Special to The Ryersonian

So you didn’t get to see a Toronto Urban Film Festival short at its premiere?  Never fear: the Internet is here.
   
The first Toronto Urban Film Festival was held from Sept. 8-14.  Though the festival’s screenings may be over, viewers can still view the films and vote for their favourite at TUFF’s website until Sept. 21.
   
Dubbed “cinema by citizens celebrating the city” on the TUFF website, the event featured minute-long silent films made by both experienced and novice filmmakers. The festival’s 60 clips, selected from 170 submissions, premiered on the news television screens found on Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) platforms.
   
Every day, 10 different films were shown and each film was repeated every 10 minutes.
   
Sharon Switzer is the administrator, creative director and curator of Art for Commuters, the organization behind TUFF. Switzer first worked with Onestop Media Group, which controls the ads and news on the TTC screens, on a photo exhibit called Transit Stories, where riders submitted photo narratives of their commutes.
   
After Transit Stories, she said a film festival was the next step. “We had mastered that and we could go onto something bigger,” she says. 
   
Switzer says she likes the fact that the film festival celebrates public space. “I like the idea of it being urban and on the subway.  I wanted the film festival to have an urban feel and theme for the subway because the subway is an urban experience.”
   
Kajintha Sivalingam, a fourth-year graphic communications management student, believes in the concept of art in public space.
   
“Learning new things is good.  There is always something to learn.  These competitions can expand your knowledge of art.”
   
Sivalingam commutes to Ryerson from the Finch subway station.  While she does not remember seeing a particular TUFF film, she agrees that art is crucial for the public and for the artist. “When you see someone with talent, it’s good to give them recognition for what they do.”
   
Switzer says she has other goals she’d like to accomplish with TUFF.  “I hope to bring art into the everyday space of the average person.  I hope to make people aware that films like this exist and give filmmakers a huge new audience that they don’t have access to.”
   
The TTC’s operating statistics report for 2006 says that audience on an average weekday consists of 1.4 million patrons.
   
Switzer says the group encountered some difficulties when putting TUFF together, such as getting the word out to filmmakers. But in the end, she says, “we had far more submissions and interest than we thought we would.”
   
Next year, Switzer says she would like to get more professional filmmakers and average commuters to enter films. She would like to have the ability to screen a film every five minutes, instead of 10.  And, she adds, she would like to get more funding for the film festival.
   
On Sept. 22, the TUFF closing awards gala will take place at the Drake. First, second and third prizes, as awarded by director Jeremy Podeswa, will be distributed, as well as honours for the best film in six different categories. The film with the most audience votes will take home the TUFF Choice Award.