Cameron Bailey was born in London and lived there and in Barbados
before immigrating to Toronto as an eightyear- old. Every chance he
gets, he travels. After shock encounters with Jean-Luc Godard, Chris
Marker and Glauber Rocha in university, he found a way to work as a
film critic. While writing for nearly twenty years in Toronto’s NOW
Magazine, he covered everything from the local avant-garde scene to the
global film industry. Cameron programmed Canadian cinema for TIFF from
1990 to 1994, then launched the Festival’s Planet Africa programme in
1995. After eight years programming, he returned to working as a film
critic in print, radio and television. He’s been back at TIFF since
2005, first as an International Programmer and now as Co-Director.
Career highlights: first visit to the Pan- African Film Festival in
Burkina Faso; jury duty in Pusan, Korea; and meeting Godard at TIFF.