Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness 2016 Adventures: A Photo Essay

Robert and Sarah Mitchell attended the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and returned to the red carpet at the Midnight Madness programme. Here is a photo essay of their adventures. All photographs by Ian Goring unless otherwise noted.

                                    Interviewing Sunny Pang & Iko Uwais at the HEADSHOT
                                                   World Premiere September 9th, 2016

 

Interviewing Chelsea Islan & Julie Estelle at the HEADSHOT

World Premiere September 9th, 2016

 

Interviewing Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahanto at the HEADSHOT

World Premiere September 9th, 2016

 

Speaking with James Gunn at THE BELKO EXPERIMENT

World Premiere September 10th, 2016

In conversation with Sean Gunn at THE BELKO EXPERIMENT

World Premiere September 10th, 2016

Speaking with Director Greg McLean at THE BELKO EXPERIMENT

World Premiere September 10th, 2016

Director Adam Wingard at BLAIR WITCH World Premiere

September 11th, 2016

Talking with Director/Writer Julia Ducournau at the RAW/GRAVE

International Premiere September 12th, 2016

Having a moment with Morgan Spurlock at the World Premiere 

RATS September 13th, 2016

Talking with Gemma Arterton at the North American Premiere

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS Sept. 14th, 2016

 

Speaking with Director Colm McCarthy at the North American Premiere

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS Sept. 14th, 2016

 

Interviewing Director André Øvredal at the World Premiere

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE Sept. 15th, 2016

 Speaking with Screenwriters Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing

World Premiere of THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE

Sharing a laugh with legendary Writer/Director Paul Schrader

North American Premiere DOG EAT DOG Sept 16th, 2016

Film Geek/Interviewer Robert Mitchell shakes hands with legendary 

Writer/Director Paul Schrader

Screenwriter Matthew Wilder speaks with Robert Mitchell aka Mr. Blue

North American Premiere DOG EAT DOG Sept. 16th, 2016

Robert Mitchell somehow talks with vengeful spirit Kayako

SADAKO vs KAYAKO September 17th, 2016

Almost cursed by Sadako

SADAKO vs KAYAKO Sept. 17th, 2016

Sarah Mitchell Robert Mitchell on the Midnight Madness Red Carpet

September 16th, 2016

Sarah Mitchell, Robert Mitchell with photographer Ian Goring

Sept. 16th, 2016 Photo By: Dominik Magdziak

 

Robert & Sarah Mitchell arrive at TIFF 2016

September 8th, 2016 Photo: Random Volunteer  

Having a "Bro" moment with Jason Momoa at the World Premiere

THE BAD BATCH Screen Grab From Video Files

Film Festival Nights Selfie

"You Either Eat The Shark or the Shark Eats You"

Survived TIFF 2016

ROBERT MITCHELL'S VIDEO DIARY AT THE 2016 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

As the new year begins here is a quick video diary looking back at my time at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and in particular the Midnight Madness programme. It was great to be back in the city and seeing so many friends from around the world. As always the whirlwind and the buzz of the film festival was an amazing experience!

DOG EAT DOG Paul Schrader, Matthew Wilder Premiere Interviews

                                  
                                     Paul Schrader being interviewed by Robert Mitchell

                                              Screenwriter Matthew Wilder interview

Dog Eat Dog the new film by Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Raging Bull) had it's North American premiere at the 2016 Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. Robert Mitchell was at the premiere and spoke with Mr. Schrader and screenwriter Matthew Wilder who adapted Edward Bunker's book for the screen. Here are those interviews.

EDWARD BUNKER: AMERICA'S GREATEST CRIME WRITER

“It took all the time in the world, six books that didn’t get published, over seventeen years, before I got published. I believe in perseverance above everything. Perseverance overcomes intelligence, overcomes luck, overcomes everything. Perseverance wins.” -- Edward Bunker From The Good, The Bad, And The Bunker

Grifter. Father. Armed Robber. Writer. Short Con Operator. Actor. Convict. Screenwriter. Career Criminal. Redemption To quote the Kris Kristofferson song The Pilgrim; Chapter 33 “He's a poet he's a picker he's a prophet he's a pusher. He's a pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he's stoned. He's a walkin' contradiction partly truth and partly fiction. Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”

For my money Edward “Eddie” Bunker is one of the greatest American crime novelists ever. His art is one of the truest examples of the old adage, “write what you know”. His works of literature span five novels No Beast So Fierce (1973). James Ellroy had this to say about Bunker’s debut novel,  “The most gritty and realistic novel about armed robbery.” The Animal Factory (1977) Little Boy Blue (1981) Stark (2006) and Dog Eat Dog (1995) which is now a film Directed By Paul Schrader and Starring Nicholas Cage and Willem Dafoe and premiering at Midnight Madness this year. There is also a short story collection Death Row Breakout and Other Stories which was posthumously published in 2010. As well as an autobiography Mr. Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade (1999) issued in the United States as Education of a Felon (2000)

Well before Eddie Bunker was a writer he was a hardened criminal. He was a short con operator who specialized in cons “The Match”, “The Strap”, and “Laying The Note”. Bunker was a drug dealer and an armed robber.  He was once shot in a liquor store robbery attempt. He also dabbled in extortion and forgery. “Do the crime, do the time.” And Eddie served his. Eddie Bunker had the distinction in 1951 to be the youngest inmate of San Quentin prison. In one of Bunker's brief sojourns on “the outside” he befriended Louis Wallis who was the wife of Hal Wallis producer of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon. It was during this four and a half year bid that Bunker would discover books and begin to write. While in San Quentin the prisoner in the cell beside him Caryl Chessman was sentenced to death row. Chessman had written a book entitled Cell 2455 Death Row about his experience awaiting execution and a first chapter excerpt appeared in Argosy, a pulp magazine. Eddie Bunker was doing a stretch in solitary confinement, "The Hole", where you were not allowed to read anything except the bible. Chessman gave the Argosy pulp to Bunker to read and it was here Eddie had an epiphany, “It blew my mind that a convict, much less one on death row (could write a book) and that night all of a sudden it just came to me, “If he can do it, why can’t I do it. I’m not facing the death penalty. I have all the time in the world.” Louis Wallis sent him a Royal portable typewriter and a subscription to the New York Times Sunday edition and Book Review. He sold his blood to pay for postage to submit his manuscripts to dozens of magazines and publishers. During a sentence in Folsom prison he would meet and befriend Danny Trejo. The two would become friends who would later act together in films. By the time Eddie Bunker's time was all said and done Eddie would spend eighteen years of his life incarcerated. Upon his release in 1975 he finally went straight and never looked back. He began to pursue writing and acting full time.

In 1978 the adapted screenplay of his novel No Beast So Fierce was released as Straight Time. The film directed by Ulu Grosband would star Dustin Hoffman in the lead role; the film would also mark Mr. Bunker’s first screen credit playing the character “Mickey”. Many years later a young director would study this film at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute for Filmmakers. That director’s name, Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino would cast Eddie Bunker in the role “Mr. Blue” in Reservoir Dogs. 1980 would see Bunker playing the character “Chadwell” in Walter Hill’s The Long Riders It was in 1985 that Eddie would act in the film Runaway Train. Mr. Bunker was also one of the co-writers of the Runaway Train screenplay. The film would see three Oscar nominations. Best actor Jon Voight. Best actor in a supporting role, Eric Roberts and best film editing, Henry Richardson. Not bad for a Canon film that was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.  All and all he would have close to thirty screen credits. Some of his notable appearances include parts in Running Man, Miracle Mile and Tango & Cash to name a few. It is said that Jon Voight’s character in Michael Mann’s Heat was modeled after Eddie.

The novels and screenplays of Mr. Bunker are raw, visceral experiences made even more poignant by the fact that he lived it. He confronts pain, rage, race and frustration exactly how you think he would. Head on. The arc of Edward Bunker’s life is a true testament of redemption and rehabilitation. Mr. Bunker would pass away on July 19, 2005 at the age of seventy-one from complications due to surgery. His books live on.