The Last Porn Theatre Vancouver¹s X-Rated Outpost from The Golden Age of Adult Cinema 1-hour Broadcast Documentary c2002 medium-rare productions/dimitrios otis. [note:as described elsewhere, The Fox has ceased to show 35mm film -- thus, this synopsis is for historical reference.]

Vancouver B.C., Canada, is known internationally as among the most beautiful of cities for its unique natural setting of mountains and ocean. Its citizens are attuned to this natural splendour, engaging in numerous healthy, outdoors-oriented activities. Yet amidst this natural beauty and active lifestyles, Vancouver also is the only remaining haven for a lost cultural tradition of the modern era, one that has been viewed as immoral, controversial, dirty and sleazy. Vancouver is home to the last 35mm porn movie theatre in North America. Yes, away from the beach and the parks, and ignored by the ubiquitous cyclists and rollerbladers of Vancouver, the lonely Fox Cinema at 2321 Main St., with its semi-lit marquee, continues to run 35mm sex movies from 11:30 am to midnight, seven days a week, just as it has done since 1983, almost twenty years ago.

Its hard for this generation's massive internet and video porn audience to believe, but there was a time when the common way to view explicit moving sexual imagery was to go to a public cinema, together with other members of the public, and watch it in a feature movie that had a plot, sets, costumes, orchestrated music - all in 35mm Eastman Color on the big screen! "THE LAST PORN THEATRE" tells the story of sex movies and movie theatres in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, revolving around this living museum of 35mm porn known as the Fox Cinema.

RETURN TO PORNO CHIC

On the night of June 16, 2001, people passing through Vancouver BC's newly trendy SoMa district were surprised to see a line-up stretching around the block at Main and 7th Ave. What was more surprising was that the 400-plus people lined up were waiting to sit in one of 300 tattered and stained seats in the smelly old Fox Cinema!

As the video crew moved along the diverse line of couples, groups of young women and assorted scenesters waiting to get in, eager expectations about the evening¹s feature movies were happily shared. All had heard of - but few had seen - DEEP THROAT and BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR. Indeed, many weren't even born when these two classics were released in 1972 and triggered an unprecedented public response, labeled "Porno Chic" by Vincent Canby of the NY Times. This hot night in June saw the glory days recreated -- a movie theatre packed with people watching raw sex on 35mm film. Significantly titled "Return To Porno Chic", this event was a sign of the recent resurgence of pop cultural fascination with all things porn, and garnered inclusion in The Georgia Straight's annual trend-barometer Best of Vancouver issue.

THE HISTORY OF ADULT CINEMA IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

DEEP THROAT had spawned a brand new film genre - the feature-length adult movie - and a specialized venue to show these movies in: the 35mm adult movie house. British Columbia was historically the most heavily movie-censoring province, and remained a step behind the continual movement in cinema to depict more sexuality. Director Allan King - prior to his boundary-pushing "reality" documentaries WARRENDALE and A MARRIED COUPLE, had helped in the early 1950's to form a Vancouver Film Society which had the mandate of gaining access to films that were banned in BC.

But by the time the free-wheeling sixties rolled around, things were beginning to change. The first "modern" Chief Censor, Ray MacDonald, introduced the famous Cougar restricted symbol, and was also a pioneer of the now-universal "Warnings" system of comments tailored specifically to individual films - though some of MacDonald's warnings are rather camp in retrospect. Surprisingly, BC had only a three-category classification system to work with until 1986. This situation could not accomodate the 70's "hardcore" explicitness, thus creating the unique-to-BC phenomenon of nightly border-hopping to watch uncut sex movies in Blaine and Point Roberts, Washington. Many local personalities, such as the Vancouver Sun¹s social gadfly Malcolm Parry, have fond memories of those X-rated excursions.

ADULT MOVIE THEATRES IN VANCOUVER

In the early 80's, the BC Classification Board made the decision to allow "certain theatres to specialize in films of a frank sexual nature". While across North America adult movie houses were closing down in the face of the VCR revolution, an East Indian family quickly changed the Savoy Theatre - which they had owned since 1979 and were running as a rep cinema - into the Fox Cinema. Was Vancouver a particular hotbed of porn afficiandos, just waiting to happen? DEEP THROAT had spawned a brand new film genre - the feature-length adult movie - and a specialized venue to show these movies in; the adult movie house.

Prior to its late-blooming 35mm sex involvement, Vancouver was home to The Eve, a Famous Players-owned "softcore" cinema on Granville St. that had at one point been managed by Vancouver director Dan Ireland (THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, THE VELOCITY OF GARY) and later became the Paradise. There was also the 16mm Venus Theatre, featured in Michael Turner¹s acclaimed 1999 autobiographical novel, The Pornographer¹s Poem, and now projecting contemporary video porn and devoid of even proper movie theater seats. Smaller still in film and theatre size are the "one-person only" licensed theatres at the Movieland Arcade, which continue to show ancient 16mm "porn loops" on the Granville Mall. The Lower Mainland was also dotted with several Drive-Ins that prompted complaints due to the sexual content of features shown in the seventies.

THE FOX CINEMA

As depicted in the Hollywood movie BOOGIE NIGHTS - video did indeed kill the adult movie. Most porn theatres closed down, while others converted to video projection, but the Fox has kept going. Particularly in the recent climate of movie theatre of all kinds closing, we have to wonder why. A possible answer lies in the paradox of movies which once glorified heterosexuality now providing a venue for gay male cruising. Walking into the Fox Cinema is literally to step back in time. There is a self-serve coffeepot, a buzzer to call the projectionist/attendant down, and a much-ignored sign prohibiting standing inside "the auditorium." In short, it is the complete opposite of the modern, 'Silver City' type cinema. Upstairs, in the projection room, the old workhorse 35mm projectors click along, while the projectionist has to now and again rush to patch a break in the aging celluloid.

Since 2000 the Fox has been owned and operated by a quiet husband and wife from Mainland China. Their addition of Chinese-language exterior signs provide a multicultural complement to the former East Indian owner¹s quaint, hand-painted -- and rather Kama Sutra-ish - "SMOKING BOOZING INJURIOUS FOR HEALTH / WATCH Man¹s Ancient, Safe, Rejuvenating ART OF LOVE in MOVIES" poster. And since the husband is the cousin of the owner of the Venus, we will gain a complementary view of the Vancouver porn theatre scene - with the aid of a Mandarin translator since Mr. Dong Shi does not speak English.

Curiously, the 1988 arthouse hit movie and Oscar-winner CINEMA PARADISO provides a template for the mood of THE LAST PORN THEATRE. CINEMA PARADISO is about the influence of the movie theatre on life in a small Italian town, and the clash of passionate images with moral authority. THE LAST PORN THEATRE will also sevoke a mood for a film-going experience that has passed. This sentiment will be revealed in comments from "the man on the street" - average citizens, and celebrities, who will be asked about the "good old days" and will respond sincerely as to the quality and seriousness of adult films back then.

In our final scenes, the fate of the titular theatre in the above arthouse film is similarly faced by the Fox. Doomed like the Cinema Paradiso to extinction if it continues as it is, playing the same worn-out porn movie prints over and over again, can the Fox - which has been approached by a new generation of cinema lovers with a proposal to renovate the decrepid theater - find a new audience for "classic" screen sex, or will it succumb to the contemporary tide and convert to video, thus bringing a true finality to the "Golden Age of Adult Cinema"?