A month ago the movie "Ryan" that I told you about in May04
won the Oscar for the best animated short film. You can read
here about the professor behind the special animation effects and what an Oscar can buy. This is a good opportunity to tell you about the film industry, which is very developed here and virtually not existing in Israel. Shooting a film in Toronto is cheaper than in the US. Sometimes film producers use the streets at downtown Toronto when the story is actually happening in New-York, since blocking a street in Toronto is cheaper, and the tall glass buildings look the same.
Here is a list of some movies filmed in Toronto.
As you can see, not all of them are Oscar candidates. The industry produces all sorts of films, from full-featured, short films, television shows, commercials, "reality shows" and "news".
There are many cinemas all over the city. Some are IMAX. Tickets are bought either on the internet or from an ATM by credit cards, so lines are short. There is also a famous international film festival in Toronto every year showing hundreds of films. They have so many video stores, TV channels and commercials to watch. These people are simply hungry for movies. It is part of the American dream, or the American film.
In Israel movies just "arrive from America". People don't realize that it is the work of thousands of professional people that are planning every second. For Israelis, watching an American movie is like a peek into America. But for people here, the whole environment with the language, the buildings, the cars and the roads, is their natural environment. Even some facial expressions and body gestures that actors do in the movies and you don't see in Israel are common here. From Israel you don't understand how much American reality there is in shows like "The Simpsons".
And now for a story that can happen only in the movies. But it actually happened to me on the internet. A relative of mine, who lives in Toronto, discovered me. She was not even on our family tree. Our blood relative died in 1930. Her father even changed his family name a long time ago. So how could she possibly find me? One day she googled the old name of her father, and guess what, found the
web site of my father,
where he posted our family tree (I am biased, but I think the interviews my sister Noa posted there are fascinating). If you think about it, only ten years ago it wasn't possible or even imaginable. Conclusion: if you post your family tree, even on a small hidden internet corner, there are chances that one day a relative will find you. So, I met her and it was very exciting to hear about her side of the family. For example, I didn't know I had a relative in the communist party in Vienna. Here is an old photo of him:
You probably wonder what is the connection to the film industry. Well, her brother, who also lives here works in the film industry.
