A documentary about Ontario Place featuring Francesca Bouaoun of Ontario Place For All, as well as Steve Mann and many other members of SwimOP, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with screenings for the public on Sept. 12, 13, and 14. Written and directed by Ali Weinstein, Your Tomorrow takes its title from Ontario Place’s mission statement: “Ontario Place will be a mirror to yourself, your heritage, your land, your work, your creativity and your tomorrow.” Filmed over a span of 100 days, the 94-minute documentary will later be shown in cinemas and broadcast on TVO.
“I rediscovered Ontario Place during the pandemic and started going there a lot with my friends,” said Weinstein. “I became a bit obsessed with how it retained its magic through the decades even though it was no longer an attraction with rides or a playground, how there were so many different nooks and crannies to explore, and I noticed I was seeing other regulars who kept coming back and had formed friendships.”
“I wanted to try to document what was naturally happening at Ontario Place in this moment of limbo, after its heyday and before it was redeveloped. I wanted to show the people who were gravitating to this big piece of waterfront land and how they were using it while it was open to the public for people to use as they pleased. And to me the best way to show that was to shoot observationally, to try to bring viewers as close to the experience of being at Ontario Place as possible.”
Read more of Ali Weinstein’s thoughts about her project in Spacing issue 61, themed around Ontario Place
