Planet in Focus and Spacing present: Toronto in the Moving Image

TORONTO IN THE MOVING IMAGE:
A PLANET IN FOCUS SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM
Spacing is happy to announce we are the sponsors of a film series called Toronto In the Moving Image during the Planet in Focus film festival. This retrospective of Toronto’s life on film spans more than a hundred years, from the silent era to the present day. There are films about early urban renewal efforts in Toronto that have also doubled as questionable attempts at social engineering. There are also films about our famed hothouses of psychedelic 1970’s culture, and even the odd story of forbidden love.

You’ll also find out what happens to whale bones that are discovered in TTC tunnels, where Canada’s first concrete highway was built, and what the average 1950s Torontonian was advised to do in the event of a
nuclear war. Altogether, our city is revealed as an evolving work in progress.

You can check the website at www.planetinfocus.org for details on tickets and screening times as well as the latest information on panel discussions, walking tours, and festival parties.

WEDNESDAY NOV 1

Farewell Oak Street (17 min / Canada)
Takes us into the squalid living conditions of Canada’s urban poor, then presents a mid-century vision of hope for our first social housing project, Regent Park.
• 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

THURSDAY NOV 2

Geologic Journey — Great Lakes (54 min / Canada)
Tells the story of the dramatic changes in the geology and landscape of the vast central area of North America. Only in very recent geologic history takes has this taken the form of five great, interconnected freshwater lakes.
• 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum
Screened with:

Last Stand (68 min / Canada)
A 34 year battle has raged to stop a Pickering airport and save 18,000 acres of the richest farmland in Canada. The battle now continues with a new generaton of fighters. A historic tale with candid talk from some of Canada’s well known cultural figures.
• 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

Escarpment Blues (59 min / Canada)
Sarah Harmer’s diary of her tour to end quarry mining in the Niagara Escarpment.
Screening followed by a panel: Preserving Our Greenbelt
As the Greater Toronto Area continues to expand, pressures on our precious Greenbelt mount. Where, what and how can we grow from here? What is at stake? Singer-activist Sarah Harmer, artist and inventor Bill Lishman, President of Local Flavour, plus Lori Stahlbrand, and environmental lawyer David Donnelly join broadcaster Tim Weber in a lively discussion on preserving our Greenbelt.
• 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

FRIDAY NOV 3
Borderless (25 min / Canada)
Borderless is a docu-poem about the lives of undocumented workers in the City of Toronto.
• 9:30pm-11:30pm @ Innis College

SATURDAY NOV 4
Walking Tour with David Crombie and Friends
Join former Mayor of Toronto David Crombie and some special friends on a walking tour from the Bata Shoe Museum to the Steam Whistle Brewery.
11:00 am to 1:00 pm @ Bata Shoe Museum

A Whale of A Tale (45 min / Canada)
The miraculous discovery of A Whale Bone by a Toronto Transit Commission subway construction crew in Toronto in the 1980’s generated a lot of buzz at the time of its excavation. Peter Lynch unearths its mystery.
• 1:00pm-3:00pm @ ROM

Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (96 min / Canada)
Winner of the 2005 Hotdocs Best Feature Length Canadian Documentary Award, director Min Sook Lee with unprecedented access, takes us into the machinations, political pressures and influences over the Toronto Police Services Board.
• 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm @ Innis College (rm 222)

Flowers or Ashes (13 min / Canada)
In 1956 The City of Toronto established The Metro Civil Defense Organization. In that era, the height of the “Cold War”, emergency preparedness was concerned with the dropping of a nuclear bomb on our city. Flowers or Ashes is a rare PSA period piece, which exposes the viewer to the precautions the typical Toronto family needed to take at their peril!
• 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

The Strip (12 min / Canada)
Documentary filmmaker Ron Mann and his friend Cliff Librach’s grade eight Geography class project on Toronto’s Yonge Street Strip is a blast to the past.
• 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm @ Innis College

A School Without Borders (51 min / Canada)
Populated by young immigrants from every colour of the multicultural rainbow, Etienne Brule is a French-language school that provides struggling teens with a concrete means of both getting an education and socially acclimatizing to their new home.
• 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm @ Innis College

Dream Tower (47 min / Canada)
In 1968, an 18-storey structure in the heart of Toronto was to house Canada’s first free college. Director Ron Mann takes us on a journey from its intellectual inception to the mythological place it had in North American psychedelic culture.
• Saturday 9:00pm-11:00pm @ ROM

SUNDAY NOV 5

Aadan (6 min / Canada)
A young woman prays outdoors in the midst of urban bustle, much to the astonishment of passers-by.
• 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Innis College

The Alex Wilson Community Garden (15 min / Canada)
A community garden’s inception, design and construction as well as the connections it creates among people and the natural world.
• 11:00 am to 1:00 pm City of Toronto Archives

Silent Films – Toronto in the Dawn of Cinema
This series begins with the first known film shot in Toronto of the devastation of the Great Fire of 1904. Also shown are the 1912 construction of Canada’s first concrete highway, the 1916 construction of the Don Valley Viaduct, and footage of Toronto transit in 1931.
• 11:00 am to 1:00 pm City of Toronto Archives

Family Viewing (87 min / Canada)
A mirror of familial dislocation expressed through video, pornography, home movies and surveillance, Family Viewing traverses the world of mistaken and found identities. (Atom Egoyan, director)
• 3:00pm-5:00pm @ Innis College

Panel: Toronto — The Price of Growth
Are we at a dangerous turning point or is this an opportune moment for the city to seek solutions? A discussion moderated by Former Mayor of Toronto David Crombie, featuring Ken Greenberg (Former Toronto Director of Urban Design), Cathy Crowe (Toronto Disaster Relief Committee), Martin Blake (Regent Park Developer), Sylvia Maracle (Ontario Federation of Native Friendship Centres).
• 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

Glenn Gould’s Toronto (43 min / Canada)
Gould wrote this profile of his native city and acts as the on-camera guide. The reclusive pianist comes across as a charming though frequently bemused tourist in his own hometown. Part of the acclaimed Cities series produced by John McGreevy, who will introduce the screening.
• 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

Montrose Avenue (5 min / Canada)
An animated look at multicultural downtown Toronto.
• 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ the Royal Ontario Museum

Bollywood/Hollywood (105 min / Canada)
Dot com millionaire Rahul Seth falls in love with a Canadian pop star, much to the dismay of his mother and in defiance of his dying father who has requested that his son maintain Indian traditions and values. (Deepa Mehta, director).
• 5:00pm-7:00pm @ Innis College