Around this time, I start to get very excited about the impending Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In just 18 days, Scot and I will be flying to my favorite country in the world to spend a week immersed in film. Every few days a new press release is issued from TIFF listing additional films that will be playing during the fest’s 11 day event. Already new films by Atom Egoyan, Tsai Ming Liang, Deepa Mehta, Daniel MacIvor, and Zhang Yang have been announced, and the list just keeps growing longer. In two short days, the complete list of films will be revealed, and one week after that, the schedule will be revealed. That’s when the real mania takes over.
After a day or two of excitement bordering on panic, I will reach the zen stage, knowing that everything will work out, I have done the festival many times in the past, and it always goes very smoothly. This year Chlotrudis is travelling with a group of nearly 20, taking over the Jarvis House Bed & Breakfast. Besides seeing a large amount of international films, there are two things that I know I will be doing. One is queueing up each morning at the main box office to get our group’s tickets for the day, something I really enjoy doing. That’s me (see photo left) in line at an amazingly early hour on a Sunday morning waiting for the main box office to open. The other thing I am going to try my best to do, is to blog here each day with what’s going on at TIFF. Whether that be hanging out in the Four Seasons lobby picking out celebrities with Marilyn, or having lunch with writer/director Wiebke von Carolsfeld, you’ll read about it here. Who knows, I might get some other Chlotrudis members to share their impressions as well.
