Beyond ‘Hollywood North’: How Vancouver’s Indie Film Scene Is Building Its Own Ecosystem

With access to public funding, an established production infrastructure and grassroots community support, Vancouver is growing into a thriving independent film hub

By Katherine Brodsky

Katherine Brodsky

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• Jeissy Trompiz’s ‘Three Houses’ Explores a Venezuela Where Afro and Indigenous Communities Sit on the ‘Periphery of the Periphery’ 2 hours ago
• VIFF Winner Marie Clements Unpacks Musical Doc ‘Reclaim My Skin,’ Made During a ‘Renaissance Time for Indigenous Filmmakers’ 2 hours ago
• VIFF, Málaga Film Festival Launch Emerging Filmmaker Exchange 24 hours ago

Something is emerging in Vancouver’s independent film scene. For years, the city has primarily played the role of somewhere else — a cheaper Seattle, New York or generic American city. Its landscapes, tax incentives and favorable exchange rate drawing in Hollywood productions. But increasingly, independent filmmakers are choosing to cast Vancouver as… well… Vancouver.

One of them is Justin Ducharme, whose film “Seventeen” premiered at TIFF before landing in VIFF’s Northern Lights program. It captures the lives of three Indigenous sex workers in the Downtown Eastside.

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