Sunday at the B Festival

How a young B movie fan new to the city stopped worrying and learned how to get to the B Movie Festival.

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In the very first week of film production class at York University, Professor Mike Cartmell gave handouts for a photo assignment with a statement at the bottom of the page: “Please make sure to go outside somewhere. Dare I say it? Even somewhere off campus!” He then said aloud to the class, half-kiddingly, that some students who live on residence often don’t go anywhere else. I was a living example of his hypothesis for about the first six weeks of school.

Although I was fulfilling a long-range plan to study film at York, I soon learned that once in Toronto, I was a fish out of water in many respects. For example, I seldom travelled beyond the invisible property lines of the campus where I studied and lived, except to maybe go down Steeles Avenue for some groceries and microwaveable chicken burgers, or to work the early early morning shift across the street at UPS.

The rest of the city seemed too daunting at first. Finally, on the third weekend of October, I began to explore what the concrete jungle had to offer. Thanks to the plethora of Eye and Now magazines strewn about campus, I learned of the annual week-long B-Festival taking place at The Bloor Cinema. That Sunday afternoon I figured out the maze-like transit system to get to Bloor and Bathurst. The day commenced with the feature-length condensed version of the 1949 serial Batman and Robin. The glossy program guide erroneously listed the feature-condensed version of the 1943 Batman serial, but no matter: a good time was had by all. This matinee screening truly felt like a time warp back to the golden age of cinema, not least because of the Bloor Cinema’s retro interior lending to that old-fashioned appeal. Batman and Robin was one of the many reasons why The Bloor became my favourite theatre in Toronto. The programmers even added some marquee value to the afternoon with prizes, which people had to look under their seats for!

“Batmania” was still in the air, thanks to the hype surrounding the Tim Burton film, which had debuted that summer. For months, one could scarcely pass a storefront that didn’t have a sign saying: “Holy (whatever) Batman! (Insert product here) 20% off!”. Although the 1949 serial is universally considered as pretty tawdry (the Batmobile is a Mercury convertible!), for my money, it was still miles ahead of Burton’s film in terms of sheer entertainment value. (That remark got me some wrinkled noses from classmates, but I was being honest: the look and art direction of the Michael Keaton movie were impressive, otherwise I really didn’t have much fun with it.) Everyone at the afternoon screening had a ball: it was one big kiddie matinee for ages six to sixty!

In the lobby, a lady handed out flyers for a nearby video store called Outer Limits, which catered to the kind of B-movie cult stuff that The Bloor was celebrating that week. Before I looked at the paper she gave me, I asked: “Is this After Dark Video?” She replied, “No, we’re friendlier.” (Harsh- but true. I had spent two years in my hometown fantasizing about After Dark Video because of the outré films supplied by them for review in Graffiti magazine, which you can read more about here. That bubble burst in my one and only physical sojourn into the store, largely due to the person with a bad attitude behind the counter.) Sadly, I never perused Outer Limits during its lifespan, but any store that proudly name-checked my favourite cult filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler in its advertising banner was A-One in my book!

The late afternoon screening was the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Although I love the movie and had already seen it a kajillion times by then, I chose not to watch it on a big screen (as cool as that would’ve been), since I needed to hole up somewhere in The Annex a bit before the evening show and do some prep on a bigger assignment for film production class. The Annex remains kind of a second home to me, and that feeling had already crystallized upon my first afternoon there. Even as early as ascending to the mezzanine in Bathurst station came the realization that it was my kinda place- solidified merely by witnessing people much like myself in the (now long-gone) subway café: artsy weirdos with big long 80s hair; long grey raincoats; all resembling keyboardists for Kenny G. During the downtime between screenings, I discovered The Annex’s bohemian kind of vibe -with its funky shops and cafés, beatnik local colour- that I still dig today; an individualism which still speaks to me in a very personal way.

After spending a couple of hours on school work, I returned to The Bloor for a vampire movie double bill. At a table in the lobby, Jason Gray was selling the “Udo Kier” issue of his Subterranea fanzine. (While I was perusing it, he and another guy were talking about David Carradine and Fred Olen Ray being at some bar in Vancouver.) Then I hunkered down to watch a very warm but serviceable print of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. This screening too had an added layer of fun, as it was introduced by the Count Dracula Society, who had us all stand up and swear an oath to Christopher Lee! One of the “society members” even got prickly with the audience, because several patrons didn’t want to rise from their seats. (“Will you m*********ers stand up?!?”)

The second movie was The Vampire Lovers, presented in a gorgeous colour print, replete with all the nasty and naughty bids excised from the reddish TV version previously seen by me on (pause- sigh) The Cat’s Pajamas. Sadly, I couldn’t stay for the whole movie, not just because the inaugural festivities had pushed the schedule back a bit, but I had to trek up to Keele & Steeles, hit the sack, then get up at 3AM to work at UPS before the school day began. (Ugh! The things I did to myself.)

The big and small encounters of this day were all morsels of self-validation: each in some way defined the human being I continue to be. Finally I could physically immerse myself into these subcultures only previously experienced vicariously through solitudinous viewings, or by reading about them. That Sunday was an inauguration into a way of life whose codes and values I still share. Even when circumstances prevailed my departure from this urban playground for a couple of years, I still carried that ambiance around with me, rejoicing in it again upon my permanent return to the city. Much time, and many joys or sorrows have elapsed since, but whenever we once again approach that same time of year, I remember that Sunday afternoon, how this place became a home away from home, and smile.

Postscript: the program guide for that year’s B Movie Festival is viewable on our gallery page!