TIFF has always been a rather hermetic experience. Locked in the cycle of films, queues, washrooms and more films, the events in the real world lose some of their potency and become back story to what's happening on screen.
In the past this has included events of the death of Diana and, of course, 9/11 with respect to the latter, I remember vividly the experience of leaving a film ("Joy Ride") at the Cumberland and walking over to the Varsity and seeing the images from New York on the screens outside the theatre, not immediately understanding that what seemed like a movie was horribly real.
The equivalent in Toronto in 2014 is the comic-tragic soap opera of the Ford Brothers playing out this week. The difference, though, is that the previous events were singular -- the impact occurred once and diminished over time; their "story" (and given the Fords' own history over the past few years must be seen as a story, a fiction, that will likely change over the next few days) just keeps changing. To use filmic references, it's less the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of Apes, more the horror film where the villain repeatedly comes back from the dead.
The city definitely needs to change the reel on this show. While it seems likely that Rob could triumph in his old ward, there is a choice to be made about the kind of leader and city we want and, in my own opinion, brother Doug provides neither.
The one hopeful sign I've seen this summer, both here at TIFF and my travels to the West Coast during the summer, is that Ford is yesterday's news. I've only heard two conversations about him this week, where a year or two ago, I would frequently get questions from friends and colleagues in other places. The story has shrunk to a local issue. With luck, we can begin to close the book on it at the end of next month.
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