Blogging for Your Film Festival Pleasure
TIFF07's hype promises to keeps building in the forty-eight days (yes, I'm counting) until the festival kicks off, and while blogTO guarantees to keep you up to date and in the loop on all things TIFF-related until, during, and after the festival, there's definitely something to be learned by picking the brains of the programmers of the festival.
Which is why I'm extremely excited to see not only the return of the TIFF blogs from last year, but the addition of several new blogs that will be highlighting some of the programmatic choices made by staff of the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Sure, the blogs may be a bit sparse right now — and I can't promise they'll be as regularly-updated as you would like as the weeks go on — but they're worth monitoring in order to gain a little insight into what went into the decision-making process at TIFF in 2007.
Just a quick heads up: Gala passes and VISA Screening Room passes are now sold out. You can still buy several other ticket packages, so be sure to head over to the TIFF website soon to buy your tickets.
Now, for those of you that can't be bothered to check out all six TIFF blogs, there's a quick look at each individual blog after the jump:
Canadian Film Programmes Blog
We've already told you about Young People F*king, the film that is opening the Canada First! programme at the festival, but what about all the other Canadian content during TIFF like the Short Cuts Canada, Canadian Retrospective and the Canadian Open Vault programmes? This blog lets the Canadian film programmers — Jesse Wente, Agata Smoluch del Sorbo, Jay Dart, and Alex Rogalski — discuss their process of scouring through the best and worst of this country's cinema in order to find the gems.
Doc Blog
One of the most popular blogs from last year, this year's Doc Blog is going to be moderated by Thom Powers, producer, director, publisher, and all-round fun guy. Doc Blog is the place to be when you want to find out about the great documentaries that end up getting screened at TIFF every year.
Latin American Diaspora Films Blog & South Facing Blog
These two blogs, moderated by programmers Diana Sanchez and Cameron Bailey respectively, explore the process of finding films for the festival from the Latin American diaspora and from Africa and South Asia. From his first post, Bailey seems like quite the articulate writer, so be sure to keep drop into the South Facing blog from time to time.
Midnight Madness Blog
The Midnight Madness programme at TIFF is usually the most talked about part of the festival. This year, local celebrity and popular festival programmer Colin Geddes talks about the hype, the films, and all the craziness that accompanies Midnight Madness in Toronto over on the new blog.
Sid Adilman Mentorship Programme
This new blog isn't moderated by a festival programmer — instead, it offers the insights of Jennifer Fong, a recent graduate of the journalism program at Ryerson University and film enthusiast. The Sid Adilman Mentorship Programme aims to "develop the journalistic skills of one emerging reporter who demonstrates a strong interest in film and the arts" and this new TIFF blog promises to be an interesting read.
Be sure to stop by all of these blogs from time to time, but don't forget to keep checking blogTO's TIFF 07 coverage for everything you need to know about the festival.
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