Deckchair Cinema 2023
You are invited to enjoy classic films under the stars on Cates Deck in front of The Polygon Gallery. Now in its second year, Deckchair Cinema treats audiences to a summer of al fresco film screenings. Hosted for 10 Thursdays beginning June 29, the screenings commence at sunset, and will be complemented by music and entertainment leading up to curtain time. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early and make themselves comfortable by bringing their own blankets or low chairs. An outdoor Meet the Makers market, curated by lifestyle brand OCIN, will feature drinks from local wineries and breweries, which can be enjoyed on Cates Deck, a public zone for alcohol consumption. Admission to Deckchair Cinema is by donation, courtesy of BMO Financial Group ($10 per guest is recommended), and includes access to the Gallery’s summer exhibition Jeremy Shaw: Phase Shifting Index.
June 29
Fantastic Planet
Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel Fantastic Planet, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.
Music by Niña Mendoza begins at 7pm
Film starts at 9:30pm
July 6
Interstella 5555
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is an anime visualisation of Daft Punk’s second album Discovery. Produced by Toei Animation with visual supervision by legendary manga artist and anime director Leiji Matsumoto. A group of extraterrestrial musicians are kidnapped, brainwashed, and altered, mind and body, to be identical to ordinary humans. Under the control of their abductors, they become rock stars on Earth, playing their music and skyrocketing to massive fame. Can an alien pilot rescue the band, return their memories and get them home? Or will they be forced to play their part in the scheme of the evil, greedy music executives?
Music by Hayely Ray begins at 7pm
Film starts at 9:30pm
July 13
What We Do In The Shadows
Follow the lives of vampire housemates (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh) who are just trying to get by and overcome life’s obstacles—like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding that beyond sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection, modern society has them struggling with the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.
Music + live performance by Anju Singh begins at 7pm
Film starts at 9:15pm
July 20
Whale Rider
Only males are allowed to ascend to chiefdom in a Maori tribe in New Zealand. This ancient custom is upset when the child selected to be the next chief dies at birth. However his twin sister, Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes, in an Oscar-nominated role), survives. At age 12, she enlists the help of her grandmother and the training of her uncle to claim her birthright. But to break with convention, she’ll have to do the impossible: win over her ultra-traditional grandfather.
Amalgamation Day Celebration
Music by Paisley Eva begins at 7pm
Stand up comedy featuring Keith “Bubbas” Nahanee
Film starts at 9:15pm
July 27
Big Trouble In Little China
Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco’s Chinatown. An ancient Chinese prince and Chinatown crime lord has kidnapped a beautiful green-eyed woman, who is the fiancee to Jack’s best friend. Jack must help his friend rescue the girl before the evil Lo Pan (James Hong) uses her to break the ancient curse that keeps him a fleshless and immortal spirit.
Music by RHEK begins at 7pm
Film starts at 9:00pm
August 3
Xanadu
Olivia Newton-John stars in this fantastical musical odyssey as a Greek muse who visits Earth as a human and, with the help of a rollerskating Gene Kelly, inspires a young artist to open a glitzy disco roller rink.
North Shore Pride Night
Film starts at 9:00pm
August 10
Lovers Rock
Suffused with the intoxicating sounds of reggae, dub, and lovers rock, Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock unfolds over the course of one rapturous night into dawn in early-1980s West London, as a young woman (the luminous Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) sneaks out to attend a house party. As the alternately languorous and ecstatic rhythms pulse from a homemade sound system, romance sparks on the dance floor, small human dramas play out, and, for a moment, this gathering is a safe haven from the outside world. Aided by the sensuous cinematography of Shabier Kirchner, McQueen captures an exhilarating expression of Black joy in a society often intent on stifling it.
Music by Phen Ray begins at 7pm
Film starts at 8:45pm
August 17
Moonstruck
No sooner does Italian-American widow Loretta (Cher, in an Oscar-winning role) accept a marriage proposal from her doltish boyfriend, Johnny (Danny Aiello), than she finds herself falling for his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). She tries to resist, but Ronny lost his hand in an accident he blames on his brother, and has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls deeper in love, she comes to learn that she’s not the only one in her family with a secret romance.
Music by Paisley Eva begins at 7pm
Film starts at 8:45pm
August 24
No Bears
One of the world’s great cinematic artists, Jafar Panahi has been carefully crafting self-reflexive works about artistic, personal, and political freedom for the past three decades, despite being banned from filmmaking by the Iranian government since 2010. In No Bears—completed shortly before his imprisonment in 2022—Panahi plays a fictionalized version of himself, a dissident filmmaker who relocates to a rural border town to direct a film remotely in nearby Turkey and finds himself embroiled in a local scandal. As he struggles to complete his film, Panahi must confront the opposing pulls of tradition and progress, city and country, belief and evidence, and the universal desire to reject oppression.
Music by Mikubat and Johnam starts at 7pm
Film starts at 8:30pm
August 31
Bullitt
Steve McQueen is cool as ice in this thrilling police procedural that also happens to contain arguably the greatest movie car chase ever. Senator Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the help of testimony from the criminal’s hothead brother Johnny (Pat Renella), who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen). When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses.
Music by Niña Mendoza begins at 7pm
Film starts at 8:30pm