Some traditions are nurtured and built upon over the years, others just kinda happen.
Be it Midnight Madness meet-ups, overnight line comradery, or the Elgin group photo, we form many "traditions" over the years attending the festival.
While I may have driven the group photo, nobody in particular shaped our MM plans, nor dictated who should do what for the overnight line. Similarly the following (almost) tradition just sort of happened - we call it "Asian Night".
TIFF programs films from all over the world, which naturally includes several top notch Asian productions every year. Some Hong Kong action inserted in the MM or Vanguard line-up, or a master director added to Contemporary World Cinema or Special Presentations. Be they action, drama, comedy, animation, or something in between, those of us who are avid TIFF-goers and of Asian decent can't help but feel a swell of allegiance when the titles are announced, and develop a desire to attend these films.
What that means, is that typically one day/night per festival, there will be a large concentration of us (Asians) all in attendance at all the same movies. We don't plan necessarily, our individually-created schedules just naturally align. These Asian selections will often play on the same night, making it an evening of all-Asian viewing, hence the term "Asian Night".
It's become part of our TIFF 'lingo' and a practice to check in with each other as we get our tickets to pre-determine when this years Asian Night will be.
My prediction of TIFF 15 is that Asian Night will centre around The Assassin and SPL 2 screenings. We'll see if I'm right.
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