and Ozu's Dragnet Girl (both 1933).
Reposted by Dennis J. Duffy
Hideo Sugawara, Yasujirō Ozu, and Tomio Aoki on the set of I Was Born, But... (1932) 🧒
April 26, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Hideo Sugawara, Yasujirō Ozu, and Tomio Aoki on the set of I Was Born, But... (1932) 🧒
Well, I've just printed out the umpteenth revision of my book MS about pioneer Canadian filmmaker A. D. Kean. I've revised, rewritten, condensed & cut the text, and I can now attest that the damn thing is (a) shorter and (b) different. Seems like a fit subject for #filmday. #bchist #cdnhist #ncfd
April 17, 2025 at 10:28 PM
a film that takes place where you’re from
April 17, 2025 at 2:59 AM
a film that takes place where you’re from
This amateur film shows a Sunday afternoon film society screening at Vancouver's Stanley Theatre, April 14, 1940. Shot by society members, it includes rare footage of the exterior and interior of the theatre, plus clips from the foreign films being screened. tinyurl.com/5n8nu68z #cdnhist
Sunday Afternoon at the Stanley Theatre (Vancouver, 1940)
This home movie records a Sunday afternoon film screening at the Stanley Theatre on Granville Street in Vancouver on April 14, 1940. The occasion was the ninth screening of the fourth season …
tinyurl.com
April 16, 2025 at 12:46 AM
This amateur film shows a Sunday afternoon film society screening at Vancouver's Stanley Theatre, April 14, 1940. Shot by society members, it includes rare footage of the exterior and interior of the theatre, plus clips from the foreign films being screened. tinyurl.com/5n8nu68z #cdnhist