The name’s Bailey, Cameron Bailey
Most people who know Cameron Bailey consider him a stand-up guy, one who will always tell you the straight goods.
But put TIFF’s artistic director on the road and put a Twitter gadget into his hands, and he becomes the International Man of Mystery.
As he bounces from Beijing to Brussels to Mumbai to Cannes and all points beyond, searching for films to bring to the Toronto International Film Festival, he tweets with authority but also with obscurity.
Many of his film deals depend on stealth. He can’t give the game away right away to his more than 17,500 followers (and counting).
It’s only after TIFF’s full slate is announced that Bailey can explain what it is he’s been madly tweeting about for lo these many months.
Now that the word’s out on what’s up at the festival, he’s once again kindly agreed to fill us all in, tweeters or not, about the most mysterious of his coded chirps: (July 3): Landed, Tokyo. Looking for one of these with #TIFF12 festival submissions. (pic.twitter.com/TBIgmpAi)
As soon as I landed at Narita airport I immediately remembered Japan’s famous vending machines, where it’s possible to buy just about anything, including the famous, oddly named sports drink Pocari Sweat. I thought: wouldn’t it be nice if programming festival films was as easy as choosing from a vending machine. (June 28) Many things you can do stuck in Mumbai monsoon traffic, including get your foot in the door in LA.
With the festival’s City to City section spotlighting Mumbai, I made two trips to the city this year. The July trip coincided with the start of monsoon season, which meant I sat stuck in traffic for three hours on the way to a morning meeting. Since I was lucky enough to be safe and dry as the water welled up around the car, I got to work on my BlackBerry. I
“Wouldn’t it be nice if programming festival films was as easy as choosing from a vending machine?”
CAMERON BAILEY TIFF ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
emailed a colleague in Los Angeles to invite Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to the festival to help present a documentary they’re supporting, Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Turns out they accepted, so Will and Jada will join director Shola Lynch and the legendary activist thinker Angela Davis at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday, Sept. 9. I was late for the meeting, but I got some work done. (June 24) Got carried away today in Brussels: first to a far away place, then to a place that exists only in movies.
I spent only one day in Brussels watching films, but it was a memorable one. In the morning I saw the French language docudrama Kinshasa Kids, an outstanding and uplifting film shot on the urban streets of the former Belgian colony. The afternoon found me with the Flemish, watching The Fifth Season, a gorgeous and strange allegory. French, Flemish, African and imaginary — all in all it was a perfect Belgian day. We invited both films. (June 11) Monday. Here comes another week of persuading and defending against persuasions. Also: movies.
One of the exhausting parts of the job is the constant shifting of gears. One minute you’re using every argument you can muster to persuade someone to bring a film to Toronto, or to accept a 9:30 screening time over a 9:00 screening time, or even to show you a film so you can make a decision. The next minute you’re on the receiving end of persuasive arguments, as sales agents, distributors, producers and, most painfully, directors try to convince you to select their film. In the middle of what can feel like harsh slanging matches out of a courtroom drama, it’s good to remember the movies that drive the arguments. (June 2) Auteurism may be the worst thing that ever happened to film programming. But we’re all in its thrall. That is all.
Every festival I can think of operates on the auteur principle: that directors have consistent artistic and sociopolitical visions that are inherently valuable. I’m not so sure. Every year we see new films from directors who’ve made great work in the past. Sometimes the hardest thing is to see them as new films. If you want an example of “auteurs” at this year’s festival who keep reinventing themselves, check out Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa or Bahman Ghobadi’s Rhino Season. (May 19) The trick to this job is finding not just good films but films that shift the conversation. May have found two today in #Cannes.
This was a packed day of back-to-back meetings and screenings in Cannes, but I remember two films stood out: Ben Drew’s ill Manors and Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires. ill Manors is a gritty drama from the mean streets of East London, but what impressed me was how Drew — a.k.a. British hip-hop star Plan B — integrated the structure of hip-hop into the narrative style of film. The Sapphires is that rare thing: an Australian indigenous film that is joyous not tragic, but still true. (May 16) So many great films at the #annual convention in france, but what I’m really excited by is the dvd in my pocket.
I don’t recall what that specific film was, but having people push DVDs into my hands as I rush down the Croisette in Cannes is something I had to get used to. That hashtag was my way of bringing the lofty Cannes film festival down to earth. It’s not much different from any other sales convention. (May 7) Today is a good reminder that dates are to film festivals what stars are to movies.
On May 7 I was in Los Angeles, meeting the film studios and sales agents who deliver most of the films we select from the U.S. Because our festival is in September at the start of awards season, we always get a great crop of good movies to choose from. Our dates make us as popular as a movie star in L.A. But just as stars can sometimes exert too strong an influence and can’t guarantee the success of every movie, dates aren’t all that a successful festival needs. A big part of this job is to temper the weight of our advantages. (April 28) Reminded today of a movie we turned down that went on to enormous success. Best way to watch a film is with humility.
We never talk about films that we passed on, of course, but I can tell you that every major film festival has stories of films that were turned down but became big hits elsewhere. I’m always happy for those jilted movies, and it’s an excellent reminder that we can’t always get it right. (Feb. 15) Going to see a man about a screen.
It was February when we began our conversations about shifting the festival’s opening night party to Maple Leaf Square. With the massive outdoor screen facing Maple Leaf Square, and hundreds more inside e11even and the Real Sports Bar, we’re going to be able to make visuals a big part of our kickoff. It wasn’t until months later that we had our opening night film, but it turns out that the futuristic world of Rian Johnson’s Looper is a perfect fit for all those screens. Even better, we’ve got the bad boy Canadians at Vice to produce some killer eye candy for the party. (Feb. 7) Talking art for #TIFF12 between Toronto and another big city. Still at the dream stage.
This didn’t end up happening. Follow on Twitter: @cameron_TIFF @peterhowellfilm.