With Guy off to Scotland for the Edinburgh Film Festival, I’ve just received my invitation to attend the Toronto Fest once again as returning press. This marks the, um, 16th festival for me (I think)?
I love TIFF. I think it’s the single most important cultural event in Canada, and the fall’s most important film festival. Obviously I am biased, but having attended others, I think things are done very well here.
The first press conference is slated for July 14, later than normal, but I trust that festival CEO Piers Handling knows what he’s doing. After all, he’s the guy who took the upstart Festival of Festivals into international fame as The Toronto International Film Festival. I am working on a feature article about the history of the fest and its evolution from a small event struggling to get films to the place to be leading in to the awards season.
So many Oscar winners and nominees have come from Toronto, but what I like are the little discoveries that have been made, films that otherwise may not have been seen. As I’ve mentioned before, I clearly remember the bidding war for Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” when, during the screening of the film, two men got up and ran out of theater dialing their cell phones as they shot up the aisle. One was from Miramax, the other October. And of course October got the film and the rest is history.
Looking at the films that might come this year I have high hopes that “Where the Wild Things Are” will be in the mix, along with “Shutter Island.” But who knows?
Last year’s festival was a struggle for me as my wife and I had gone through a rough summer. Sherri was diagnosed with brain cancer (one of the worst) in May. Part of the massive tumor was taken out May 8, and she underwent radiation treatments through July. Watching her deal with that was horrible, but her strength never ceases to amaze me. We received so much goodwill from readers and festival staff that I thought it would be worth it offer an update of sorts.
We dealt with the hair loss, the extraordinary fatigue (which still plagues her) and everything else that goes with this terrible disease. Now, more than one year later, her beautiful red curls have come back, she is more positive than ever, though she struggles with fatigue and memory loss (a symptom). We visit the doctor every three months and at any one of those visits we may be told she needs chemo, at which point we know we are in trouble.
We know the road we are walking here…there is no cure for this, and eventually this will end badly for her and our family. Yet she wakes every day positive and fresh, ready for the day. What an eye-opening experience this has been! No more sweating the small stuff, no more wasting time, because we just do not know how much time she has left.
The girls, Aurora, 17, and Ariana, 9 are terrific, though scared, as am I. To all those who sent notes, we thank you.
Comments
9 responses to “TIFF 2009 looms ahead”
Wow. Before you know it, the season will be at our doorstep. My best to Sherri, John.
John, I lost my sister to cancer last summer and it devastated me. Her passing came just six weeks before TIFF and I didn’t know if I could muster up the motivation to go. But I went, and because the festival was so spectacular and I saw great films, and met two of my favorite actors, it was therapuetic for me to attend. I wish you and Sherri the best.
I wonder if anything nobody even considered will come out of the TIFF this year and become a powerhouse, ala “Slumdog”
I admire your strength. Period
Congrats and God Bless on your wife’s recovery.
On a less important matter, “Up In The Air” is pretty much a guarantee to be shown.
John, my 13-year-old sister is in the middle of a (winning, they think) battle with lymphoma, so I know what that’s like to watch a loved one in pain. Best wishes to you and Sherri
It’s sad and touching to hear of so many people touched by cancer in some way. All the best to Sherri and your family John. You’re doing it tough but I admire your courage and resilience.
Keep you head up. It’s in God’s hands…
Jeremy: Thanks for the words but my strength? Man I wonder how I get through the days somehow. I am in awe of my wife man. Always positive, fearless, and thinking of everyone else around her. Are the girls OK, is John handling this, how’s her mom, her sisters, my sister, our friends, never about her. The only thing she does for herself is naps, which I tell her to do often. We have had a couple of those right between the eyes conversations and she is actually fine with making it until my daughter is nineteen, which the doctors have stated might be a stretch (they don’t know her). I’m not…I want to get old and watch movies I do not undertsand due to my age with this girl. That was always the plan. It’s all her strength friend, she gives it to me, it rubs off. And Cameron, though no one should have to suffer through this, children should be immune…prayers are with you.
And if I can say, I know this stuff is far from movies, but if I amy, there are times I felt very alone in all of it and gone on the e-mail to find a query about Sherri’s health which tells me I am not alone in this. You have no idea how much these notes of good eishes have meant to me.