3 Needles writer and director Thom Fitzgerald poses for a photograph by the pool of his hotel, and this was before the premiere and parties (CP PHOTO/Aaron Harris) 
Lucy Liu in '3 Needles', an epic story that covers the AIDS epidemic on three continents 
A scene from Thom Fitzgerald's epic 3 Needles (Emotion Pictures) |
Thom Fitzgerald's Film Festival Diary: #4
September 13, 2005 1:20 AM ET
Thom Fitzgerald, the director of 3 Needles, shares his film fest experience in a series of diary entries. Here is his fourth, filed in the days after his gala premiere, as he slowly begins to realize that his gala-night nasty hangover is actually a much nastier flu bug.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2005
DAY FOUR
My Hollywood management team, Vicki, Robert and Harley -- or "Team America" as I like to think of them -- invites me to dinner. But they want to go to a trendy spot so we have to wait until 10 p.m. for reservations. Doogie and I can't hold out so we snack on a take-out falafel at 6.
The hip spot, "Ultra," turns out to be a nice place on Queen St. I keep hearing that Stephen Dorff is there but since the place is lit exclusively by candlelight, who can be sure? Dinner talk turns to the Karla Homolka movie, which all the Canadian festivals have dropped in a tempest of controversy... its star Laura Prepon is also a client of "Team America" and of course, down in the USA, Ms. Holmoka's crimes are less infamous. Playing a real-life female serial killer worked out so well for Charlize -- what actress wouldn't want to play Karla?
I get lots of phone calls and congratulations on my film. People are nice.
Late that night is the A History of Violence party until 2 AM. Maria Bello is absolutely radiant. There's loads of fun to be had but I still feel hung over from yesterday's binge.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2005
DAY FIVE
OK, my supposed hangover is now officially the flu. It's nasty. I can't do anything but stay in bed. I call 10 people to tell them I can't make it to the second screening of 3 Needles. But still, 45 seconds before the curtain call, I get a frantic call from Stacey, the programmer, about to introduce me, wondering where I am. I'm all apologies.
I speak with the film's publicist. I will have to do press by phone. I speak with The Hollywood Reporter but with this flu I sound a bit too sultry, like Brenda Vaccaro. I hope he doesn't think I was making whispered advances.
Now, having missed a screening due to illness, immediate speculation ripples through the festival. "He's made two films in a row featuring characters with AIDS. Now he's too sick to introduce his movie. You add it up."
Even with the first film, The Event, which was about the right to die with dignity, I was often asked by journalists and fans if I was HIV-positive. Often with a furrowed brow, they demand "What's with the AIDS THING?" And I would hedge, not really answering, like Doug Savant playing gay on Melrose Place, thinking it insensitive to deny it. But here goes.
For the record, to the best of my knowledge, and I have been tested at least dozen times in this life -- I do not have HIV/AIDS. Phew, geez, I feel like I just came out of the closet as HIV-negative. I put this rather personal disclosure out into the world because it's MORE insensitive to let some folks go on thinking that the only people who should be interested in a pandemic are those directly afflicted.
As artists, we look inward but we also look out into the world for inspiration, for conflict, for the themes that express humanity. It won't be terrorism or the weather or Avril Lavigne that defines this moment in history. But it may well be a plague that took from the world many tribes, many languages, entire cultures. Death is rife with drama.
Just because a director finds a subject vital and worthy of exploration doesn't mean his or her point of view is egocentric. That said, I have heard it on good authority that David Cronenberg actually IS a former professional killer with amnesia. He may deny it publicly, but ... that's just the amnesia talking.
Tonight I am torn between three hot ticket party invitations. There's the ICM party. There is a big festival do with Gwyneth Paltrow and Hope Davis on one end of town. On the other is Sarah Polley's annual late night barbecue. It's a little-known TIFF ritual. In 2001, when so many people at the Toronto International Film Festival where stranded without flights because of the World Trade Center tragedy, Sarah graciously hosted many in her home.
Ever since, Sarah invites them back every year for a low-key soiree. It's intimate and always a festival highlight. I'll probably go to that one. It's a risk, but she has a much darker sense of humour than Gwyneth -- if anyone will chuckle after I spread this nasty flu to all her party guests, it's Sarah.
Thom Fitzgerald's credits include writer, director, and producer on "The Hanging Garden", "Beefcake", "The Wild Dogs", "The Event". In 1997 "The Hanging Garden" won four Genie Awards and was the first English-Canadian film to win the most popular film award at the Toronto International Film Festival.