Europe at Crossroads: a 'short' screening August 29, 2008

After one year of activity, ToRo Arts Group in collaboration with the Hart House Film Board unveils a free screening showcasing a redefined multi-regional and multi-national approach to delivering national cinema to a consortium of local communities and diasporas.

Escaping from a “1989 past” was a tumultuous project for some of the concerned parties and, for Romania, Georgia, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and Hungary, their own idiosyncrasies and historical mosaic provided the cultural impetuses from which their national cinemas departed in a multiplicity of trajectories. As per usual, there exists a bonding element, a certain “je-ne-sais-quoi,” which becomes eventually a manifestation of each country’s pious ethos, a celebration of the dialectic between art and reality. Call them cultural quirks; label them as new perspectives; criticize them as post-Soviet miserabilism. Yet they each lend them-selves to a universal point of familiarity which, regardless of cinematic genre or style, reflecting a liberatory “joie du vivre.”

Among some of the award-winning shorts included in the program are Graffiti (Georgia), a “Grand Prix” winner at the 2007 Aye Aye International Film Festival, Pal/Secam (Russia), win-ner of “Best Film” at the 2008 Columbia University Film Festival and Waves (Romania), a “Golden Leopard” winner for best short at the 2007 Locarno International Film Festival. Addi-tional entries include What do I know (Bosnia and Herzegovina), A Day’s Work (Czech Re-public), and When the Lights Go Out (Moldova), as well as Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Romania).

Scheduled to take place at the Hart House inner quad (located on the University of Toronto cam-
pus) on August 29th at 7:30PM, this free event will include a cash-only bar and barbeque, while
Dizzytall (www.vuscan.info), a Toronto-based musician, will provide the pre-screening auditory entertainment. Seating capacity is limited to 200 guests; the ToRo Arts Group asks that you ar-
rive early to ensure participation.

NOTE: If adverse weather conditions prevent the ToRo Arts Group from hosting the above
screening outdoors, the event will be relocated to an appropriate room inside the Hart House
complex.

The ToRo Team.

Official Website: http://toroartsgroup.com/