Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (aka A TIFF Decision)

As some of you may know, the biggest event on my movie-going calender is attending The Toronto International Film Festival. I’ve gone for eight years running and had a lot of fun each time. This year though, things will be a little different.

By and large – I’m not going

There’s a bit of twist though. If you’re interested, I’ll briefly tell the tale after the jump.

So first things first – I’m not going because Lady Hatter and I will be getting married in two short months. So, in the grand scheme of things, it’s as good a reason as I can think of to give TIFF a skip. I really can’t scratch together the $320 I usually dish out on this wacky week…nor can I even seem to find an extra $160 to give myself a little ten-screening sampler.

There’s an outside chance that a single ticket or two might fall into my lap, but I’m really trying to operate outside of that assumption.

But, the cinematic sadness isn’t quite as infinite as I had thought…

You see, starting last year, TIFF really made an effort to expand the festival and really make it a city-wide celebration of movies. As such, they added a whole lot of free events…which they have decided to continue, and even expand this year.

There will be event’s like a zombie walk in honour of George Romero (who will marshal the whole proceeding), a roller derby expo in honour of WHIP IT, swing dancing, poetry readings, and a lot more. Added to that, every single night, there will be free outdoor screenings…which, if you’ve read this blog at all in the last month, you know I am all about. In case any Toronto folk wanna get in on it – full details can be found here.

So that’s that folks. I’ll be skipping the screenings, but still buzzing about the fest. It’s a slight bummer, but hey – if anything’s worth it, your wedding day has to be. Right?