TIFF TTFN

This weekend saw the end of the Toronto International Film Festival (http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/home/default.asp - sorry, I can't do hyperlinks yet) which I was lucky enough to be in on, owing to the largesse of a friend in the industry. It me feel like a true Torontonian since it's a huge annual event for the city and (I believe) the world's second biggest film fest after Cannes. For a week in September the place is overrun with limos and closed-off streets and long queues of fans hoping for last minute seats - or so it appeared as I swept past them with my industry freebies...
The insider access did mean that I wasn't choosing the films myself, and when it emerged that the first film was about heroin abuse, I began to wonder if perhaps I wouldn't be better off in the library after all. This sensation was compounded by discoveries about subsequent subjects, which included teenage suicide, apartheid torture, and exploitative globalisation. (In fact, the last one turned out to be a heart-warming clash-of-cultures romantic comedy, with the plot merely framed and fuelled by a US firm's irresponsible and unethical labour practices in the developing world, so that was okay.) Now I hardly need further goading into emotional lability at the best of times, and especially not when so far from home, but even I found these films nothing but uplifting, since they were beautifully made and very thoughtful.
In several cases the directors gave Q&As after the screening, but the audience really went through the roof one night when a staggeringly inarticulate, tattooed and scruffy youth with an offputting stoop appeared, gargled a few words of earnest but pointless greeting and shambled off again. This was someone called Heath Ledger. However, since he was not responsible for the script, I can wholeheartedly encourage you to see Candy (Neil Armfield, Australia 2006) which is superb beyond anything that a portrait of despair and depravity deserves to be and has made me into the High Priestess of the cult of Geoffrey Rush. Some will be more attracted by Heath Ledger, of course. Takes all sorts.