Millersville students traveled to the Toronto International Film Festival September 6-12 to explore the world of cinema at the Western Hemisphere’s most important film Festival.  Festival attendees enjoyed 12-15 films during their stay, including

• Michael Moore’s new documentary Fahrenheit11/9
• Teen Spirit (with a discussion by the director and cast)
• The Homecoming, a new project by producer/actor Julia Roberts (with discussion by Roberts and cast after the film, pictured below right)
• Neil Jordan’s Greta (with discussion by the director and cast)
  
• George Tillman’sThe Hate U Give (with discussion by director and cast)
  
• 3 Faces(by Iranian director Jafar Panafi)
  
• The Image Book (a video essay directed by Jean-Luc Godard)
  
• Cruz and Bardem in Farhadi’s Everybody Knows
• Alfonso Cuaron’s semi-autobiographical film ROMA (with a discussion by Cuaron)
• Emma Tammi’s horror-western The Wind (with a discussion by director and cast after the screening)
• The Public (with a discussion by first-time director Emilio Estevez and cast, including Alec Baldwin and Christian Bale)

As Industry Conference participants, the group also attended industry events, including a conversation with eclectic producer/mogul Nina Yang Bongiovi, who presented advice on working in the industry.

Students also were able to experience screenings in the last operating double theatre in the world, the Elgin/Winter Garden.  Students enjoyed the eclectic array of films from non-narrative cinema (Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book) to documentaries (Fahrenheit 11/9) to genre films (Greta) to foreign cinema (3 Faces) as well as the gracious hospitality of Toronto and its tasty food.  They even got to experience midnight screenings with the students on Ryerson University campus.

–Jill Craven