{"id":941060,"date":"2026-10-21T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941060\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:06:15","slug":"shot-in-vancouver-uncovers-some-serious-and-silly-stories-of-film-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941060\/","title":{"rendered":"Shot in Vancouver uncovers some serious (and silly) stories of film in the city"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The title itself is a literary accomplishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shot in Vancouver: Adventures in Hollywood North<\/a> chronicles Vancouver\u2019s history as a backdrop for many legendary films and TV series over the years. But the double entendre of the title becomes realized when you know that the writer is Sam Wiebe, Vancouver\u2019s prolific murder mystery novellist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to write the book that I wished was out there,\u201d says Wiebe over a phone call with the Straight. “Because there are great books about the independent film scene or about different shows and stuff, but there wasn’t one that really embraced all the Vancouver stuff\u2014the good, the bad, the questionable. So that was sort of the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book catalogues decades of local film and television history, covering everything from the \u201870s and \u201880s days of McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Rocky IV to the more modern hits with both humour and in-depth research.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in all of it,\u201d says Wiebe. \u201cI wanted to be able to talk about the independent films, like the Bruce Sweeney and Mina Shum films, but also like Timecop and the X-Files and the slightly goofier things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book came out earlier this month via Arsenal Pulp Press, and Wiebe says that the reaction has been strong. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lightness to talking about it compared to mysteries,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve written maybe a dozen mysteries, and all I can really sell people on is the quality of the prose and the story. If people don\u2019t like the genre, they\u2019re not interested. But there\u2019s real interest in this subject. The industry is maybe a little bit under-regarded or under-represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Wiebe personally, the production that intrigued him most was the 1977 Canadian cult classic Skip Tracer. \u201cI had heard about it, and it\u2019s just a fascinating thing to read about and connect with some of the people who worked on it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then also just like seeing Vancouver in the \u201870s, when Granville Island was completely flat with nothing in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continues to be a busy month for Wiebe, who is about to fly to Calgary for the mystery fan convention Bouchercon<\/a>. Shortly after that, Wiebe heads into this week\u2019s Vancouver Writers Fest<\/a> with a couple of key appointments on the docket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wiebe will be appearing twice at the festival\u2014to serve on the Best of B.C. Mysteries<\/a> panel on October 25 at the Revue Stage and as the moderator of Vancouver: A Field Guide<\/a> on October 24 with fellow Vancouver writers Steve Burgess, Christopher Cheung, and Justin McElroy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the thing that unites us is that we all have a real ambivalence where we all love Vancouver, but there is a real trenchant social critique to the books,\u201d Wiebe says. \u201cSo that\u2019ll be interesting to discuss\u2014where\u2019s the city going, what are the things to celebrate, and what are the things that you want people to be aware of?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Wiebe appears as part of the Vancouver Writers Fest<\/a> on October 24 and 25. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[76,49,48,8497,569,16291,75,1048,1187,1554,2998,890,341,13117,3560,404,348,55],"class_list":["post-941060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city","tag-culture","tag-dining","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-food","tag-lifestyle","tag-music","tag-nightlife","tag-restaurants","tag-shopping","tag-tv","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}