Some people might think that the only film festival Toronto hosts each
year is the big one in September when Hollywood A-listers descend on
city streets and every media outlet jumps on the entertainment bandwagon
for 10 days. In reality, Toronto is one of the hottest cities in the
world all year round for specialty film festivals and screenings.
Recently we've been home to the ReelWorld Film Festival, Cinéfranco, the
Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival, The Images Festival of
Independent Film & Video, the Toronto Silent Film Festival, and the
Female Eye Film Festival, just to name a few. And over the next few
weeks we have something to offer every cinephile, young or old.
Launching
this coming weekend is Sprockets (April 17 - 23), the unique
kid-friendly fest put on by the Toronto International Film Festival
(TIFF). Over the course of seven days, kids three and up will be able to
screen a total of 27 feature films and 41 short films from around the
world. A few of my picks for features include Twigson (a
Norwegian film about a boy who finds a friend in a stick), Afghan
Star (documentary on the American Idol-type Afghanistan
singing competition show), Glowing Stars (about a teenage girl
dealing with her mother dying of cancer), Max Embarrassing (a
young boy dealing with the world's "most embarrassing mother"), and for
those aged 16 and up, My Suicide (about a teenager who decides to
kill himself on-camera as his final school project).
In the
shorts programme I can't praise The Freshwater Plague enough. It
documents the problem a town in North Bay faces each year when shad
flies come out of the lake and take over for a week. Very well produced
and edited, it made my skin crawl more than any horror movie I've seen.
Other shorts I highly recommend include Ralph (about a young
Australian girl in 1984 who is in love with actor Ralph Macchio), Ormie
(funny animated piece about a pig trying to get a cookie jar from the
top of the fridge), Toxic Ingredients (which shows a girl putting
on make-up with a breakdown of the ingredients in each item she uses),
and Iker Stubborn Hair (a hilarious piece about a boy who can't
control his wild hair).
Sprockets also offers a school programme
for educators and the Jump Cuts Young Filmmaker Showcase for Ontario
children in Grades 3 to 12 who have a chance to get their short films
shown on the big screen. For a full schedule of films and to purchase
tickets, visit sprockets.ca.
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival
(April 17 - 25), in its 18th year, is taking a different approach with
the sidebar series on Jewish pioneers in the comic book industry, People
Of The Comic Book: The Creators of Superheroes, Graphic Novels &
Toons. The series will showcase the 2003 film American Splendor,
starring Paul Giamatti as underground comic artist Harvey Pekar, the
1988 live-action animated crossover Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Ron
Mann's coveted documentary Comic Book Confidential, the '70s
Ralph Bakshi-Robert Crumb animated sleazefest Fritz the Cat, and Last
Son, a documentary on Superman and his creator Joe Shuster.
Non-comic-related
films running at the festival include Victoria Day, Inside
Hana's Suitcase, Berlin 36, and the restored 1948 film Nuremberg:
Its Lesson For Today, about the trial of Nazi war criminals. The
film was widely shown in Germany in 1948 and 1949 but was banned in
America due to its graphic content and the concern it would affect the
public support in the rebuilding of Germany. This is its North American premiere.
More info on the
Toronto Jewish Film Festival, a full schedule, and to purchase tickets,
visit tjff.com.
Outside of TIFF, Hot Docs, the festival for
documentaries, is probably the most well known. Running April 29 to May
9, the festival is in its 17th year and will be exhibiting more than 150
films including popular titles Babies (following the first year
in the life of four babies around the world), The People vs. George
Lucas (documenting the rocky relationship the Star Wars
creator has had with his legion of fans over the last three decades),
and RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage (a look at the iconic Canadian
rockers), as well as smaller films The Kids Grow Up (which
documents the difficult transition parents of an only child have when
she leaves home), A Drummer's Dream (a look at some of the
greatest drummers in the world), and Waste Land (following
Brooklyn artist Vik Muniz as he heads to the largest garbage dump in the
world to create art). CityNews.ca will be covering Hot Docs the
11 days it's running, with reviews of the films and interviews with the
filmmakers. To see a full rundown of documentaries screening, and to
purchase tickets, visit hotdocs.ca.
And while not a film festival
per se, the Global Marijuana March will be screening the pro-drug
documentaries American Drug War: The Last White Hope and How
Weed Won The West at a special 420 Movie Night event on April 20 at
the Revue Cinema. Both films are insightful, educational, and
entertaining. More info on them can be found at globalmarijuanamarch.ca.
Keep an eye out for even more festivals and film events in the months to come as NXNE (June 14 - 20), Toronto Italian Film Festival (June 2 - 6), and the Worldwide Short Film Festival (June 1 - 6) are just around the corner.
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
Top image: A scene from Twigson. Courtesy Sprockets.