10 Local Outdoor Films You Can Stream at Home

Spearhead film poster

If you’re stuck indoors, watching an outdoor film can help scratch your adventure itch. The Vancouver area is an outdoor paradise, so there are plenty of local movies to choose from that cover trail running, skiing, mountain biking, stand-up paddleboarding, hiking, road biking, and rock climbing. Here are our picks for the best Vancouver outdoor films you can stream at home.

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10 Local Outdoor Films You Can Stream at Home

Vancouver-made Harpoon and the Irish thriller The Perished are highlights of this year’s Badass film festival (postponed)

A promotional image for the Vancouver-made Harpoon, one of the movies screening at Badass 6.

Looking for the latest and weirdest in genre films? Badass 6 has your backside.

A privately-funded film festival, Badass showcases features and shorts in genre cinema from around the world. Now in its sixth year, the festival takes place March 27-29 in East Vancouver, at four Commercial Drive-adjacent locations: the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway), Havana Theatre (1212 Commercial Dr.), and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (1895 Venables St.), along with the Legion Branch 179 (2205 Commercial Dr., for the March 27 launch party).

In all, there are 12 events, including eight features, 50+ shorts, and the Genre Film Awards gala closing show which will include reptiles, fire burlesque, and circus sideshow acts. See below for some highlights from Badass 6—if you dare. (Click on film titles to view trailers.)

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Vancouver-made Harpoon and the Irish thriller The Perished are highlights of this year’s Badass film festival (postponed)

Irish coming-of-age film Metal Heart and five more to see at this year’s European Film Festival

A scene from the Irish film Metal Heart.

From Nov. 22-Dec. 2, The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) presents its annual European Film Festival. Among the more than two dozen films, the selections include a ghost story from Malta, a political comedy from Croatia, and a coming-of-age story about two fraternal twins from Ireland. See more about these films and others below.

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Irish coming-of-age film Metal Heart and five more to see at this year’s European Film Festival

Getting down and dirty with pre-Code Hollywood at Cinematheque

Damaged Lives was the first feature from Austrian émigré and future Poverty Row auteur Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour).

Film noir, horror, and “sheer Poverty Row audacity” are on the menu in Cinematheque’s Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved by UCLA.

Most of the features date from Hollywood’s less-censorious pre-Code era. All were produced on Hollywood’s so-called Poverty Row in small, fly-by-night studios that churned out inexpensive pictures for the B-movie markets. These bargain-basement stakes made for a certain artistic freedom: controversial or risqué subjects the big studios wouldn’t touch could be explored; and directors enjoyed a degree of licence.

The program of lurid, low-budget treasures runs from April 11-29 and includes six films. And, in a throwback to how movies used to be presented in that era, each feature will be preceded by a newsreel and short subject. All titles were restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. According to Jan-Christopher Horak, director of the archive: “These ‘orphan films’ are worthy of restoration and presentation. They visualize many of the repressed or forbidden themes that preoccupy the nether regions of the American psyche. Get ready for a wild ride!”

Find out more below.

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Getting down and dirty with pre-Code Hollywood at Cinematheque

Social justice, pioneering filmmakers and jazz giants at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Fest

Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls

A B.C. film about three sisters from a conservative Indo-Canadian family coming to terms with the sexual abuse opens the 18th annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

On May 3, Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls kicks off the festival, which runs May 2 – May 12. Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, DOXA will present 82 films (shorts and features) from across Canada and around the world. See below for more highlights of this year’s DOXA.

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Social justice, pioneering filmmakers and jazz giants at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Fest

Where to see Academy Award-nominated films this weekend

Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas’s One Small Step is nominated in the Best Animated Short category at this year’s Academy Awards.

As of this writing, the 91st Academy Awards are just a few days away. Fortunately, if you’re not caught up, Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour St.) and the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway at Commercial) are both screening some of the nominated films. See below for more info (and click on theatre names for tickets).

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Where to see Academy Award-nominated films this weekend

Six flicks to see at this year’s European Film Festival

A scene from the 2017 Austrian film Mademoiselle Paradis (Licht).

The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) presents its 21st Annual European Film Festival (Nov. 23 – Dec. 4). In this year’s fest, 26 EU members countries contribute one of their best films from recent years. Selections range from dramas to comedies to documentaries, and include award winners, official Oscar submissions, and many Vancouver premieres.

We’ve gone through the selections and chosen six that look like best bets, including a thriller from Slovakia, a time-travel comedy from Portugal, and a drama from Ireland. See below for details.

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Six flicks to see at this year’s European Film Festival