The Calgary Underground Film Festival loves queer history! This year, their documentary festival running November 20-24, is featuring the Canadian Premiere of Flashback about the legendary gay bar in Edmonton that existed between 1974 and 1991.
Flashback is the story of a defiant disco dance culture of sweat and sex and drugs and fashion. Despite community hostility to queer people, Flashback became a sensation on the international club circuit facing police raids, threats of violence and the scourge of AIDS. Flashback is a ghost. However, it comes alive again in the memories of the people who were there and the legends they left behind.
In Calgary, the Parkside Continental was the analog of Edmonton’s Flashback—they are of the same vintage—and there was frequent to-ing and fro-ing between the two cities for those looking to dance with a different crowd.
Flashback features more than 30 interviews recounting the story of the beloved gay bar: a tribute to a place where young people could just be themselves. A soundtrack with two new disco recordings (recorded at Calgary’s National Music Centre) and archival photographs and footage takes us back inside the famous venue and blends with re-enactments shot with today’s club kids in Edmonton’s last remaining gay bar, Evolution Wonderlounge.
All this is framed by the rediscovery, restoration and resurrection of the club’s iconic neon sign. The blue glow of the old Flashback sign now shines from a wall of the Neon Sign Museum in Edmonton, and its journey to restored glory is documented in the film. Flashback is a TELUS original feature documentary film shot in Edmonton, Alberta.
The Calgary Gay History Project is pleased to be a community partner for the screening. Learn more about our Province’s queer history and join us for Flashback on Saturday, November 23, with Calgary director Peter Hays in attendance!
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Calgary Gay History 