Amidst grey skies and the constant threat of rain, TIFF said let there be light. Celebrating the grand opening of its long awaited new home, the Bell Lightbox, TIFF shutdown a section of King Street on Sunday afternoon to host a free block party for the public.
Crowds gathered around the concert stage to hear performances by 100 Monkeys, Fefe Dobson and K’Naan, who kicked off his set with the rousing hard knock anthem ABC’s.
Stickers were plastered along King so that it could assume a makeshift Yellow Brick Road, which led the way to Wizard Of Oz themed games for the kids. The photo booth, Whiz of a Wiz Crafts & Games, and Emerald City bouncing castle were all a little shabby, but hey, when you’re five what do you care?
So while the children were lining up to get their faces painted, their parents were lining up for bite-sized Madeline’s cupcakes.
Cinephiles weren’t the only ones on scene for the big party as protestors from Unite Here Local 75 set up their own red carpet in front of the Hyatt Regency (TIFF’s press headquarters). They were playing K’Naan too and were even selling $5 T-Shirts. Though when I asked the salesman where the proceeds were going he seemed lost. I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do.
With all the hoopla around the opening, you’d think that organizers would spice up the ribbon cutting ceremony. It wasn’t a ribbon actually but a great big filmstrip tied in a bow, which was an ingenious and picturesque touch.
On hand were Piers Handling, his fellow programmers and his biggest wallets, the benefactors who made the Lightbox possible like Ivan and Jason Reitman. Nobody made any speeches, which is peculiar since after all the anticipation for the Lightbox you would think someone would add a little more ceremony.
Maybe they felt that after talking up the Lightbox for years, there was nothing left to add. They all simply gathered in front, waited for the concert to pause for a moment and watched as Handling cut the film strip with his giant blue scissors.
After that the public entered Toronto’s new centre for everything film, which was nicely dolled up for the event. On the ground floor, guests toured an exhibition of posters and props from the films selected for TIFF’s Essential Cinema program. On the screens upstairs guests were treated to some shorts programming like Stephen Garrett’s sweet trailer cut from the Essential Cinema films and Barry Avrich’s tribute to 35 years of TIFF.
The highlight of the entire event was Atom Egoyan’s magnificent installation, 8½ Screens. Egoyan recut the projection room scene from Fellini’s 8½, fractured the frame and projected it onto bed linens dispersed where the audience would normally sit in a cinema.
It was a hypnotic sight, easily one of the best things the director has done since The Sweet Hereafter. And it showed promise for what the Lightbox could become: a permanent home for artists to sample their wares.
