"Reg Hartt is underfinanced, overworked and snubbed. We should pay tribute to him."–David Beard. “Reg Hartt teaches like Neal Cassady drove a bus.”—Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star. "Whenever an English artist of any value arises they are seen as Public Enemy Number One."–Henry Miller. " Reg Hartt made me tingle."–Al Aronowitz. "Reg Hartt is a Crazy-Wisdom-Yogin. As a Buddhist that is the highest compliment I can pay."–Jerzy Zaborski Rinpoche. "The best part of what Reg Hartt offers is what he has to say."–Jane Jacobs (author of THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES, DARK AGE AHEAD). "My mother loved Reg Hartt."–James Jacobs. Reg Hartt is listed as # 50 of the 50 best male speakers of all time. ( https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference )“Reg Hartt has a feel for film unique in this country…genius level.”—Elwy Yost. “Reg Hartt has had an amazing impact given the size of the venue and the esoteric nature of the programming. He’s had an incredible impact on the city. No one else is doing it. No one else has ever done it.”–R. S. “REG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph over the banal and soporific of the original and provoking.”–MICHAEL VALPY, GLOBE AND MAIL. “In Toronto, I discovered by chance, CineForum. Pure chance but a fortunate one. In that small room exhaling culture, passion and dedication, I watched the movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, an important historical, political and social document., and real artistic achievement….As a journalist (in Romania) I worked in the cultural field, including film reviews. Therefore I came to the CineForum not just as a movie lover, but as a knowledgeable professional…We live in an era authoritatively dominated by brainwashing and political correctness…I admired Reg Hartt’s courage and passion put on in searching out and defending the human truth, the artistic truth, the historical truth; the Truth and unveiling it…Discovering Reg Hartt and his CineForum was one of the most important events of my visit in Toronto.”– JULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Romania, 2000. “What I like about The CineForum and Reg Hartt and what makes him a valuable figure is his belief in cinema as a living, breathing thing, something to be enjoyed and argued about, not genuflected at or framed on a wall and revered at a respected distance. In his presentations he refutes the conventional wisdom that films like THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925), and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) are better appreciated as historical artifacts than entertainments. To see KID DRACULA, his show that pairs F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU (1922) with Radiohead to surprisingly effective results is to be reminded that the classics were made for the raw public before they were made for cinema studies syllabi. I have rarely felt a film’s greatness in a classroom but I have often felt it at Reg Hartt’s CineForum.”—Will Sloan. "GOD led me to Reg Hartt."–WIZTHEMC. "Reg Hartt is the greatest. For confirmation of everything he says read David Mamet's TRUE AND FALSE."–Emo Philips.
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John Smialek R.I.P. November 9th, 2019.
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I expect people younger than myself to hear of my death.
I do not expect, as I did just now, to hear of their deaths.
I have lost three friends recently. It began with my friend Tim Slater at whose memorial here I saw for the last time the wonderful Kai Wolfram.
This morning I saw a note attached to A video I filmed by chance. Lucky chance, more so than I realized.
jon cee
To my Long Lost beautifully eccentric and fantastic artistic Friend…you will be greatly missed for who you were as well as what you gave us …to The Leaping Men…leap highest my Friend…John Smialek R.I.P. November 9th, 2019.
John enriched my life. I hope I enriched his.
Give your friends a hug. We don’t know how suddenly they can depart us forever.
One night when I was doing my programs at THE DIAMOND CLUB (Now THE PHOENIX) in Toronto, Canada a young woman came up to me after.
“Is that all there is?” she asked.
I replied, “Yes, that’s it.”
She said, “I heard there was more. I heard there was someone who talked.”
“Sometimes he does. Sometimes he does not,” I replied.
She said, “Well, I heard he was pretty good. That’s why I am here.”
I said to myself, “I like her. She’s got spunk.”
I invited her to join me for a beer.
She told me she was living in Whitby and working in Toronto.
I said, “I have a room.”
She took it.
Her name was Sonia. She was that particular kind of Spanish beauty that made men young and old stand up straight and comb their hair.
She was a joy to live with.
Had I spoken I would not have met her.
The person who had told her what I had to say is worth hearing was John Smialek.
Had I spoken to Sonja I would not have met John.
Had I not spoken when John came to my program I would not have met either of them.
James Joyce said, “The man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are ones of conscious choice and open new doors.”
Yes, they are. Yes, they do.
John was a joy to live with. He was a joy to know.