The Dichotomy of Toronto Film Fans

The 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is now but a memory. The hundreds that jammed the theatres, restaurants, and coffee bars have now returned to their normal life.

Having witnessed sell out shows and long lineups for "rush" seats, something occurred to me while attending a couple of post-Fest screenings.

Granted, this is just an observation, but it is something I want to get off my chest.

There seems to be a dichotomy amongst Toronto film fans. Like vampires, they seem to come out only for a certain period of time (i.e. ten days in September). Perhaps it's just me, but I recently attended a Saturday night screening of Summer Hours at a midtown theatre, where the audience amounted to a total of 12 people!

A week or so later, I took in a screening of Third, a rarely seen Polish film that ended a mini Polish Film Festival at the Revue Cinema. Besides myself, there were five other people in the audience. Now, prior to this film, there was a screening of Andrzej Wajda's Katyn, the 2007 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film. By the looks of the crowd streaming out after, there appeared to be a good turn out for this.

But for the most part, where are all those people that jammed festival theatres, dying to see those rarely-screened-in-Toronto films? If this is the norm the rest of the year, I can understand why theatres are reluctant to screen anything other than Hollywood fare.

Or, is it just me? Did I just happen to choose the wrong time or film to see? I invite your comments on this. Do Toronto film fans not support screenings the other 355 days of the year?

Be that as it may, I shall perceive the flipside of all of this as benefit. With a limited number of patrons, I have no problems finding the perfect seat.