Monika's Toronto Dispatch #1: Winter Gardens and Honking Trains

It's Sunday night, I'm bleary-eyed, and I'm waiting for the mid-TIFF energy to kick in. It might seem strange, but I always find the beginning of a festival more exhausting than the end. Having a day pass, I have the bonus of seeing the films with the eager, excited TIFF filmgoers, but I also have to schedule all my screenings before 5 P.M. This means a lot of early mornings and long lines for coffee. It also means that the first few days consist of me sleepily stumbling around, hoping that my films are engaging enough to keep me awake. Luckily enough, this year's festival is an amazing collection of solid, fun, and powerful films.

I started things off early on Friday, but I really crowned my festival experience with the premiere of My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin's surreal docu-fantasy about the cold city in Manitoba. This is looking to be my lone evening screening for the fest, and it took place in Toronto's unique Winter Garden Theatre -- the perfect place to watch some Maddin. See, this is a theater on top of the Elgin, where lots of the big films screen. That's right, here in Toronto you get multi-level, ornate theaters. You go up flight upon flight to enter a garden world -- complete with faux ivy, trees, and trellises. A premiere Guy screening also means seeing faces of Canadian film nestled in the cozy prime seats in the middle of the theatre. Actor/director Don McKellar was there with Monkey Warfare co-stars Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz. (James Rocchi reviewed the flick during last year's festival.)




Saturday was another big day, which wrapped up with the world premiere of A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman. Unless they're small films or premieres, it's usually a crap-shoot whether you'll see filmmakers during the day screenings. We were lucky enough to hear not only from director Peter Raymont for the post-film Q&A, but also Ariel Dorfman himself. It was an eloquently special treat.






Today, well, that didn't go too smoothly. I started off the day learning that the subway doesn't open until 9 AM -- be warned, potential TIFFers! (I guess I never tried to use it early on the weekend before.) I split a cab with another woman anxiously waiting for a train to stop, rather than honk and drive on by. The cabbie teased us, but we made our films -- at least, I hope she did as well! From there, I had some technical issues, misread my ticket, went to the wrong theater and then finally got myself to the Varsity to see the world premiere of Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa. It was chaos. As the clock ticked towards screen-time, the line for the film snaked around the theater area, down the stairs, out the door, down the street, and almost around the corner. But somehow, we all fit inside and got to see Yu's funny foray into ping pong.

For the most part, the first days of TIFF have been a mellow, but enriching time. But there's one thing I'm noticing. As any of you who are festivalgoers might know, there will inevitably be saved seats at any screening you attend. Some people will crowd these areas since most of the time, the seats are never filled. This year -- the space has expanded exponentially. Instead of a group of seats, or perhaps a row or two, I've been in theaters that have roped off five to six rows -- and maybe 6 of the seats in each were filled before they were opened to the public. I can only hope next year I don't enter the theater to find that only the side seats are available!

And now, I must hit the hay. Tomorrow I travel to foreign lands like Norway, and even get to see myself some Nietzsche. Nine films down, 16 to go!