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Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was noticeably absent from a debate at a Downtown Eastside theatre last night, but not his would-be rivals for the mayor's chair.

NPA city councillor Peter Ladner, independent park board commissioner Al De Genova and NDP MLA Gregor Robertson all appeared on a panel following last night's screening of the documentary, Devil Plays Hardball.

Event organizers say the mayor was asked to take part in the panel.

“I tried really hard to get him, but unfortunately the mayor said no,” said publicist Rory Richards, who organized the screening on behalf of the film's production company, Paperny Films.

Sullivan's spokesman, David Hurford, explained the mayor's absence like so:

“The mayor has a previous engagement, so he's not attending.”

Fair enough.

A more or less full house showed up for the screening at the Cinema 319, the former Chinese theatre located very noticeably opposite the busy police station at 312 Main.

If the mayor had popped by, he could have had his van parked by the handy valet service that greeted movie buffs, albeit with a high degree of juxtapositional awkwardness given the setting steps from Main and Hastings.

The film follows four Vancouverites over 10 months as they are paired up to 'mentor' people who are homeless, attempting to steer them through treatment, the bureaucracy of the welfare system and housing, more often in spite of the system itself.

Questions for the would-be mayoral candidates only occasionally strayed towards policy.

Al De Genova suggested the city has to step in to clean up dilapidated Downtown Eastside rooming hotels, charging the cost back to landlords.

"We the city have to come in and take over the rooms," De Genova said. "Landlords need to be held responsible."

That likely won't prompt too many smiles at the city's legal department, which insists city hall lacks the power to do intervene beyond minor repairs, while staff have been reluctant to use the already-on-the-books standards of maintenance bylaw to do exactly that.

Several speakers demanded the city force local developers to build social housing, prompting Peter Ladner to note extra costs would only be passed onto consumers, exacerbating a continually pricey rental climate and putting further pressure on existing stock.

Still, he allowed, the city must "force the issue" and look at "ways of getting affordable housing built whenever new housing is built in the city."

Gregor Robertson took on the more overtly political tone, drawing applause from a largely sympathetic crowd when he bashed all three levels of government.

"We have a complete failure right now with our leadership," Robertson said.

In addition to the mayoral hopefuls, the panel also included B.C. Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt, the subject of several heckles, City of Vancouver outreach worker Judy Graves, Vancouver Police Sgt. Malcolm Cox and UBC psychiatry prof Bill MacEwan.

Devil Plays Hardball premieres this Sunday on the CBC documentary series, The Passionate Eye. Here's a trailer: