For a film fest in just its second year, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival (October 19-25) is run like a well-oiled machine. Adam Lopez, Twitch‘s Todd Brown, and the rest of the staff are well-organized and professional, not to mention generous. They’re ready to bring another collection of cutting-edge horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films to town. After all the hype and celebrity-watching of TIFF, it’s refreshing to look forward to a festival on a more human scale (and with more zombies!). Though I’m not a huge horror fan, After Dark brings enough weird stuff here that I’m sure I’ll find a lot to like. They’ve just announced their first seven features, and I’m particularly thrilled to see that Audience of One will be making its Canadian premiere. I missed it at SXSW this spring and have been practically begging director Mike Jacobs to bring it Toronto.
It’s the story of Pentecostal pastor Richard Gazowsky, who believes that God is calling him to make an epic sci-fi film based on the biblical story of Joseph. Despite the fact that he didn’t see a movie at all until he was 40 years of age, he decides that he must be the director. Anything and everything that can go wrong, does, and Jacobs’ camera is there to capture the whole train wreck on film. I’m hoping to get an interview with the director when he’s here.
If that’s not up your alley, check out the fest’s excellent web site for more premiere announcements. Single tickets go on sale September 26th, and if you’ve been paying for tickets to “that other film festival,” you’ll be delighted at the prices. An even better value is the $99 VIP Pass (but hurry, there are only 100 available).
This really looks interesting and I have to thank you again James for perhaps helping convince the director to show his film here in Toronto. It’s my first pick of the bunch for After Dark at the moment.
It’s interesting that Adam, Todd and the rest of the After Dark team have decided to build the festival slowly. The number of feature length films hasn’t increased since last year (or not by much anyway) even though they received many more submissions. Though I hope it will grow and attract even more of the “weird” and “fantastic” films, I think they are being very wise to move slowly. Of course, I expect the investment of both time and personal money is probably pretty high for some…
Hey Bob,
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes we have decided to grow Toronto After Dark incrementally. From 5 nights to 7, 13 feature films to 14. The BIG innovation is 2 extra screenings for the first time, to cover the amazing world of international genre shorts and we have two sidebars – one fantasy and one horror themed that will knock your socks off. Hope you can check them out! All the best,
– Adam
I can’t wait Adam…I saw the Sci-Fi screening at this year’s Short Film Festival and it was excellent, so I look forward to see what you guys have uncovered.
Let’s face it, I’m looking forward to all of it. I finally got off my butt and posted about it here on my blog as well.
Best of luck Adam,
I’m glad to read you’re enthused about Audience of One, as I note its on SF’s Documentary Film Festival lineup.