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Stanley Park (Vancouver, B.C.) Item Centennial celebrations
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Vancouver's birthday party

The feature is a presentation from BCTV’s News Hour (April 6, 1986) about the centennial birthday celebrations at Stanley Park. Presenter Irene Daniels discusses the celebration over footage of a variety of activities and events throughout the day. The feature begins with a one hundred gun salute, fireboats on the harbor, and a long section of the birthday fireworks. Next is footage of Mayor Michael Harcourt visiting the first baby born on April 6th, followed by footage of the parade, the concert at Brockton Point, and various celebratory park activities. The feature concludes with a speech by Governor General Jeanne Sauvé and the cutting of the Centennial cake by Sauvé and the mayor.

Yokohama festival, joint concert in Stanley Park

Item is a videocassette containing a news presentation from Japanese television about a joint concert [in Stanley Park] with Japanese and Canadian youths leading up to the Yokohama Day celebration at Expo 86.

The broadcast begins with a newscaster introducing the piece, and cuts to performances of Japanese and Canadian musicians playing jazz and band music, followed by short interviews with English speakers reacting to the music and the cultural exchange. Next up is a fashion show with ‘Miss Yokohama’ and a mixture of Japanese and Western women in traditional Japanese clothing, followed by a group of Japanese women playing traditional music on Koto. Street scenes of the grounds are followed by a brief interview with [an unknown politician or organizer] (in English) and then interviews with Japanese youth on the grounds. The band from earlier then plays an evening show, followed by interviews with the young Japanese musicians and some of the audience members (in English). The spot concludes with night footage of the grounds.

Vancouver on the move

Item is a videocassette containing a documentary about the city of Vancouver.

The main focus of the documentary as a whole is the social and cultural life in the city and the relationship between the people and their surroundings in 1986, the centenary year. The visual elements are a combination of historical photographs, hand drawn illustrations, historical moving image footage, and moving image footage shot by the filmmakers between 1985 and 1986. Music with a narrator speaking in the foreground accompanies the visuals.

The early history of Vancouver is told through stories about George Vancouver naming point Grey and Burrard channel and meeting First Nations people, John Deighton (“Gassy Jack”) opening his saloon, the first city council meeting, and the arrival of the first CPR train from Montreal and ship from Yokohama.

The discussion of modern life in Vancouver that makes up the bulk of the documentary is roughly divided into sections. The first section discusses modern commerce, including shipping, transportation, forestry, fishing, and tourism. The second section discusses cultural life, including the natural beauty of Stanley Park, street scenes in Chinatown, the expo grounds and the SkyTrain, street musicians, children playing at a water park, and a football game at BC Place.

The third section focuses on the immigrant experience and how a diversity of cultures enriches life in the city. This point is illustrated with scenes of new Canadians at a citizenship ceremony, Tai Chi in Queen Elizabeth Park and Chinese dragons in Chinatown, the Nitobe Memorial Garden and the Powell Street Festival, a Sikh wedding and street scenes of Main Street in South Vancouver. It also explores the dark side of the immigrant experience, discussing the 1907 anti-Asian riots, the forced removal and internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II, and the Komagata Maru incident. The section also addresses Indigenous resistance and cultural resilience.

The fourth section deals with Vancouverites' love of being outside, with footage of outdoor aerobics and other fitness activities, relaxing on the beach and ‘being seen’, outdoor cocktail parties and dining, a family picnic in the park, outdoor theatre, and sailing.

Okexnon Films Inc.