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24 hour cinema marathon, 24 hours of cinema, 24 hr cinema marathon 2015, Alfred Hitchcock, all night movie night, anime, Army of Darkness, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Billy Zane young, Bruce Campbell, Canadian whiskey bacon donut, Cartems Donuterie, Cinematheque Vancouver, earl grey donut, French Sci Fi, Groundhog Day, High Noon, James Stewart, La Jette, Mamoru Hosoda, Memento, orlando, Peggy Sue Got Married, Primer, Rope, Run Lola Run, The Girl who Leapt through time, theme of time in cinema, Tilda Swinton, Vancouver's Best Donuts, Watch La Jette Online, Western
It’s been over a week since I took part in this delightful event put on by the Cinematheque and I can easily say it took me a good few days to catch up on sleep! Introduced two years ago this is only the second time they have put on this event so I felt it was good timing I happened to be here and was meant to be! Once I heard about it I thought I just have to do it. With a line up of 15 films, that of which you are not told, the event kicked off at 10am and would run for a full 24 hrs with a few breaks in between. I had only bought my ticket the night before and didn’t realise it started at 9.30 with a talk so arrived pretty much smack on 10 and the film was already in its opening credits. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the day, just that there was a theme (again not disclosed) and we would discover this theme as we watched the films.
My crumpled timetable
The opening film was Groundhog Day, which although I have seen countless number of times, still works its magic. I’m used to watching this film around Christmas time so felt quite strange watching it in a dark room on a sunny morning in March but what the heck I still enjoyed it! The second film of the day was a little gem, Chris Marker’s La Jette, a film which many Sci Fi films have since been based on. Only 28 minutes long the film is made up entirely of black and white still photographs with voiceover and tells the story of Scientists who decide to send a man into the past to try to prevent the nuclear war that has almost destroyed the earth and threatens to annihilate the human race. This was the only non feature length film of the night and definitely left an impression on many people. Third up it was the wonderful Hitchcock film Rope which was probably one of my favourites of the day. Again I had seen this before back in A level Media Studies however it still felt so fresh and new and has one of my favourite actors in, James Stewart who as always was fantastic. I loved that the camera never pauses and follows the action of the whole event as if you are in the theatre watching a play. Some shots were executed wonderfully such as the shot of the door swinging open and dropping the rope into the drawer. His films are completely timeless. Continue reading
Before I flew out to Vancouver I read that the Chinese New Year Parade would be taking place on Sunday 22nd February which left me very excited! There had been build up events and stalls spread across town to mark the year of the goat/lamb (this didn’t seem to be clear!) Some signs said it was the year of the goat whereas others said lamb and therefore there was a big display of lambs at one of the exhibition areas and then random posters of goats at other parts. The festival kicked off at 11a.m and if there’s one word to sum it up I would say disappointing. It seemed quite badly organised and was really long that it grew quite tiresome. It didn’t seem extremely professional and at one point there was a worker walking down the parade smoking and just having a general chat on the phone. I do not mean to take this away from some of the beautiful costumes on display as well as the drums and people dressed up as dragons as this was impressive, however the whole thing together did not not flow smoothly and after 20 minutes of watching we grew bored and headed elsewhere.
So I’ve been here just over a week and can safely say I’ve found a room in a good part of town which is a nice room however I wish I had taken a little bit longer to work out prices and best places to live around Vancouver. I’d read a lot about the different places, asked friends also and had a lot of recommendations so I wanted to explore the different options. Here’s a few I looked into but there’s a good site which gives tips on prices and what you can find in each neighbourhood 
My back is killing me! That is one way of describing the last few days but it is all completely worth it. I’m feeling much more settled and am really enjoying being here. The first two days weren’t easy. On Friday night I was messaging people back home to say I’d made the wrong decision and I should just come straight back. However after having a few days exploring, meeting people and discovering places I’d have to say the place is growing on me. Of course, I’m not working yet so everything is going to be painted a bit rosy but I hope that even when I do start my job I will still be able to explore this beautiful city. 
Well it’s been a long time getting here and now I finally am it still doesn’t quite seem real! It’s all quite daunting moving to a new place by yourself but it’s still early days yet so I’ll see how I feel in a couple of days time! The last few days since leaving work went far too quickly, it dawned on me that I had a lot to do and not as much time as I thought to do it in! The weekend was spent with loved ones. I was treated extremely special on Saturday with a full blown 3 course meal by Craig and he also gave me a beautiful travel journal to take with me. 
It’s only 3 days until I fly off to Vancouver and I can definitely say that the last two weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions! Since handing my notice in at work, my head has been backwards and forwards wondering if I’ve made the right decision, questioning why I’ve been wanting to try moving to Vancouver for a period of time and second guessing quite a lot. At the same time 2015 has also been scary but exciting, liberating and full of incredible moments spent with loved ones and friends that i have appreciated more than I think I would’ve done if I did not have this trip planned.
TEA and TAKES 