Tribute to Wolf Koenig: Free TIFF Event

“Every cut is a lie. It’s never that way. Those two shots were never next to each other in time that way. But you’re telling a lie in order to tell the truth.”

God, we love TIFF. Particularly the TIFF events that celebrate Canadian cinema. This Saturday, Oct. 11 we are going to miss an event that is worth every red-blooded Canadian film fan’s time.

It’s a retrospective of the great Wolf Koenig, a pioneer of Canadian cinema and National Film Board legend held at 3:30 p.m. at the Bell Lightbox.

We curse the turkey that is luring us out of Toronto and away from this event.

Koenig was unflinching and uncompromising. Last year, we schlepped around Ottawa from library to library on the hunt for early and ground-breaking Canadian films. We caught Lonely Boy, a documentary made about the young Paul Anka by this ground-breaking Canadian director.

This was no Justin Bieber Never Say Never. No fluffy confection for the teeny bopper set here. It was a grainy, at times, unflattering look at the heat-seeking ambition missile that was Anka – complete with talk of Anka’s nose job and dental work.

Director, animator, cinematographer and producer, Koenig was an honest man.

Here in Toronto, there’s an overwhelming number of awesome events celebrating the glory of CanCon. Sometimes we find ourselves frozen by the abundance of choice.

Thanks TIFF for another great event, and we are sorry. We promise the turkey will pay.