Ruby /// Love, like or hate

Finally I now have my complete Toronto story so apologies for the delay. J x

Tuesday 3 June

We made it! Flight 840 touched down in Toronto only one hour late which given the shabby chic appearance of the plane was spectacular. The Airline crew was surprisingly elderly and eccentric; the flight attendant telling me that "if he didn't get the air Canada flag upright when he laid down the napkin he'd lose his job, and all that crap". Not a one of them was under 60, and that included the passengers, made me wonder whether the flight had been in the air for 20 years or so everyone aging together, us young interlopers.

OAP Plane

Even on the plane I was reminded of Big Brother, must try harder to leave TV behind.

No escape from BB Fed - the blatant liar

Got a cab to the hotel - Toronto is massive, big cars, big trucks, big highway, the CN tower a constant reminder in the sky of where you are.

CN Tower

After power naps and baths I ventured out onto Bloor Street West which is like a quieter Camden and what I imagine San Francisco to be like. I found a fantastic organic deli and bought Sheil veggie wieners for tea. Just like in Tokyo fell conspicuously English asking for a bin which met with much amusement - 'oh you mean garbage...'

The Shoeseum opposite the hotel

The festival is fantastically put together. The hotel is central to all the venues and everything seems to be running like clockwork. It's really impressive.

Enjoy your day

Opening ceremony from a mile away

The opening screening was massive - Bloor street cinema was sold out with 800 people there to see a programme of award winning shorts from around the world. I've never been to a cinema that big and the atmosphere was really great. My favourite was a Danish film - 'This charming man'. They showed 'About a girl' which I've seen at Bang. It's got a (I think absolutely unnecessary) shock ending which went through the audience like a bomb/fart.

Long is bad, short is good

After the films they bussed us to a party in a converted court house which was amazing - dynasty opulent, with high ceilings, dragons for faucets and huge lights. You could smoke there which was a relief as most of Toronto is now no smoking. I was making a roll up and got instantly stopped by this film-maker wanting to know what I was doing as he'd never seen a roll up before. He did that thing of telling me his uncles mothers Auntie was Scottish / welsh / Irish etc which I didn't think people actually did.

Honest Ed's - neon bargains on Bloor

Everyone here seems to know where north is. Ask any one for directions and it will be go north then west - how do you know? do you have a compass in your shoes?

Wednesday 4 June

The wine and no tea last night meant I woke up this morning and thought I was dying. Of course it was just a hangover but I thought it was fatal.

All you can eat

Went to eat to try and salvage my sanity and had the biggest breakfast I think I've ever seen. Eggs Florentine; poached eggs on spinach, muffins with hollandaise and home fries, toast, coffee, and OJ. Delicious but just way too big.

Isabel Bader Theatre

Felt just about human for the first International screening at Isabel Bader - working it. 8 films about working life. Great Norwegian and Swedish films and a great English film called extension 21 by Lizzy Oxby. Got the fear when I realised the film makers in the audience were called up on stage to do and intro and Q&A afterwards.

Lizzie and John

My film love Takes was shown at 4.30 in the International programme - Loves a Bitch. It was it's first festival screening as I've only seen it shown at Broadway before so I was a bit apprehensive. The film looked great - bright projection and the sound was really clear. Most of the other films were 35mm so I was unsure how it would look but it stood up. The Q&A was fine, people asked good questions and made em think they'd really watched the film, not just asking how was it made... how can I get funding etc. Not a disgruntled film-maker in sight.

Sheil and Mika

After, I met a Canadian documentary maker called Mika, who had liked my film and was a real sweetie so we all went over to the reception in the Duke of York pub. Have promised to go and see his documentary. He told me my film looked very Scandinavian in style. A few Mooseheads later and we went to eat.

Met a Canadian distributor who used to work at the Lux and told me about new media venues in Toronto so will investigate tomorrow.

Down town

Thursday 5 June

The weather is rubbish - rain, rain, rain. Apparently usual weather for Vancouver but pretty bad for Toronto. When I woke up I thought I was back in the UK.

Classic School Bus

Finally made it to the international business Centre which has library, info, coffee, doughnuts and email. Getting there early also meant we signed up for the Niagra trip. They're looking after us pretty well, making sure we have everything we need. I've only been to British festivals before and it's not really like this.

After we went to over easy for brunch. Brunch is a very big thing here, you can brunch everywhere all day long if you want. The campest waiter in the world advised us to go see art. He was funny, not bringing my fruit salad as he was sure I 'wouldn't like the look of it'. The level of service here is phenomenal. We sat next to a couple who sent everything they got back and the waiter didn't bat an eyelid, even saying at one point. "That looks just fine to me ma'am, but if you're not happy we'll switch it over" I've been trying to imagine the same scenario in some bars in Nottingham. Maybe that's why North Americans can have reputations for being fussy, because they can be.

Decided to find some galleries, somewhere on Queen Street west so we headed down town.

Where's Freddy

Queen Street West

Soon discovered that Queen Street w is massive stretching from China Town, going through the fashion district coming out at the swanky end of town. The streets are deceptively long, as all the maps are grid form places look close together but one road can be miles long.

City TV, complete with moving wheels

Past City TV which is a Toronto channel with vans all over the city and a van on the side of the building.

The fashion area is huge with sewing shop after furrier after furrier - pretty shocking if you're not used to seeing fur.

We stopped for hot juice which is weird, like drinking crumble mix. The waitress had a fake arm and I couldn't stop looking at it like a child would, She just used it so skillfully it was amazing.

Pre-Loved haven

Further up Queen Street all the shops were second hand furniture or 'pre-loved' the ebay euphemism for old. Shop after shop like Luna in Nottingham (who I design for) but massive. Art deco stuff was also incredibly popular, huge ornate mirrors. If I'd had the money and shipping I could have bought a house full of stuff.

No more furniture

A timely reminder, might send this pic to Ange Taggart

Cubans everywhere

Children see, Children do

Fags are weird in Canada. You can buy Cuban cigars everywhere, so I guess they're not illegal here. Cigarette warnings have have gone one better than England, instead of just a black and white warning there is a colour photo of lungs, diseased gums and the best one, children see, children do. They had the result of all the film-makers swapping the boxes to see the full set. I met a woman from NY who said she always takes boxes to the states for people, they're really popular. Maybe it just makes smoking look cooler.

Jam

No more photos

There's a festival photographer who is unbearably chirpy and keeps taking pictures all the time. I don't particularly like having my photo taken, it's bad enough with sheil always there with the spy cam. I have inherited the Finlay eyes closed pose in nearly all my photos so my main thought is keep your eyes open, keep your eyes open.

Sheil = Mr Pong

Sheil's turn at Mr Pongs in China town.

Sheil's spycam

All round there is graffiti by this one guy, looks like Japanese anime.

Bunny

Finally we found 401 which is a huge artists studio with about 60 businesses inside one converted factory. On floor 4 was Interaccess, the place I was told about yesterday. It's a really nice one room exhibition venue with an electronics and digital 'play room' next door. The guy who worked there gave us a tour and it was a really interesting mix of practical and exhibition space. I left them loads of blurb about my work so I'll see what happens.

Interaccess at 401

It was a lot smaller than I imagined, in fact all the galleries I visited were. They were much more along the lines of Cork street than larger digital venues like in Tokyo. Toronto didn't seem to have it's version of FACT, but then it had at least 5 really good cinemas in a really small area.

Vintage photos on Queen

Makeover Pair

Back to Bloor for the filmmakers reception at Sassafras, apparently the place where all the famous and fancy go drinking, but none tonight. Spotted the English film-makers because they were all smoking roll ups. Met these Canadian guys who'd made the shortest film in the festival - 1 min. They were pretty acerbic and it was refreshing as most people we had met had been perky, perky, perky.

Made it along for the Canadian programme at Innes and Mika's documentary - Tailor-made. A 10 min doc about a 72 yr. old tuxedo maker in Montreal, completely devoted to his job and trying to retire but fighting his in built workaholicism. It was a lovely film, really beautifully shot, really close up and funny interviews.

Another great film was 'How to make Kimchi according to my Ku Amma'. Ray Wong in Nottingham should watch this, it's a 20 min doc of a Canadian born Korean lad following his great aunt as she makes kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) and explains about her life, background and keeps asking him when he's going to stop messing about with cameras, get a proper job and get married. She was treated like a celeb at the screening as the audience loved the film.

The rest of the programme was strange, from talking to the pre screeners I gather there is a distinctive feel to Canadian film - It's pretty experimental and free form. It was interesting but didn't feel as distinct as the international programmes I'd seen. For shorts some are very long - woman goes to meet her father, slowly, for 32 minutes, in French. It's quite hard to not succumb to film fatigue.

One film - Pink, has been so promoted - postcards, posters, chalk arrows on the street etc I thought it was the official film of the festival. It wasn't after all, just very keen directors. After all this promotion it was hard to just watch the film. It was not really my thing at all, 10 minutes of monologue, shot in Steven Spielberg vision of a young South African girl talking to her dead black nanny. It looked lovely but I didn't really get why the film had been made, in the Q&A the director said it fitted a short as it was a 4 page play. It seemed more convenient than anything, something contentious to get the audience going, rather than a passionate reason for making a film.

Anyway rant over. seeing loads of stuff I think is good to help you test your parameters test what you love, what you hate. I've definitely liked the documentaries more than anything else. Generally the things I don't like in short films are - it's all a dream, suicide, spindly computer generated lonely men, tortured artists, films about poo / farts.

Friday 6 June

Mike the driver picked us up early to go to Niagra. It's only 1.5 hours from Toronto and the weather was brilliant after yesterdays storms. Mike's been to Manchester loads of times and is really into British TV and the royal family. He was really good fun, just the right hint of sarcasm. I was starting to think that the Canadian accent made people sound camp but have realised that in fact most of the men I have met are gay.

New Hotels

I imagined that the falls would be in the middle of no where, a long walk into the countryside but we drove right up to them and parked opposite the Canadian falls. There's 2 sides - the USA and Canadian, Mike told us of course the Canadian side was much better.

The Falls

Classic double rainbow

It's really weird seeing something you've seen photos of and in films for years - a couple of weeks ago in Superman 2. It is really impressive, massive. Half the water has been dammed for hydro electricity so I can't imagine just how big it would be without it.

More falls

There were so many tourists including a busload of Amish, tried not to stare but kept an eye out for Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis.

Falls Hill

We had the choice of going on the maid of the mist - boat through the falls, or going in the amusements so we of course went for the latter.

Falls hill is just loads of tacky seaside shops and amusements, like Mini Las Vegas / Blackpool or Scarborough. I got a brilliant snowstorm for my collection and was sold a photo ash tray by a guy from Lincoln, offered me his condolences for forest not going up this season.

We both shot all the possums and critters at the rifle range so won enough tokens to get a minute plastic baby.

Shooting possums at the OK Corall

Back to town and an evening of screenings ahead. I had my second screening, this time at Innes hall, 9.30pm. The picture wasn't as good but the sound was really good. After going through the first Q&A I was better prepared but still shook through my intro. The screening was almost sold out so I was apprehensive beforehand. I felt the film went down better this time and my Q&A was really relaxed. The feedback was really good - 'Is this really your first film?' which was very flattering as I had been feeling like an imposter at the festival, not a real film maker. People wanted to know how I found the people, how long I interviewed them for and how I developed that dynamic. Also about the cut and style of the film. Again I felt people had really watched it. Some guy came up to me afterwards and asked me whether I was in love now, was it real? I had to say yes. I think being at your screening can make a real difference to your understanding of what you've made, what works what doesn't. It's definitely been a positive experience for me and made me want to make more work.

Relief after my screening

So my screenings at the festival were over, I was quite sad, it was great inviting people to come along but I was glad it had gone so well.

A short break then Midnight Mania screening at Innes which had both Ellis's and Sheil's films on. The crowd was pretty lary and really drunk. As the films finished so late they just had an intro rather than Q&A after which was a real shame as that was the best bit for me. The programme was predominantly black comedy so it suited the time and feel of the audience. Ellis's what about the bodies went down really well, lots of laughs. Cry was a weird choice for this programme as it's really a scary film with not a lot of laughs, I think it went really well but it was strange because in the middle of all this laughing was this scary atmospheric film. I'm always really nervous for sheil when his films are shown, much more than watching my own film. Myrocia the programmer and Shane the director both said they thought it was terrifying when they first saw it. Myrocia couldn't finish watching it on her own and had to watch it in daylight which is great compliment for a horror.

Saturday 7 June

Walk gently

Today we decided to explore Kensington Market which is a collection of streets off Spadina and China Town in which houses have been converted into shops selling vintage (pre-loved) stuff, furniture, clothes and spice and food markets.

Green Queen

The smell of the streets is very heady and it's like a giant camden or affleks palace. The best shop is one called Oh my Lord where I bought a 1950's celluloid bracelet. It sells more costumes than clothes really.

Never mind the SARS

We wandered around for hours, stuff was much cheaper than at home and more unusual. Still didn't manage to find a good dvd shop though, we found a great rental shop which everything in it, but they were only for hire.

Happy teeth

ITook the street car back to Bloor, if that's what he trams in Notts will be like I can't wait, really frequent, cheap and nifty.

Spadina

Another party, this time the International film makers reception and it was in a house. This was by far the best party, mike bussed us out to the suburbs and to Christie's great house. Really big with a garden, deck and raccoons that live under the house. It was just so much more relaxed with loads of beer and thank god vodka so no more headaches. Met loads of people but was starting to get really tired of talking about film. I just told people it was my first film and first festival as it stopped all the competitive banter of - "I said to Nick Broomfield the other day" " When I was working on episode 2" oh you mean star wars, blah blah blah as then it all gets about the status rather than what you're actually interested in. This Norwegian producer who came on the Niagra trip was pretty funny, he refuses to ever discuss film or his own projects at festivals. I can see why.

rom theatre screen with extra rumble

Back into town for the second midnight mania at the Rom. This was completely different to the night before, the audience was less lary and it was much busier. Sheil wanted Cry as loud as possible so Myrocia asked the projectionist to turn it up to wince level. This time is just felt really tense in the audience. When Cry came on the Streetcars passed under the theatre with almost perfect timing adding extra rumble to the scariest part. Sheil was much happier with this screening, although I think a Q&A really helps as you get direct audience feedback.

Completely unprofessionally I looked over the shoulders of audience members filling out their score cards and saw he was getting 4's and 5's out of 5 so you can't say fairer than that.

Sunday 8 June
Crawling there at 9am I finally made it to the film library to see the films I'd missed in the festival.

Video library

Rebecca the coordinator recommended my film to someone so I had the weird experience of watching someone watching my film sat next to me. Got the films out of the people I'd met over the week. One was really not my thing, more than that I hated it so what do you say. I took the cowards way and said I really liked the music which was true, it's just that was the only thing.

Saw a great Brazilian documentary about a group of vigilantes revenging a girls rape and murder, it was 10 mins but incredibly powerful. watched another long doc about death - 'Folk', which was 27 mins. It had some great characters but could have been 10 mins shorter. Then watched a cute film called 'I used to be a film maker' I thought it was going to be a doc of struggling to keep a creative career going with being a parent but it was lots of cute shots of a baby. Must remember to make that film about kittens in wellies.

Where's the bride and Groom?

Back for the penultimate event - the awards picnic at the Canadian Film Centre. I don't know about you but picnic to me suggests hampers and tartan rugs on the grass. When we got there it was like a wedding reception. Fantastic weather, marquee, cheese platter, barbeque and ice-cream.
picnic

Brazilian Samba

The Brazilian shorts were being launched that day so there was a live samba band. Sheil visibly winced when they started up as he is now allergic to samba after editing a samba video with a hangover.

Iain and Sheil, Mike in backround

We caught up with all the people we'd met over the week and just enjoyed the sunshine. Then there were the awards. Mika and I had worked out that in the documentary category there was only 18 entries so the odds were pretty short, and will probably never be that short again. I didn't expect to win but an honourable mention seemed more possible so there was that moment before they read it out that you think, it might be, you never know.... There was only first prize in the docs which went to Terminal Bar http://www.touristpictures.com/terminal_bar
Evelyn the cutest little dead girl which we saw at dead by dawn in Edinburgh won honourable mention for cinematography in a Canadian short which is a great, Tim Burtonesque short. I hadn't seen any of the other films so will see them at the winners screening.

Back to Bloor, After watching so may shorts all week I was dying to see something longer so we went to see Spellbound which won the Oscar this year for best doc. It's a great film following 8 kids as they compete in the national Spelling Bee competition. The kids you see in the screen are geeks and nerds, kids you'd rarely see in a Hollywood film. It gets incredibly tense towards the end and you really want them to win. It's quite a 'safe' film but charming none the less.

Our patience was pretty much tested to it's extremes throughout the film as a couple had taken their 3 + 4 year olds in to the cinema, the kids jumping up and down, talking and crying through the feature. Not the obvious choice of film to take kids to - long film about spelling. After the film there was plenty of ... Infanticide - I-N-F-A-N-T-I-C-I-D-E - Infanticide etc.

Gabby's Diner

Another huge dinner then on to Isabel Bader for the winners screening. It was completely sold out, the audiences all week even for the day screening have been really good.

Sold out winners screening

The terminal bar documentary was just brilliant, massive made up of video interviews and b&w photos taken in a NY bar over 10 years. It used stills brilliantly and was a really stylised doc. It's going to be on bbc4 next week so watch out as it's a great film.

The best drama was a tense battle of wills between 2 men playing squash. It looked deceptively simple but must have been a bugger to shoot. Really nasty and spiteful, brilliant.

Storm brewing

The heavy rain persuaded us to go to one last screening - sci fi at the rom. I was a bit past it to be honest and fell asleep through George Lucas's first short thx118, yawn, Logans run, yawn.

Rom in the rain

The rain was so heavy when I got in my sandals had stained my feet with perfect pink flip flops.

Monday 9 June

Honest Ed = bargain master

After so may films there was no question that we had to spend the day buying presses and wandering the city.

Eat like a millionaire

Finally made it to honest Ed's which we'd seen on the first night. It's a terrifying sprawling tat emporium.

Rummage

In all it's floors I couldn't find a single thing I wanted to buy, although it looked great.

Cukoo over ed's prices

We decided to get some mall action so headed down to Yonge Street - the longest street in the world and a huge 90's mall.

Subway

Street Car down Spadina

The mall was just so big but pretty characterless. There were as you'd imagine loads of kids just hanging out at the mall. We got fat free ice-cream and sat by the huge fountains. You can buy fat free everything here but people are generally much bigger than in the UK.

Giant Mall

Tried on all the Jlo glasses which are so bling it's ridiculous. Thought I might get some camper shoes but they were sooo expensive - $120 pair. amazing. Mac cosmetics are made in Toronto so they were half the price.

Mall flock

After way too many shops we made it down to the waterfront and Lake Ontario and watched the world go by.

Lake Ontario Waterfront

Back on Elderly Air Canada. Nice air stewards but until they get some newer planes there is no way I'd fly with them again. The plane was tiny on the way back, which if you are tall is not a joke. Sheil spent most of the flight with his legs crushed, so never again.

Goodbye Canada

My first time to North America and first film at a festival has been a great experience. It's definitely made we want to visit the states, make more films and restored my faith in Love Takes, I had given up on it before I got the email from Toronto. Now I need about a weeks sleep.

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