They’re calling for splendid weather this Canada Day – maybe a little humid, but that’s just how summer rolls in Toronto.
But not everyone has the stamina to be outside for six to 12 hours, and TIFF Bell Lightbox is once again springing to the rescue with a slate of free Canada Day programming.
It starts at 11 am with the documentary Mary Pickford, The Muse Of The Movies, with director Nicholas Eliopoulos in attendance and Pickford archivist Rob Brooks holding a post-screening Q&A in the Canadian Film Gallery, where an exhibition of Pickford’s career and legacy is still running.
At 1:30 pm, it’s Classic Canadian Shorts, including NFB perennials Log Driver’s Waltz, The Sweater and The Cat Came Back. At 4 pm, Jean-Marc Vallée’s audacious, semi-autobiographical C.R.A.Z.Y. tilts the day in a more grown-up direction, with a Pride-friendly depiction of a confused teenager trying to sort out his sexual confusion in 1970s Quebec.
The 7:30 pm show is something of an event, marking the first Canadian screening of Jack Christie and Michael Hirsh’s trippy experimental film Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec God? in something like 40 years.
Of more interest now as an historical document than as cinema, Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec God? is a trippy, unapologetically self-indulgent basement sort of movie, with a hedonistic Supreme Being (played by Tuli Kupferberg, co-founder of the Fugs) hanging out in his apartment smoking up with a bunch of unborn souls, or something. I’m not aware of any plans to mount a proper theatrical release, so if this sounds like something you want to see, you should definitely try to see it at this screening. Hirsh – who went on to start the revered Nelvana animation studio – will be in attendance, and should be able to untangle at least some of the movie’s convoluted allegories.
The day draws to a close with a most unlikely final feature, Bob Clark’s Black Christmas at 9:30 pm. Yes, it’s virtually impossible to take any of Andrea Martin’s scenes seriously, but Black Christmas still fascinates as the movie that laid the groundwork for the slasher film as we know it. John Carpenter may have perfected the subjective camera and the merciless tension, but this was his blueprint – and even at the height of summer, Black Christmas still packs a punch.
Tickets are limited to two per person per screening, and will be available for all shows as of 10 am. It’d probably be best to grab your tickets first thing in the morning, then wander off and do something else until showtime. If you’re totally sunlight-averse, you can camp out in the lobby the Lightbox has free wi-fi, and Canteen’s fruit pastries are splendid.
