Shane: Festival Wrap and Top 5!
So, now what?
The fest is done and now I’m supposed to, what, just go home after work? I’m not supposed to wait for an hour to get into a jammed theatre and watch obscure gems from around the world? I have to eat at home instead of perpetually dining at Big Slice and the AMC food court?
What is this, war-time? Read more
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 15
I’m sure on Sunday afternoon I’m going to wish I did more with the relative downtime I’ve had over the past couple days. Yet, somehow, the idea of two screenings a night doesn’t seem so taxing since, well, I’m a tough guy. You may quote me on this when I start yelling “Just pull the plug! I’ve had a good run!!” at about noon on Sunday. Read more
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 14
Nothing brings out the large population of nerds in this city like a chance to spend the majority of 11 days in darkened cinemas, talking about movies a bit, then lining up to do it all over again. Read more
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 13
Day Five started well because I was smart enough to skip the midnight screening the day before and actually get my ass to bed at a reasonable-ish hour (12:30am, I think it was) so that I would be able to attend a Canadian double bill of Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats at 9:00am followed immediately by Barney’s Version. Read more
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 13
Alright, so I’m jamming two days into one diary… sue me… but there’s only so much time and a whooooooole lotta fest to get through. Read more
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 12
The first three days of the festival always seem endlessly long. By the fourth, it starts to speed up, and before you know it, it’s over and you’ve got a terrible cold because all you did was eat muffins and popsicles and get four hours of sleep every night for ten days. Or at least that’s my frequent experience. Read more
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 11
Day three, and the fatigue is already setting in. I feel like a lightweight, but I’m trying not to let it get to me. Today’s TIFF diet consisted of a very reasonable Starbucks breakfast sandwich (and half an oat bar – the other half was accidentally dropped on the floor of the Scotiabank). Lunch was nonexistent, and dinner was some of the best hors d’oeuvres I’ve had in a long time, at the Bunraku party. One of the major fringe benefits of being engaged to the Midnight Madness programmer is that he’s the sort of classy gent who talks me up to his guests, makes me sound charming and delightful, and gets me invited to fancy receptions. I try to repay him by being a really excellent party guest. Hard work, I know. Read more
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 11
I start this diary sitting on the pavement on Richmond St. waiting to rush a Press and Industry screening I’m almost certain I’ll get shut out of on about 4 hours sleep. Read more
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 10
It’s only Day 2, and the TIFF diet has already improved. While breakfast and lunch were similar to yesterday (scone, popsicle), dinner was a swank affair at NYOOD at Queen and Dovercourt. But more about that later.
My day began with a breakfast organized by TIFF for the short filmmakers. The weather gods smiled on the day and the morning reception, which was held on an outdoor terrace in a building on Richmond just east of the Scotiabank Theatre, was perfectly warm and sunny. Bravo!FACT hosted the event, which included a generous buffet and mimosas. I didn’t exactly shotgun them, but I drank three in quick succession as I was leaving to ensure a positive mood for the first film of the day – a Quebecois drama about three generations of alcoholic men in a dysfunctional family (Crying Out, also reviewed on the site). As it turns out, the film wasn’t as much of a downer as I expected, but the mimosas still helped me shake off my Fubar II fatigue from the raucous opening night.
Having the festival centre downtown in a part of Toronto that real Torontonians actually frequent has made TIFF a much more social festival. En route from the Starbucks at Queen and John to the Scotiabank theatre a block south, I ran into a half dozen friends strolling, enjoying coffees and complimentary Cool It popsicles. Highlight of the morning: running into John Paizs, the Canadian Film Centre’s Director in Residence and my personal favourite Caandian film director (seek out his 1985 film Crime Wave and thank me later). He’d just seen and liked Black Swan – as good an endorsement as I need to check it out, since I trust John’s opinion, and my own experience with Aronofsky is about 50% hit, 50% huge miss.
The early afternoon was spent with the Quebecois dramas, which though I’ve poked fun at how depressing they all seem at first glance in the programme book, have actually been among my favourite things I’ve seen so far. Both Crying Out and Curling (by Denis Côté, whose Carcasses was the Canadian surprise at last year’s TIFF) were excellent. Quirky, touching and totally bizarre, the two films captured me more than I was expecting.
After a brief, necessary, and too-mundane-to-write-up stop at the office to catch up on a mountain of emails, I raced off to the hotel, changed into a fancy dress and raced off to the OMDC reception. I was worried that the dress was too cleavage-y, but later that night, a good friend came up and said “why don’t you just punch me in the face with how good you look in that?” which was all the validation I needed.
The Ontario Media Development Corporation funds many Canadian films and film-related projects, and they happen to be a generous supporter of REEL CANADA, so I went with my business hat on, so to speak. Held at the Design Exchange, the event was packed. The organizers cleverly (and very, very meanly) closed the bar during the mercifully brief speeches by some OMDC execs and Michael McGowan, the director of Score: A Hockey Musical, which is one of several films at TIFF this year which received OMDC funding. Held hostage without a wine glass, I actually listened. Well, half-listened, half-scanned the room for people I knew.
I ended up spending most of the evening talking with Peter Lynch (the director of Canadian classic Project Grizzly, among many other things) before jetting off to the SUPER dinner, which I was thrilled to be invited to mainly because a) it’s only day 2 but I’m already hungry for real food, and b) I’m a fan of James Gunn’s work and love him on Twitter.
Dinner consisted of portions of flatbread with mushrooms, grilled polenta with spicy tomato sauce, panko-crusted chicken, perfectly rare lamb, fried artichoke hearts and more, all served up in bite sized portions on platters for the tables to share. I was seated across from the film’s charming costume designer, Mary Matthews, her partner, and assorted other friendly folk (I think the guy seated next to me was in charge of celebrity relationships with Redbull – weird job, neat guy). The food was delicious, and I was highly entertained by the tiny, tiny amounts various Hollywood types around me actually ate. Don’t they know their bodies will stop functioning if they’re inadequately fueled? Probably not.
The film itself, happily, was great. I laughed very hard and at several points had to pick my jaw up off the floor because was so much more crazy and violent than I expected. And damn, does Ellen Page ever do an amazing job of not being the precocious ingenue for once! Two nights of midnight screenings, and so far I haven’t fallen asleep in a movie. Fingers crossed that I keep that up all festival.
Once again, all after parties were shunned for bed. Probably the right decision. It’s all already starting to wear me down, and we’re not even a quarter of the way through.
Top three highlights of the day:
1) Starting the day with champagne.
2) Getting to meet two of my favourite Twitter personalities, James Gunn (@james_gunn) and his girlfriend Mia Matsumiya (@mia_matsumiya).
3) Being able to actually say that two Canadian films are among my top picks of the fest so far, which makes me feel professionally and personally warm & fuzzy.
Decision of the day that I will most regret later: not waking up early enough to catch Jørgen Leth’s Erotic Man, in spite of the fact that (or perhaps because) a friend described it as “the Koyaanisqatsi of desire”.
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 10
So, while I’m not jamming in nearly as many films as some of the others around here, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to see my fair share of ridiculous crap happening around town. Read more
