10 years ago this year Toronto witnessed FORDMANIA. Nothing like it had been seen before anywhere. This film documents that moment without comment. Were you there? See if you can spot yourself among the multitudes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY
2013–2023. Ten years ago Toronto experienced a Woodstock of a political event.
It was FORDMANIA.
This had nothing in common with TRUMPMANIA (despite those who say it did).
Nothing like it had been seen before. Now you can see it today.
The poster states this program is free, that all you have to do is say,”I love Rob Ford.”
You do not have to do that.
Rob Ford was a bigger man than his detractors.
Rob Ford was a better man than those who would drag him down.
I have always preferred honest hate to dishonest love.
Honest hate we can work with. No one can work with dishonest love.
Just say, “I’d like to see FORDNATION 3D.”
This is better than anything on a screen in this city.
Why?
Because it is not reel life but real life.
Rob was one of a kind.
No CGI. No special effects. Just the honest love of the multitudes that poured out to meet him.
Personally filmed and edited in camera by myself.
This is documentary film making as it must be if we are to capture the moment.
It is not waiting for the right moment to capture.
It is being in the moment., in the now.
-Reg Hartt
2D motion pictures are flat. Flat to the eye. Flat emotionally.
3D puts emotion on the screen.
I owe my life to Rob Ford’s office as Mayor.
Metro Licensing & Standards had ordered me to shut down.
It was not that a big a deal for me. I decided to look for a venue elsewhere. There were several that were available easily.
A friend came by on a Friday night, Shirley Hughes of The Toronto Silent Film Society.
I was showing her my presentation of THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921) with the score I have created for it.
Two men arrived. One said, “We’re here to see the movie.”
I observe the Sabbath. I don’t work from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
I said, “You men are from the city.”
One said, “Don’t shoot us. We’re just the messengers. We got a complaint you are showing films that sexually abuse children.”
I replied, “I’m not. I never have.”
We chatted they left. Shirley is witness to this.
Monday morning I called newly elected Mayor Rob Ford’s office.
I got Tom Beyer. Tom said, “Reg Hartt? You are an icon!”
Metro Licensing & Standards decided my work here is fine.
People can say what they will about Rob Ford. They will anyway.
No city anywhere had a Mayor before or after who so captured the hearts of its people.
Despite the stories in the media Ford would have won re-election.
That would have been something.
I expect, had he done so, he would have put his life in order.
He would have had to.
But it was not to be.
Ten years ago we saw a massive outpouring of love for a massive bigger than life man.
I went. I saw. I filmed it in 2D and in 3D.
The result is something to see.
The CineForum is small. Only 15 seats. Small, yes, but powerful in its impact.
“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.”–Rob Salem.
There is no charge for this program. You can watch the whole film or just pop in and watch a part of it.
On the 3D Screen at The CineForum Rob Ford is larger than life.
Rob Ford was larger than life period.
The criminal charges against me reported in THE SUN and THE STAR were withdrawn.
The Crown informed the court the police had found no evidence to support them.
Those charges were based on false testimony.
When I came to Toronto in my late teens in the mid-1960s people had warned me Toronto is cold and ugly.
I said, “I will warm it up. I will make it beautiful”
I have experienced first hand how cold and ugly Toronto can be. In that it is no different than any other city.
I will leave it better for my having lived here.
Thanks to Rob Ford I am able to welcome you to The CineForum.
–Reg Hartt
Mayor Rob Ford has his Annual Picnic but at a Scarborough park, not his home
A city that sees value in rules, but no value in letting Reg Hartt bend them, has no right to claim Jane Jacobs’ legacy, writes Edward Keenan.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/06/27/cineforum-deserves-a-happy-ending-to-its-saga-keenan.html
The city should drop its misguided fight against Reg Hartt…
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/06/28/the-city-should-leave-cineforum-alone-editorial.html
“I am a friend of Reg Hartt.
“So is anyone who can appreciate a man who teaches film the way Neal Cassady drove a bus.
“I mean that, where you have style wrapped around content and tied with a ribbon of beat improvisation, there you have angels.
“Harvey Pekar was an angel.
“And I’ve never met anyone with wings who did not have an ego. Nor is this an easy town for a man who is larger than life, and does not to suffer fools.
“You might like to know that the friends of Reg Hartt included the non-fool-suffering Jane Jacobs, who knew a thing or two about what, and who, makes life worth living in the city; that’s good enough for me.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/09/15/fiorito_we_gotta_have_hartt.html
MICHAEL VALPY, GLOBE AND MAIL.
“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 of the original and provoking over the banal and soporific.”
Paul McGrath, THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Some audience members were visibly distressed by the frequency and force of Hartt’s interjections into the program but it is clearly his chosen way of doing things, and the payoff in information is worth it. He has many good stories to tell: about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s transformation into Mickey Mouse, Disney’s most enduring character; about the furor that greeted the creation of Tweety Pie, which subsided only when the artists painted him yellow; and much valuable technical information for the animation students. He has some interesting tales about Mel Blanc, Warners’ resident genius of voice characterization, as he continues the series with a full scale look at the Warner work of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and others. It’s the best work of its kind you will see anywhere because, except in rare oases in the United States and Eastern-Europe, they don’t make them like that anymore.
JULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Romania, 2000: “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 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.”
DAVID BEARD, owner CINEBOOKS, quoted in THE TORONTO STAR, Nov. l, l979
“This man has devoted his whole life to bringing the film classics to the public. He treats animation-cartoons, if you will-as art. He is underfinanced, overworked and snubbed. I think we should pay tribute to him.
GREG WILLIAMS, MA (Ph, D. Candidate), President, University College Film Society, and Chairman of the Subcommittee for film, U. C. Symposium: I wish we had more time to chat together last night about our respective (and mutual) interests in film.
‘Cineforum’ has attained the status of an institution; it represents an achievement of which you should rightly feel proud.
“I can only hope the ‘University College Film Society’ will someday approximate its success and that I will, personally, match your inspired delivery as a master of ceremonies.
“As a newcomer to the business of arranging film programs, so far I am your equal perhaps only in enthusiasm. Thus I find your presentations to be not only exceptional in their content but also edifying in their execution. As an academic (in the field of English) I am also impressed by the high scholarly standard that pervades your informed and witty introductions,
“I frequently wonder if you have ever considered writing a history…some very good books have been written…but no text has dealt with it in a definitive way. A marshaling of your knowledge would, I am certain, produce a very fine volume indeed.”
DOUGLAS ELIUK, education officer NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA, formerly Canada’s Cultural Attache to America, .
“(REG) Hartt is acknowledged as a phenomenon in the film community. He is someone who does not rely on government grants, subsidies or institutional protection to generate his film activities. He depends entirely on his intelligence, talent and resourcefulness. His events are produced with care and good sense, in a clean and friendly atmosphere and with an almost avuncular consideration for his fans, As a film officer for the National Film Board of Canada for 30 years, I have seldom seen anyone who added so much substance and passion to the cultural fabric of our society as he has done with his lectures and presentations.”
From a letter to Ottawa’s Towne Cinema;
“Last week I finally got a chance to see a film I have been trying to see for literally years. That film is METROPOLIS, and I don’t mean Giorgio Moroder’s head-banger version. No, I’m talking about the most complete version of the film as it was meant to be seen in a l6mm print so clear, so clean you’d think the film was made a year ago. Wow. I mean I have been hearing stories about METROPOLIS for a long time, but I never thought my expectations would be met let alone far
surpassed. And this without the “help” of Mr. Moroder. Does this mean there wasn’t a soundtrack?
“Far from it. Accompanying the film was a brilliant (and I mean brilliant) soundtrack combining both modern music and classical pieces. This soundtrack suited the film when we all know Moroder’s didn’t. So who has this print of the film? Reg Hartt….If you know anything about Reg Hartt you know his lectures are anything but boring. He’s thrown chairs at people, kicked non-believers out, slandered near everyone under the sun (who usually deserves it) and started near riots. In other words, a real entertaining guy. Honestly. Reg is a lot of fun, he knows more about film (and the politics of film) than all of my teachers combined. And his soundtracks!”
DOUGLAS ELIUK, education officer National Film Board of Canada; Canadian Cultural Attache to America: “I have left so many cinemas looking like I’ve been smelling onions for two hours that it is a pleasure and a catharsis to alert you to a redeeming film experience I enjoyed recently. It was not exactly an epiphany, but when something brilliant comes along, it deserves comment beyond self congratulations on managing to stay awake.
“What I’m referring to is a recent screening of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS I attended at Reg Hartt’s Cineforum. I’ve seen the film with every sort of accompaniment except organ grinder and a monkey. When organ and even the now rare orchestral accompaniments have been attached to one of the “silent” classics, it is still hard to avoid the giggle factor what with all the usual silent movie grand overwrought gestural school of acting methods. However, Reg Hartt has completely transcended the predictable approach and has presented a classic film with a brilliant multi-layered sound track that forgives the histrionic giggle factor. Hartt allows us to see a great film with a fresh perspective.
“I am not Mr. Hartt’s P. R. council but as someone who has been in the film industry for decades and who celebrates cinematic excellence,I hope you will take the opportunity to experience this superb revitalization of METROPOLIS with its innovative music track.”
PETER MOORE, British Artist.
“I am a Brit artist. I love Toronto. I have sometimes heard it said that Toronto is boring. It is a comparatively well ordered city. Maybe that is why some imperceptive people think it boring. The thing is I keep having amazing successes in Toronto. My friend Bob Welton who decided he was much happier in Warsaw than in London used to say in London everything is possible and nothing is probable. I just find in Toronto not everything is possible but lots of things, important things, are quite probable. Does this make sense?
“ANYWAY, a wonderful surprise in Toronto is Reg Hartt’s Cineforum. I was walking down Bloor Street with my friend Alan, a composer, a Torontonian who, searching for fulfillment in London, has realized that everything he wanted existed in his original home, Toronto. It was my birthday. He said, “What do you want to do for your birthday?” I said, “I want to go and see that!”
“I was pointing at a mysterious poster for TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, (the film of Hitler’s l934 Nuremberg rally). I’d always wanted to see that.
“So we went and I found myself in the most perfect place on earth to watch a film. With the film was an unexpected treat….a brilliant, unbiased, sensible and stimulating introduction by the amazing Reg Hartt.
“So once again, in German mode, we went to see Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS. Reg had somehow spliced on to the film his own soundtrack. Now this was interesting because a while later we went to the Art Gallery of Ontatio where the same film was shown-much bigger screen-and with piano accompaniment. It was interesting to compare the two showings. Reg’s came out winning.”
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