Toronto Film Fest Features

Douglas Gordon: 24 Hour Psycho To and Fro and Back and Forth, 2008.

Toronto becomes the world’s film capital from September 9 to 19 as actors, directors and other movie folk descend on the city for the Toronto International Film Festival. If you’re looking for artful viewing during TIFF, check out the festival’s impressive Future Projections and Wavelength series.

The Future Projections series features works by internationally acclaimed artists, which are screened for free all over the city. Catch the Toronto premieres of William Kentridge’s Journey to the Moon (2003) at Gallery TPW or Stan Douglas’ Klatsassin (2006) at Stephen Bulger Gallery. The Otolith Group’s Otolith III (2009) makes its North American premiere at the Power Plant. Meanwhile, the inaugural exhibition at TIFF’s new Bell Lightbox location is ‘Essential Cinema’, which features film work by Harun Farocki, Douglas Gordon, Martin Arnold and Michael Nyman, whose NYman with a Movie Camera (2010) is another Toronto premiere. The films selected for the Lightbox exhibition are tied into the festival’s Essential 100 films selected by TIFF experts and audience members. For example, Nyman’s film references Dziga Vertov’s 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera, which is number nine on TIFF’s top 100 list, while Gordon’s hypnotic 24 Hour Psycho To and Fro and Back and Forth (2008) slows down Hitchcock’s horror classic to a running time of 24 hours on two screens, one of which shows the film in reverse.

For more information, movie times and locations, visit the TIFF website.

AND, Magenta contributor and film critic Bil Antoniou’s picks of what to catch from the Wavelengths program are coming soon!