By Phillip Maciel

White sand between toes. The sun beaming down on a warmed, glowing face. A cool, gentle breeze blowing off the nearby ocean. The inevitability of retirement prompts images of the most relaxing of possibilities, where freedom is finally complete.

Serial Number One: The First IMAX Projector - Courtesy Shirley Hughes

They probably don’t imagine being locked away in a dark, musty warehouse, wrapped up and sitting on a pallet.

Serial Number One, the very first IMAX projector in history, has such a fate. It’s probably for the best – beach sand would likely disagree with its machinery. But there’s good news. “We took the projector out in a way to preserve the machine, so it took us a little longer, and cost us a little more, but we didn’t chop it up into little bits and carry it out the door,” says Mike Hazelton, the manager of attractions at Ontario Place.

The theme park, one of Toronto’s most popular attractions, is home to the Cinesphere, which has housed Number One since 1971. At that time, Ontario Place could brag about being the only location in the world with a permanent installation of an IMAX projector. If you wanted to see an IMAX movie, you had to go to Toronto; there was no other option.

The projector had impressed audiences a year earlier in Osaka, Japan, where IMAX was introduced to the world by a group of Canadian filmmakers.

The basic idea started with projecting regular 35mm film on a 360-degree screen for an unparalleled sense of depth. Instead of using various slide projectors for all the screens necessary to get that 360-degree effect, IMAX movies use 70mm film, much larger than the normal 35mm, in order to put all of those images onto one filmstrip.

Tiger Child, the very first IMAX film, played for six months at Expo ‘70 in Japan. After that, Number One was moved to Toronto’s Cinesphere, which offers the biggest cinema screen in North America.

Hazelton, who has been with Ontario Place since 2004, explains, “because it was a one of a kind technology, everything about IMAX happened here.” Everything, from making the movies to editing and right down to mixing the soundtrack, was done using Number One in Toronto – there was no number two.

No one knows this better than the Cinesphere’s current projectionist, Dave Callaghan Jr. He projected Number One’s final film, North of Superior, in December 2010. It was a sentimental note for Number One to go out on, given that Callaghan’s father, the late David Sr., ran the same film using the same machine almost 40 years earlier on opening night.

Around that same time, Callaghan Jr. was already learning the trade, having spent so much time in theatres. “When everyone else is going out for entertainment, that’s when a projectionist goes to work,” he says. “I’d be home from school and my father was always working. So in a sense, in order to see my father, I would go to work to see him.”

Callaghan Jr., now 58 years of age, is still projecting. It’s delicate work – once a projector starts up, the film goes at an incredibly high rate of speed. One wrong move and the damage could be disastrous.

[pullquote]“To continue to be relevant 40 years after we started, we need to have access to the latest film products that are coming out there.”
-Mike Hazleton, manager of attractions[/pullquote]

But it seems Number One was an extremely trustworthy and gentle machine. “There are instances where prints can literally be damaged before they get through their first weekend. With the IMAX projector, you were hard-pressed to tell exactly how long a print had been run,” Callaghan says.

Still, Number One isn’t the same machine it once was. The image quality was still impeccable, but Number One was constantly being modified in order for it to keep up with the times. The lamp house was changed to improve efficiency and brightness. A new rotor allowed for faster reel speeds that could play double the frames per second – a modification that was only ever made to a select few projectors in order to play high definition. “Because it was a work in progress, especially in the first ten years, that thing changed dramatically,” Hazelton says. “It’s probably 50 per cent the same as what the machine sort of ran like when it was originally put in.”

Perhaps most important to contemporary audiences, Number One went from being able to only play films around 20 minutes long to feature-length films. After learning to raise reels above the other and overlap them, “they found a way to run films up to two and a half hours long, so we could run Avatar or even the Harry Potters,” Callaghan says.

The old adage ‘out with the old, in with the new’ seems fitting for Number One’s 40-year tale. There are bigger and better things for the Cinesphere, and Hazelton admits, “to continue to be relevant 40 years after we started, we need to have access to the latest film products that are coming out there. IMAX 3-D and 3-D film in general is obviously at the forefront right now, so for us to have access to that inventory and catalogue of films, we need to go in that direction.”

In early February, Jennifer Kerr, media relations manager at the Cinesphere, told Fine Cut they have a 1.8 million dollar budget for renovations this year and plan to purchase a new IMAX film projector with 3-D capabilities. They also want to clean the outside of the Cinesphere, something that hasn’t been done since Number One was first installed. “Then we’re doing all new seating, a new lobby, and a new screen,” added Kerr, all in hopes of being ready to open for the May 2011 long weekend.

With a new projector taking its place, Hazelton says there are options for Number One’s future, but nothing’s been determined. Callaghan wants the projector in some sort of museum, perhaps even on display at Ontario Place itself. Number One will simply have to wait to find out what kind of retirement plan it’s been given.

While the Cinesphere remains under renovation, Callaghan has been projecting films at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The equipment he’s using is newer, the setting much jazzier, but praise for Number One seems to flow naturally for him. “There’s very little that you can say on an engineering level – and just in practice as a projectionist – that was not just absolutely first rate about the IMAX projector, even going back to the first day.”

It seems as though Callaghan and Number One’s histories are intertwined. Now Callaghan is looking on as his partner exits stage left, but the Cinesphere will always be the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre, and Number One will always be the world’s first IMAX projector. “I feel extremely fortunate that I can work at an IMAX booth, and it’s a presentation second to none,” says Callaghan sentimentally of his time spent with Number One. This is the end of a legacy, both for the Callaghans and the IMAX technology. Let’s just hope Number One can finally find its own version of that warm and sunny beach.

Porn TV pioneer Anne-Marie Losique poses for a photoshoot – Photo courtesy IDI Productions

By Jordan Whelan

On camera and on paper, Anne-Marie Losique would appear to be “that girl” – a free spirited, vivacious vixen with brewing confidence and notions of love, romance and sexuality. And with an arsenal of business maneuvers, The Montreal Mirror has dubbed her a “sex mogul.”

The daughter of Serge Losique, the president and founder of the Montreal Film Festival, Anne-Marie Losique may just have the golden touch encoded into her DNA.

With a propensity for seductive provocation, exceptional self-awareness, and an infectious giggle, Losique stormed the entertainment industry in Quebec as the host of Box-Office, a cinema television magazine. She’s travelled the world to interview industry personnel from porn stars to Hollywood moguls.

Her most notorious, and “Googleworthy” interview took place in 2004, on the lap of an inebriated Ben Affleck. Instead of promoting his upcoming film, Jersey Girl, Affleck groped Losique for nearly five minutes while spieling quotes such as “they would like it better if you did the show topless”, “should we do a Janet Jackson thing?”, and “are you wearing your nipple ring?”

Losique is nearly speechless and she coos and giggles through Affleck’s rant, which at one point includes a satire on individuals suffering from cerebral palsy.

[pullquote]“We all have multiple layers to our personalities, I think some people are of the impression that I go home and have gang bangs.”
-Anne-Marie Losique[/pullquote]

Today she is a far cry from a run-of-the-mill VJ. She has become an entertainment industry heavyweight in a relatively short period of time, producing and artfully controlling a contentious niche market. It is a Thursday afternoon when AML (her stage name) shares her story over the phone from the headquarters of her highly successful production company, Image Diffusion International.

It seems like many, I have erred in my preconceptions of a grandiose Losique primped and pampered from sunrise to set. She sounds ill and remarks she’s “looking like shit, ” makeup-less, in jogging pants and with dirty hair – not the image you find in a quick Google search. Nearly every shot on the web shows a bikini-clad and buxom Losique.

“We all have multiple layers to our personalities, I think some people are of the impression that I go home and have gang bangs,” says Losique. “I take my work very seriously, but I do not take myself very seriously.”

Across the board, Losique is many pieces in a shifting puzzle. She interjects her “bimbo” persona when it is advantageous to her productions, but enjoys the credibility that her curriculum vitae bring.

“This is the way I protect myself, I don’t want to break the fantasy, but at the end of the day if I wanted to clear all the talk I could,” says Losique.

The truth is, remove the AML brand and what you’re left with is a business model that would likely fail. In October of last year, Image Diffusion took its most monumental risk yet, launching a French-language adult entertainment channel named Vanessa TV. Dubbed “porn TV” by the premier media outlets, the channel features many genres such as reality shows, cooking shows and documentaries.

The channel was approved on March 6, 2009 by the CRTC. The decision lists that Vanessa TV will be “devoted to the themes of charm, sensuality, eroticism, and sexuality and might also include documentaries, news and magazines covering the industries that exploit these themes and the personalities that revolve around them.” As per standard CRTC agreements the channel must broadcast at least 20 per cent Canadian content.

But Vanessa TV must battle the reality of a saturated adult entertainment market.  Tandy Yull, senior manager of English-language television at the CRTC confirmed via an email interview that there are six other adult channels including Red Hot TV, and the powerhouse duo of Hustler TV and Penthouse TV.

Losique on set - Photo courtesy IDI Productions

Losique and co. believe a strong local identity will be what helps Vanessa TV thrive in the fickle television market.

“I’m going to aim close to 80 per cent because we bought Playboy before but what we found is that people want local content,” Losique says.

As with any new venture, there will be hurdles. First and foremost, there are hang-ups about sex and adult entertainment in general. The CRTC has already reported 62 complaints with the service, but according to Image Diffusion’s co-president Marc Trudeau, that’s “next to nothing” given the population of Canada.

“What I have discovered about sex is that you really go back to deep insecurities with people. Come on, it’s just sex,” says Losique.

Trudeau explains the company’s dispute with Shaw cable, which decided not to partner with Vanessa TV.

“It is really a pity to see that a Canadian network like Shaw broadcasts plenty of American channels and refuses a Canadian channel with Canadian content,” says Trudeau.

Representatives from Shaw could not be reached for comment.

Bell Canada, a direct competitor with Shaw has broadcasted the channel since October 2010 at a monthly rate of $15.23. Marie-Eve Francoeur, the associate director of media relations would not give subscriber numbers for competitive reasons.

“We continue to make programming choices to match consumer demand,” says Francoeur.

So the oldest business in the world has demand – it is hardly groundbreaking. But with free access on the internet and video-on-demand services tailored exactly to consumer desires, Vanessa TV requires strong entertainment value. If they stick too close to pure pornography, viewers may take their $15.23 and opt for a T-bone steak.

Vanessa TV will launch an English-language version in fall of this year, with its own separate license. It will carry the same blend of reality shows, cooking segments and documentaries, followed by pornography as the sun sets. Trudeau says the French network will be producing more than 320 hours of content by the end of the year and that they aim to follow suit with the English version.

Despite growing pains and the channel’s untested waters, Losique is confident that they have found their stride and has plans to export into French speaking countries.

“I want to push the envelope and also show there is always another side to sex,” says Losique.

It is unknown if the old adage “sex sells” will ring true as Vanessa TV celebrates its one year anniversary in October and gears up for the English launch in the fall. Either way, don’t expect Anne Marie Losique, the persona, to reinvent herself for her golden years.

“In five years, I am out of here, hopefully on a beach somewhere,” laughs Losique. Perhaps it seems, “that girl” is eager to become “that woman.”

By Samina Esha

Maya Noel – Photo courtesy  Rishab Chheda

Red paint, mirrors, and the echoing sound of voices creates a calming illusion of mysticism through which Maya could see her own reflection staring back at her. She looks straight into the camera and starts her audition for the Bollywood acting program.

“I have always wanted to be one thing, a Bollywood actor. When I first heard about the Bollywood acting program in Canada I just had this strong gut feeling. I knew this was it,” says Maya Noel, a 19-year-old Indo-Canadian actor who is currently living in Mumbai, India in pursuit of her lifelong dream to be in Bollywood.

Located in Mississauga, the Canadian Institute of Management and Technology College (CIMT) has opened the first government-backed Bollywood acting program in North America.

Canada has always been a melting pot for many cultures and experiences. With the South-Asian community exceeding  two million, Canada is a hot spot for the Bollywood industry. According to Toronto film commissioner Peter Finestone, in 2010 alone the Hindi movie industry has brought in more than $850 million in to the Canadian economy.

With divine beauty, Indian diaspora, and state of the art facilities, Canada is the second home for the Indian film industry. “We are known as the Hollywood North, let us make Canada Bollywood west,” says Lucky Sanda, a former child actor in Bollywood, and now program director, Bollywood acting program at the CIMT.

The program started in September 2010 with only 11 students ranging in age from eight to 48. The course costs approximately $9,000, or $13,000 for international students, plus an estimated $500 for books.

“We decided to start this new venture because we saw this as a need … no one has been doing this. What we saw was kind of a positive market here. What we wanted to propose is a similar system as that which is entrenched in the culture in Mumbai. We wanted the same thing here and we took a chance,” says Vivek Pandey, director of academics at CIMT College.

Bhupendra Mane came to Canada as an international student in 2007 to study biotechnology at Centennial College. However, his passion for acting led him to the Bollywood acting program. “I was looking for any kind of training in the field. I had done a lot of research and searched for months before I finally heard about the program. Bollywood is coming to the north and I wanted to take advantage of that as I was already in Canada,” says Mane.

With a new semester starting in September 2011, the school hopes to keep a low profile to prioritize the quality of work. “It is an initial stage. It has only been a year. It is an accelerated and evolving program,” says Pandey.

After finishing the program, students have the option of going to India or staying in Canada and pursuing their career. “If you do not feel like leaving the comfort of your home and go to Mumbai then there are also opportunities here,” says Sanda.

For Mane the choice to stay in Canada was easy. As he finishes his degree in biotechnology, he is also working towards his dream of acting. Over the years, Mane has appeared in many Bollywood movies that have been shot in Toronto.

“There is more competition in India. Over 100 people would wait in line to audition for the same character. But here the competition is less. Auditions are easier, and there is a chance for my talent to be recognized. So, if I get approached to work in India I will go there but I will not go there to find work,” Mane says.

Aside from being a student, Mane is currently working as a quality control specialist along with being a model and actor. He hopes to produce his own work in the future.“Acting is my passion whether it is in Hollywood, Bollywood, or the Canadian film industry. I have worked with different Canadian and Bollywood productions, which helps to get a solid resume.” Mane says.

For Noel, moving to India to act in the Bollywood industry was an easy choice. “There is a limit to what you can do in Canada in terms of going into the Bollywood industry. I just wanted to go where everything was happening and where I could grow,” says Noel.

Canadian Natalie Di Luccio at the Taj Mahal – Courtesy Natalie Di Luccio

Noel grew up in Etobicoke and had a full scholarship to attend the University of Guelph for her undergraduate degree in drama before she moved to India. She also hopes to pursue fashion as well as acting.

“You can prepare yourself as much as you want to but when it comes to applying yourself, you have to go where the heart of the industry is which is India. However, the Bollywood acting program prepares you for the intensity of this industry,” says Noel.

The intensive program is held six days a week for roughly five hours. If at the end of it students want to try their luck in the birthplace of Bollywood, they can repeat the course numerous times for free at India’s Kishore Namit Kapoor’s Acting Institute, which is affiliated with the CIMT program. At age 60, Kishore Namit Kapoor is a well-known figure in the Bollywood film industry with many famous actors emerging from his academy. He is also a seasonal instructor at the Bollywood acting program in Toronto.

“I did the course again in Mumbai for about four months. That was different. In Mumbai, the students and faculty are directly from the industry. So, you get to meet people from the related field,” Noel says.

Classes such as music, dance, and yoga/relaxation are part of a holistic curriculum. “The yoga class is there to relax the students so that they can concentrate on their acting. Music opens your vocal cords. These are techniques to help them with their diction, rhythm,  and to modulate emotion,” Sanda says.

He says the international Bollywood industry is constantly seeking trained professionals and his program can supply the talent. “Last year many Canadian and Bollywood casting directors had contacted us. It is all about contacts and that is what we provide them,” Sanda explains. “We are here to teach. We can polish the talent of students who are already talented individuals and for the other students we can teach them the craft and mechanism of acting.”

By Kelly Schweitzer

Projectionist Andy Erne at Toronto’s Royal Theatre – Photo by Kelly Schweitzer

That smell is unmistakable. The second you heave open the movie theatre door, you’re guaranteed to be greeted by the scent of hot, buttery popcorn wafting over you. Movie posters are sure to be lining the walls and smiling faces will be standing behind booths, ready to dole out tickets.

Whether you attend a show at an independently owned theatre or a corporate chain, the experience is largely the same and has been for decades. But the one thing that has truly evolved, and inconspicuously, is the role of the projectionist – the person whose job is to ensure you see the movie you paid for.

“A real projectionist is like the Wizard of Oz,” says Andy Erne, projectionist for The Royal Cinema in Toronto. “If you do it well, no one ever draws the curtain. I am paid to be invisible. The only way people know I’m here is if something screws up.”

Early film projectionists were required by provincial governments to be licensed and the profession mandated a set of specific skills and training. Now, more than a hundred years later, the role of the projectionist requires little training and can be performed by regular theatre staff. While there are fundamental elements of the position that still remain, a lot has changed over the past century.

John Tutt, projectionist, film programmer and owner of the Princess Cinema and the Princess Twin in Waterloo, Ont. says the licensing system was introduced when 35mm film was made of nitrate and was volatile.

“Theatres burned down and projectionists got injured with this film that would sometimes ignite in the projection booth with all the hot lamps and carbon arcs,” says Tutt.

The licensing system was established both for safety reasons and for quality control. “It was a way to make sure that films were presented in a standard way and weren’t presented in a shoddy manner,” he says.

Peter Henderson, a projectionist at The Bookshelf Cinema in Guelph, Ont. says becoming a licensed projectionist required 700 hours of an apprenticeship followed by an almost three-hour written exam and a practical exam with a projector in which you had to thread up and demonstrate operating knowledge for the equipment.

You also had to be at least 18 years old, adds Erne, since projectionists would be running restricted movies. Plus, you had to be physically fit and have good eyesight.

In 1995, the government abolished the provincial licensing system for projectionists, deeming it unnecessary, Tutt says.

Erne says he thinks that getting rid of the licensing system diminished the quality of projectionists. “Some people just love this, and those are the guys who make good projectionists. At multiplexes you don’t have people who care about what they do. At every multiplex you’ll usually find one person who cares and he will have been there longer. And with him, he’ll have what we call “threaders” working – people who just thread the movie but also work downstairs. And they don’t know much about it; they just know how to put the film in and how to thread up and then if something goes wrong, a lot of them don’t know what to do.”

Henderson says there were two things that had to happen for the advent of the multiplex to occur: the xenon bulb replacing the carbon arcs and the platter system.

Before the 1980s, when xenon became the standard, carbon arc was used to project the images from the lamp house to the screen.

Two carbon rods sat facing each other in the lamp house and an electrical current would jump across to form a light which a mirror would catch and throw through the projector onto the screen. The problem was that the carbon rods only lasted roughly 20 minutes before they burned down and would have to be replaced.

The length of time it took for the rods to burn down was in sync with the length of time it took for one reel to end, as each reel of film equals about 20 minutes.

“That’s why there were two projectors in every movie theatre,” says Henderson, “because you’d go back and forth alternating with your 20 minute reels.” With the reel-to-reel system, or changeover system, one reel is played on one projector while a second is being set up.

“In the audience you didn’t notice a thing, you’d just think you were watching a 90 minute feature,” Tutt says. “But in the booth it was quite a busy place because the projectionist was adjusting his carbon arc lamps, he was changing projectors, he was reloading reels every 20 minutes. And I believe way back when, there would even be two projectionists in a busy theatre.”

When xenon replaced carbon arc it alleviated the necessity to continually change the carbon rods as a bulb runs for about 2,000 hours.

Xenon brought its own problems however. Tutt says the colouring a xenon bulb reflects on-screen isn’t as good as the carbon arc’s, and it is sometimes argued as tending to the purple spectrum. Carbon arc, on the other hand, was the closest thing to pure sunlight, and so produced perfectly balanced light.

With the longevity of xenon, projectionists can splice reels together and eliminate the necessity for multiple changeovers. And with the platter system, before patrons even enter the theatre the projectionist will have spliced the reels together into one continuous reel so the film plays from beginning to end.

35mm film still feeds through this projector at The Royal Cinema in Toronto – Photo by Kelly Schweitzer

This is done by using a device called a splicer and a special kind of tape specifically intended for film. The two ends of each reel of film are first placed on the splicer and the splicing tape is stretched across to connect the ends. A perforator is then pushed down over the film to puncture the tape through the sprocket holes which are necessary for the film to run smoothly through the projector.

While the reels are mounted on the projector in the changeover system, the platter system consists of three large round discs, or platforms, that are stacked horizontally and separate from the projector. The movie reel is placed on one platter and the film threads out of the centre of the reel and along a set of rollers to the projector. It then feeds through the projector and comes back on another series of rollers and onto an empty platter, making one big loop. It is this system that allows  one projectionist to operate several different screens.

While the platter system makes things a little easier during film projection, some independent theatres, such as The Royal, continue to use the changeover system. One reason for this is that most booths don’t have room for a platter, says Erne.

And though a platter system can run a film continuously without having to do a changeover, it could take up to an hour and a half to splice together each reel – time that in Erne’s opinion is often a waste. Many independent theatres will only run a film for two or three days, so projectionists would have to break it down again after limited use.

And of course, technology is always progressing. Theatres are gradually making the change from film to digital projection, but not even all mainstream theatres have adopted the new technology. While Cineplex Entertainment’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto has installed the digital cinema projection system, Cineplex’s IMAX continues to use film prints.

“I think it was automation over the years that’s changed the job a lot,” Tutt says. Cue spots started being put on the film in order to cue the theatre lights to turn on, the screen curtains to open, and music to come on after the film.

He says the projectionist’s job became more of a technical role in making sure everything worked properly.

“You want all this technology to work properly and that’s where the expertise changed and I think projectionists had to become knowledgeable in a different area. And now today it’s just a cornucopia of changes,” says Tutt.

Tutt says that with technology moving forward and digital projection becoming more popular, any consumer has the skills needed. It’s akin to knowing how to properly load a Blu-ray and adjust it so that it looks proportioned on the screen.

“It’s that level of skill that a projectionist has now-a-days, except they do it in a bigger, more public
environment.”

By Alisha Parchment

Standing in front of a microphone at a press conference in Toronto almost a year ago, wearing co-ordinating crisp suits and ties, stands Pierre Karl Péladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Media Inc., and Kory Teneycke, Quebecor’s vice-president of development. Amidst the flashing lights and anticipation that filled the room, Quebecor revealed its newest project – the Sun News Network.

Cue the well-oiled media frenzy machine.

Launching this April, the network directly competes with CBC’s News Network and the CTV News Channel becoming Canada’s third 24-hour English-language cable news channel.

The plan, according to a press release from Péladeau, is to follow a “hard news, straight talk” formula, one that is tried and tested in the French-language media.

Before the channel’s name was even on the lips of Canadians, Quebecor needed approval from the CRTC. Last June, an application was made for a three-year, Category 1 Specialty TV licence which would have required cable and satellite carriers to include the channel. The CRTC denied the request.

In the end, Quebecor withdrew their previous attempts, and Sun News Network was granted a five-year Category 2 specialty channel license, meaning it would have to begin bargaining with satellite and cable carriers for a spot on their line-up.  According to the regulations of the CRTC, Canadians must now subscribe to Sun News Network if they want to tune in.

“It’s new but in a way it is a re-packaged version of something that is old,” says Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, self-described watchdogs for Canadian programming. He is referring to Toronto 1 (now Sun TV) Quebecor’s first attempt at a similar channel that failed to gain momentum. So Quebecor is not starting from scratch. Morrison estimates, “In the last five years, they’ve actually lost about $50 million dollars keeping [the channel] alive.”

Dubbed “Fox News North” by some who view it as a clone of the U.S.-based Fox News, critics question its credibility. “Fox News is their model. I don’t think Canadians on-air can replicate that kind of idiocy though,” suggests Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick in an email to Fine Cut. “I don’t think Canada is the kind of country that is attracted to the simpleton’s view. So I don’t know that it will attract many viewers. Canadians want more credible information, not less.”

Currently, the Sun News Network is under Teneycke’s leadership. He is the former spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. According to the Globe and Mail, Teneycke is known for his tough-guy political attitude and played a pivotal role in the Conservative victory over former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s carbon-tax initiative.

International activist organization, Avaaz, began its own crusade against the upcoming network with an online petition titled “Stop Fox News North” last fall. It claimed Harper would be using Sun News Network to “push American-style hate media onto [Canadian] airwaves” and would be “funded with money from our cable TV fees.”

The news of these accusations spread, garnering the petition more than 80,000 signatures, 21,000 of which Avaaz delivered to the CRTC. Even literary giant Margaret Atwood added her name, but said in an email to the Globe and Mail she signed the petition in protest of Harper’s style of government and not as an objection to Sun News Network.

Shortly after Avaaz’s request for a police investigation in September of last year, Teneycke unexpectedly resigned from his position, saying his past involvement with the Harper government left an unfavourable impression. However, in January 2011, Teneycke resumed his position.

[pullquote]“It will represent grumpy old men. I think we hear from them all the time. They never shut up.”
- Heather Mallick, Toronto Star columist [/pullquote]

Poised to be one of the Sun News Network’s most promising additions is conservative commentator and author, Ezra Levant. He is set up to host his own news analysis show. Not expecting that competition will be an issue, it is Levant’s belief that, “Canadians don’t really watch the two channels that they have been given – CBC News Network and CTV News.” He is looking forward to providing an alternative news source.

“I’m excited to talk to Canadians every single day about news in a way that I don’t think they have heard from before – breaking open the news cartel right now on some issues where only one point of view is allowed.”

For some, the Sun News Network may seem to balance Canada’s news, answering a silent call for a more conservative-leaning take on our society. “It is their hype that somehow is making them different,” says Morrison.

But what will Canadians be seeing when they watch Sun News Network?  According to Levant, the network will emulate the Sun chain of tabloid newspapers owned by Quebecor.  “If you want a feeling of what Sun TV is going to look like, just pick up the Toronto Sun. It is going to be a fun, peppy antidote to the bland mainstream consensus,” he says.

“Some people have criticized the very idea of another voice,” says Levant. “There is such a consensus approach to issues of the day. It is a politically correct liberal consensus and once in a while the consensus is right -  but quite often it’s not, and Canadians don’t have a place to go for the other point of view.”

Others aren’t as keen, considering what the channel might embody. “It will represent grumpy old men,” says Mallick. “I think we hear from them all the time. They never shut up. They’re in their basements typing angry anonymous comments to the CBC. Now they’ll have their own channel!”

On the other hand, some love a little friendly competition. “We welcome Sun TV to the marketplace; competition is good for everyone, especially viewers,” says Wendy Freeman, CTV News president in an email to Fine Cut.

Only time can tell what the network will bring to the table. In the meantime, Levant has his own prediction. “I think we are going to be the most talked about news channel in the country.”

By Emily Innes

If you can follow the signs and the arrows, leading through a building in the midst of construction to the Toronto Underground Cinema, it’s almost like you’ve landed in the Alice in Wonderland of theatres.

Toronto’s Underground Cinema – Photo by Alisha Parchment

The first step is to get a ticket from Charlie Lawton, who smiles while saying “I hope you enjoy the show.”

A walk down the red carpeted stairs brings you to Nigel Agnew who takes the tiny ticket, rips it in half and drops one even tinier fragment into a giant popcorn bowl.

It’s a kaleidoscope of sights: posters spanning all genres and decades line the walls, a robot made of tinfoil stands beside a soda machine, and octopus legs climb out of the wall above the washrooms. Alex Woodside mans the popcorn machine, surrounded by classic glass coke bottles and Batman figurines.

No need to rush for a seat: there are 700 to choose from.

By the time you get to that seat, you have already soaked up the atmosphere and met the three guys that made the Underground a reality. Almost a year ago, they began managing the Toronto Underground Cinema, aiming to recapture the movie watching experience of the past.

Morgan White recognized the unique qualities of “the guys” and their movie theatre before it even opened and began filming a web series about their journey. “They’re crazy,” says White. “I think they’re just normal guys doing something that they are passionate about and that’s what makes them interesting. They really genuinely care about you coming to this movie theatre and enjoying yourself.”

White has gathered so much material that he is currently making a full-length feature film about the Toronto Underground Cinema and he expects a September 2011 completion date.

Last May, Agnew, Lawton, and Woodside began running the Toronto Underground Cinema on Spadina Avenue close to Queen. The basement space was originally a Chinese cinema called Golden Harvest for five years in the eighties. Years later, it had a brief nine-month stint as the Golden Classic, which screened Asian kung fu classics.

Agnew worked at the Bloor Cinema before getting involved with the Underground. He started in concessions the day he got hired and climbed to manager. Agnew says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do something he is passionate about. “It was going to be a good gig. It’s doing what you love,” he says. Woodside was also working at the Bloor Cinema and Lawton was an independent filmmaker.

Lawton says even though the space had been vacant for 15 years, there wasn’t much they had to do to get the old theatre up and running. “It looks pretty much exactly how it looked back then, both as the Golden Classic and the Golden Harvest,” says Lawton. “All we really did was put up posters, we dusted and cleaned, we painted the doors red, and we painted the snack bar black and red. That’s literally it.”     The theatre has more modern projectors but they still require manual labour and there is still a big red curtain that slowly draws open at the start of the show – around 7.p.m.

The Toronto Underground Cinema screens a variety of movies selected by listening “to what people want to see, films we want to show, films we think will bring in an audience – it really depends on the type of movie,” says Lawton.

Lawton admits there is a bit of a preferred genre. “Horror and cult films are our bread and butter,” says Lawton. “We program that more than anything else.”

They have shown movies such as Freaks, a 1932 Tod Browning movie about a trapeze performer trying to murder a little person, and last summer’s blockbuster Iron Man 2. The theatre also runs “cinema on demand” – requests will be screened for 25 or more guests. “We are the only cinema in Toronto doing this,” says Lawton.

[pullquote]“When you are coming down here you are getting a real film geek atmosphere.”
- Nigel Agnew, co-manager[/pullquote]

The Underground space is continually being redefined to suit movie events, music concerts, or comedy shows. Filmmakers have come for Q&A sessions after screening of their movies. Adam West, who played Batman in the 1960s TV show, talked to the crowd after a screening of Batman 66. He “was a lot of fun,” says Nigel. “We sold out that night.”

Independent filmmaker Chris Green screened his movie Zombie Werewolves Attack at the Underground to what Green describes as a great audience.

“The audience enjoyed the film and they had some questions for us about how long it took to make the film and what went into it,” says Green.

“One guy in the audience even asked one of the actors to repeat a line from the movie. He’s got a new catch phrase.”  Green suggests other independent filmmakers talk to the guys at the Underground. “They helped me out a lot,” he says.

The theatre is a space to truly appreciate the beauty and magic of films. “It’s a fun place to come watch a movie,” says White. “Because the guys that run it love movies and they want you to love the movies that they love. And that’s kind of the point. They are trying to show films that they love and show them in the way they are supposed to be seen – on the big screen.”

Agnew says that the theatre usually attracts audiences that match their passion for films.  “When you are coming down here you are getting a real film geek atmosphere,” says Agnew. “You can come down and after most screenings there is usually a few people that hang around and talk at length about the merits of the Super Mario Bros. movie,” says Agnew.

One evening the theatre played Freaks and when it came to an end, moviegoer Cory Arsenault sat up on top of his chair, turned to his friends and began discussing how bizarre the movie had been.

“It’s that reaction of the audience, hearing everyone laugh or enjoy the film, that’s why we do this,” says Lawton “Seeing a film with a good crowd makes a film a thousand times better.”

All in all, the managers are pleased so far. “Considering we are not even a year in, we are doing really well,” says Agnew. “Obviously things like this take time. I think that the community support has been overwhelming, and we really have a dedicated fan base who really loves what we are doing, so I think it can only get better from here.”

Underground Cinema managers Nigel Agnew, Alex Woodside, and Charlie Lawton - Photo by Alisha Parchment

Arsenault, who has been coming here since opening night, says he likes the relaxed atmosphere the large size of the theatre and the repertoire. “I like watching the older style,” says Arsenault. He says he really enjoyed Batman 66, especially when Adam West repeated his iconic  dance.

But not everything is rosy at the Underground. There’s still the treasure hunt to find it – literally in a basement at the back of a building under construction. “We’re kind of hard to find, we don’t have a lot of signage presence on the street because of the building we’re in,” says Lawton.

Another difficulty is obtaining second run movies. This content goes to the rep theatres when the larger theatres are done with them. “The big boys pay a much larger premium to the distributors, they can pretty much keep them as long as they want,” he says. Box office hits and Oscar contenders tend to be held longer.

If someone is interested in undertaking a similar project they should be really dedicated to the project, the managers say. “Someone else trying to open up an independent movie theatre in Toronto? I’d say don’t bother,” jokes Agnew. Realistically, he says it requires a lot of passion and a desire to give people a good time.

Nonetheless, the managers have been happy about how things have been going and are looking forward to what will come. They are excited to have more events and continue to come up with new ways of using the space. Agnew would like to get big film festivals in the space and “more childhood heroes come down and chat about their work and show something the public is really going to like and remember.”

Lawton reflects on the year in a fond way. “I thought it’s been a really great year, it’s kind of hard to imagine it’s only been open for a year so far,” he says. “I’m really excited to see what happens next.”