This is the third straight year that the Carlton Cinema is playing host to the Toronto International Short Film Festival, a roundup up of short films from around the world.
This year there are 67 films screening from Nov. 11 to 13. They even have flicks from 13 countries.
Canadian entries include a drama set in (and titled) Whitehorse directed by Mu Sun. There’s also a flick co-starring Eric Roberts called The Epic of Hershey about a boy (Meliki Hurd) journeying between homeless shelters in search of a mythical goddess.
That’s just a snapshot though. There’s a lot of options and with running times being nothing to speak of, you can gamble and not regret your choices. Tickets are $13.50 and you can find out more here.
Toronto 48 Hour Film Project
More short films…this time with a bit of a concept hook. The premise here is that, back in October, 60 filmmaking teams set out to make the best film they could within 48 hours. Now the whole resulting batch of them is screening Nov. 7 and 8 at the Revue Cinema. You can get tickets at the door for $10 cash. That includes a 30-minute Q&A with the directors after each screening.
Screening Roundup
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema is playing host to the 2nd annual Toronto South African Film Festival Nov. 7 and 8. There are nine films this year. A mix of docs and features. Check out the schedule and get your tickets here.
According to the Royal’s write up Dangerous Men (Nov. 11 7:30 p.m.) is "among the most baffling films you will ever see.” It comes north of the border courtesy of the folks at Drafthouse Film and the American Genre Film Archive. In others words, these guys are specialists at digging through the mire and finding the stuff that just makes you go… wait… what? Presented by The Laser Blast Film Society.
Also screening at the Royal this week is Sidney Lumet’s classic bank heist film Dog Day Afternoon with Al Pacino at his very best, NOW Magazine’s free screening of The Blues Brothers (Nov. 9 7:30 p.m.) and Robots vs. Unicorns screening of John Boorman’s batty take on Arthurian legend, Excalibur (Nov. 10 7:30 p.m.).
TIFF Is running a programme of audience selected favourites from the last forty years to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the festival. Check out Jean-Jacques Beineix's delightfully dated, but still potent, flick Diva Nov. 10 at 6:15 p.m for free. It’s definitely one of the better high-art chase films. It’s about a postman riding his motorbike through the streets, and subway of Paris, fending off gangsters while swooning over an opera diva.
Also TIFF’s Reference Library now has a searchable online database for your use available here.
Toronto Screengrab of the Week
Last week was George A. Romero’s 2005 zombie comeback Land of the Dead. Congrats to Twitter user @DannyOnions for picking that up. This week Toronto subs for Boston in a cult actioner from around the turn of the millennium.
