Toronto on Film is a book published by the Toronto International Film Festival, a very world-class institution that just opened its own Modernist film shrine. The book is more or less readable yet has no real reason to be a printed book, except of course for the fact that printed books are classy and intellectual, two perennial pretensions of Toronto cinema.
An appendix offers a claimed “175 Key Toronto Films.” The number is derived from Toronto’s age, not because there really are that many films of interest.
There’s a director and year credit for each title, plus a short graf about each. This, at the very least, should be available in its entirety online – and not as a shitty PDF export, either. So let me make this standing offer to TIFF: Send me a PDF with live text, or the Quark or InDesign file, of this appendix and I’ll convert it into semantically perfect HTML for TIFF’s and everybody’s benefit.
They won’t, of course. They’d prefer this information to be locked up in a monograph available at a single public library in Canada – Toronto’s (five circulating copies).
While we’re waiting, here’s the title list. It’s OK if you’ve never heard of half of them. These are, after all, not just Canadian films but Toronto films, hence why should anyone, least of all anyone actually in Toronto, have actually seen them?
- 1 + 1
- 4 × 8 × 3
- A + B in Ontario
- The Adjuster
- Adoration
- Alligator Shoes
- Ararat
- Arrowhead
- Away from Her
- Between Friends
- Blindside
- The Bloody Brood
- Bollywood/Hollywood
- The Book of All the Dead
- Boozecan
- Boy Meets Girl
- Breakfast with Scot
- Bush Pilot
- Calendar
- Carry On[,] Sergeant!
- The Catherine Films
- Childstar
- Christopher’s Movie Matinee
- Come On, Children
- Concrete Angels
- A Cool Sound from Hell
- Coopers’ Camera
- Crash
- Cream Soda
- Crimes of the Future
- The Crowd Inside
- Cube
- Curtis’s Charm
- Cyberman
- Dancing in the Dark
- A Dangerous Age
- Dead Ringers
- Diary of a Sinner
- Dream Tower
- Drying Up the Streets
- Dying at Grace
- Eastern Avenue
- Eat Anything
- Echoes Without Saying
- Eclipse
- EMPz 4 Life
- Exotica
- Face-Off
- Falling Angels
- Family Viewing
- A Fan’s Notes
- The Far Shore
- The Five Senses
- Flowers on a One-Way Street
- The Fly
- Foolproof
- Four Toronto Films
- Foxy Lady
- Fugitive Pieces
- Gambling, Gods and LSD
- Ginger Snaps
- Glenn Gould’s Toronto
- Glimpses of High Life
- Goin’ Down the Road
- The Great Shadow
- The Great Toronto Fire
- Guns
- H
- The Hard Part Begins
- Heartaches
- Heaven on Earth
- High
- Highpoint
- Hogtown: The Politics of Policing
- How She Move
- I Love a Man in Uniform
- Imagine the Sound
- In-Between Days
- In the City
- It Happened in Canada
- I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
- The Ivy League Killers
- January 15, 1991: Gulf War Diary
- Jehad in Motion
- Johnny
- The Kidnapping of the President
- Kill
- Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel
- Last Night
- The Last Pogo
- Lie with Me
- The Life Before This
- Listen to the City
- Love Come Down
- Love, Sex and Eating the Bones
- The Making of Monsters
- Maria
- A Married Couple
- Masala
- The Mask
- McLuhan’s Wake
- Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company
- Milk and Honey
- Monkeys in the Attic
- Monkey Warfare
- My Pleasure Is My Business
- Next of Kin
- Nobody Waved Goodbye
- No Sad Songs
- No Skin Off My Ass
- Nothing
- Now That April’s Here
- Nurse·Fighter·Boy
- Oedipus Rex
- The Offering
- One-Night Stand
- One Week
- The Only Thing You Know
- Outrageous!
- Paint Cans
- Palais Royale
- Paris, France
- Partners
- The Perfect Son
- Picture Claire
- Pleasure Palace (Corrupted)
- Police
- The Republic of Love
- Rhinoceros Eyes
- Rip-Off
- Roadkill
- Rub & Tug
- Rude
- Sabah
- Saint Monica
- Sam and Me
- Satan’s Choice
- Scenes In and About Toronto
- Siblings
- The Silent Partner
- Skin Deep
- Soul Survivor
- Speaking Parts
- Stereo
- Strange Brew
- The Strip
- Super 8½
- Talk 16
- Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
- This Beautiful City
- Ticket to Heaven
- Too Outrageous!
- The Top of His Head
- Toronto Boom Town
- Toronto Jazz
- Toronto Stories
- The Tragic Diary of Zero the Fool
- Turnabout
- Twist
- The Uncles
- Unfinished Business
- Vesta Lunch
- Videodrome
- Warrendale
- Waterworx
- Wedding in White
- A Whale of a Tale
- When Night Is Falling
- White Room
- Winter Kept Us Warm
- A Winter Tale
- Yonge Street
- Young People Fucking
- Zero Patience
Kooky fun fact: There really are only 174. Very world-class.