Toronto’s Two Film Festival Solitudes
Caribbean Tales In
The North. TIFF Owns The South.
When it comes to
the downtown Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the College Street
Caribbean Tales Film Festival, (CTFF) it is the Two Solitudes of the movie
world. TIFF has the Big Names, the Big Movies and a Big Army of volunteers to
make sure that the ticket holders stay off the red carpets and out of the VIP
parties. At CTFF, the actors, actresses,
directors and crew are in-your-face minglers and if there was a red carpet they
would be dragging movie fans onside to whine with them!
 |
| Jacinth Sutphin at the Dip |
Case in point.
Last Thursday the CTFF kicked off with a beer and pizza gala at the Cafe Diplomatico (aka the
Dip) on College Street just steps from the Royal Theatre (festival home).
Actors and actresses who are household names to Trinidadians and
Jamaicans but unknown in Canada, were so willing to pose with fans, the
Caribbean Media, and one lone CBC reporter, the selfie sessions spilled out
onto College stopping street cars literally in their tracks.
At TIFF it was a
similar but different scene. There were no streetcars on King Street to stop
because the city has closed the road in front of TIFF headquarters for the
duration of the festival. Movie fans
jammed the new movie mall hoping to grab pics of the stars, but had to settle
with selfies in front of the TIFF building (no fools, the Stars come into the
theatre via the parking garage).
 |
| Jacinth Sutphin and Diemiruaye Deniran |
TIFF is a well-run
machine. Line-ups are orderly. Speeches
are timed to the second. Everything starts on time. At the CTFF launch, the delays were endless, speeches
took longer than the running time of the movie, and the theatre was oversold,
causing organizers to offer free passes-for-life to anyone willing to give up
their seats.
The African
American / Jamaican movie Diary of A Badman (DOAB) opened the Caribbean
Tales Film Festival. Winner of the 2015 Jamaica Film Festival, DOAB was getting
its Canadian premiere. An unknown low budget movie to most, at the end of the 104-minute
long police drama, the audience cheers could be heard out on the street.
American filmmaker
Diemiruaye Deniran made Diary of A Badman on what many directors showing at TIFF would consider pin
money. What made the audience so supportive was that underneath this bang-bang
shoot ‘em-up film was a story that dealt with issues that resonant in a Black
Live Matters America.
This is how Deniran
describes his movie:
Jacinth Sutphin, according to Deniran, is about to make that move from
the CTFF to the next downtown TIFF. “She is very
driven, compassionate, outgoing, ambitious, spontaneous, and has this aura that
lights up any room she enters. Jacinth hopes to one day be known as a very
successful, inspiring, and influential award winning actress who represents her
Jamaican origin very well on a mainstream platform.”
“It was such a rush to go back to Jamaica. I was born and raised in St Mary’s,” she told
me prior to the movie. “ It meant everyone got see where I have taken (my
talents). It was a lot of fun to take the movie to Cayman as well!”
 |
| DIARY OF A BADMAN: Cast and Director on stage at Royal Theatre |
After the movie Director Deniran was on stage with the cast, talking
about what comes next! “ I brought the script for the sequel with me, and was
working on it in the plane here.”
Deniran made
DOAB with no Hollywood faces, and no investors. With the sequel he says it is going to be
different and he and Sutphin are going to be filming in Jamaica later this
year). They are well aware that TIFF attracts
not just the Big Stars but the Big Investors too. Script in hand they plan to head downtown
this week and bridge the gulf between Toronto’s Two Film Festival Solitudes.
The College Street Royal Theatre is home for the 2016 Caribbean Tales Film Festival.
DOAB will next be screened in New York City, one night only, at the "Ocktober Film Festival" October 8, 2016, Symphony Space Theater.
Comments