Canadian films aplenty in TIFF lineup
Many of Canada’s biggest directors are heeding the call of Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a continent’s worth of homegrown talent to celebrate at the Toronto International Film Festival. On Wednesday TIFF announced the bulk of its Canadian lineup — 72 shorts, features and documentaries from such luminaries as Bruce McDonald, Guy Maddin, Don McKellar, Philippe Falardeau, Patrick Reed and Barry Avrich.
In addition to the already announced opening-night film directed by Quebec’s Jean-Marc Vallée — Demolition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal — Canadians are well represented throughout the festival’s many programming streams.
Special presentations announced Wednesday include Robert Budreau’s Born to Be Blue, a reimagining of the life of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, starring Ethan Hawke and Carmen Ejogo; Patricia Rozema’s Into the Forest, starring Ellen Page (also at the festival with Freeheld) and Evan Rachel Wood in a near-future dystopia; and Guy Édoin’s Ville-Marie, which is set in a Quebec hospital.
This year, critics are getting behind the camera with films of their own. Katherine Monk, who used to write for the Postmedia chain of papers, presents the world premiere of her short film Rock the Box, about Vancouver-raised DJ Rhiannon Rozier and her efforts to succeed in the male-dominated world of electronic dance music.
And Brian Johnson, former film critic for Maclean’s magazine, brings to the festival Al Purdy Was Here, a documentary that brings together musicians, writers and artists to celebrate the Canadian poet who died aged 81 at the turn of the century.
Other documentaries include Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr, a first-person perspective on the former U.S. prisoner; Ninth Floor, a look back at the 1969 Sir George Williams Riot; This Changes Everything, based on Naomi Klein’s book on climate change.