Hello friends. I'm sorry for the long hiatus. There have been a number of things going on in life, as they tend to do, that have distracted me from the blog. More to come.
I'm almost a month late but TIFF was, as always, two weeks of daily activity. This being my 11th festival as a volunteer (I can't even remember how many I've attended since high school), it's all starting to become a routine. Not to say that's a bad thing, but I think I've grown into the festival to the point where the glitz and the glam have become a bit...normal. And not as exciting as it once was. Still, the hope is to see some good films. Here's the 2016 list:
Bleed For This - This was the pick for the volunteer's pre-festival screening. A biopic about a champion boxer from the 1980s who survived a horrific car accident and spinal injury. He endured serious rehabilitation (he refused to have his neck fused because it would completely rule out the possibility of boxing again and chose to use the "halo" instead) to not only walk again but get into the ring again. Certainly not a film I would have chosen on my own, but I'm glad I got to see it. Miles Teller doesn't really look like Vinny Pazienza but I think he got his voice and mannerisms down. He also bulked up. A lot.
India in a Day - A complete crowdsourced film, the director and producers asked people in India via Google to film their lives on one day and upload their footage. An amazing look at everyday life in India that they're going to distribute on YouTube for free. The day after my screening, it was Canada in a Day, where Canadians were asked to do the same thing. I couldn't participate, but I'm intensely curious as to what they come up with.
Short Cuts Programme 3 - For the first time ever, I went to see some short films. My motivation was that one of my coworkers has a friend whose film was part of the programme. There were 8 short films, some of them extremely "artsy", but the film I was there to see, Second to None, was a stop motion animation about the second-oldest man in the world that was some of the darkest humour I've seen in a while. Try to find it if you can.
Weirdos - My Canadian content for the festival. A gorgeous black-and-white film about 2 teens in 1970s Nova Scotia on a road trip. The soundtrack was fantastic (classic Canadiana) and the acting was impressive. Having the spirit of Andy Warhol in the film was superfluous but so fun.
I, Daniel Blake - This one made me sniffle. The Palme D'Or winner at Cannes this year, it's about an older gentleman from Newcastle trying to navigate his way through the ridiculousness of the UK's welfare system. After having a heart attack, he's cut off from disability insurance due to an unforgiving assessment process. His only recourse is to seek unemployment benefits, but in order to get it he needs to prove that he's looking for work. Since his doctor and physiotherapist have not cleared him for work, he's stuck. Along the way he meets and befriends a single mother with 2 children also stuck in the system. Tragically funny at times and really sad to think that this is the reality for a lot of people.
Birth of the Dragon - My (sort-of) Chinese film of the festival. A biopic about Bruce Lee, which pretty much says it all. It was certainly not what I was expecting, and the acting and plot left a lot to be desired. But the kung fu sequences were seriously amazing.
La La Land - This year's People's Choice winner. I love musicals, and what's not to love about a modern musical set in LA and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone that has the feel of a 40's song and dance movie? It was a surprising choice as the winner (a lot of us thought Lion would win) but it was a feel good film, even though it was kind of sad at the end.
Between these and my shifts, another busy fest, and yet different from all the other fests so far, in that I didn't see all of these films alone. Well, I did see most of them by myself, but I was able to bring someone along with me for the first time. Someone I met recently and have been able to get to know and have discovered that he doesn't quite share the same love of films or the fest as I do. But that's okay. It's still kind of early in the process. I'm sure you want to hear more but there isn't a lot to tell. Yet.
Stay tuned.
"I say goodbye to all my sorrow, and by tomorrow I'll be on my way"
