My TIFF Diary: Popcorn Police, 'Nightbitch' & Talking 'Eden' With Ron Howard
My TIFF Diary: Popcorn Police, 'Nightbitch' & Talking 'Eden' With Ron Howard
Four hectic days for your humble chronicler in Toronto, filled with on-screen highs ('The Substance,' 'Saturday Night') and IRL lows (almost getting kicked out)
Like much of the festival world, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been struggling for relevance and revenue amidst a prestige circuit in transition. In transition to what, though, is the question of the day. Is a glorious new flowering of independent filmmaking at hand? Or are we transitioning into a monument to a lost world? Here once stood original movies.
My journey into every festival these days attempts to answer this question. All this ruckus — the trade reviews, the red carpets, the corporate sponsors, the awards punditry, the deals — what is all this for? Is this just rage at the dying of the light? Or a sign that the heart of film still beats? Does this add up to a sustainable sector? How does this fit into the larger mission of saving moviegoing and moviemaking as an industry and an experience?
Because when and if independent film dies, film will die. Full Stop. Independent filmmaking is what has always revitalized and sustained filmmaking through what have been the least impressive periods of studio products in the industry’s history.
And so, to see if this lives on, I head once more into the breach. Whether you also went to TIFF or not, here’s my travelogue of four days of festivaldom to remember, including what I liked and my conversation with Ron Howard explaining what in the world one of the biggest directors in the world was doing hawking an indie at a festival.
Another Fine Mess I Got Myself Into
TIFF kicked off with a festival tradition for your ink-stained scribbler: a run-in with festival authorities and the threat of having my credentials revoked.