Chronicles of a CinemaniacFirst Memories: There is one thing I am more passionate about than chocolate - cinema. I remember falling asleep in my mother's arms at a screening of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day film, Lover Come Back. Other childhood memories include family outings to movie drive-ins (remember those), and regularly attending with my older brother Saturday afternoon double-headers at a theater just half a block from home.
Independent Cinema: It was while in university that I discovered the world of independent cinema, but offerings in my home town of Hamilton were meager. Several years later, my family entered the video store business and I did a lot of catching up, often taking home armfuls of videos. Film Festivals: After moving to Toronto, I was introduced to what was then called the Festival of Festivals and is now known as the Toronto International Film Festival. It was not long before I started taking a week's vacation to attend TIFF full time, viewing four to five films a day during the nine, now ten-day festival. I have been an attendee for twenty years and have been blogging about the festival before the term "blog" existed. Documentary Film: TIFF exposed me to great documentaries and they soon became part of my life. I currently take an additional week's vacation annually to attend Hot Docs, considered the most important documentary film festival after IDFA (Amsterdam) and I attend Hot Docs' monthly screening, Doc Soup. Toronto As a Film Capital: Besides being home to two of the world's most renowned and seminal film festivals, Toronto hosts a few specialized film festivals every month of the year. Film Lover's Paradise: Within fifteen minutes walk from home, I have access to theaters with a total of 20+ screens. Thanks to public transit, I am within 20 minutes of a grand total of 50+ screens, including a 40-seat screening room in the building in which I live (screening DVD's five nights a week). And I am a seven-minute run from the TIFF Lightbox, one of the world's foremost film centers. Cinemaniac: I see three to five movies a week (about a 50/50 mix of commercial and independent films). But, I call myself a cinemaniac, not a cinephile. Chick on Flicks: Follow my blog or Twitter for highlights of my weekly film viewing. But having worked for an independent film company for a year and seeing first-hand the sweat, blood and tears people put into their art, don't expect to find catty, scathing reports. I just don't see the point of trashing anyone's work. And I am just a lover of film, not an expert. |