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Oct. 17 - Oct. 22, 2004 |
The future of the Toronto film festival
Event's new co-director Noah Cowan injects cool energy in world event with refreshing views
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2004-09-12
When the Toronto International Film Festival announced earlier this year that Noah Cowan would become the company's new co-director, there was a sigh of relief within the Toronto film community. Having worked with the festival, first as an intern and then as a programmer, since 1981, the boyish Cowan was the obvious successor to festival director Piers Handling. But when Cowan left the festival in 2001 to devote more attention to his film distribution company, Cowboy Pictures, there were no worthy contenders left for that position.
While at the festival Cowan co-founded the popular Midnight Madness programme, curated "India Now!" (with David Overbey), "New Beat of Japan" and the Kiyoshi Kurosawa Director's Spotlight. His influence at the festival is reverberating to this day.
On a personal note, this scribe has been working with Cowan, the film writer and friend, since 1987, and has learned to value the man's knowledge and love of the media.
Tandem talked to Noah Cowan about this year's festival and his new role as co-director.
As co-director, how much input does Piers Handling actually have in this festival?
"None at all. There has been a palace coup, we have him locked in the cellar (laughing). We actually work really closely together. As you know we have been friends for over a dozen years and we have always worked really closely, even when I wasn't here we would talk over the phone about various initiatives and what have you. We see eye to eye, aesthetically and in just about everything that happens here. We each have our own soft spots in cinema. He is really an expert and passionate about European masters and the great traditions of European cinema. My tastes are more peripatetic, my programming here has gone from midnight to Asia, to American independence and onwards. So it is a nice balance, a successful marriage of aesthetics, I would say."
There has been speculation that with your appointment the festival is going to go back to its more artsy roots versus the big Hollywood spectacle that it has become.
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