https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9833TPWSCY
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, July 9, 10, 11; 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25.
JANE JACOBS: URBAN WISDOM (2004) Don Alexander.
The Cineforum, 463 Bathurst Across From The Beer Store. 416-603-6643.
There is only one place on earth created entirely from the ideas of Jane Jacobs. That one place is Reg Hartt’s Cineforum in Toronto. What most makes it everything Jane Jacobs wrote about is that it has constantly been under attack by a city that refuses to recognize its value (just as they refuse to do with all of us).
Scan from a Xerox ColorQube (Hostname)(1) Scan from a Xerox ColorQube (Hostname)
The figure skating company, LE PATIN LIBRE, was born at The Cineforum.
Here is their recent performance as part of THE GUELPH DANCE FESTIVAL. I filmed it in 3D. Use red and blue glasses to get the 3D Effect. “Old ideas are sometimes found in new buildings. New ideas are found by necessity in old buildings.”–Jane Jacobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnXoCyj1Jdk
http://lepatinlibre.com/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Patin_Libre
In this video Alexandre Hamel describes how seeing street posters put up by Reg Hartt when he was touring with DISNEY ON ICE brought him to THE CINEFORUM which changed his life for the better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkoNCMH6aNY
Newspaper pieces on the City’s most recent attempts to shut down Reg Hartt’s Cineforum:
http://startouch.thestar.com/screens/1cb9b322-f604-45d4-9471-b2e463c42884%7C_0.html
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/06/28/the-city-should-leave-cineforum-alone-editorial.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/09/15/fiorito_we_gotta_have_hartt.html
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/lawrence-solomon-jane-jacobs-rules-as-ford-strikes-a-blow-for-film-freedom
The person behind the many complaints against THE CINEFORUM and Reg Hartt is James Gillis. He showed copies of the many letters he has written to lawyer Richard Zemla. Why is he determined to shut down The Cineforum? Gillis runs a street postering business under the name Dr. Jamie’s Events. He also sells used bikes under the name Dr. Jamie’s Used Bikes but that name has become so discredited his most recent flyers are completely anonymous and give locations which are not the address of his store.
Gillis has put up posters targeting former employees as Police Informants so that he can get out of paying them the money he owes them. He has put up thousands of posters attacking Reg Hartt. Read about it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/toronto-alternative-theatre-founder-stands-up-to-bullying-threats/article549053/
“REG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph of the original and provoking over the banal and soporific.”—Globe and Mail
What has this to do with Jane Jacobs?
Jane Jacobs was about a lot more than walks which is something the people who organize walks in her name would do well to remember. When The Cineforum was first shut down in 1993 Jane Jacobs told Reg Hartt to call then Chief Planner of Toronto Paul Bedford and to have him call her back for confirmation. Mr. Bedford said, “Damn those idiots! I can’t bother her. Just start up.”
Question that might be asked: How can you know Jane Jacobs cared about Reg Hartt? We have only his word that she did.
Answer: Not many people received fan letters from Jane Jacobs. Reg Hartt received several. Two of them are displayed here. “Our mother loved you,” the children of Jane Jacobs have repeatedly told Reg Hartt. In 1979 Jane Jacobs spoke about the value of Reg Hartt to the City of Toronto at an event Hartt sponsored with animation artist Robert (Bob) Clampett: Here is the audio of that talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D7J2ch2Tec
Question: If THE CINEFORUM is not a public art gallery, what is it?
Answer: City Inspector Elliott deBarros said the city has a tough time deciding what it is and the closest it could come is Public Art Gallery. He also agreed with Mr. Hartt that The Cineforum operates within City of Toronto Bylaws. He said that if Mr. Hartt were to send in application for a Project Review Request the city would approve it almost instantly and The Cineforum would be protected from future threats. Elliott deBarros acknowledged that James Gillis was/is behind the complaints while adding that a second person, probably at the behest of Gillis, has filed complaints. Mr. deBarros now denies saying The Cineforum was/is within City of Toronto Bylaws.
“There doesn’t seem to be much creativity at the top. It seems to me that Toronto has a split personality, a civic schizophrenia. On one level there is the spirit of individuals and small groups who do things…what you might call the vernacular spirit. This is all very informal, ingenious, quite romantic and full of fun, a great deal of fun. It seems to me that the official spirit of Toronto is stamp out fun. It’s pompous, impressed with mediocrity if its very, very big and expensive,”–Jane Jacobs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUO20–hXw8 .
This is an going problem and it affects the city as a whole: “They didn’t offer any facts,” says Pol Cristo-Williams, owner of Sweaty Betty’s, a bar at Queen and Ossington that had its hip credentials buffed when Drew Barrymore ditched her own film fest party to hang there. “There are no facts. I don’t know why they’re calling it a study – all they’re doing is copying the College Street by-laws, and College Street is a mess, it’s a dying neighbourhood. After they prove that they’ve screwed up College Street, they’re going to screw up Queen West and Ossington.” http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/10/bar_bans_by-laws_and_the_end_of_ossington/ .
Question: “You have no really defined The Cineforum. What is it?”
Answer: The Cineforum is pretty much indefinable. The word “Cine” means “Film.” A “Forum” is a place where ideas can be discussed. So in that sense THE CINEFORUM is a place where ideas about film can be discussed. Cinema, itself, embraces all of the arts so ideas about all of the arts can be discussed there. As well, the ideas inherent in the films being presented are themselves open to discussion.
The Cineforum is located in the living room of my home. The word “Salon” is French for “living room.” In Europe there is a long history of people using their living rooms, their salons, as a regular meeting of writers, artists, etc., at someone’s home ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salon ).
Question: What would you like the future of The Cineforum to be?
Answer: I would like THE CINEFORUM to be a living memorial to the ideas of Jane Jacobs. While I feel it is highly unlikely given what Jane Jacobs herself describes as “the pompous mediocrity” at the top I would like Toronto to become the first truly Jane Jacobs city in the world. A Jane Jacobs city is a city that adapts to its people instead of forcing its people to adapt to it. Forcing its people to adapt to it leads, as she has clearly shown, to the death of cities. Toronto is a dying city.
THE CINEFORUM is a living testament to her statement “New ideas are found in old buildings.” Alexandre Hamel with his figure skating company LE PATIN LIBRE is globally revolutionizing figure skating with completely new ideas. He is one of the many who have found a new direction because they came to THE CINEFORUM. I would like to see the city purchase the property from my landlord and then give it to The Cineforum Community in perpetuity as a place where new ideas can be found.
“Before transforming into a travelling troubadour he worked in the film industry, which eventually led him to the Cineforum, the legendary Toronto theatre run out of the film archivist Reg Hartt’s living room, and where Petunia lived and worked for a time. “The first time I saw him talk, I was sold,” Petunia said of Hartt. “We’ve been friends ever since. I learned everything I know about the business of being an artist from Reg. And believe it or not, I learned how to walk a little more gracefully from knowing him.” http://www.taddlecreekmag.com/going-with-the-flow
“My biggest musical influences? Sheila Gostick, whom most people will never really get to hear, see or know. Same can be said for Reg Hartt, almost the polar opposite of Sheila Gostick. Even though Reg is known for being a movie guy. These two people are living icons in Toronto. Reg’s place is within a few houses of Bathurst and College, look for the lapis lazuli blue and gold paint job. People from all over the world go there while so many people in Toronto are afraid to.” http://www.petuniamusic.com/Press/east_coast_noise.htm .
“Q: What and/or whom inspired you to become a performer, and how old were you? A: Hard to say what inspired me and all the whoms. Sheila Gostick schooled me in all manners and customs when I was 26. Reg Hartt got me back from the system while I was still young enough to care and think. Though, if I were a better ball player I wouldn’t be a professional musician seeing as I love to play ball. If you’re curious about Reg & Sheila, look them up, they are famous underground characters with huge personalities and drive.” http://the-g-zine.blogspot.com/2013/01/q-with-petunia.html .
Question: What are your qualifications?
Answer: My qualifications are exactly equal to those of Jane Jacobs.
Question: Do you expect to get support from the organizers of Jane Jacobs walks, etc..
Answer: No.
Question: Then why do you approach them?
Answer: So that afterwards they can’t say, “Why didn’t you call us? We would have helped.” Jane Jacobs helped without being asked. The best always do. These people are like the Pharisee and the Scribe in Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan. They wear the robes. They talk the talk. But when the call to act comes they walk on by. It is important to remember that the Samaritan was viewed as beneath contempt, as unclean.
Question: Then who do you expect to help you?
Answer: I don’t need help. I run THE CINEFORUM within City of Toronto Bylaws. We are not allowed under the Bylaws to invite strangers into our homes. Admission to my program is limited to my friends. If someone wants to be a friend of mine all they have to do is come by and say, “Hello.” In New Brunswick where I lived as a kid and in Sault Ste. Marie where I lived before coming to Toronto I was told that Toronto is a cold city. I said that I would warm it up. I have. In a Jane Jacobs city there are no strangers. There are friends we are about to meet. I am creating a Jane Jacobs city by standing up for ideas.
Question: What would you like the City of Toronto to do?
Answer: First I would like the City to enforce its street poster bylaws which are eminently fair. James “Dr. Jamie” Gillis, in the operation of his street poster business, routinely ignores them. Secondly, I would like to Gillis brought to account for his telephone death threats on myself and others. These date back to 2010 and are on the public record. Thirdly, I would like to see that family that is being told to tear down its treehouse told, “Hey, it’s cool. Kids love treehouses.” Fourthly, I want Toronto to become a Jane Jacobs City. Do that and we set an example for the world. That would really be the most fitting memorial to her.
Question: What can we do?
Answer: First, come to The Cineforum. Secondly, talk to your Councillor. Tell them we want a Jane Jacobs City. We want a City that adapts to us. The price, should they fail to listen, will be the death of Toronto.
Question: Do you need funding?
Answer: This will come as a surprise to many but Jane Jacobs was very much against government support and very much for self reliance. I long ago turned my back on government funding. Do I need funding? Of course I do. I prefer the funding to come from those who value my work. One of the things I have noticed about many of those who receive government salaries and government funding is that they seem to think their feces smells like roses while viewing the rest of us as common. Mrs. Jacobs told me this attitude has a long history. My own research confirms that.
Question: Why do you continue to fight this fight?
Answer: Because every week some new person walks in who finds what Alex and Petunia found. They find a new direction for their life.
Question: Do you think you will win?
Answer: Do you think Jane Jacobs knew she would win when she went up against Robert Moses in New York and against the Spadina Expressway in Toronto? Of course she did not know that. What she knew was that if she did not fight then the city she loved and the city in which she had made her new home would be destroyed. I know that Toronto has destroyed a great many things it should not have in the past. I know that it must stop doing that now.
Question: What are some of the other things the city has desroyed?
Answer: Here are some of the many:
Loss of Gerrard Street Village
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/12/26/our_lost_greenwich_village.html
Death of Yorkville
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2009/06/25/throwback-thursday-yorkville-and-the-death-of-torontos-first-scene/
Bohemian Embassy Coffee House
http://behindthebohemianembassy.com/publicity.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkPpkMH9cc
http://www.yorkvillethedocumentary.com/don-cullen/
http://www.quillandquire.com/review/making-the-scene-yorkville-and-hip-toronto-in-the-1960s/
Ossington Street
http://torontoobserver.ca/2009/11/23/city-staff-seeks-to-amend-by-laws-on-ossington-ave/
http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/10/bar_bans_by-laws_and_the_end_of_ossington/
Jane Jacobs: End Toronto’s War On Fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn-uHw3oHL8&feature=youtu.be
Let us end it now. Come to The Cineforum. Become my friend.–Reg Hartt, 7/4/2016.
