TIFF

The Centre for the Study of Korea – housed at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy’s Asian Institute – is taking centre stage at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week as the University of Toronto scholars Michelle Cho, Hae Yeon Choo and Juwon Kim take part in conversations about South Korean film and popular culture.

Michelle Cho

Cho, an assistant professor of East Asian popular cultures and cinema studies in the department of East Asian Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science who teaches courses on Korean film, media and popular culture, will moderate a discussion on Sept. 16 with two South Korean superstars: Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung.

Lee is best known for his work in Squid Game (2021), Assassination (2015) and Thieves (2012), and directs and stars in Hunt, which is being shown at this year’s festival. Jung, meanwhile, is featured in Hunt and his directorial debut, A Man of Reason, is also showing at TIFF. He is known for his work in blockbuster films such as Steel Rain (2017), Cold Eyes (2013), and The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008).

Cho, an expert in South Korean cinema and global media, said she is looking forward to leading a conversation with Lee and Jung about their careers, their friendship and the success of Korean filmmakers at home and internationally – just days after Lee won an Emmy for best lead actor in a drama series for his role in Squid Game.

“TIFF invited six Korean films this year, following on the huge success of ‘Summer of Seoul,’ a Korean film series hosted by the TIFF Lightbox Cinematheque this past summer,” Cho said. “I’m really fortunate that my research allows me to be a part of public events like this, which are only possible because of how much interest there is, locally, in cultural content from South Korea.”

Choo, director of the Centre for the Study of Korea and an associate professor of sociology at �鶹ֱ��app Mississauga, and Kim, a PhD student in East Asian studies, will also be taking part in the TIFF event and providing translation.

“An event like this is a prime example of what our centre strives to do – to support scholarship on Korea and make it meaningful for our communities in Toronto and beyond,” Choo said. “Korean cinema and other cultural creations are having a moment across the globe, which calls for an informed analysis based on in-depth knowledge of Korean culture, history, and society.

“Personally I grew up watching Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Woo-Sung from my teenage years and am excited to see them up close as an interpreter, together with Juwon Kim, a PhD student in East Asian Studies.”

Canadian documentary "Black Code" based on the research of �鶹ֱ��app's Citizen Lab premiers at TIFF

ullahnor — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 15:25:21 +0000

Canadian documentary "Black Code" based on the research of �鶹ֱ��app's Citizen Lab premiers at TIFF

ullahnor Wed, 09/14/2016 - 11:25

Daviel Lazure Vieira

Author legacy

Daviel Lazure Vieira

Topic

City & Culture

TIFF

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

For over a decade, Citizen Lab at �鶹ֱ��app's Munk School of Global Affairs has been working to expose cyber espionage campaigns, major security flaws in our phones and the potential threats emerging from the intersection of digital technology, human rights and global security.

Now a film adaptation of Ron Deibert's 2013 book Black Code will draw people into a much-needed discussion about how the very same technologies that can accelerate democratic change can also be used to restrict individual liberties through censorship, surveillance and information warfare.

The Canadian documentary, also titled Black Code, is premiering this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, taking viewers to Tibetan exiles under Chinese surveillance in India, media activists in Brazil who share their views via online platforms and Syrian citizens tortured for opposing the regime through Facebook posts.

"I feel as though we are serving a kind of early warning function for civil society in the same way that state intelligence agencies are supposed to provide such a warning for governments," says Deibert, who heads Citizen Lab.

Read about Citizen Lab research on government's cellphone monitoring

Deibert was familiar with documentary films produced by Nicholas de Pencier and his wife Jennifer Baichwal, notably Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark. The idea to adapt Black Code for the big screen came after de Pencier read the book.

“I was pretty amazed by how much I didn’t know,” says de Pencier, who is the documentary's filmmaker and cinematographer. “There were things in Ron’s book that were revelatory about the exposure we face through our electronic communications. If I’m that impressed and shocked, I thought, presumably other people will be too.”

A few weeks after their initial meeting to discuss a collaboration, news of Edward Snowden’s leak of classified information from the National Security Agency broke, and the work of many researchers, including Citizen Lab drew international attention. It became yet another reason to increase public awareness.

“The experiences of these research efforts were the perfect vehicle to tell stories that would at the same time inform the public about what is going on ‘beneath the surface’ of the Internet, and which are having an adverse effect on human rights and the prospects for democracy,” Deibert says.

Read about Citizen Lab's research showing Syrian dissidents targeted by hackers and an iPhone attack on a prominent UAE activist.

He adds that society needs to encourage a culture of curiosity about technology, to encourage users to read terms of service and take apart their devices to understand what is happening beneath the hood.

"And to extend that same persistent curiosity to governments and corporations,” Deibert says. “It’s about encouraging a diligent attitude among the citizenry to digital technologies embodied by the original notion of ‘hacking’ as ‘taking things apart and experimenting with them.’ My entire career I have fought against that misappropriation of the term as ‘breaking the law.’ To be a hacker today is to be an informed and empowered digital citizen.”

See more about TIFF's premiere of the Black Code

#UofTGrad16: Film festival CEO Piers Handling

lavende4 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:24:36 +0000

#UofTGrad16: Film festival CEO Piers Handling lavende4 Tue, 06/14/2016 - 10:24

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Piers Handling (centre, facing camera) at Convocation (Lisa Sakulensky photo)

Jennifer Robinson

Author legacy

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Toronto International Film Festival

The man in charge of one of the world’s most important film festivals is thrilled to receive an honorary degree from the University of Toronto, which he says played a pivotal role in helping launch the filmmaking industry in English Canada.

Norman Jewison. David Cronenberg. Atom Egoyan. Don Owen. All huge names in Canadian cinema and all were shaped by their experiences as students at �鶹ֱ��app, Piers Handling told fellow graduates in a rousing speech today.

The connection even extends to the brutalist architecture of the University of Toronto Scarborough having its close up in two Cronenberg features: 1969’s Stereo and 1970’s Crimes of the Future. He really started something since the location continues to draw TV and film crews to this day.

It’s an honour to be celebrated in my home city and “to feel I am a part of this illustrious cinematic history” at �鶹ֱ��app, said Handling, who described himself as a self-educated cinephile who craves intelligent, kinetic films.

The director and chief executive officer of TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, since 1994 was recognized with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa for his work transforming the way people see the world through film and in placing Hollywood North on the map as the place to premiere the biggest and best new films from just down the street and around the world.

In his convocation address, Handling said he’s also been honoured with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest cultural insignia. “Don’t you love the French?” he joked with the audience of new graduates and proud parents, adding he was sure to ask them if any rights or privileges came with the honour.

“They said I can ride a horse into any church in France. I haven’t actually done it yet... but I look forward to the rights and privileges that come from today’s honour.”

Later in the day at an intimate Q&A with a group of 20 film studies students at Innis College, Handling explained the true purpose of the festival, which now has a $44-million annual operating budget and employs 200 full-time staff in its 40^th year. “We’re trying to create a more informed citizenry and ultimately a more curious one.”

When asked how he selects films for the film festival, he said he can tell “in the first five minutes the first three shots” if the filmmaker has hit the mark.

“You can feel the authority of the filmmaker also immediately,” he said, adding that commitment, passion, imagination and creativity are key.The festival is put together in three months but first he and other selection committee members must plow through an estimated 5,000 films before determining their roster. Many of those films are unsolicited, just like Michael Moore’s seminal film Roger & Me was back in 1989.

“He made it clear. He had a movie,” Handling recalled. “He was a brilliant marketer. He’s a talker, he’s a charmer and he clearly has a point of view.”

That movie made it into the festival because of a call he made to a 21-year-old student on contract for the summer in their office. That call led to a word of mouth campaign that made everyone want to see it, Handling said.

Squeezed in between film screenings and attending other film festivals around the globe, Handling told his fellow graduates that he and his partner, Federica, recently travelled to Europe to help as unattached volunteers in Syrian refugee camps along the Greek-Macedonian border.

“We were in two camps and the experience was in a word: humbling,” he said. More than 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict and five million more have fled “travelling towards the beacon of Europe.

“We’ve both been processing our experience since our return. They were living in appalling conditions... but their spirit and resilience were truly uplifting.”

Many of their fellow volunteers were “people of your age, people like you.” And although the problems of the world seem insurmountable, like the current refugee crisis, “collectively, the volunteers were making a difference. The camps couldn’t survive with them.”

The world in 2016 is an unsettled place that’s under extreme pressure and it’s easy to be overwhelmed and want to block everything out. But that uncertainty shouldn’t be something that frightens you, you should embrace it, he said.

“You do not know your own power. Start believing in it... We need the best parts of you,” Handling said. “You have received a privileged education. What you make of that experience will mark this country and quite possibly the planet.”

Piers Handling spoke at the 10 a.m. ceremony for graduands from the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management and School of Graduate Studies. A video of his speech is available on �鶹ֱ��app’s YouTube channel.

TIFF 2015: �鶹ֱ��app insiders offer tips on getting the most out of movies – at the festival and all year round

sgupta — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 18:17:17 +0000

TIFF 2015: �鶹ֱ��app insiders offer tips on getting the most out of movies – at the festival and all year round sgupta Tue, 09/15/2015 - 14:17

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The chance for a selfie with actors such as Jessica Chastain is part of the fun but TIFF insiders say inside the Bell Lightbox and theatres is where the real magic happens (photo by Mary Crandall, Smiling for the Cameras, via flickr)

Veronica Zaretski

Author legacy

Veronica Zaretski

One of the world’s largest film festivals, TIFF offers the chance to see feature films, shorts and documentaries from around the world – and from the students and alumni of the University of Toronto.

This year's selections include Remember by acclaimed, veteran filmmaker and alumnus Atom Egoyan (Adoration), and Len and Company, co-written and directed by alumnus Tim Godsall. Moviegoers can catch Avi Lewis’ This Changes Everything, based on alumna Naomi Klein’s book of the same name, as well as Something Horizontal, an experimental short film by PhD student Blake Williams.

TIFF is also a chance to join experts from �鶹ֱ��app's Munk School of Global Affairs as they provide insights into the complex issues at the heart of movies sourced from across the globe. You can see Stephen Toope, Ron Levi, Janice Stein, Robert Austin, and Robert Steiner discuss Australian, French/Algerian, Turkish, Moroccan and German productions.

�鶹ֱ��app News writer Veronica Zaretski interviewed TIFF Artistic Director and �鶹ֱ��app Sessional Lecturer Cameron Bailey about the significance of the festival. (Read the interview.)

She also spoke with three TIFF insiders, all �鶹ֱ��app alumni, on resources for cinephiles, films to watch and why Toronto is a playground for art and culture aficionados.

“We are incredibly fortunate in Toronto to have so many cultural institutions, so many film institutions. Our audiences always come up with really informed and fun questions,” says alumnus Theresa Scandiffio, director of adult learning at TIFF. “We never take our audiences for granted.”

The learning resources at TIFF are diverse and offer a great opportunity for students, Scandiffio says.

“We have the Higher Learning programming for university and college students to get access to luminaries in the field – scholars and filmmakers,” she says. “The TIFF Light Box programming really values student participation. We also have The Higher Learning Digital Resource Hub. It’s free and we love for people to have the resources that they need with such easy access through the hub.”

Scandiffio says the hub provides satellite educational programming to academic communities and the public, including videos of Higher Learning events and research materials from TIFF’s film reference library.

Graduate students can also apply starting September 25 to the Jeffrey and Sandra Lyons Canadian Film Scholarship. The opportunity grants one student the opportunity to participate in the Higher Learning program and access to the extensive resources at TIFF’s reference library.

Scandiffio says her interest in film education flourished at �鶹ֱ��app – she graduated with a BA in cinema studies in 1999, before continuing to postgraduate studies.

“�鶹ֱ��app gives an incredibly solid grounding in cinema and media history and theory,” she says. “I was prepared for a formal analysis in film editing and media literacy. That kind of grounding is a key to what we do in our programming. It gives us a sense of what to look for.”

“It was actually at �鶹ֱ��app that we were encouraged to see films in the city, at films festivals, at art and talks taking place outside of the classroom and at cinemas across the city.”

Scandiffio says favourite moments from her career at TIFF include bringing in guests such as director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim) to teach a master class, and organizing a repeat speaker series collaboration with �鶹ֱ��app’s Munk School.

“We’re matching Munk School academics with talented filmmakers around current political and social economic issues and that’s always electrifying,” Scandiffio says.

“It demonstrates how you can use film when subject experts are paired with film experts – a really powerful combination. You can point to how film and media are used to convey really strong messages the audience can take with them to drive social change. It demonstrates how you can merge art experts and politics experts to really make a change.”

If you’re shopping for last-minute tickets for promising Canadian selections, you can thank Magali Simard for the breadth of options. Simard programs Canadian features for the festival and new releases for TIFF Lightbox throughout the year. Ten years ago, she moved to Toronto from Montreal to study at �鶹ֱ��app and since graduating in 2006 she says she hasn’t looked back.

“The industry is very wide here,” Simard says. “When I started [studying cinema studies] I wasn’t sure if I would end up in academia or film production. Being a part of TIFF came really quickly. �鶹ֱ��app is an amazing place – I’m still in touch with a lot of the faculty. It’s really close to me.”

Simard says that when she first moved to Toronto, she was sure that she wanted to work in the film industry, in part because of the cultural vibe of the city.

“I think �鶹ֱ��app and TIFF connect people really well. It’s vital to be instrumental in making these connections, and I get to be the matchmaker, for the industry but also for the audience,” she says. “I feel very lucky. There’s no better feeling than loving a film and then sharing it with the audience. And we want to help bring the films, and definitely Canadian films, to Toronto and to the world.”

Kiva Reardon, a programming associate at TIFF, graduated from �鶹ֱ��app with a Master of Arts in cinema studies in 2012. After the Festival, she will be programming a series, “Beyond Badass: Female Action Heroes”, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in October.

“I took a class with Corinn Columpar that shaped my critical sensibilities, and taught me to learn how to re-watch films. That class informed critical thought about performances, and especially representations of gender on film and gender and equity in film.”

She now also runs cléo, an online journal that’s informed by feminist perspectives. She met and collaborated with fellow classmates Mallory Andrews and Julia Cooper in Columpar’s graduate seminar, Cinematic Bodies, and all three are now working on the journal.

“The idea behind Beyond Badass is to think about female action heroes critically, and as more than babes in spandex. My interest is informed by Corinn’s class; there’s a lot about thinking about physicality and especially female physicality,” says Reardon.

And while it’s hard to narrow down a few favourites with so many selections, Simard and Reardon highlighted a few films to watch for during the festival and after. For local talent, Simard points out Torontonian Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant and Hurt, the documentary about Steve Fonyo by Alan Zweig (When Jews Were Funny). She also suggests Anne Émond’s Les êtres chers (Our Loved Ones).

“The film has an incredible cast and astute writing,” says Simard.

Reardon recommends Ben Wheatley’s (Kill List, A Field in England) High Rise, part of the Platform programming of emerging talent, and Meghmallar, part of the Discovery Program, a Bangladeshi film about the liberation war. “It’s a quiet and cinematic film with a water motif and a feeling of entrenchment,” she said.

George Amponsah’s (The Fighting Spirit) documentary, The Hard Stop, about the life and death of Mark Duggan, and the London riots of 2011 is highly recommended.

“It’s a really cinematic documentary – it’s not a lot of talking heads,” she says. “The film is about the aftermath of the shooting and the daily struggle of dealing with racial tensions.”

Indicative of Toronto’s thirst for cinema, there will be no shortage of films to watch or cultural events to attend this season, says Scandiffio.

“Toronto is a truly cinematic city. Whether at TIFF, or during Nuit Blanche, the city comes alive. Some of the audience are professional curators, but there are also a lot of people who are there as viewers. It gets you really engaged in the city.”

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TIFF 2015: talking cinema with �鶹ֱ��app's Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival

sgupta — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:01:14 +0000

TIFF 2015: talking cinema with �鶹ֱ��app's Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival sgupta Tue, 09/15/2015 - 07:01

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Toronto is one of the top film cities in the world, says TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey (photo courtesy Cameron Bailey)

Veronica Zaretski

Author legacy

Veronica Zaretski

TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey tweeted “Well, we’re a day over 40” – as fans lined up to catch a glimpse of actors like Matt Damon, Naomi Watts, Donald Glover and George Clooney.

The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its new season last week with media coverage predictably focusing on red carpet names such as Natalie Portman or Ridley Scott.

But the crowds that take over Toronto’s streets every fall comprise more cinephiles than celebrity-seekers, Bailey says. “There are so many people who are very informed about film in Toronto.”

An advocate for arts and culture who logged decades of experience as a film critic and programmer before taking the helm of TIFF, Bailey is also a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto. Alumna Lauren Clarke took his popular Programming and Curation class in 2014.

“It gave us all an opportunity to share our thoughts on exhibition and film more broadly,” says Clarke. “It really pushed you to defend your curatorial ideas and choices, as you would have to do in practice. The course fuelled my passion for film and made it clear exhibition is an area of the film industry I want to be a part of.”

�鶹ֱ��app News writer Veronica Zaretski spoke with Bailey about TIFF, how students can make the most of the culture scene in Toronto, and the realities of working in the film industry today.

What does the relationship between the city and its arts and culture sector look like in Toronto?

The city of Toronto has benefited greatly from the film scholarship and instruction that takes place here. We have many people on staff here that went through �鶹ֱ��app’s Cinema Studies program over the years. So we get very smart, informed people who understand cinema in a very broad way.

We also have a symbiotic relationship with the students and scholars who are in the city, because at TIFF, we offer resources, events and programming, like the higher learning program. One of the things that I love to hear is that people will spend their entire day at the TIFF reference library. All of that makes Toronto one of the top film cities in the world. Few cities can compare to the sophistication of the film audience.

We were fortunate to have been around for 40 years as an institution and to have the resources to help the general public, including students, to gain a better understanding of cinema. No matter how knowledgeable you are, there is always something new to learn.

You’re teaching the Programming and Curation course at �鶹ֱ��app again next winter term. What are some of your favourite parts about curating and programming and how does that translate to your teaching work?

I spent many years as a film critic before starting this job. When you’re a critic it’s a little bit like studying – you’re analyzing films to try and figure out how they work. Program curation is different – I’ll try to not just analyze films but analyze how they affect the audience. An understanding of the audience is critical for a curator, as is an understanding of audiences both as groups and as collections of individuals.

I also talk about festivals in the class, which is becoming an important area of study. I bring in my own experience at TIFF and talk about how festivals work as marketplaces for films, curatorial experiences and what they bring to audiences.

I’m really grateful for the opportunity to teach at �鶹ֱ��app largely because I also get inspired from talking with students and hearing their perspectives.

We talked about sexual identity in the last class in 2014, and how films present a variety of experiences, as well as what you can assume and not assume from audiences. When I was in university these issues of sexual identity were not talked about as much. I was listening to the students in my seminar talking about that. The class is about engaging everyone in a conversation. And this year, The Danish Girl and About Ray are in the festival and the future is coming up – future filmmakers are making more films like that.

You wrote your first screenplay, The Planet of Junior Brown, in 1997. What has changed over the years for budding filmmakers?

There has been a kind of sea-change in terms of technological breakthroughs. You can now go to a store and get very high quality equipment at a lower price than ever before. It’s exciting for anyone who makes film, and the craft of making a film is still as big and exciting as ever.

But even with newer technology, there are still a lot of barriers to financing film. It can take a while to learn the system to successfully make a film. If you’re lucky enough to get it funded and get it made, getting it out in the world is a lot more challenging than before.

It’s true that you can just put a film online, but if you want to get it out to the world, you have to get it to film distributors, and that in itself is an education. Buying films happens in festivals like ours, and I encourage people who want to get involved in film to observe how that complex part of cinema works.

The landscape for film critics is also different today than it was years before digital media. How does that change the game for today’s aspiring film critics?

The death of cinema critics has been announced many times, but what I think is true is that the traditional role of film critics as practiced in newspapers has declined. I used to write weekly for Now, and the number of positions available in a paper like that has declined.

It’s true that there are many opportunities available online. But it takes initiative and it takes money. Kiva Reardon [programming associate at TIFF and �鶹ֱ��app alumna] has done that well – she started her own online journal, cléo, and attracted writers who look at film through a feminist lens.

If you have enough knowledge, drive and perhaps patience, you can do it. You have to be confident. It’s not easy, and no one is going to lay opportunities for you on a carpet – you may have to work harder than before.

Are there Toronto-based filmmakers this year that you're particularly excited about?

There are many. Igor Drljaca’s new film, The Waiting Room, is one of the best we have in the line-up. Kazik Radwanski’s new film, How Heavy this Hammer, is another great addition. These are two very interesting Canadian filmmakers, that really represent the next generation of filmmakers.

I was speaking to [film critic, lecturer and �鶹ֱ��app alumnus] Adam Nayman, and we compared them to the Toronto New Wave filmmakers who were making new opportunities in Canadian cinema. In both cases these two filmmakers come from an outsider perspective, as immigrants or looking at Canadian society with the perspective of an outsider.

It's also exciting to see Atom Egoyan, who is now a veteran of the festival, making a film in a new direction. Patricia Rozema is also taking a new direction with her film Into the Forest.

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