Toronto, the film festival hot bed

Vakeesh Velummylum
Contributor
The film industry is growing in Toronto. One sure measure of this city’s continuing expansion into the international film scene is the increasing number and content of various Toronto film festivals.
Earlier this month, the Toronto Irish Film Festival (TIRFF) was inaugurated at the Bell Light Box Theatre, adding yet another player to the film landscape. It centred around a quaint screening of two distinctly Irish films, The Secret of the Kells (2010), an Oscar-nominated animated feature, and His & Hers (2009), a lesser known but very charming documentary of seventy Irish women and their developing relationships with the men in their lives (father, boyfriend, husband, son or grandson) as they grow older.

Both the films were thoroughly enjoyable, one enriched by Celtic lore and the other a touching and humorous portrayal of contemporary Irish society. Toronto’s Irish community was out in full force for the festival, helping both the screenings to reach their theatre’s capacity. Co-founder Michael Barry is rightfully ambitious about the festival’s growth in future years.
“The Toronto Irish Film Festival aims to cement itself as the pre-eminent Irish film festival in Canada,” Barry said. “As our audience grows, so will our programming schedule and reach. The opportunity to tour the festival within Canada is also up for consideration; however, our immediate focus is to build a reputation in Toronto as the single source for the best of Irish cinema.”
It will be interesting to see the growth and development of TIRFF as it makes itself a notable member in Toronto’s film festival circuit.
The ReelWorld Film Festival is a bit more distinguished than newcomer TIRFF, and it also has a more diverse reach. This year, the festival will be celebrating 11 years as Toronto’s multicultural film festival. When spokesperson and founder Tonya Lee Williams opened the festival’s press conference last week, she and all of the major sponsors’ reps were meticulous about incorporating two words in their addresses to the media:  “diversity” and “multicultural.”
The festival’s opening night gala will feature a film by Rohan Fernando titled Snow, about a Sri Lankan woman trying to navigate a new life in Canada – a land and culture unfamiliar to her – after the Asian tsunami swept away her family.
Among the shorts and features there will be 25 new music videos screened, with participation from the renowned music video director formerly known as Little X.
ReelWorld is a not-for-profit film festival focused on promoting Canada’s cultural mosaic, so they’ll be screening 60 percent Canadian content. The rest of the content has an international flavour, and includes everything from Korean to Ethiopian offerings. As ReelWorld’s international film programmer suggested, “For those of us who can’t travel the world this year, come to ReelWorld and experience it.”
Traveling is definitely not a possibility on a student budget that’s anything like mine, but ReelWorld, at least, is now student-friendly. Tickets can be purchased for $5 with student ID.
This year’s ReelWorld Film Festival runs from April 6-10.