Co-founded by Michael MacMillan, Sandra Singer, Jordan Nahmias, and Burzin Contractor in 2010, Open Roof Festival (ORF) is Toronto’s summer outdoor film and music festival produced by culture maverick Marcello Cabezas. Running every Thursday night for 12 weeks from June 16 to September 1, the 2011 season of ORF offers urbanites an al fresco take on top cinema and music from Canada and across the globe, set on the grounds of Toronto’s landmark community brewery, the Amsterdam Brewing Company.
This year, the Oscar®-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop will be ORF’s opening night film. This is the inside story of Street Art… a brutal and revealing account of what happens when fame, money and vandalism collide. Exit Through the Gift Shop follows an eccentric shop-keeper turned amateur film-maker as he attempts to capture many of the world’s most infamous vandals on camera, only to have a British stencil artist named Banksy turn the camcorder back on its owner with wildly unexpected results.
One of the most provocative films about art ever made, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fascinating study of low-level criminality, comradeship and incompetence. By turns shocking, hilarious and absurd, this is an enthralling modern-day fairytale… with bolt cutters.
Called “relentlessly entertaining” by the New York Times and “a marvelous, one-of-a-kind contraption” by Entertainment Weekly, Exit Through the Gift Shop is sure to keep us captivated. ORF audiences will be treated not only to the Banksy flick, but also to the musical stylings of the festival’s opening night band, Little Black Dress.
The screening takes place this Thursday, June 16. Doors open at 7:30pm at the Amsterdam Brewery located at 21 Bathurst Street (One block South of Front St.). For more information and full listings for this summer’s festival, visit openrooffestival.com, or the ORF Facebook Page