TIFF 2011: A Changing Landscape

Details

Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 18:12

Written by Eric Lurio

I haven’t been to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for a few years. I’d gone each year for a full decade before that, and each year was the same yet different.

But this year, I went up there a full two months before the Festival even begins to attend their opening press conference.

Aside from the fact that I was invited, I went because it’s cooler up there. Toronto, after all, is in Canada and while the temperature has been well into the 90s back home, it was in the upper 70s/low 80s in Canada. I can hang out there without feeling like a frigging fountain.

But why did TIFF have its opening press conference two months before the start of the event seems incomprehensible. Wouldn’t a mere press release suffice?

As far as I could tell, since most of the other people who showed up were locals, was for the food. The buffet in the back had bagels, lox, fruit and croissants as far as the eye could see. Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

After about a half hour of chowing down, we got to brass tacks.

Director and TIFF CEO Piers Handling and Festival Co-Director Cameron Bailey went up to the podium and thanked all the sponsors for giving them money. Then they announced that the Opening Night Gala would feature From the Sky Down, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about the Irish band U2.

They went on about the other galas and showed some trailers. The whole thing looks very interesting.

But most importantly, the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens September 8, 2011, and lasts 10 days, is now headquartered in the spanking new Lightbox building located at Reitman Square on the north-west corner of King and John Streets.

TIFF Bell Lightbox occupies an entire city block in the heart of Toronto’s media and entertainment district, which was renamed just for this building. It is five stories high, and the bottom three floors are entirely dedicated to movie screening rooms, retail and food.

The venue had always been at the Varsity Multiplex on Bloor Street, plus a few others along the same thoroughfare. It was homey, predictable and fun. Sure, the films were different every year, and, with the constants and continuity, one could concentrate on that and that alone.

The people at TIFF had long talked about building a new venue, somewhere downtown called the Lightbox. When last I attended, they actually claimed to have started construction on King Street, just north of the famous Tower near the lake. Well, it turned out they were serious that time.

The Lightbox is now a reality, a multiplex theater/office building with a half a dozen screening rooms, a restaurant and a souvenir shop, plenty of space -- but not enough for the entire festival.

So they also decided to rent out the Famous Players Paramount Theatre at Festival Hall, which will move the center of gravity of the entire festival to a mile or more south. The parties on or near Bloor Street will be a thing of the past.

I’m not that familiar with the area anymore. I’ve spent lots of time on West Queen Street, which was like The Haight in San Francisco or St. Marks Place in New York years ago, full of used bookshops, headshops and little cafes where one could hang out watch the world go by for hours and hours.

All that’s left are a couple of bars and the Silver Snail Comix Shoppe. It’s now the fashion district, where you can spend $200 on a single pair of shorts.

The funkiness of the area still permeates the air, but just. South of it used to be a kind of TriBecA area, where a lot of former factories were turned into ooh so trendy boutiques and restaurants. Here you can find the Paramount, which has got to have the largest concession stand in North America. They even have tables and chairs.

Festival screenings were held here before, but these were only occasionally, as people want to see regular movies there at cheaper prices. Next door is a Chapters bookstore, which is run by Indigo, the bookstore monopoly.

Further south by a couple of blocks is King Street, which is supposed to be the main drag. Back when Queen was truly funky, King was full of factories and office buildings, which are not really there anymore.

Some office buildings are there, but between Spadina and University Streets they’ve tried to make it a mirror image of Queen, with a bunch of new cafes (none of which I remember being there when last in the area) the huge Hyatt Regency, and the Lightbox, which lives up to its name by being mostly glass.

Further east is the Princess of Wales Theater complex (presumably named after Diana, not the technical incumbent), where most of the gala premiers are going to be held. I haven’t stepped inside that one.

This is a radical change to be sure, but I guess, as with all things, we’ll just have to get used to it.

The Toronto International Film Festival
Sept 8th - 18, 2011

TIFF Bell Lightbox
Reitman Square
350 King Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3X5

Famous Players Paramount Theatre at Festival Hall
259 Richmond Street W

Princess of Wales Theater Complex
284 King St W #300
Toronto, ON

Silver Snail Comix Shoppe
367 Queen St W
Toronto, ON

• < Prev
• Next >