Vancouver Pop Culture

Although Vancouver has starred in literally thousands of films and TV shows (more than 200 a year, at last count) it has rarely appeared onscreen as itself. Fans of the old X-Files TV show understand this phenomenon well, a scene set in North Carolina, say, will actually feature the woods in Stanley Park. More recent productions in the city, such as Avatar and GI Joe, rely on the city’s extensive digital effects facilities. It all started in 1982 with Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo film, First Blood. As a hotbed of modern culture, Vancouver’s writers include Douglas Coupland (Generation X), and William Gibson and Timothy Taylor (Stanley Park). Coupland’s non-fiction City of Glass is an appreciation of his home town. Sarah McLachlan leads the pantheon of Vancouver music stars, which also includes Bryan Adams, Michael Buble and the Paperboys.