This year’s U of T Film Festival at Hart House Theatre promises to be an eye-opening introduction to the array of talent found right here on campus. Spread over three evenings, each night contains its own unique blend of picture, sound, cinematography, and music.
The festival kicks off tonight with a juried gala of films by Hart House Film Board members.Originally a small-scale event, the festival was “bolstered by putting it in the theatre and promoting it a little bit wider across the university,” explains Paul Templin, general manager of Hart House Theatre.
The Campus Clips program on Friday night showcases short films by U of T students. “This was always the purpose of the festival to begin with,” Templin notes. “Since the advent of digital format and digital editing, students can shoot videos relatively inexpensively and edit them in their bedroom on their computer at 3 o’clock in the morning. Ten years ago that was just not possible.”
90 minutes of screen time was easily filled through an open call to students (non-members of the film board). Out of numerous entries, the best shorts were accepted to screen at the festival.
Through the annual festival, “filmmakers at U of T are given the opportunity toshow their craft and share it with their peers,” says Doug Floyd, publicist for Hart House Theatre.
Convincing the sometimes-apathetic campus audience to come check out student films has always been a difficult task, but this year Templin says the festival is taking a bit of a different approach by featuring legendary ski filmmaker Warren Miller’s extreme ski and snowboarding film JOURNEY on Friday night. Templin thinks the high-action flick will draw students, who will hopefully then stay for the campus clips and ensuing door prizes.
The final evening of the festival is always devoted to alumni films, and this year, documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (coming off a big year with the popular doc Go Further)’s humorous documentary Grass was chosen. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, Grass explores the facts and myths surrounding controls of marijuana in the late 20th century. “Those who remain pure will see the degradation you’ve been missing. Those who have succumbed to temptation will learn how a nice person like yourself became adangerous criminal,” states the official tagline of the film.
“I think Grass will appeal to this demographic,” says Templin. “Anythingcontroversial on the university campus is what people want to see,” adds Floyd.
Preceding the feature is the high-energy musical/visual spectacular Super 8-Ring Circus. Created by Rick Palidwor, the technical coordinator of the Hart House Film Board, the event is a 90-minute program of 32 new black-and-white silent short films (by U of T students, alumni, staff, and associates) accompanied by two live jazz bands.
Super 8 is the home movie format from the ’60s and ’70s.By using old-fashioned projectors and cameras with Kodak film made in 2004, the films appear as old home movies on screen. The filmmakers shot on 3-minute rolls of Super 8, and many of the participants had never shot a film before.
This year a celebrity component is included in the 8-Ring Circus. Lisa Merchant, a local comic known for her current role on Global’s reality drama Train 48, performed a comedy routine in her film. Local theatre producer (Cats, etc.) Marlene Smith shot thecast of her current show in rehearsal. Comedian Hart Pomerantz did a documentary of his artwork. Also on the list is John Porter, a regular at the event, and one of the only artists in Toronto who works exclusively on Super 8.
Although shooting Super 8 is a ‘first shot is the only shot’ process, Palidwor considers the process “unpredictable” and “spontaneous.”
The live music accompaniment harkens back to the early days of film, and the bands alternating on the almost entirely improvised score will be prominent Toronto jazz players i’s open and GUH (whom Palidwor describes as “a very strange rock, pop, classical, funk, weird, march, polka band. With bagpipes”).
“People are just going to [be] blown away by what can happen within theconfines of this little 8-millimeter film with live music,” Palidwor adds. “It’s the kind of show that will never happen twice.”
