Bloodied But Unbowed is the brief story of the development of punk rock in Vancouver told in an even briefer 75 minutes by film maker Susanne Tabata. 

What follows isn't necessarily a review of that film, but more a few impressions of its showing, Thursday, May 13, at the the DOXA independent film festival at the Granville Seven cinema.

It's a good film but, then, it's based on a good story. If anyone lived through it, Bloodied But Unbowed will bring back memories of 1978-81. Those that didn't now have an insight to an influence still being felt. I met a woman at the cinema who was happily disco-ing her mind away at the time but belatedly has embraced punk and credits the film with helping her to understand the era.

The first and probably biggest laugh I got from the screening was seeing Randy Rampage and Brad Kent pull up to the theatre in a stretch limousine. Good for them, I thought, they couldn't afford it the first time around. In 1978, a poor musician riding around in a limo wasn't a very punk thing to do. Thirty-two years later, Rampage and Kent are probably not much richer than they ever were but they've become rock stars whose fame is genuine based on their instrumental involvement in the growth of punk.

And they've survived intact, which is more than can be said of many of the people in Tabata's film. Many are damaged in some way, still others are dead, victims of factors Bloodied... confronts but upon which it doesn't dwell. So, the gathering at Granville Seven was a fleeting glimpse of those who survived. This was their story, after all.

It was a little like attending a high school reunion. It seemed like everyone was taking stock: Oh boy, has that guy aged. Put on weight. Got bald. She looks good for her age, which must be.... There were a few who were still making a statement by their choice of clothing. Others who looked like they pulled their old punk clothes out of the closet for this occasion. The leather jacket lives.

Bloodied But Unbowed compartmentalizes certain elements that made punk Vancouver style unique. Certainly Vancouver punk took its cue from New York and London, but its politics were real and close to home, giving credence to the Sex Pistols' statement that "we mean it, man." The anger was real. That made Vancouver punk scary. 

It was supportive. Most gigs were held in rented halls, and you went to them because this gig just might be the last. Behind the scenes, bands were sharing gear, pointers, tips, news of other gigs. They had their meeting places and listening posts.

It identified with the gay community, which garnered mutual strength and validity from the association.

It merged art with music, which gave it distinctive imagery.

It had a sense of humour. There was no music industry as there is now so you might as well have a laugh.

It truly was do-it-yourself, as punk ethos preached. As before, there was no music industry to go to, if it was listening anyway. So punks had to find their own way and discovered that there was no one to sell out to...except themselves.

It was screwed up on drugs. There were other factors that led to punk's downfall but the incursion of heroin was the most damaging. 

Bloodied But Unbowed makes no attempt to be all inclusive and is better for it. It couldn't have been anyway; there was too much going on, too much to consider.

The film is more like a memoir based on key figures and what they said then and now. I applaud that. Initially, I feared it would take a journalistic angle - the "us versus them" slant. That's a familiar battle and not only tiresome but narrow. This was a widespread cultural phenomenon, not merely a musical one. The story is told from a punk point of view with a brief explanation of what started it and hints of what ended it.

Ultimately, the punks won that battle, or reached a pact in an ongoing war. They didn't win with their music as so little of it was heard beyond the punk scene, but with their attitude, which changed the thinking of so many and which was taken up by the bands who danced down the trail the punks had blazed.