This has been the most eventful, the most exciting, the most interesting, the most successful, the most tiring, and the most celebrity-filled ten days of film I've had so far.
My cunning plan was to do all of my volunteer shifts during the first half of the festival, and then watch films during the second half. I was content with just seeing the second or third run of the film - I didn't need to be at the screening with the stars. But it's funny how things ALWAYS work out. Some changes to the shift schedules this year meant that I could fit in full shifts on a weeknight without having to take time off work. This turned out to be a poor idea, as I ended up working until 12:30 am and having an average of 4 hours of sleep a night for several days in a row. I also ended up making some poor nutritional choices (a tub of popcorn for dinner...it still makes me cringe).
On my first night, I worked the Rush line for "The Trotsky", which was a Canadian film I would liked to have seen if it wasn't playing during my shifts. Jay Baruchel is the star, who most would know from films like "Knocked Up" and "Tropic Thunder" but who I remember most as one of the hosts of "Popular Mechanics for Kids". Of course, the other host was a girl named Elisha Cuthbert. I was part of the human chain that blocked off the sidewalk as the "talent" got out of their SUVs and onto the red carpet. Along with Jay, Colm Feore was there, and Wendy Crewson, and a bunch of other Canadian personalities, including, of all people, Ben Mulroney, who I learned later played himself in the film. As part of the promotion of the film, a bunch of little cars and a motorcycle with a sidecar pulled up, and some people came around handing out flags. The volunteers ended up with the task of getting rid of the flags, but we had some fun with them on the street: directing people, cheerleading for TIFF, pretending to be Wolverine, etc. The Midnight Madness film was "Daybreakers", a vampire movie, and two of the stars, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe turned up on the carpet. Meanwhile, the stars from another Midnight Madness film, "Bitchslap", showed up and worked the line to promote their film that would showing a couple of days later. The postcards were amusing, and we just kept saying the film title over and over.
Day 2: It was Saturday, and I had agreed to meet some friends for breakfast before my shift. Again, some poor planning on my part. My shift started at 11:00am, and the first film of the day was "Jennifer's Body", which had caused quite the commotion as the opening night Midnight Madness with Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried showing up. I heard they had to close the red carpet to the press, because so many of them were trying to get in. This was a first, and the denied were pissed off, to say the least. Nobody was there that morning, so it was pretty uneventful. However, an "ambulance" showed up, deafened me with the siren, and a bunch of zombies jumped out of the back and started doing an interpretive dance to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab". It was a promo for The Movie Network, which was bizarre at first, and then funny, but after they played the song over and over and over again, I had had enough. The next film was "The Hole", a 3-D film with special glasses that we were told cost $150 a piece, so people weren't allowed to leave the theatre with them, even to go to the washroom. They had to turn them in whenever they left. The curse of Borat was in full force for this film, where it broke at the beginning, and then with 20 minutes left at the end the fire alarm went off, forcing everyone to leave, making it harder to enforce the glasses return policy, and causing the entire audience to be cranky for not knowing how the film ends. The volunteers agreed it may have all been a ploy to get everyone out of the theatre early, because the next film was the biggest event we've ever had at the Ryerson. George Clooney's film "Up in the Air" was screening next. I was originally pegged to be part of the human chain again, but after some much needed thought, the organizers decided to close off the street. I was extremely grateful, there were people who had been waiting there since 10:00 am to see him, and as the time drew near the crowd only got bigger and bigger. So we were delegated to the red carpet, standing in front of the screaming masses and making sure nobody jumped the barricades. A few of the other stars showed up first, like Jason Bateman and Vera Farmiga. Jason came over to sign, and he asked one of the fans if they'd like him to sign "George Clooney". When the real George showed up, it was craziness. Instead of staying on the carpet, he decided to come right up to the barricade. It started to tilt, so I held onto it just in case. As he passed me, I had to let go and move back as far as I could (which wasn't much), so he brushed right past me. Then, he asked the crowd not to lean, because it could tip the barricade and crush someone. It took a few seconds for me to realize that...I'M that someone it could crush! So as idiotic as it sounds, George Clooney saved my life. Whatever I was feeling at the time, I kept it inside, as did the rest of the volunteers. We got some really nice comments later that we looked really professional. Well, I guess compared to the insane hoards we were standing next to, we would have looked a lot more calm. But I know we were all going a little inwardly crazy. After my shift, I met some friends for dinner in the area, so I didn't see any films but we had plenty to talk about.
The next day, I had another morning-afternoon shift, but it was a much more subdued one. To my chagrin, the Movie Network ambulance showed up again in the afternoon. I braced myself. The second GC film, "The Men Who Stare at Goats", screened first but there was no red carpet. The second film was "Valhalla Rising", which stars Mads Mikkelson, who was the creepy bad guy in "Casino Royale". He arrived with no fanfare, no entourage, and when he left he hung out at the back door, took photos, signed autographs, puffed away on his cigarette, and being generally cordial but to me he still looked creepy. According to a friend who was at the screening, it was a very beautiful film, but not enough killing for a film about a one-eyed Viking warrior. The next film surprised me in terms of popularity. It was "The Road", based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. For an extremely depressing post-apocalyptic story, the Rush line was massive! And I was working it all by myself for a while, but thankfully some help arrived closer to showtime. I even knew a few of the people who were waiting! I tried to be helpful and kept everyone's spirits up, despite my doubts that they would get in. It was a little strange because the strangers called me by name to ask questions, which shouldn't be that weird considering I was wearing a nametag. But some of the people were really nice. There were a few here and there who were also waiting for "Whip It", the roller-derby directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. I was secretly hoping the Rush line would stay short, since I was going to Rush it after my shift, along with half of the other volunteers. Once we got the Rush line in (we managed just over 100 people!), my shift was over so I hustled my butt outside into the line. My friend joined me a little while later so I wasn't too bored. One of the volunteers decided to leave but wanted to let her brother know that she was gone, but he was inside and didn't have a cell, so she taped a sign to the post. Everyone who passed the sign laughed. One person even took a photo! We were able to get in, and the film was so cute and the soundtrack was amazing. Drew was even more cute - she was so appreciative of the audience. On our way past the back door, we saw her again, as well as her on-again boyfriend Justin "Hi, I'm a Mac" Long. Michael Cera was there too (cute!). Nice end to the day.
After a long day at work the next day, I got downtown to do my final shift. The audience for "Soul Kitchen" has just gone in, so we hung out for a while. For the next film, "Leaves of Grass", I was on the ticketholders line, which I've decided I don't like very much. Especially when people bud into the line as they're going in. I was on lockdown for the back door after the film. I saw one of the Rushies from The Road, a woman from Austin, Texas who worked at Aintitcoolnews. Every time someone came in or went out the door, the crowd would cheer and applaud. One of the girls I was working with decided just to go to the door and be gratified. It was hilarious. The best was when one of the staff guys came out, waved to the adoring crowd, then ran into one of the concrete posts that was just about the height of his pelvis. It was so incredibly embarrassing but I couldn't help laughing. He ran away pretty quickly. When the film let out, I blocked off the sidewalk as Danny Devito and Rhea Perlman came out (they're so small!!), then Keri Russell came out and signed some autographs. Edward Norton came out, and the woman behind me got him to sign her ticket just as he was about to get into the car, so I reaped some of the benefits of that. The director and co-star, Tim Blake Nelson, was so funny. Every time someone asked for a photo or autograph, he would look around, as if he were looking for permission, and then agreed. My last job was to be a clicker for "Bitchslap". Another late night, and it was fun but bittersweet, as I learned while on shift that Patrick Swayze had passed away.
I took a couple of much needed days off after that. It was pretty strategic, since there weren't any films I really wanted to see on those two days, I needed the break, and I wanted to avoid going downtown when there was a U2 concert of over 60,000 people and a free Leafs game happening at the same time.
On the Thursday, I went down after work to Rush the documentary "Cleanflix", which was about Mormons in Utah who took it upon themselves to edit or "clean" Hollywood films of all the sex, profanity, and violence and rent or sell it to the public. Hilarious.
I took Friday off work and spent the whole day downtown. I saw "Cooking with Stella", a Canadian film set in India and starring Don McKellar and Lisa Ray, who looked great even as she's battling cancer. While I waited for my next film, I wandered around downtown, eating truck food, feeding the leftovers to the pigeons, walking the Trinity labyrinth while listening to the new Imogen Heap album, surfing the net on my iPod at a Starbucks, and sitting in the Peace Garden at Nathan Phillips. It was really surreal. I Rushed "The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights" at the Elgin. It was chilly, but the people in the line were interesting. I ended up getting a free ticket from someone who had an extra. The seat I chose turned out to be where Jack and Meg would walk right past on their way to their seats. It was a great film, and the Q&A included Jack doing a version of Kanye's now-infamous speech interruption.
The last day of the festival, I exercised poor planning again (which I find really unusual for me), as I had to run to three films in a row, several blocks from each other, with less than 30 minutes in between each. I Rushed "Mao's Last Dancer" at Scotiabank, which was fantastic and turned out to be the runner-up for the People's Choice award. Then I motored over to Ryerson to see "Mr. Nobody", a mind-blowing film that I think is about existentialism and starred Jared Leto and Sarah Polley, among others. Then I ran over to the Elgin to Rush the final film, "The Young Victoria", where the line looked long but the majority of the people were waiting for tickets to see the People's Choice free screening of "Precious", so I got in. I even got to see part of the intro, and Emily Blunt was there. A very interesting and nicely-shot film. The guy who plays Albert is kind of cute too.
The volunteer party on Sunday was interesting because it was in a new location (This is London) but it was a little crowded as the night went on, and they only had pizza to snack on. But I got to stand next to Piers in the group shot, so it was okay. And the ladies' washroom was the entire third floor and a woman was there to squirt soap in my hands. Unreal.
I recommend all of the films I saw this year. I was originally on the fence about the People's Choice because of the subject matter, and how intense it is, and how it could have been Oprah-biased, but I think it's also worth seeing. It'll be huge at the Oscars this year for sure. Another great film fest, and I came out of it relatively unscathed by the rabid fans, messed up eating habits and late nights in the downtown core. One more word: AWESOME.
"I'm gonna fight em off, a seven nation army couldn't hold me back"
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