Left flim night – The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical
(2018, 90 minutes, directed by Teresa Alfeld)

Sunday, June 24, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, on Unceded Coast Salish Territories
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver (corner of Clark & E. Georgia)

The year is 1986. Expo 86 has just ended and affordability is at the top of everyone’s mind. Harry Rankin, World War II veteran, criminal lawyer, city councillor, and outspoken socialist decides to run for mayor against NPA councillor Gordon Campbell. More than twenty years later, director Teresa Alfeld unearthed reels of 16mm footage of Harry’s campaign trail to bring us The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical. Combining rich archival footage with present-day interviews, Alfeld crafts a wildly entertaining primer on Vancouver civic politics, with a cast of local politicians and activists including Mike Harcourt, Libby Davies, Bruce Yorke, Jean Swanson, Stewart and Joan Phillip and Gordon Campbell. Rankin was an ally of the powerless, taking on cases and causes that no one else would touch, including the 1972 inquest into the death of Fred Quilt, an Indigenous man who died in police custody in Tsilhqot’in territory. The issues that Rankin fought for in that 1986 election — affordable housing, equality, and accessibility — remain crucial in the city today.

Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East Club of the Communist Party of Canada. For this occasion only, admission is $5 or pay what you can. Ph. 604-255-2041 for more information.