fe for cine! Tom Lightburn set to re-o Evelyn Jacob SPOTLIGHT FEATURE OM LIGHTBURN surveys the lobby of Park Royal Theatre, brushing past exposed eiec- trical wiring and sheets of plywood stacked up ona bare, dust-laden concrete floor. With just over two weeks to go before its official re-opening as a second-run independently operated cinema, it's hard to imagine how the movie house will be ready. But Lightburn, who is limping up a dark stairwell to the theatre's projection room, isn’t showing the slighiest sign of anxiety in the run-up to its gala opening on Sept. 24, “Believe me, i've opened up theatres in much shorter time,’ says the boyish blue-jeaned New Jersey native. “4've been in situations where i've had to stand in the comer of the lobby so the rug wouldn't roll out. It’s pretty much cosmetic work now,” he says. After being deprived of a cinema for most of this year, West Van- couver residents will soon have three screens to choose irom, and they’il have Lightburn and Park Royal Shopping Centre manage- ment to thank. When Famous Players pulled the plug on the Park Royal screens in mid-January, mal) management refused to let the municipality’s last movie house remain in dark- ness. .. But with 13 competing screens east of Capilano River, it had to come up with a different product. Enter Lightburn. His fondness for films of artistic merit (Annie Hall, Room With a View, and Stop Making Sense are among his favorites) meshed perfectly with the shopping centre's plans for the venue. “Movie theatres are a real benefit to the community,”’ says the boyish cinephile, “And here on the North Shore, West Van- couver needs all the entertainment services it can get.” There was a time when in- dependent theatre marquees lit up patches of Greater Vancouver only te see those lights extinguished in the ‘80s: But the last few years have produced something of a boom in the second-run market. When videos initially hit the market many feared that repertory cinemas would go the way of the dodo bird, but movie patrons clearly craved the social experi- ence and the big-screen pres- ‘entation that only the theatres could offer. ° And at $4 for a double bill, Lightburn says his films will be competitive, if not cheaper than, video. Some of those films may seem lacklustre due to the time lag behind first-run movies '. (Lightburn’s premiere week in- cludes: The Crying Game, Strictly Ballroom, Aladdin, Life with Mikey, Cliffhanger and Last Action ’ projects new a pen WV NEWS pholo Cindy Goodman TOM LIGHTBURN has high hopes for Park Roya! Theatre, which re-opens next week. Hero), but he hopes to make up for that by offering specialty films (Farsi and maybe German produc- tions) that would never appear on a Famous Player screen. How does he think West Van- couver will repand to his new ven- ture? “Talk to me in four weeks,” he laughs. Ligktburn may not be a familiar face to Vancouver movie-goers, but he has been involved in the business for over 15 years, starting out as a technical operator with Pressman Productions and even- tually becoming an associate pro- ducer with the company. He says he enrolled in theatre at Lawrence University in Wisconsin to avoid the Vietnam War, but his relationship with the performing arts turned out to be much more than just a marriage of conve- nience. His first fucky break came at the end of his freshman year, when he worked his way on to the set of the feature Out of It. The job paid a pittance but ii got him a foot in the door with Ed Pressman, one of Hollywood's most successful film producers, and work on all of Brian de Palma’s early films including Phan- tom of the Paradise, Sisters, and Badlands. That experience instilled in him a love of movie-making, but Lightburn says he never hankeredl to create his own pictures. “The process of film-making is so torturous you have lo be driven by ambition,’' he observes, “I'm not willing enough to sacrifice.” After 10 years with Pressman, Lightburn made the jump to distribution, becoming a branch manager with United Artists. He spent a couple of years zig-zagging the U.S. and eventually wound up in Vancouver. “Thad a girlfriend who worked in Chicago for Playboy magazine who got assigned to the West Coast. | requested to be moved, and they sent me to Canada because | could speak French. “When I left Chicago it was 10 below. | arrived in Vancouver on one of those freak summer days in February. | thought i’d died.and pone to heaven.’ Lightburn lasted about four years in Vancouver before moving to Toronto to become a sales manag- er with Twentieth Century-Fox. in Toronto, he had a brief stint See Great page 45 Saul Bayside inn LIFESTYLE RETREAT TWO NIGHTS, THREE DAY. / Two nights accommodation and room tax / Welcome reception and orientation Y/Y Two breakfasts “ One dinner / One evening workshop — "Lifestyling by Ann” / Recreational activity of your choice / Unlimited use of our Lifestyles Fitness Centre $256 - G.S.T. per person (based on double occupancy} Add $75.00 for single occupancy BECREA TIONAL ACTIVETTES e# Golf at one of the three challenging courses which are just minutes away from the hotel re Take a mountain bike tour of the local area ea Visit Beaches, Salon & Spa Experience for your choice of the following: — mussage —~ float — fucial — pedicure — manicure or mekeup application Semioars: BALANCE & HARMONY —- Sept. 24 Thru 26 OR Oct. 22 thru 24, 1993 WHAT DO I WANT ANYWAY? — Sept. 26 thru 28 OR Oct. 24 thru 26, 1993 P.O. Box 3000 - 240 Dogwood 5t., Parksville (604) 248-8333 3 Fax (604) 248-4689 | ERE EPR AS EE _ live with dramatic ‘new film footage Rediscovery of the World Orpheum Theatre Sunday, 7:30pm, September 26th Also: MIT's Dr. Philip Morrison (Oct. 24¢h) on cosmic dark matter "Radiance without Shadows", Howard Rheingold (Nov. 14th) on "Virtual Reatit: De. Stephen Jay Gould (Dec. fst) Rethinking Evolution", Dr. Linda Scheie (Feb. 2nd) on Maya Cosmos: 3600 Years on Shaman's Path", anthropologist Dr. Don Johanson (Apr. 17th) author of LUCY, "Searching Our Oldest Ancestors", Dr. Frank Tipler (May 11th) "Phys of Immortality: Modern Cosmology and God". SNC SPAUCERT IOS EERE HC atin, aa Cristi Paige L s wishes to welcome back all previous students and inform them of our new location Specialists in ® Dance © Musical Theatre © ® Segne Study ° Voice ® NEW STUDENTS MAY REGISTER BY CALLING 688-6252 Crate Paige Lowes PERFORMING ARTS STUDIO ; 7 688-6259 :