Is there anything cooler than the knowledge that TIFF happens in our backyard every year? No matter where you’re located in the GTA, one of the biggest film festivals in the world is within your grasp. This year, I was able to make the most of two days enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of TIFF. Sights: amazing cinematography, visuals, and actors in the flesh. Sounds: incredible sound mixing, scores, and live DJs playing in the closed-down streets. Tastes: salty popcorn, crisp, bubbly soda, fried morsels from food stalls, free hazelnut spread sandwiches. And that’s just the things you can perceive with the senses. There’s also the ideas, thoughts, and emotionality of the films. Speaking of which, this is my round-up of the films I chose to see this year. Although the festival is still very much running, my experience of it is over until next year. I had an amazing time this year. If you’ve never committed to seeing multiple films, I would heartily recommend an extended TIFF viewing schedule. There are so many thought-provoking, relevant, groundbreaking, and entertaining movies to see. The first on our docket this time around was Clarissa, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel. What makes this one stand out from other adaptations over the years (most notably Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, inspired both by Woolf’s life and Mrs. Dalloway) is its setting in Nigeria. Woolf’s melancholy tale follows an upper-class Englishwoman as she spends the day in preparations for a party she’s throwing that evening. In co-directors Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s film adaptation, the introspective hostess’ post-World-War-One London life is resituated in the history, landscapes, cultures, and religions of Nigeria. It was fascinating. The impressive cast and directors of Clarissa are in the picture on the left (minus the amazing Sophie Okonedo in the titular role). Excellent performances and cinematography abound here. Steel yourself for serious subject matter, but I would definitely recommend it. I started reading Mrs. Dalloway just to get a feel for it before the screening. I would recommend that too. The stream-of-consciousness narration was innovative at the time, and it still feels novel — the constant current of Clarissa’s thoughts, feelings, observations. It all carries you forward, keeps you reading. It’s amazing how many adaptations and iterations of one work there can be. Michael Cunningham’s novel was also adapted into a movie starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman (below right).