Last year, I wrote a brief complaint (see #4) about the TIFF Festival Trailer. Coming into this year's festival, I thought it could not get any worse. I was wrong. The director of last year's trailer, Barry Avrich, has once again weaseled his way into the role of creating the TIFF trailer. Ladies and gentlemen, if you thought last year was bad, this year's mind-numbingly pretentious trailer has gone beyond anything I thought possible. Against the gutteral wailings of a low-rent Charlotte Church knock off, hands rise from the screen, filmed in luminous black and white. Hands representing all races, hands of the old and the young, of babies and grandmothers, touching, rising, making rectangles, expressing hope and angst. Hands, uniting the world. Hands, serving as a projection surface for the various branches of the TIFF organization. Hands, the perfect metaphor for Barry Avrich's visual masturbation.

It is horrifying to have to sit through this garbage once, but EVERY screening at the festival? I can't stand it anymore. The word I heard is, Barry Avrich sits on the Board of the Festival and has imposed himself, time and again, as the only choice for the trailers and posters. Well, someone must stop him. Someone here in Toronto must have the courage to sever this relationship. No amount of money or influence is worth the suffering this man has inflicted on moviegoers. On the off-chance that Barry Avrich Googles his own name on a daily basis (and something tells me he does), Barry, if you're reading this, put down the camera, step-away from the festival, and please, stop wasting film stock. I have a hand for you...

Johnny Cash Tells Barry Avrich to Walk The Line