Festival Daily






September 7, 2021
Pedro and Paris: The Power of Celebrity
Posted By Festival Daily At 9:01 AM
File under: Celebrities
By Ghita Loebenstein Once upon a time celebrity status was the reward for producing great works of art. Now fame is bestowed on people who simply trade on being themselves. Although both had a knack for opportunism, celebrity heiress Paris Hilton and reality TV star Pedro Zamora approached the getting of fame from very different angles. Zamora recognized the power of reality television when it was in its infancy, and turned a burgeoning small-screen concept into a platform for social change. Hilton used a sex tape scandal and the ubiquitous power of the Internet to fashion herself into a multi-million dollar...

(more...)
• Comments (0)

A Round with... Marcel Sarmiento
Posted By Festival Daily At 9:01 AM
File under: Directors
By Neil Karassik Who: Marcel SarmientoWhat: Monsoon MartinisWhere: Monsoon, 100 Simcoe StreetWhen: September 5, 5:00pm It’s nearly 5:00pm on the second night of the Festival as I make my way to Monsoon, a stylishly swanked-out Asian restaurant that makes a killer (excuse the play on words) signature martini. I walk in and spot Sarmiento, one of the directors of the “horrific” coming-of-age film Deadgirl, in the lobby with his publicist. Though his co-director Gadi Harel has been held up in Los Angeles and is unable to join us, Sarmiento and I begin our epic conversation about zombies, film technology, non-titillating nudity, and...

(more...)
• Comments (0)

Eastern European films depict dichotomy between old world and new
Posted By Festival Daily At 9:01 AM
By Chris Colohan A nameless young Russian immigrant watches from the sidelines as her mother and sister slide into exploitation in order to survive life in Amsterdam. A group of widows in post-war Bosnia cling to routine in the absence of society, waiting for purpose to return to life. Three siblings are forced back to the Turkish countryside from Istanbul when their mother goes missing. An elderly witch doctor armed with traditional magic tries to defend her Kazakh home from encroaching gangsters. An Albanian landed in Belgium is trapped between a legal and a moral conundrum in a precarious immigration scam....

(more...)
• Comments (0)

A Filmmaker’s Guide to Toronto: David Weaver, Aaron Woodley, Sudz Sutherland, Sook-Yin Lee, Toronto Stories
Posted By Festival Daily At 9:01 AM
By Hailey Eisen Toronto filmmakers David Weaver and Aaron Woodley, two of the four talented local directors involved in making the film Toronto Stories, asked that I meet them for a beer at their favourite neighbourhood watering hole, Crooked Star (202 Ossington Avenue). One of Toronto’s transitioning areas, Ossington and Dundas is gaining popularity amongst the city’s young and vibrant artist community. With new restaurants popping up regularly and some of downtown’s most unpretentious yet vibrant bars, it’s no wonder these celebrated filmmakers chose this neighbourhood to show off. For Weaver, who lives just around the corner on Lakeview Avenue, it was...

(more...)
• Comments (0)