Longtime TOPS fans know that Sunday evenings at Christie Pits are a summertime tradition in Toronto’s west end — it’s where the festival started in 2011! Weekly from July 6 through August 24, we look forward to celebrating our 15th anniversary in our original home park.
The films selected for Christie Pits vividly portray specific moments in time (sometimes wearing heart-shaped glasses): Before I Change My Mind revitalizes the teen comedy by taking us back to 1987 Edmonton, an era of neon lights, big hair, video sleepovers, and queer awakening. Past Lives confronts the bittersweet discomfort of reuniting with a childhood sweetheart in adulthood, wondering what could have been. In Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig deftly captures the complex cocktail of emotions that can propel your actions as a teen — sometimes all at once. And in a not-so-distant-future, Flow’s Cat has to learn how to build community and come of age in a quickly changing world.
See these and many other excellent short and feature films throughout the programme, detailed below, and don’t miss our screenings at Fort York in June and Corktown Common in July.