Normally, I do not slow down my car when I pass a traffic accident, or road-side drunken scuffle. But I would be lying if the churlish tone of this Onion A.V. Club article, out of their Toronto chapter, didn’t catch my eye for its vaguely hipster-ish tone. The article questions whether or not programming quality at Toronto Rep cinemas has declined, or become more ‘pandering,’ and then goes out to draw battle lines between the Toronto Underground Cinema and TIFF Bell Lightbox; with the concrete and glass Lightbox being a corporate Goliath and the basement Underground being David.
“The Lightbox tends to get a bad rap from people who are suspicious of its sleek, corporate upholstery, of its cumbersome brand name, and the fact that there’s a condo perched on top of it. More relevantly, there’s the criticism that the Lightbox tends to poach on the wistful, nostalgic programming that keeps places like the Underground afloat. As much as the Lightbox prides itself on its eclectic programming purview, stuff like its Back To The ’80s program seems downright predatory. And while we love their ongoing Nicolas Cage retrospective (if only because it gives us an excuse to write 1,000-plus words on Nicolas Cage every week), a “midnight series” that kicks off at 10 p.m. seems to speak to a certain fogeyishness that pervades many of the building’s attempts to capture audiences outside of its better-heeled crowd of card carrying patrons of the arts.”
Film goers should perhaps count blessings that there is a plethora of operating repertory houses in this city that allows this sort of territorial pissing match to exist. And even if there is some overlap hither an yon, there is a lot of great, exotic, classic and yes, safe, rep-house programming going on in this city. Too much for even the most dedicated cinephile to keep up with. I am guessing that the author, local film critic John Semley, is going for an inquisitive piece (i.e. “lets just throw this out there”) but it comes across far more to these eyes like a facile accusation.
I thought I’d let folks weigh in, and let me know if this sort of imaginary or real ‘turf war’ happens in your fair city.
Turf War
Shit just got real.
The toddler is keeping me busy and I am not getting out nearly as much as before, but I would say since the Lightbox graced our city I spend about 50% of my theater-going money to it, and the last film I saw in a Rep Cinema was…
well does Carlton count? Otherwise, years ago.
That article reminds me of the sort of hipsters who hate bands when they strike it big. Toronto somehow manages to keep people coming out to see movies they could buy on dvd for less than the cost of admission…and this twerp is grumbling about where it’s happening.
I’m not 100% sure it is full on malicious, but there is a definite forest for the trees sort of issue going on with that mentality.
I don’t know that our rep cinemas out here have much of a turf war going on – they seem to program with enough different focuses that I don’t see a lot of overlap. I know in the first-run arthouse world, though, the Laemmle art cinema chain has been losing a lot of ground (and recently had to sell one of their major locations) because newer, bigger, premium theatres like Arclight are showing a lot of the films that Laemmle traditionally would’ve. And I can’t deny that going to Arclight is a much better experience most of the time than going to Laemmle – even if I can imagine Semley making similar claims against its “sleek, corporate upholstery.”
My relationship with rep cinemas is complicated right now, purely because I’m unemployed right now and don’t have a steady income.
I’m a dedicated TIFF volunteer (been involved since 2006, year-round since 2010) and I receive a ticket voucher for every shift that I do (typically once a week). As such, it’s personally more appealing for me to see a film for free at the Lightbox than pay elsewhere. Plus, it’s one of the most comfortable and technically-sound cinemas in the city.
That said, I absolutely LOVE the Toronto Underground and I try to go to it whenever it fits into my schedule and budget (I typically show up whenever they have a free screening).
Toronto is kinda crazy at the moment:
Even sadder is the censorship of the GOON posters in Toronto at the moment: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/toronto-pulls-lewd-street-posters-for-hockey-comedy-goon/article2346758/
And even sadder still, the shut-down of Reg Hartt’s Cineforum due to some sort of personal vendetta with a bike-courier company and their own poster-war going on in the city right now.
http://reghartt.ca/cineforum/
(Poor Reg Hartt. I have attended his hyperbolic lectures (accompanied by Kid A Dracula, or banned Betty Boop cartoons) a couple times, and while I don’t generally agree with his often aggressive monologues prior to the screenings which in my experiences have been adults only due to the nature of what he is showing. Cineforum is the only ‘cinema’ where you can bring in your own bottle of wine and drink it; also the only cinema where the projectionist (Hartt) stops his own movies frequently to lecture about one thing or another. I do very much dig the experience that is CINEFORUM, one of the most interesting cinema experiences in Toronto. Sad his (and others) drama does this sort of crap to one of Toronto’s more unusual institutions.)
A pox on both of them though I do recognize Jamie Gillis as far worse.
BOTH of them insist on putting up 4 to 6 posters on every available surface to monopolize any public (and private) space. BOTH of them go out of their way to poster over other posters even when there is lots of available space. They don’t seem to care if the other posters are about community meetings or a notice about a lost pet. And I have seen both Reg Hartt and “Dr.” Jamie do this for over a decade.
“Dr.” Jamie is nothing but a street thug and I am surprised that the Toronto Police have not put him in jail. I am also surprised that Canada Revenue have not gone after him with one of his owner employees admitting Jamie prefers to “deal in cash so there are no receipts”.