Isabella Rossellini and her anatomically correct lessons in fish sex are coming to the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Meanwhile, the festival also said yesterday that Neil Young and Joan Baez will be among those making appearances as part of the festival's program of events outside the confines of the cinema.
Rossellini will be in town with more of her straight-faced Green Porno shorts, which have been popular at various film festivals. This time, the focus will be on marine copulation, as the actress-filmmaker dons crude wildlife costumes in the films and simulates the mating practices of different species. This second series of Green Porno pieces will be projected as part of an art installation, complete with large paper models of crustacean phalluses, at the Royal Ontario Museum. Rossellini will also attend a theatre screening of her films with a marine biologist.
It's all part of the festival's Future Projections presentations, featuring a number of film-based art installations.
Other works include In a City by celebrated Canadian filmmaker, artist and photographer Mark Lewis. Lewis's installations –featuring a minimalist approach to showing urban landscapes and glimpses into art history – are currently at the Venice Biennale and will be making their North American premiere during TIFF at the University of Toronto's Hart House.
The whole idea behind Future Projections is “to expand the traditional definition of film,” said Noel Cowan, artistic director of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the new home for the festival's year-round programs that is still under construction.
Filmmaker-actor Don McKellar's series of cellphone-recorded videos from distant lovers will be shown at the Stephen Bulger Gallery. Also presented will be Adam Pendleton's video mash-up between rehearsal footage of the art-rock band Deerhoof and Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 film Sympathy for the Devil featuring the Rolling Stones and the Black Panthers, to be shown at Yonge-Dundas Square.
The square will also be the centre for the festival's various music and concert films, including the North American premiere of The Neil Young Trunk Show from director Jonathan Demme. Young himself is slated to make an appearance at the public screening on Sept. 14. On Sept. 18, the world premiere of American Masters – Joan Baez will include a live concert by the folk legend.
Other notable appearances include a reading by writer and poet Sapphire, whose novel Push is the basis for a major film produced in part by Oprah Winfrey, which will be shown at the festival. And director George Romero, the godfather of zombie filmmaking, will attend a free screening of his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead .
In addition, a series of famous concert and music films, from Woodstock to Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man , will each be preceded by a film from the City Sonic series. These shorts feature well-known, contemporary Toronto musicians revealing their intimate ties with specific night clubs or various other city locales.
