

By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie – TIFF40
The Toronto International Film Festival evolved as a journey rather than a slog. Back when Clint Eastwood was a star, not an auteur, and Rocky and Star Wars were not yet on the horizon, there was the The Festival of Festivals, concocted by a trio of entrepreneurial hustlers in the city with the not-yet-proud nickname of “Hogtown.” The first event screened a couple of dozen films at the theater at Ontario Place.
I remember meeting Russian filmmaker Larisa Shepitko, showing her film, The Ascent. Clouded over time is what exactly I was doing at this event, a showcase for films that had achieved acclaim at Cannes, Berlin and Venice. It was only a “catch up” fest. I remember a wager with Dusty Cohl (one of the three founding fellows) made at the Cannes festival in 1975 or 1976. I presume I lost but Dusty still picked up the tab on the Carlton Terrace.
The other thing I remember is the incredible embrace extended by the Toronto public. Storefronts along Bloor and Yonge concocted movie-themed displays. The city had been waiting for a movie event that balanced the low- and highbrows.
The next year, the eye of the storm relocated to the Bloor corridor. Bill Marshall (another of the scalawags) opened the doors at Sutton Place and dubbed the hospitality rooms The Hostility Suite. The screening venues in the core are all gone now, as is festival favorite Bistro 990, and the Sutton Place went condo.
I smile when thinking back to early editions; helping a confused and inebriated Julie Walters find her room at the Plaza II, for instance. It was funkier … but most things were in their initial stages and Toronto’s ambition was to grow rather than be only a footnote.
Today, it is an industry with a not-too-shabby home called the Bell Lightbox, scholarly year-round programming, tours, publications. Other than Sundance, no other festival can claim this level of support toward the Seventh Art.
Thursday, it begins in earnest, and the 300-plus feature schedule is daunting. TIFF is definitely not for sissies. Bon cinema.