Thursday, September 4------ The TIFF Talent Lab is a three day intensive workshop for 24 young Canadian filmmakers who are all charged with making a film using their cellphones. It's not a coincidence that the entire program is sponsored by Motorola, which yesterday unveiled its fall lineup of cellphones and some of the films already produced under the initiative.

At the press conference held yesterday, the cellphone manufacturer premiered A Short History of Filmmaking, a commercial-cum-trailer that wll be shown before every Gala Presentation during the Festival. The film is a tongue-in-cheek look at traditional filmmaking.....you remember, the kind that filmmmakers used before there were camera phones and YouTube (how quaint).

One of the films produced in the TIFF Talent Lab has crossed over into the Festival proper. Pat's First Kiss, an animated black-and-white short film by Pat Mills is screening as part of the Festival's Shortcuts program. It is a funny coming-of-age story about a gay man seeking his first kiss in Europe. The fact that it was made entirely using a camera phone is indeed impressive. So much for the high cost of filmmaking.....

Current and past films from the initiative can be viewed at the Motorola website: www.motoreel.ca

Sandy Mandelberger, Toronto FF Dailies Editor