And what would a Torontonian’s blog on September be without a lot of Film Festival talk? Particularly if that Torontonian has generous parents who are Film Festival donors and buy whacks of tickets!
Anyway, these are the movies I saw:
- The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
- Colony
- Good Hair
- Capitalism: A Love Story
- An Afternoon with Chris Rock (not a movie, an actual talk)
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
- Samson & Delilah
- Cracks
- Leaves of Grass
- Mr. Nobody
All good flicks, though I thought Capitalism wasn’t Michael Moore’s best, and Samson & Delilah was too bleak for my tastes. (Both these movies I ended up seeing because friends of my parents canceled, though, so they were even more free!) I really hope Cracks makes it to theatres; I quite enjoyed it but have not heard a word about it since. Keep your eyes and ears open, folks! Oh, and I feel I should issue this warning about Good Hair: it will make you stare at black women’s hair. I haven’t gotten in trouble yet, and it’s more or less worn off, but for awhile, I was risking some serious tongue-lashing.
September also saw the beginning of rehearsals of Billy Stutter for its Bad Dog Short Play Festival run. I’ll get more into the play later, but just know that it’s the one I wrote on the boat and the one that will be touring a few Fringes this summer. The director: Bruce Hunter. The cast: Logan Brown, Ashley Comeau, Dave Pearce, and Brad Sayeau. The stage manager for the Bad Dog run: Kara Evelyn. The stage manager for our Fringes: Jennine Profeta. Learn those names, there will be a test later. (Well, not really, but they’ll be good to know.) People who know this group will vouch for the fact that it’s an impressive group, and also an eclectic one. We make it work.
Oh, and I performed in something called The Hell Show. Any hopes I had for a life in politics are pretty well dashed. Or the electorate will grow smart enough to understand satire. At any rate, I mention it here so I can’t wuss out and deny it later.
And now, pictures of famous people (I tried not to be obnoxious about it, but sometimes, when you’re standing five feet from famous people, the camera just can’t help itself):
