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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Vancouver, B.C., is for (movie) lovers

Dan Webster

I'm posting this from my 12th-floor room at The Sutton Place Hotel in beautiful downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We're here to attend this weekend's version of the Vancouver International Film Festival, one of our favorite movie-themed events and — if past experience is any guide — one of the most user-friendly festivals we've had the pleasure to attend.

And we've attended many of them, from San Diego to New York — including, for a decade straight, that little movie party they hold annually in Park City, Utah.

We drove out of Spokane yesterday evening and stayed overnight in Bellingham (at the Comfort Inn, which had the benefit of being located directly across the street from a Starbucks and a Costco, which allowed us to fuel up this morning on caffeine and unleaded gasoline). It took us less than two hours to drive north across the border and into the interior of Vancouver, which has to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen (as you can tell from the above photo).

So, we're here, as moviegoers, as critics for Spokane Public Radio and as film programmers for the Spokane International Film Festival. In that latter position, it's a truism that many of the films that SpIFF screens (usually during the first week and some of February) come from VIFF.

I'll post as much as I can, about the films we see, about what we experience in Vancouver and maybe even about the meals we eat — though, to be honest, when we put on our filmgoing hats we tend to exist on whatever we can grab between screenings.

Gotta have your priorities, you know.