The TIFF's Reaction

TIFF [2001]

Before the Attack

Up to the morning of September 11th, I'd been desperately trying to put the 2001 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival into some kind of context. I'd been frequenting the event since the mid-80s, first as a film student, now my fourth time as a journalist. TIFF's silver-anniversary edition came prefabricated with millennial sentiment and pontifications of 100-year-old cinema's future practically built into the press agreement. The 2001 film year had been derided up until September as the medium's very death rattle, a sweeping dismissal from most pundits that I didn't exactly agree with (what post-"Jaws" summer movie season has not been written off as the Worst Ever?). The fest began without "Oscar buzz", with no "this year's American Beauty" hopeful, and no programmer seemed to have discovered that rare homemade movie that would blow the expensive gala epics out of the projector gate.

It did, true to form, place some obscure subjects front and centre: "Wavelengths", a programme of avant-garde experimental film and video, as well as a retrospective on Austrian documentarian Ulrich Seidl, and a showcase of the little-seen works of Quebecois "videaste" Jean Pierre Lefebvre. A low-budget Canadian feature, Bruce Sweeney's "Last Wedding", kicked off the Opening Night Gala.

After the Attack

"With the impromptu afternoon press conference on September 11, President and Executive Director Piers Handling had nailed it for me: "The party's over.""

Events were cancelled for the remainder of that terrible Tuesday, and there was much boardroom deliberation as to whether or not to continue -- a shut down would mark the first in the TIFF's 26-year history. But with airports and borders closed, the celebs and industry types already in town weren't going anywhere, and Handling later announced that the screenings would continue, but qualified, "without any sense of celebration." Parties and red carpet Galas were cancelled, as were the Closing Night Party and annual Sunday Awards Luncheon. Interviews and press conferences would proceed on the terms of the respective filmmakers. It wasn't uncommon to see personalities like William H. Macy watching the live coverage on giant downtown Jumbotrons along with a panicked public. Director David Lynch holed up in his hotel room for several days, distraught over his son, a Manhattan resident (since found to be safe, I'm happy to report). Mamet regular Ricky Jay wandered the downtown streets, trying to make sense of the attack while pining to get back home. Only a few others decided to occupy the time spent waiting for breaking news by promoting their films (I was surprised when Mike Figgis and much of his "Hotel" cast, including Salma Hayek and David Schwimmer, showed up at a midnight rescheduling to greet the audience).

Some films were cancelled outright, without explanation. The rumour mill was abuzz with talk of censorship of those films of politically "turbulent" subjects such as Leon Ichaso's "Pinero", starring Benjamin Bratt as the poet/playwright Miguel Pinero and Henry Bean's "The Believer", the acclaimed drama about a neo-Nazi skinhead who hides that he is a Jew. Others insisted those same titles weren't screened because the prints couldn't get through (in the case of Frank Whalley's directorial debut "The Jimmy Show", sort of "King Of Comedy"-lite, I believe it). The cancellations and rescheduling caused me to miss a few films on my "must see" list, among them, unfortunately, the People's Choice Award Winner "Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain" (from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the codirector of "City Of Lost Children") and the first Inuit feature/Cannes winner "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)".

[The Lighter Side of TIFF 2001]

- Robert L

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