Well, it's been just over 24 hours and already we've already managed to score tickets to the opening night party (along with all of Toronto) talk our way into an industry event, and attend the opening screening of the Canada First! program. We also got some business-related good news, some bad news and a taste of the fear and self-loathing that creeps up at some point whenever we come to TIFF. In all, a pretty full-on first day.
In the morning we attended Telefilm's "Canadian Talent to Watch" panel, featuring Simon Davidson (The Odds), Guy Édoin (Wetlands/Marécages), Anne Émond (Nuit #1), Ivan Grbovic (Romeo Eleven/Roméo Onze), Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas (Amy George) and Nathan Morlando (Edwin Boyd). Atom Egoyan gave a thoughtful, self-deprecating introductory speech about starting out in the industry and how the panelist's first features are "much stronger than my own". The panelists had some interesting advice for emerging filmmakers including "work with your friends, because shooting a film is very hard and you need friends on set" (Anne Émond) and "the biggest challenge as a director is preserving your naivety and intuition within the confines of a shooting schedule" (Ivan Grbovic).
Next, we attended the much-anticipated North American premiere of Guy Édoin's Marécages--another example of raw, powerful Quebec cinema. The film tells the story of a farm family facing bankruptcy and other, more serious setbacks in the midst of a drought. There is a scene in which a calf is torn from its mother by the desperate farmers, only to die; the brutal reality of farm life is rarely portrayed on screen with such honesty (if at all) and it hit very close to home for me, being from a rural milieu myself. Édoin obviously qualifies as "talent to watch" and although I'm still reeling from the emotional kick in the stomach, I look forward to his future offerings.
We shall see what tomorrow brings....
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