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Toronto Independent Film Festival 2011 presents – I Hate Toronto: A Love Story
Friday September 09th 2011By TO411 Staff Writer
Daisy McLean
While the focus of the next week-and-a-half will be primarily on the leading public film festival in the world, TIFF, there is another festival in Toronto taking place simultaneously with the same initials. The Toronto Independent Film Festival, not to be confused with the Toronto International Film Festival, runs September 8th to 17th this year at the Toronto Underground Cinema and provides an opportunity for undiscovered filmmakers working with micro-budgets to showcase their achievements in the same city where the film industry’s key players have gathered.
The festival will be screening 19 feature films from around the world, scores of shorts, as well as holding industry discussions and targeted social networking events. So if camping in line for TIFF didn’t get you the tickets you wanted, perhaps you should consider seeing something a bit more truly independent.
I Hate Toronto: A Love Story is just one of the feature films having its world premiere at the festival. Scheduled to screen at 6 p.m. on September 9th, this homegrown film is about a young successful man (Al Miro) who suffers a horrific moment in his life during which he looses everything, including his will to live. With nothing left to loose he embarks on a year of depravity, it’s this year that he gives himself before he will take his own life. During this time he meets a young bookstore clerk (Amy Clare Lockwood) whose quirky outlook on life begins to change the way he sees his world.
To begin financing the film, director Daniel Wilson sold all of his computer equipment and moved out of his house into a rented room, putting it all on the line for the film. By the time they started shooting, though, all the money was spent. Wilson had met executive producer, Peter J. Gray when they both worked as background performers and Gray invested his own money into the film to cover basic expenses. In the second week of filming more investors, relatives of cast and crew, came on board which carried the film to the end of production.
The film has a great soundtrack including a few big names such as Matthew Good Band, Spirit Of The West, and Blue Rodeo. “For our premier night we have a screening license for the film festival. You can buy a pass to screen it for one night which is the more economically feasible option,” says executive producer Peter Gray. “As an indie producer, I’m much more inclined to find local talent. You found your local talent for casting it, you found your local talent for everything else, why can you not find local good music? There’s so much good music out there and there’s so much overplayed popular music, so i think that if your gonna triple your cash budget by getting A-list bands on board. That doesn’t make any sense.”
He continues, “We’re really happy to be part of this festival. It’s such a perfect fit for our movie. Toronto is in the title! The Toronto Independent Film Festival is what film festivals really should be about – it’s about discovering new talent, which you barely see at TIFF. It’s such a controlled industry. It’s operated by the big boys in Hollywood and its hard to break in. Where new talent needs to get discovered is at film festivals and if film festivals aren’t promoting new talent any more then where are they? What are they doing?”
Micro-budget independent films will often lack the polish of a Hollywood production, but the beauty of any truly independent film is its fearlessness. Like the main character of I Hate Toronto it has both nothing and everything to loose and so stripped of boundaries, fears and expectations it takes the risks that other productions fear. And in doing so, finds a new way of seeing the world. The Toronto Independent Film Festival uses the strength of Toronto’s sizable independent film-making community to put on a fantastic festival. It’s an indie film festival by and for indie filmmakers.
Front Page, Industry News
Toronto Independent Film Festival 2011 presents – I Hate Toronto: A Love Story
Friday September 09th 2011By TO411 Staff Writer
Daisy McLean
While the focus of the next week-and-a-half will be primarily on the leading public film festival in the world, TIFF, there is another festival in Toronto taking place simultaneously with the same initials. The Toronto Independent Film Festival, not to be confused with the Toronto International Film Festival, runs September 8th to 17th this year at the Toronto Underground Cinema and provides an opportunity for undiscovered filmmakers working with micro-budgets to showcase their achievements in the same city where the film industry’s key players have gathered.
The festival will be screening 19 feature films from around the world, scores of shorts, as well as holding industry discussions and targeted social networking events. So if camping in line for TIFF didn’t get you the tickets you wanted, perhaps you should consider seeing something a bit more truly independent.
I Hate Toronto: A Love Story is just one of the feature films having its world premiere at the festival. Scheduled to screen at 6 p.m. on September 9th, this homegrown film is about a young successful man (Al Miro) who suffers a horrific moment in his life during which he looses everything, including his will to live. With nothing left to loose he embarks on a year of depravity, it’s this year that he gives himself before he will take his own life. During this time he meets a young bookstore clerk (Amy Clare Lockwood) whose quirky outlook on life begins to change the way he sees his world.
To begin financing the film, director Daniel Wilson sold all of his computer equipment and moved out of his house into a rented room, putting it all on the line for the film. By the time they started shooting, though, all the money was spent. Wilson had met executive producer, Peter J. Gray when they both worked as background performers and Gray invested his own money into the film to cover basic expenses. In the second week of filming more investors, relatives of cast and crew, came on board which carried the film to the end of production.
The film has a great soundtrack including a few big names such as Matthew Good Band, Spirit Of The West, and Blue Rodeo. “For our premier night we have a screening license for the film festival. You can buy a pass to screen it for one night which is the more economically feasible option,” says executive producer Peter Gray. “As an indie producer, I’m much more inclined to find local talent. You found your local talent for casting it, you found your local talent for everything else, why can you not find local good music? There’s so much good music out there and there’s so much overplayed popular music, so i think that if your gonna triple your cash budget by getting A-list bands on board. That doesn’t make any sense.”
He continues, “We’re really happy to be part of this festival. It’s such a perfect fit for our movie. Toronto is in the title! The Toronto Independent Film Festival is what film festivals really should be about – it’s about discovering new talent, which you barely see at TIFF. It’s such a controlled industry. It’s operated by the big boys in Hollywood and its hard to break in. Where new talent needs to get discovered is at film festivals and if film festivals aren’t promoting new talent any more then where are they? What are they doing?”
Micro-budget independent films will often lack the polish of a Hollywood production, but the beauty of any truly independent film is its fearlessness. Like the main character of I Hate Toronto it has both nothing and everything to loose and so stripped of boundaries, fears and expectations it takes the risks that other productions fear. And in doing so, finds a new way of seeing the world. The Toronto Independent Film Festival uses the strength of Toronto’s sizable independent film-making community to put on a fantastic festival. It’s an indie film festival by and for indie filmmakers.
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Front Page, Industry News
Toronto Independent Film Festival 2011 presents – I Hate Toronto: A Love Story
Friday September 09th 2011By TO411 Staff Writer
Daisy McLean
While the focus of the next week-and-a-half will be primarily on the leading public film festival in the world, TIFF, there is another festival in Toronto taking place simultaneously with the same initials. The Toronto Independent Film Festival, not to be confused with the Toronto International Film Festival, runs September 8th to 17th this year at the Toronto Underground Cinema and provides an opportunity for undiscovered filmmakers working with micro-budgets to showcase their achievements in the same city where the film industry’s key players have gathered.
The festival will be screening 19 feature films from around the world, scores of shorts, as well as holding industry discussions and targeted social networking events. So if camping in line for TIFF didn’t get you the tickets you wanted, perhaps you should consider seeing something a bit more truly independent.
I Hate Toronto: A Love Story is just one of the feature films having its world premiere at the festival. Scheduled to screen at 6 p.m. on September 9th, this homegrown film is about a young successful man (Al Miro) who suffers a horrific moment in his life during which he looses everything, including his will to live. With nothing left to loose he embarks on a year of depravity, it’s this year that he gives himself before he will take his own life. During this time he meets a young bookstore clerk (Amy Clare Lockwood) whose quirky outlook on life begins to change the way he sees his world.
To begin financing the film, director Daniel Wilson sold all of his computer equipment and moved out of his house into a rented room, putting it all on the line for the film. By the time they started shooting, though, all the money was spent. Wilson had met executive producer, Peter J. Gray when they both worked as background performers and Gray invested his own money into the film to cover basic expenses. In the second week of filming more investors, relatives of cast and crew, came on board which carried the film to the end of production.
The film has a great soundtrack including a few big names such as Matthew Good Band, Spirit Of The West, and Blue Rodeo. “For our premier night we have a screening license for the film festival. You can buy a pass to screen it for one night which is the more economically feasible option,” says executive producer Peter Gray. “As an indie producer, I’m much more inclined to find local talent. You found your local talent for casting it, you found your local talent for everything else, why can you not find local good music? There’s so much good music out there and there’s so much overplayed popular music, so i think that if your gonna triple your cash budget by getting A-list bands on board. That doesn’t make any sense.”
He continues, “We’re really happy to be part of this festival. It’s such a perfect fit for our movie. Toronto is in the title! The Toronto Independent Film Festival is what film festivals really should be about – it’s about discovering new talent, which you barely see at TIFF. It’s such a controlled industry. It’s operated by the big boys in Hollywood and its hard to break in. Where new talent needs to get discovered is at film festivals and if film festivals aren’t promoting new talent any more then where are they? What are they doing?”
Micro-budget independent films will often lack the polish of a Hollywood production, but the beauty of any truly independent film is its fearlessness. Like the main character of I Hate Toronto it has both nothing and everything to loose and so stripped of boundaries, fears and expectations it takes the risks that other productions fear. And in doing so, finds a new way of seeing the world. The Toronto Independent Film Festival uses the strength of Toronto’s sizable independent film-making community to put on a fantastic festival. It’s an indie film festival by and for indie filmmakers.
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