TIFFinately go to the Toronto Film Festival: September 18th in Toronto

TIFF- The Toronto International Film Festival

Kristin and I claim the bed this time. Melkamu and Umair are out at a club so we figure it’s only fair, especially since it’s midnight, the family of 6 is still awake, and the lights are still on. So we sleep, and I sleep as I usually do, like a non-breathing lump… until Kristin nudges me at 6:57 in the morning and the two of us pull ourselves out of bed, throw on some clothes (Kristin is of course wearing her new hippy skirt) and head out the door to pick up Z. We know we have to pick up tickets at least one hour before our first movie “October” and traffic is slowing us down. 

On Bloor, we come to a stop pretty close to the theater, Kristin hops out of the car and runs in, while Z, who’s currently in the back gets out of the car, runs to the driver’s seat, jumps in, takes the wheel, and we drive off to look for parking. We find it, quite easily actually, and head out to meet up with Kristin. She got the tickets on time. Now we just need to wait, make sure Mike finds us, and get something for breakfast.

I grab some german chocolate coffee and sit down with the pair. Mike arrives after walking clear across town to get to us. We’re all recovering at this early hour, still waking up. The man next to us has a quart of milk on his table and there’s a woman at the coffee stand counter with an adorable golden-doodle that Kristin and I run up to and play with for a wee bit before strolling back, finishing our breakfasts, and heading up the escalator to TIFF movie 1, “October.”

“October”, oh “October”. Let me just say never watch this movie unless you’re already bored. Sure it has some funny moments like when the old man steals a wheelchair for his lover, and the premise only incites the impression that it will be an excellent film. I mean, wouldn’t you want to see a movie where a middle-aged curmudgeon of a man finds a baby, takes it in, and there’s an assortment of other peculiar characters that weave themselves into the movie with all of it leading up to the Peruvian Day of Miracles? I know I did…. and so did Kristin… and Z. Mike is the only one who didn’t have it on his TIFF movie list, and he’s the only one who rated it a 5 in the Cadillac People’s Choice Award. Epic fail of a movie. All I’m thinking at this point is, we should of gone to see “Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” and that hopefully, fingers crossed, the next couple of movies will be infinitely better.

I will say though, that it was apparently thought-provoking enough that the four of us can’t stop talking about it, trying to find the potential symbols, wondering if there was some sort of cultural component to the movie that we completely missed, and debating whether or not the woman who ended up taking in the baby was actually a good person. This continues pretty much all the way from the car, where I get my bags, to the Canadiana Backpackers Inn, where I’m staying the night with Mike. Although during a brief portion of that time we talk about the downfalls of other movies, and of course have to stop and take photos when we some beautifully painted leaves on the concrete ground. Color attracts us like honeysuckles attract hummingbirds.

After checking in and taking a moment to freshen up we find a dim sum place close by and eat there before moving towards the University of Toronto Campus to see movie #2, "Microphone," where Umair and Melkamu are going to meet us. Mike and I go in, Kristin and Z wait outside for the rest of the crew, and the movie starts. Z returns but it takes 10 more minutes before Kristin comes to the seats. The boys left late, were lost, and Kristin and them decide that they might as well not come.

Let me just say, that "Microphone" is so incredibly uplifting, and humorous, and human that if anyone ever has the opportunity to see it, they should, without a doubt, see it. It’s a pseudo non-fiction story about the underground music scene in Alexandria, Egypt. The soundtrack is amazing, the people are beautiful, and the story is phenomenal and presses the point that time isn’t linear. When we think back on things, it’s never in order. It’s scattered, with one memory or thought hopping to another. Then, when the movie stops, the director, screenwriter, other movie techies, and my new celebrity crush, Khaled Abol Naga, who is an absolutely gorgeous man, come on stage to answer questions about the film. Great experience. It definitely beats “October”.

We go outside and Melkamu and Umair are there. Slowly we head over to find food somewhere. It takes us awhile since we have to stop and use the bathroom, and stop to spin some spinning public art, and stop and take a photo of all six of us before we end up at a Lebanese kebab shop.

Melkamu, Umair, and Kristin eat while the rest of us enjoy their company. This is our last moment together before our two groups have to part ways… until goodness knows when.  Goodbye to the group of 3 Muslims, 2 Christians, and a Jew, now it’s just a 1:1:1 ratio of people following monotheistic religions.

Mike, Z, and I head out to find our own dinner and end up getting burgers close to our theater, right in front of the TIFF Lightbox.

It starts trickling rain right before we’re done. We head over to the movie theater were I went with Nate to watch the Bourne movie and Harry Potter back in 2007. We’re waiting in line for a while and Mike is wondering if we’re in the right line. We are, and finally end up in this huge, stadium-style theater to watch the Australian film “Wasted on the Young”. It’s actually a really good movie with some great swim team shots. Of course, that’s not what it’s about. just think of the movie “Brick”, it’s kind of like that and deals with the brutality of teenagers. In fact, no adults are actually shown throughout the entire film. It’s just high schoolers partying, doing drugs, drinking, and brutalizing one another while pressing home the point that it is often people acting as bystanders doing nothing that allows atrocities to continue.

“Wasted on the Young” is another thought-provoking film that takes us all the way from the theater, to Mike’s and my hostel, to Church St. where the final portion of our night commences.  Oh Church St., God I love Church St. Essentially it’s the LGBTQ friendly district and it has a lot of great bars, restaurants, shops, and of course is the area that Gay Pride happens in Toronto. The three of us bar hop to three different places, drinking and talking about life for the first half of the night… of course we also watch some drag queens dancing and lip-syncing… and then the dancing begins. This makes me realize how much fun I have dancing, especially when I’m with friends and letting loose, and just jumping and spinning from one place to another. We jump on the second floor stage at one place and it’s just the three of us dancing and singing along to the music until the bar closes around 3. As soon as we get downstairs, Z says a quick goodbye and catches a taxi back to his aunt’s house and Mike and I saunter sleepily back to the hostel. The two of us, the only ones left, agree to meet up at 9:30 the following morning and try to catch another TIFF movie before he catches his bus out of down. We’re in the journey’s dénouement.   

"Z, You've Tried on Leather Jackets There Before"- September 17th in Toronto

A Mural in Kensington Market.

After a camera flash goes off, waking me up, I sit up, glance over at Melkamu and Kristin sitting on the other couch and Kristin and I decide that regardless of what plans the family has today, we will be going to Kensington and downtown Toronto. I’m also craving Greek food, so I decide that we have to go to the Danforth and find a restaurant to eat at. First, we have to have our required breakfast at Auntie Suffi’s, make plans with everyone, and wait for everyone to get ready… which takes awhile. I’m not complaining, it’s just something that happens when a lot of people are involved. It happens allllllllllllllllllll the time in my family. Breakfast preparations haven’t even begun, and Kristin and I still haven’t heard from Z, so we decide that we can quickly drive over to his aunt’s house to find him before we have breakfast at Auntie Suffi’s. So, we scuttle downstairs, hop into the car and head to the address he gave us.

Arriving in front of a two-story apartment, we knock on the door.

“No freakin’ way!” Z greets us, smiling, hugging each of us in turn. “Come in.”

He goes upstairs and his aunt wants to feed us something. God I love people who feed me good food. We go upstairs and Z brings out a couple of plates of desserts and some chai. It’s all beyond music. Since Z isn’t quite ready to leave at this point, Kristin and I have decided that we should head back to the boys since our 10-minute escapade has turned into a 45- minute one. After our next breakfast, we’ll return, pick up Z and head out to Kensington.

We return for meal two, eat some eggs and toast, and kidnap the car for the day. Kristin and I pick up Z and drive onto the Danforth in search of a restaurant. Only problem is that there are soooo many options. We park in what looks like the middle of Greektown, see a fountain, and decide that it’s time to restage our Christian Rock band fountain photo.

2007 Christian Rock Band photo.

2010 Christian Rock Band photo.

It is unsuccessful. I blame this on Mike not being here to take the picture.

We step into a little store and Kristin finds some pants that Z and I decide makes her butt look lovely. Though, I think the pants she is wearing today, which are mine via my sister also look really nice on her. This is one thing I miss about not living with Kristin… sharing clothes and having an expanded wardrobe. The woman inside recommends that we eat at this upscale-restaurant-whose-name-I-can't-remember, or Pantheon. 

As we head to the restaurants, I see a store with a rhino sign.

Rhino sign!!!

I have to take a picture and go inside. They have these awesome bracelets made out of old water pipes. I think this is an awesomely innovative idea, something I need to add to my list of recyclable folk art that I need to research further.

After that brief tangent into a store, we end up at the recommended Pantheon and request to sit outside.  Mr. Grumplestilskin, our unpleasant waiter leads us outside and throws three menus onto a table. He is clearly not happy to be serving us. The next time he comes out we order three desserts: ice cream, honey cake, and baklava. All three are tasty but the service is not idyllic. Z jokingly blames it on Kristin wearing a hijab. Sometimes, you just have to make fun of stereotypes.

Kristin and Z having an intense conversation at Pantheon.

Now, it’s time to get ourselves  to Kensington. We drive down Gerard jamming out to music as we go, deciding that if we die now, at least we will die happy. Then, as per usual, the three of us start in on the subject of death and determine that it would be incredibly amusing if we wrote for obituaries a la Siskel and Ebert style and rated them with “two thumbs up” or other such ratings. Well, if we died car dancing in Toronto, smiles on our faces, and footage was captured, this would indeed by a two thumbs up death.

Z, feeling the music.

Kristin, doing the dance drive.

The road ahead, approaching Yonge & Dundas. 

Eventually we reach Kensington, Kensington with its hippy vibe, place where Mike, Kristin, Z, and I spend hours in 2007 singing karaoke outside a store. You know… “Kiss of a Rose”, “9 to 5”… classics.  Kristin made me promise the day before that if she sees a skirt she likes, I must force her to buy it so she doesn’t regret not doing so like she did three years ago. We go into store after store trying on clothes, browsing around, comparing prices. 

 Z in the sexy shirt with the neck up... looking evil.

Me helping Z fix the shirt collar. 

At one point, we go into a store and start dancing. The owner is outside on the stoop reading a book, then she walks in.

 Z busting a move.

Kristin dancing in the store.

“Uh… we’re just enjoying your music” we tell her before heading out. She just laughs. Z pauses to look at a red and bluish evening gown.

“This looks like something Snow White would wear, doesn’t it?”

Again, the owner laughs. “Maybe for a night on the town.”

Oh Z. I love your random comments.

In the end, Z and I end up buying these ridiculously comfy shirts. His has an octopus on it. One of mine has an elephant, and my hoodie has Buddha. They’re beautiful, huggable, and hella comfy. Now Z and I have matching shirts. Yipee! As we’re buying them, Kristin comes in and says we need to come with her right away to the store where she has found a skirt. Apparently there is a man inside who is declaring that the reason racism exists is because of aliens. We don’t make it on time, but Kristin buys a beautiful green hippy wrap skirt that she loves, and I love. It’s perfect for her.

Evening is approaching so we take Z up to Bloor St. so he can catch a ride with his cousin to go to Jama’at Khana. Kristin and I, on the other hand, plan on meeting up with Mike and going to dinner. We head to the bus station, grab a snack, and stroll back and forth, arm-in-arm, checking each bus for our beloved Mike.

A sign pointing us in the direction of the taxis... and oh how official it looks. 

“If Mike is on the bus, and he sees us, he’ll wave frantically” Kristin assuredly tells me.

“You’re right, he will.”

Sure enough, after a few more busses pass through, I stare at someone who might be Mike before glancing someone waving out of the corner of my eye. Behold, Mike has arrived. He gets off the bus, and the joy of seeing each other after months, escapes all of us. 

 The Kristin & Mike hug. 

The Mike & Camila hug. 

As we walk towards the hostel he is staying at, he tells us about his awesome new backpack. 

Mike telling us about his backpack. 

It is indeed quite awesome and perfect for a backpacker, which is something he wants to start doing. This is just the trial run. After checking into the Canadiana Backpackers Inn, a hostel I’ll be staying at with Mike the following night, we head to King St. and end up at Hey Lucy where Mike and I split some wine and Kristin and I split some nachos and talk about life, things we’re hoping to accomplish- the general catch-up session if you will.

 Me and Mike on the Hey Lucy patio. 

Kristin sipping water at Hey Lucy. 

After paying our bill, Mike walks us part of the way to our parked car. Us girls split ways with Mike, ready to hit the hay since we’re going to have to rise and shine with the sun to begin our TIFFing (our movie watching endeavors).  

The place we parted ways for the day. 

Shnitzel... With Noodles- The Prequel and Day 1 in Toronto

Toronto! City I love. City of Kensington Market, Lake Ontario, Church St., diversity, and… the Toronto International Film Festival. Oh yes, the Toronto International Film Festival- TIFF. If you look on “The Plan,” it is there as one of my life list items. Last weekend I spent several days in Toronto and got to experience a portion of TIFF. It was riveting!

The Toronto Trip Conception

This summer, my friends Kristin, Mike, Z, and I begin toying with the idea of traveling to Toronto. The four of us have all been there as a group for a few days the summer of 2007. I was working with Free The Children at the time and they came to visit me. That being said, Toronto already holds a permanent place in each of our little spirits filled with fun memories and is a location we all wish to journey to again. At the onset of this conversation, I mention the idea of us waiting until summer passes and going during TIFF instead. At the time I honestly don’t think it will actually end up working out, but one-by-one we each buy our tickets, have a g-mail conference chat (I mean, really, we are quite serious in planning this), and pick out movies that we all want to see.

The Arrival

With this first step in place, on the 15^th of this lovely month, I bus it down to the Hartford bus station and catch a Greyhound to NYC. Fortunately my bus isn’t late pulling into Port Authority and I’m quickly able to drag Big Blue, my trusty suitcase, over to Penn Station where I hop on a Megabus that drives straight to Toronto. It is astonishingly a great travel experience. I get to sleep straight through, work on the computer (the Megabus is not only inexpensive, it has free wireless which makes it awesome), and arrive intact with all my bags. This is saying something since I have a tendency to miss my transportation, lose my baggage, be severely delayed, be searched, and sleep in sketchy-ass stations. The only problem is, the bus is running late, neither my ride, Kristin, or I have phones, and I don’t really have any way of getting a hold of her. However, Kristin is phenomenal and as soon as I got off the bus to look for my suitcase, I feel myself enveloped in a huge hug. Immediately the chitchat, catching up, and soul smiling begins. I’ve just got to say, it’s really great when you can see someone you love after over a year and feel like you’ve never been away from them because being together just seems so normal. 

Being that my bus is late, Kristin declares that we should pick up her husband Umair’s friend Melkamu from the hostel he is staying in rather than driving all the way out to NE Toronto, back to the downtown area, and back to NE Toronto in the next hour. Of course this makes sense to me, so we head towards King and Spadina to the Global Village Backpackers Inn. 

The Global Backpackers Inn

Rain is pouring onto the streets, so we pull up right in front of the hostel, put on our blinkers, and Kristin goes inside to retrieve Melkamu. After about 10 minutes, she returns alone.

“You’re going to have to sneak in and get him,” she tells me. Apparently when she went to the front desk, the woman in charge told her that no, she could not go upstairs and retrieve Melkamu and no, she would not go upstairs to wake him up. However, Kristin could leave a message for him on the bulletin board which of course defeats the whole purpose of picking him up. Oh, and the woman also asks Kristin how to spell his name to which she replies, “Do you think I know how to spell Melkamu? …How many Melkamu’s do you think are here?!” So, she leaves a note, sticks it on the bulletin board and returns to the car.

We sit for awhile munching on trail mix, cucumbers, and carrots, and she gives me  a description of Melkamu and the layout of the place saying, “If you just walk past the front desk and past the computers, there might be a door that goes up to the rooms.”

Sigh. “If Z was here, he would totally do this”. Alas, he will not be arriving until later in the evening. I pull together some Z courage, tell myself that at least it will make for a good story and walk into the place. I walk straight past the front desk and conspicuously peer around every corner looking for a door that leads in the upward direction. No doors are present, so I head towards the entrance and open the door that says “Upstairs to Rooms” right by the front desk and go up. Success. I’m one step closer to being there. Then I try to open the door that goes to the next floor and it is secured with a magnetic lock that you need a card for. After a few minutes, a couple of girls come down and I sneak past them and get to room 108. Knocking the door, a shirtless, burly, Russian-Irish-looking fellow opens the door.

“Hello, is Melkamu here?” I hesitantly ask while a head with dreads pops up from one of the bottom bunks and replies, “Yep, that’s me.”

“Hi, I’m Camila. I’m friends with Kristin and Umair and I was sent to get you. We’re here to pick you up and we’re waiting downstairs.”

Poor guy has never met me before in his life. I could easily be here to kidnap him but he nonchalantly responds: “All right, I’ll be down there in a minute.”

I return to the car, hop in, and tell Kristin that the mission has been a success. It takes a few minutes, but Melkamu comes down, gets in, and we head to the Don Valley Parkway to get to Umair’s Auntie’s house. It’s about 10am when we arrive and Auntie Suffi makes us eggs and toast for breakfast, and we bumble around for several hours before finally heading to the door to get out into the Canadian air.

First stop is… some mall close to their house. Umair’s uncle has to pick up some meat and we end up going with them. Fortunately they’ve got some cool things in the place like bins of bulk food and a little shop with Pakistani clothes which is beautiful. Kristin buys a couple of head coverings, Umair buys another decoration for the rearview mirror, and I look at the lovely clothes. After getting a couple of samosas and some coffee, we part ways with the Uncle and head downtown parking in the entertainment district.

Kristin and the bins of food in the mall. 

Over the next several hours, Umair, Melkamu, Kristin and I walk aimlessly around the city, stop to get drinks at Starbucks (where we get in trouble for taking a picture inside the store), take picture after ridiculous picture, and just have an hilarious time posing with statues. 

Me, Kristin, & Melkamu "running" with the CN Tower looming above us.

Umair & Melkamu strolling with Starbucks.

Kristin & I amidst the foliage on University Ave. 

Mischievous Kristin.

Melkamu & Umair on University Ave.

Kristin's epic X-men pose.

Me & Kristin posing with armless statues.

Oh, and of course on University of Avenue, we ran into some statues that we took pictures with in 2007… so we had to do it again.

Mike, Kristin, & I with the statues in 2007.

Kristin & I with the statues on September 16, 2010.

At one point, we’re standing in front of a fountain on University Ave. and want to take a picture of the four of us as part of the fountain with the water coming out of our mouths. We ask a lady if she’d be willing to take our photo.


“It might take awhile,” Kristin tells her, “we kind of want a certain setup with us looking like we’re part of the fountain with the water coming from our mouths." 


The woman is a great sport about it, and even though it’s not exactly what we want, it’s fun having a stranger take part in our ridiculousness. 

The failed Umair, Camila, Kristin, & Melkamu fountain.

Right after that, heading towards the Parliament building, Kristin and I invent a lovely little song called “Rat of the Sky.” It’s about pigeons and goes like this:

“Rat of the sky, rat of the sky, rat of the rat of the rat of the sky”

and is sung while hopping on one foot like a one-legged pigeon. There are also meant to be big-breasted female pigeons singing in the background in operatic voices. Kristin and I sing this, hopping around, and people just sort of stare at us with amused expressions.

At Parliament, for some reason, Kristin and I begin singing “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes…” from The Sound of Music, which is, by the way, one of the most amazing movies ever.

“What’s shnitzel?” I ask her.

“I think it’s dumplings,” she replies.

This conversation continues as I pass a yellow “Slow” sign that has been etched with other words.

“Make... love.... slowly…” I read.

“With noodles...?!” Kristin glances at me in awe, thinking that I’m telling her that shnitzel means to make love slowly. This begins to be one of the jokes of the weekend. “So, you wanna schnitzel some time?” and “I like to start my day off with some TIFF and schnitzel…”

Editor's Note: Schnitzel is in fact breaded meat. 

It’s turning into late afternoon, so we decide to walk eastward towards Yonge and head south on Dundas to the Eaton Centre. The four of us decide to all might up in 45 minutes and Kristin and I split up from the boys to do a little clothes looking.

“Do you have a feeling that something’s going to go wrong” Kristin asks me.

“You mean with us all meeting back up?”

“Yeah.”

“Probably, none of us have phones or watches, and we all kind of have a tendency to be late.”

“And they might not be able to find our meet up place again.”

Either way, we know it’ll end up working out, so we keep looking, decide that it’s best not to buy anything until we get to Kensington, and we go back to meet the boys who are waiting for us. No problems there. We head back to the apartment and eat some Biriyani, spicy meat, and na’an before looking online for a place for Melkamu to stay the night and see if Z has written to us about meeting up in the morning. After a couple of hours, we still haven’t found anything, so us girls sleep on the couches, the boys take the bedroom, and we decide to check in on Z again in the morning.