Our first stop for the day was to view the film Beauty And The Bloodshed.
FILMMAKER LAURA POITRAS CHRONICLES THE LIFE AND WORK OF FAMED ARTIST NAN GOLDIN, INCLUDING HER PROTESTS AGAINST THE SACKLER FAMILY AND THEIR COMPANY PURDUE PHARMA, MAKER OF OXYCONTIN.
The majority of people who’ve been affected directly or indecently by drug addiction is a long and troubling history. Beauty and the Bloodshed is a documentary film which explores the career of artist Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family and their pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic’s insurmountable death toll.
Filmmaker Poitras started filming three years ago as Goldin was protesting against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. For Goldin, the crusade was deeply personal because she became addicted soon after being prescribed the drug. Her dependency lasted several years, and she narrowly escaped being one of the half million Americans who have died from opioid overdoses. It’s doubly personal because Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, have used the billions in profits by donating to art museums including those that collect Goldin’s work.
We watch her lead the activist group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (P.A.I.N.) to hold demonstrations at the Met, Guggenheim, and Louvre. Remarkably, the galvanizing campaign has real consequences. Protesting has been around for decades, and the tactics used by the group of P.A.I.N. was effective and monumental. Empty Plastic prescription bottles, prescription leaflets for Oxycontin and blood on fake dollar bills to name a few of methods to get their message across.
Goldin reflects on her history. We learn the stories behind her iconic pictures and her larger-than-life late friends such as actor Cookie Mueller and artist-activist David Wojnarowicz. A looming figure is Nan’s older sister Barbara whose nonconformism and sexual openness in the early 1960s caused her parents to have her institutionalized, leading to her suicide as a teenager. Decades later, Nan uncovers a psychiatric report written about Barbara that contains the haunting phrase that gives this film its title: “she sees the future and all the beauty and the bloodshed.”
Next we rushed out of the theatre to be on time for the next screener for the day.
TIFF22-Moving On
A delightful revenge comedy, despite a couple of shocking revelations, with wonderful performances by Jane Fonda, as Claire, and Lily Tomlin as Evvie, two long estranged pals, whose close friend, Joyce, has just passed away. While attending the funeral, Claire declares to the widower, husband of her deceased close friend, Howard (Malcolm McDowell), that she will kill hm. What ensues is an entertaining display of female camaraderie, and ultimately, justice.
Our final screener for the day/night was next and we leisurely walked to our next destination.
TIFF22-Prisoner’s Daughter
A dramatic depiction of the trials and tribulations of a Prisoner’s Daughter, Maxine, expertly portrayed by
Kate Beckinsale, and her dysfunctional family when she unexpectedly gets reunited with her long-estranged terminally-ill convict father, Max, portrayed by Brian Cox.
With a deadbeat addict husband, Maxine, a single mom with a young epileptic son, struggles with daily life until she agrees to Max living in her house. However, even with his assistance and desire for redemption, her life does not continue without problems.
The Ontario Creates was next and they were hosting its hero TIFF event, Celebrate Ontario! Celebrate Ontario is a key international industry networking event with a focus on the Ontario funded films screening at this year’s festival at The Carlu.
Our next stop was the Supper Suite at Marbl. There were a variety of red carpet exclusive events and engaging experiences at this event. They included doing a combination of cocktail parties, industry-networking events, press junkets, and the Collider.com media studio.
Here were the scheduled guests:Friday, Sept. 9: Premiere party for BABY RUBYstarring Noémie Merlant, Kit Harington, Meredith Hagner, Jayne Atkinson,and Writer/Director, Bess Wohl.
Friday, Sept. 9: Premiere party for SUSIE SEARCHES starring Kiersey Clemons, Alex Wolff, Jim Gaffigan, Ken Marino, and Writer/Director, Sophie Kargman. Then we departed the red carpet to the next event.
The final event for day#2 was an invitation to Cibo Wine Bar for the afterparty for ROSIE. Luckily, it was directly across the street from Marbl. This film is about family, love and misfits, ROSIE tells the story of a young, orphaned, Indigenous girl who is forced to live with her reluctant, street-smart Aunty Fred (Frédérique). Rosie is thrust into the fringes of 1980’s Montréal into the care of Fred, who just lost her job, is on the verge of eviction, and who looks and sounds nothing like her.
Fred, an artist who creates art from found and discarded objects or other peoples’ trash, introduces Rosie to her two best friends Flo and Mo, glamorous, gender-bending street workers. In the end, Rosie transforms the lives of these colourful characters and finds love, acceptance, and a true HOME with her new chosen family of glittering outsiders. Cast: Mélanie Bray, Keris Hope Hill, Constant Bernard, Alex Trahan, Josée Young, Brandon Oakes, Jocelyne Zucco, Arlen Aguayo Stewart.
Day#2 was very eventful with the great screeners, the red carpet and afterparty. We would be up real early for Day#3
September
23
BKonthescene 