Just for Cats:
Internet Cat Video Film Festival @ TIFF Bell Lightbox
In partnership with
the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies
April 17th 7:30
and 9 p.m.
Tickets on Sale Wednesday March 26 for second showing.
Tickets on Sale Wednesday March 26 for second showing.
Magali Simard,
Film Programmes Manager at TIFF Bell Lightbox will host the event.
Magali, first things
first, are you a cat person?
Oh my God, so much, at heart.
It’s a fundraiser and spirit of awe and you can laugh and
clap with 500 people. Normally we watch cat videos at home alone or at the desk
for five minutes at lunch, as a solo activity while eating. But this is sanctioned and it’s in a gorgeous
cinema and TIFF shows its humane, fun side and it has a purpose to aid cats.
Prime Minister
Harper’s wife Laureen is attending. Does she have a special interest?
Harper is a cat activist and cat foster mom so I reached out off the cuff and put
her on our radar. She has never been
officially at TIFF to present, and I knew she’s a cat activist. When I was living in Gatineau I noticed that
there was a cat shelter beside Parliament Hill and when her husband was elected
Prime Minster she took over that thing.
I reached out to her and she said she would totally make it work. She will take an hour out of her day to come
to Toronto just to do this. We are so
happy and she really wants to be introduced cat activist.
And you can adopt a
cat right at the theatre, too!
In the Lightbox lobby there will be an adopt-a-thon. There
is going to be a red carpet and the media will be their taking pictures and the
Humane Society will bring in cats for adoption and people can interact with
them and get information. If they are
interested in adoption they can sign up.
Having live cats livens up the whole event. It’s something I never thought I’d be able to
due to restrictions but it’s happening. There will also be live music and photo opps
and a cat cut-out. We have had so much
interest we were sold out so we are offering a second screening.
Did you meet any resistance to the idea of a cat festival? TIFF is usually pretty serious about film art.
I think I had to do a tiny bit of convincing. The core of
our staff supports the cats and people have asked me if there will be a Dog
Festival. No! My devotion is pure for
the felines. While we’re doing this we’re just closing the Pasolini retrospective
and really, that’s something that’s something we strive to do - goofier and funnier
things through the year. We have sig-a-logs for Grease and The Sound of
Music. It will bring a lot of people who
aren’t accustomed to seeing Pasolini, and we’re there to celebrate all art
onscreen and celebrate it in all its forms.
We thought it would be fun to do it before Easter vacation, the Thursday
night before.
Cats through social
media have experienced popularity like we haven’t seen since Egypt. Why is the
time right?
I don’t know, it’s certainly due to the clips online, the
fact that we can exchange these things in a nano second, 2000 more a year than
normally, that’s certainly a part of it and the sense of humour on the internet.
Most of what you send your friends is funny or if it’s serious it’s political.
Both are excellent subjects. Cats and
sex just add more interest. I can’t pinpoint when it became as intense with
cats, maybe three years ago. Then came
the celebrity cats which was bizarre. Celebrity cats have sponsorships with big
companies. Grumpy Cat has a deal with
Friskies and Lil Bub and Henri the existential cat have actual sponsorships and
owners are banking on this. They raise money for charity and its good business,
and business is good. I was hoping we could get celebrity cats but flying them
in isn’t good, they should be just enjoying living.
The reel is 75 minutes long, joy of joys! There are bunch of
intros and then we’ll get to the reel. Sex and cats are the internet’s most
popular searches but what about dogs? Dogs
are family member and true blue whereas a cat’s appeal is weird, they can be
totally vicious and unpredictable and dogs are simple and loving and they won’t
turn on you. But cats are just bizarre
and have minds of their own. Dating back to Egyptian days, they have a bizarre
aura and always try to dominate something in general and whether they fail or
win, they will always be asserting their dominance.
That will be so much
fun!
For a full hour we’ll experience humour and heartwarming
moments and to watch with 500 people who will never be silent, will be moving
and funny. Cynical and cave people and
earnest people are in on this. It
reaches everyone. One of the staff here
at Lightbox has a phobia of cats so I will definitely make sure she goes and
lock her in the theatre!
The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies purchased the
reel outright for Canada and they are bookings the festival, they already have
nine dates and by now they should have more.
It is right to launch here at TIFF, and we had wonderful discussions and
we thought we could give them a launch that would pay off.
No comments:
Post a Comment