Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself - Dogpound Shuffle

V.I.A. is co-sponsoring the amazing Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself film series that's screening at the Waldorf Hotel! It's the first comprehensive showing of some of the earliest, most ambitious and strangest films shot in Vancouver and it happens every Monday at 7 PM for the next few weeks. The series is presented by local arts researcher Elvy Del Bianco, who has spent the last year and a half identifying and acquiring Vancouver-set films, and will feature notable guest speakers. Michael Turner’s On Location 1 (Elvy Del Bianco’s Annotated Film Collection) will screen weekly before each film, and we're priming it here on the blog by offering Elvy's thoughts on that week's title.

This week's film is Dogpound Shuffle, and here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTlakw1ioCE

And here's the synopsis and some thoughts from Elvy:

Dogpound Shuffle

1974

When a drifter loses his beloved companion to the East Vancouver Dog Pound and faces a $30 charge to spring the pooch, he enlists the support of a down-on-his-luck harmonica man and they start hustling for change.

While the plot sounds “family friendly”, Dogpound Shuffle is all grit: drunk tanks, rail yards, and greasy spoons, violence, melancholy and well-earned, dirt-smeared hope.

And it’s all early ‘70s Vancouver, featuring scenes in Oppenheimer Park, the West End, and the long gone Dunsmuir Street bus terminal.

Like its canine co-star, Dogpound Shuffle is a mutt. An Anglo-Canadian co-production with ITC Entertainment –the company responsible for such British cult TV as The Prisoner, Space: 1999, and The Muppet Show- directed by Jeffrey Bloom, the man behind exploitation classic Blood Beach, featuring Brit Ron Moody (best known for Fagin in Oliver!) and a pre-Starsky & Hutch David Soul.

Despite its many on-line fans, Dogpound Shuffle remains unavailable on DVD.

Dogpound Shuffle will be introduced by Fraser Nixon, author of The Man Who Killed, published by Douglas & MacIntyre.