fourONEsixSTYLE

The Hot Docs festival kicked off in Toronto last Thursday with a moving documentary, Air India 182, bringing to life the stories of families touched by the worst act of terror Canadians have ever encountered.

After this opening weekend the festival buzz is heating up, giving high honours to Football Undercover, a film profiling a Muslim women’s soccer team, as well as Carny, a colourful doc that explores the strong and unusual bonds of one girl on the road.

Cuban Song could be given a miss I’m told. The documentary follows in the tracks of other Cuban docs that show how life and music mesh in Havana, however it lacks the depth and tone set by its cinematic predecessors. Tiger Spirit failed to engage audiences in the story of divided Koreans reuniting for the first time in decades, while Club Native hit home showing the difficult side of life for Mohawk Indians uniting with partners off their reserve. (Thanks for the tips & reviews John, Lana & Diego).

I’ve got my festival pass – 10 films for $90 – but have been caught up preparing for a BBC micro-session on how to approach research for forensics documentaries. I’ll be presenting a Cold Blood case study Wednesday at 2:30PM - those with an industry pass are welcome to swing by and see what you can learn about the field of archive and visual research from our experienced panel.

Though the causes of autism cannot be definitively pinpointed, it has become apparent that cases of autism have increased dramatically since the 1980’s. It wasn’t until a couple of summer’s ago that I’d met someone with this brain development condition. At first he seemed odd, sociable, but unable to make eye contact. Then, his fixations with unusual things like highway rumble strips and recording everything from voices to generator noises, made him more curious to me and my friends who interacted with him. Now, what defines him most is his fascination with the play Evil Dead: The Musical. He’ll ask everyone he meets whether they’ve seen it and what they think of it. He’s gone so far as to get some of the cast members’ t-shirts, covered in fake blood, and wear them out to parties. No doubt dressing up for Halloween is his favorite time of year.

Since I really know very little about people with Autism, I’m hoping that this week’s Doc Soup screening “Autism: The Musical” will shed some light on the associated personality traits, not only the repetitive and extremely intelligent aspects of the neurological encumbrance we’ve come to know from Rain Man, but also how a focus on creative expression can help those with Autism. It’s fascinating, when you know that most of us only use 5% of our brain’s capacity, that there may be a key there in understanding this different wiring that might help us all evolve a little further.

Screenings are at 6:30 and 9:15 this Wednesday the 5th. Tickets are currently available online for the later show. You’ll have to take your chances to get into the early one.

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Originally uploaded by 416style

I messed up previously laid plans when I was offered preview passes to Mos Def and Jack Black’s new flick Be Kind Rewind. The clincher was the Q&A with director Michel Gondry. Gondry’s well-known in film for directing The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but it’s his unique style directing music videos for the White Stripes and Bjork that gets my attention. Bad news is I got to the screening (right on time) and all the seats were filled (yeah, apparently there’s a disclaimer you’re supposed to read) so my friends and I had to change course. We headed to Caren’s Wine Bar across the street (158 Cumberland) since I’d heard they had some swish mac and cheese and a tasty fondue too.

We sunk into our seats upstairs and I noticed that Richard Crouse, the easily recognizable host of Rogers Television’s Reel to Real, was seated near to us. Hmmm…I wonder who he’s dining with in Yorkville. Sure enough it’s Michel Gondry, having a glass of red before ducking into the theatre to begin a round of questioning.

I wanted to give him my two cents too, tell him that my photo of him is used in his wikipedia profile, but best we could do was “So you couldn’t get into the movie either?” He seemed rushed and faked a laugh, but he seemed to be doing that a dinner with his guests too. Solemn and reserved; not at all what I’d expect. Shouldn’t you be a people person as an accomplished director? Maybe not. This is the guy, after all, that developed what’s now called “the bullet technique”, made famous by The Matrix. Oh well, I guess he’s a technical guy. I can appreciate that.

We missed our chance with him and we missed the Q&A, instead we sat at Caren’s waiting forever for food and drinks to have overly formal staff bring us overly mediocre food. (And, hey, shouldn’t you have a decent selection of wines if you want to call yourself a wine bar?)

Besides good company the night was a bust - but hey, I did get another movie pass, to try and get into the movie another time.

Happy Hallowe’en Toronto!

Six scary episodes of Spook in the City are online at blogTO including the latest, the hauntings of Colborne Lodge and Grenadier Pond in High Park.

Have a taste for more chilling ghost stories? Follow John and I as we take you to the scene of several high-profle hauntings in some of Toronto’s most historic places.

Prepare to be spooked!

The Distillery District

The Royal York’s Haunted Stairwell

The Royal York’s Haunted Hallway

The Royal York’s Crystal Ballroom

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Originally uploaded by nsbkim

Yesterday the Toronto International Film Festival prepared itself for the next wave of filmsters, opening up single ticket sales. I was impressed with the addition of a relatively quiet stand at Roy Thompson Hall to take the burden off the continually busy box offices at Manulife and College Park. However, I wasn’t so impressed when I walked down to RTH only to find the film I wanted to see had already sold out. Though I might be able to RUSH This Beautiful City, a film about the gentrification and friction between classes in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood, I’m doing my best to work facebook and craigslist angles to see what pops up first.

The festival starts today!

Last year my friend, actor and indie filmmaker Brett Reason, shot and cut a short video which followed four car junkies (including himself) getting wasted and heading to the auto show. Their goal? See how long they could sit in the Mercedes S550 before someone kicked them out. After he showed me the piece, we debated what the name of it should be. He thought Loaded at the Auto Show would be good, I figured Fully Loaded would be more slick. It was his bit, so he won.

Brett called a couple days ago to tell me what the slogan is for this year’s show - it’s Fully Loaded. I’m not sure if he was more excited that we nailed their ad slogan before they did or just because the show would be starting this week, either way he got me hyped to go and I’m no car buff.

While him and his buddies cruise the fast car corner I might see what’s new in hybrids. If you’re still driving an old jalopy maybe you should check it out too - Metro recently reported that the biggest emissions (up to 37 times the normal amount) can come from cars 20 years old and up.

Scrap watching the auto show’s promotional vid on their site, there’s nothing innovative about it. Instead, amuse yourself with a little dark humour at theigloo, where you too can get Fully Loaded at the Auto Show.

photo: Richard Tamayo

There’s nothing remarkable about the stretch of waterfront across from The Guvernment nightclub at Queen’s Quay where honeywagons sit parked before a large film production studio called Cinespace. It’s no surprise then that this is where the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation has set its sights to begin development of a key area of our waterfront called East Bayfront.

You’d think no one would object to the revitalization plan to include accessible waterfront and two-acre Sherbourne Park. The mixed use space, relative in size to Battery Park in Manhattan and London’s Canary Wharf will also include 7000 units of housing and 1 million square feet of commercial space. Cinespace, a major player in the Toronto film scene, will need to vacate by February 21st in order for the plan to go ahead, and they claim they’ve just been given notice to leave the premises leased by them from City of Toronto real estate developer TEDCO.

Toronto’s film industry is already dealing with city-ordered relocation of studio space, since a relative monopoly on the industry was given to the Toronto Film Studios to build Filmport. This means that space for US productions to shoot, key to the growing film industry in Toronto, is really tight. It could mean the loss of thousands of jobs if US productions find other cities that are more accommodating.

Cinespace is simply asking that it get 18 “official” months to find a new home. In the meantime Filmport and those affected by relocation can build new studios and Toronto can continue to offer the film production services it has come to be known for. Location Manager Craig Williams is one of 4454 film industry professionals who have signed an ongoing online petition agreeing that loss of studio space could have a “devastating impact” on Toronto’s film industry. He believes that “while we’ve all been waiting for the waterfront to evolve into something we can all use and explore, the city has to have a balanced plan to ensure it is not at the expense of key industry.”

Ask anybody who the new James Bond is and they’ll likely be able to answer, they’ll probably even add an opinion as to whether actor Daniel Craig will fill the famous Bond shoes, but ask anyone who Frank Pickersgill is and you’ll likely draw a blank stare. Pickersgill, however, is not very different than Bond, except that he was a real spy, and a hero, a Torontonian and didn’t sport the same kind of Bond bling. Frank fought for our country, during World War II, as part of a unique group called the SOE - Special Operations Executive - initiated by Winston Churchill.

To train this elite force Camp X was created, close to the shores of Whitby, Ontario. It was at this spy school, the largest in North America, that Canadian, American and English men and women were taught how to transmit messages secretly, kill silently, and how to handle interrogation if captured.

Ian Fleming was part of the spy school at Camp X, but space was limited so he was living on Avenue Road in Toronto and travelling to the school when necessary. It was while while living here in Toronto that the author penned his first book Casino Royale and named the character James Bond from a nearby church.

Fleming went onto great fame and success but not all of his comrades at Camp X were so lucky. Pickersgill was captured, and interrogated, on a couple different occasions. The first time he broke out by sawing out his cell window, using a blade baked into a loaf of bread. Years later, the Canadian spy parachuted into enemy-occupied France. Fellow SOE members drove into the Loire Valley to find him but all were intercepted and Pickersgill was taken back to prison. This time his escape through a second floor window didn’t end successfully. He was recaptured and later executed. A garden is dedicated in his honour on UofT’s campus.

It’s not the ending fellow Camp X alum Ian Fleming, creator of agent 007, would have written but it’s a story that deserves to be told out of respect to those who helped gain our freedom.

If Fleming were aiming for authenticity it may’ve been with a Canadian accent that we would hear the famous spy’s introduction: “Bond, James Bond” and Canadians would realize that their biggest heroes are not Hollywood-born.