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Movies & TV

Mary Pickford And The Invention Of The Movie Star

When the TIFF group first broke ground on its giant entertainment complex, one of the key selling points was that the venue would look backwards as well as forwards. Cinematic history would always be a part of the project, and not just because the Film Reference Library was moving into the building.

This week, TIFF Bell Lightbox makes good on that promise with a free exhibition that reaches all the way back to the earliest days of cinema. Running until July 3, Mary Pickford And The Invention Of The Movie Star inaugurates the building’s Canadian Film Gallery with a collection of memorabilia and archival material celebrating America’s first silver-screen sweetheart – who just happened to be a girl from Hogtown.

The exhibit is being launched with matinee screenings of four of Pickford’s films. Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm, the first film she produced herself, plays Saturday (Jan. 15), with William Beaudine’s Sparrows following on Sunday (Jan. 16). Next weekend, it’s the original 1919 production of Daddy Long Legs Jan. 22 and The Poor Little Rich Girl Jan. 23. (Admission to the exhibit is free, but the screenings are standard ticket price.)

I spend a lot of time in this column trying to shame people into seeing movies in a theatre. But really, seriously, if you have even the slightest curiosity about these films – which are nearly a century old, and hardly ever emerge from the vault – this is the best chance you’ll have to see them for a very long time. And then you can view the exhibition – and appreciate Mary Pickford – in the proper context.

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