The old Hart House Theatre, wacky short films and an enthusiastic audience: ingredients contributing to the excitement of Hart House Theatre’s first annual U of T Film Festival that took place this past weekend. The three-day event had glimpses of originality, creativity, and promise in films by U of T students and alumni.

Day One
The first night featured short films prepared by current Hart House Film Board members. Between Black + White was impressive in capturing the heartbreaking struggles of a young man and an old man, illustrated through a game of chess. Moving to a softer note, In Briefs, a comedic tale involving the returning of an ill-fitting Speedo, was nicely done. A humourous affair.

Ballet Dancer: Behind the Velvet Curtain touched the hearts and minds of the audience as it demonstrated the physical abuse, politics, artistic vs. athletic attributes and other downsides of being a ballerina. It was nice to see someone articulate the insane and ludicrous torture ballet brings upon the body. Two thumbs up!!

Finally, Tarantata was hideous, putting the entire audience to sleep for its 20-minute duration. Two words of wisdom: ACTING LESSONS!!

Awards were presented for Best First Film (Robots Don’t Wear Hats), Documentary (Ballet Dancer), Narrative (Present Tense), and Experimental (The Return). The judging was somewhat questionable. Many other patrons would have picked different winners for two of the categories. But then again, it’s a matter of opinion.

Day Two
The second night featured the best independent films made by students belonging to the U of T community. Rick Palidwor’s Good Night was superb for its timely comic relief, while his Handsurdity (the story of uncontrollable/psycho hands) was creative but poorly acted (the actor won an award for acting, figure that!).

The Ninja Who Shagged Me was ambitious as it tried to portray past Oriental martial art movies dubbed in English. As absurd as the film was, I must admit that it was a true satire, thus entertaining.

Capping the night, Dwight Stuff contrasted deep inner desires of materialism and asceticism. The idea was great but the execution was slow and for the most part boring.

Day Three
The final day of the festival featured three films by U of T graduates. Lee Broker’s Cornered was inspired by the atmosphere of College and Spadina, the characteristics of the neighbourhood, and its people (pretty Mafioso). It is an eloquent mafia flick that would surely remind you of Scorsese and Coppola, except the story is based in Toronto, with references to how things were in the past. What made the film so remarkable was its effort to address human elements such as choosing the right path in life, gambling addiction and other honest individual attributes.

Cornered was followed by a panel discussion in which Robert Crossman and Lee Broker revealed the inspiration and process of making the film. The movie has been sold to Lionsgate Film and will be aired on TMN, Movie Central, and other cable networks, so watch out.

The evening was transformed into a walk down memory lane for many audience members, who were thrilled to see the 1960s St. George campus in David Secter’s Winter Kept Us Warm, the first English-language Canadian feature film. What is more interesting, Winter Kept Us Warm is considered the first film in Canada to touch on gay issues in an intellectual manner.

The film is about friendship, jealousy, love, and betrayal between two U of T students, where writer/director David Secter articulately sets a homosexual scenario.

However, what may seem obvious now was not so transparent in the 60s, since the cast members admitted having no knowledge of the film’s gay subtext when it was filmed.

Winter Kept Us Warm was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and is considered a classic in the genre of guy films.

Acclaimed director David Cronenberg has said it inspired him to make movies. Therefore, it is fitting that the festival ended with Cronenberg’s first feature film, Stereo.

Overall, the U of T Film Festival was successful, as many people became aware of the U of T film community, launched by Secter in the 60s.

It is thriving today with a group of imaginative filmmakers, including Lee Broker, who continues to inspire, support, and guide novice student filmmakers every day.