ABSTRACT
This chapter examines and critiques Hallmark’s glossing over of community realities in Gastown, which is a Vancouver, Canada neighborhood frequently used as a filming location. Through a critical walking tour of this 12-block space, the authors employ Karen E. Till’s notion of wounded cities to more deeply consider the ways in which Hallmark films such as In My Dreams (2014), Love, Once and Always (2018), and Trading Christmas (2010) elide defining aspects of this place. Such an interrogation is significant because when a singular narrative of colonial, normative love is consistently and continuously superimposed over Gastown’s complexities, the wounds of this city are ignored; indeed, they are perhaps deepened. Ultimately, this process afforded the opportunity to explore unsettling moments and understand that wounds take space and time to breathe, in place.
