Movie about Ontario Place getting world premiere at TIFF

A film documenting the controversial closure and redevelopment of Ontario Place will be having its premiere in Toronto at TIFF this fall.

Arriving right in the heat of public outrage and hot debate regarding the future of Ontario Place, Your Tomorrow, a documentary from Toronto documentarian, Ali Weinstein, will be screened for the very first time at TIFF this year.

The documentary follows the now-dormant waterfront park for 100 days, in the "final year of Ontario Place as we know it," according to TIFF's summary of the film, before it undergoes a much-decried redevelopment into a private spa, while concerned locals do their best to save the landmark.

According to the film's publicist, despite the highly politicized nature of the Ontario Place issue, the film is actually "more a love letter and the wonderful people who have made this public space their sacred ground."

"This will be an important film that will live on for decades to come."

An early teaser for the film both does and doesn't support that statement. 

It opens with a clip of two Ontario Place-frequenters paddling their way through the now-dormant space, passing the iconic Cinesphere — the world's first permanent IMAX theatre — which closed to the public in anticipation of the development.

Later, the trailer shows a worker washing the words "Doug Ford is a crook," off a cement wall with Budweiser Stage in the distance, nodding to the controversial erasure of protest messages on the wall (and, it's been suggested, longest blackboard in the world,) that was erected around the park to block the public from entering.

It concludes with a shot of a man on a walk with his dog that gets short when they encounter the gates that have closed the park from the public. While the dog stubbornly waits to be let in, its owner tugs it along.

"It's closed, baby, we can't go," he says.

Stay tuned to TIFF's website to find out when Your Tomorrow will be premiering and to see when else it'll be screening over the course of the festival.

TIFF 2024 runs from Sep 5 to the 15.