Day 2 – TIFF 2024
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(September 6, 2024 – Toronto, ON) The 2024 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival opened last night with its Gala performances and, based on the TV coverage, it is safe to assume a good time was had by all. Today, the real festival begins with lots of movies playing in lots of theatres, but as our own longtime fans and readers know, our focus is strictly on Canadian films.
While these films will have several screenings for the industry and press attending the festival, there are usually only two public screenings so if you want to see these films, and tickets are usually available, you have to move fast.
First up, for us, is Seeds, the new film and feature directorial debut of actress Kaniehtiio Horn, who also stars in the comedy. She plays Ziggy, a Toronto-based bike courier, receives her first internet influencer job offer to promote a seed and fertilizer company Nature’s Oath. When her cousin calls her back to the reservation, she is compelled to fight to preserve the history of her people and discovers her strength in the process. Seeds sceens at noon today at the TIFF Lightbox 1. It screens again tomorrow at 4:30 at the Scotiabank Theatre.
Sharp Corner is the 2nd feature from director Jason Buxton. Based on a short story, the basic plot centres on Josh, who becomes fixated on car accidents when a car crashing into the tree on their front lawn, killing the driver and injuring his passengers. And once Josh discovers the accidents are a regular occurrence due to the design of the road, he becomes obsessed with being ready to save the next victims… to the exclusion of everything else. Today’s screening at 6:30PM is the World Premiere of Sharp Corner at the TIFF Lightbox. It has its second screening at the Scotiabank Theatre tomorrow morning at 9:10.
Two Canadian features screen back-to-back today at the TIFF Lightbox 1. They are Can I Get a Witness? at 6:00PM and 40 Acres at 9:00PM.
Can I Get a Witness? sees the return of filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming to TIFF. This time, Keira Jang, Joel Oulette, and Sandra Oh star in an introspective live-action and animated feature set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50. Can I get a Witness? screens at 6:00PM at the TIFF Lightbox on King Street in downtown Toronto.
Photo credit: Rafy, courtesy of Mongrel Media
40 Acres, from R.T. Thorne, is also set in the future, a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce. The last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land. This World Premiere runs 113 minutes and is in English and Cree. 40 Acres will screen tonight at 9:00.
Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s
