Our city has acted in everything from Tron: Legacy to Bollywood films like Thank You. Once in a blue moon, it’s been cast as itself. The retrospective Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself, presented by arts researcher Elvy Del Bianco, will offer a chance for audiences to take a look at Vancouver’s more curious performances on celluloid.

Among the titles (which will be screened every Monday from April 11 to June 13 at 7 p.m. at the Waldorf Hotel [1489 East Hastings Street]) are the first Canadian feature film directed by a woman (1971’s Madeleine Is”¦), and a 1988 CBC docudrama about the local urban guerilla group Direct Action (The Squamish Five). There are also films by Robert Altman (1969’s That Cold Day in the Park) and Quebec’s Claude Jutra (1982’s lesbian comedy By Design). Guest speakers will include actor and UBC professor Tom Scholte and novelist Fraser Nixon.

Michael Turner's "On Location (Elvy Del Bianco's Annotated Film Collection", a list of 167 films shot in Vancouver that is part of the Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibition WE: Vancouver—12 Manifestos for the City, will precede each film.

Admission is by donation.