On a more personal note, I was recently asked by the TIFF Volunteer Office to share my favourite volunteer memory as part of a video project they are working on.
Those who know me well, would probably say I'm big on memories. I'm in love with the past, up until my late 20's I kept very detailed journals about the various social events my friends and I attended. I poured my thoughts, unfiltered and rambling, into notebooks and online journals (I'm a little bit afraid to reread some of that stuff sometimes, it's like when I stopped writing fiction, all emotions and their intensity were transferred into those diaries. Anyway...) My obsession with 'the good times', in addition to the fact that I have been a TIFF volunteer for 16 festivals now (coming up on my 17th), means I naturally have many stories swirling around.
Oddly enough I couldn't think of a single 'favourite' story, not even an inappropriate celebrity story that I should not be sharing. I eventually thought of a couple things to say. At one point I turned to Facebook to see if my friends that I'd met over the years at TIFF had any input, mostly that led to some inside jokes and light discussions. I don't know how many people I know will echo this sentiment, but I always say my decision to volunteer for the Toronto Film Festival in 1999 has made all the difference in my life. I didn't know it then, but this decision would be about so much more than just a love of film; the friendships that I've made, the people I've met, and much of how I've evolved in some way ties back to TIFF.
The TIFF 40 celebrations has got everyone looking back, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I had such a good time remembering all the zaniness we've gotten up to over the last decade and a half that I'd like to share 40 TIFF-related memories leading up to the festival. Not ranked in any way, just 40 little tales that come to mind and make my heart happy to share. Hopefully through these stories you'll start to understand why I make the statement above as I do.
In turn, if you have any stories about me at TIFF (preferably happy, but I'll take the good with the bad), I invite you to send them to me and I'll post them alongside my memories. I would ideally like to post one memory for each of the 40 days leading up to TIFF 2015, but we'll have to see how realistic that is.
Shall we hashtag it all #AdasTIFFmems?
On second thought, who cares if I'm in your TIFF memories or not. If you have a good story share it! Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!
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