Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest

Kimberly J. Frail is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library
at the University of Alberta.

Public Services Librarian
University of Alberta Libraries
Bibliothèque Saint-Jean

Dreaming in the Rain focuses on narrative feature films, although
mention is made of acclaimed Vancouver-based television series such as
Da Vinci’s Inquest and The X-Files. Author David Spaner, film critic
for The Province, recounts the rise of the West Coast film industry
through interviews with those who helped to create it. This a much more
engaging approach than simply presenting a chronologically arranged
series of facts and figures.

Spaner describes the first wave of Vancouver-based independent
filmmakers centred around Larry Kent in 1963. He then traces the
development of American-style film and television infrastructure with
development of the studio system in the late 1980s beginning with the TV
series StingRay. He identifies the UBC film school’s 1989 production
of The Grocer’s Wife as the “nuclei” for the Vancouver independent
film scene. The film was shown at Cannes and

the production crew included eight future film directors. This section
includes short biographies of John Pozer, Mina Shum, Lynn Stopkewich,
Bruce Sweeney, and Ross Weber. Moving to the other side of the camera,
Spaner identifies a similar catalyst group of actors out of the
Vancouver’s Gastown Actor’s Studio and supplies quotations from
founder Mel Tuck and actors Martin Cummins, Molly Parker, and Nicholas
Lea.

At times Spaner’s focus on the people in the film industry, rather
than the films or the industry itself, is somewhat distracting. He
indulges in several “acrimonious anecdotes,” taking a jab at Mike
Myers for being ignorant of the Canadian film industry and relaying a
tale of how Atom Egoyan snubbed Bruce Sweeney at the 2001 Toronto Film
Festival. However, his obvious affection and admiration for those
working in the West Coast film industry has allowed him to gather and
present to his readers several intimate anecdotes and personal photos.

Dreaming in the Rain, which includes a comprehensive index and lots of
intriguing snippets of Can-West film trivia, is appropriate for anyone
with an interest in the history of Canadian filmmaking.