Victoria Day

What is the difference between telling stories on the page and doing so on the stage? How do we attach the concept of autobiography to a collective creation like a movie? Following an avant-premiere screening of his debut feature film, Victoria Day, author David Bezmozgis will discuss such aesthetic chestnuts with arts journalist Marc Glassman. Limited edition copies of Bezmogis’s script will be on sale.

Victoria Day marks the feature directorial debut of Canadian prose writer David Bezmozgis. Inspired by his experiences as the son of Russian immigrants who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the film follows Ben Spektor, a 16 year-old who has to deal with several life-altering incidents. It is the long Victoria Day weekend, and with the Stanley Cup playoffs afoot, the summer of 1988 arrives in Toronto. Ben hits the Bob Dylan show with his buddies and runs into Jordan Chapman, the class bully and Ben's tormentor on the hockey rink. Jordan is five dollars shy of a bag of drugs, and Ben reluctantly spots him the dough. But the next day, Jordan fails to show up at school or hockey practice. With days passing and Jordan 's whereabouts a mystery, Ben finds himself in an uncomfortable predicament, especially when a romance with Jordan's sister tentatively blooms in the midst of the ordeal.

David Bezmozgis is a Toronto-based author and filmmaker. Natasha And Other Stories, his debut book, was published in 2004 to wide acclaim and subsequently translated in a dozen languages. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Zoetrope All-Story, as well as The Best American Short Stories 2005 and 2006. Bezmogis holds a BA in English from McGill University in Montreal and an MFA in production from USC. His thesis film, the documentary L. A. Mohel (1999), played at numerous festivals around the world and was included in KCET's Fine Cut Series of the best student films in Los Angeles. In 2006, Bezmogis attended the Sundance Screenwriting Lab where he developed the script for Victoria Day.

Marc Glassman is Executive Director of This Is Not A Reading Series, Proprietor of Pages Books & Magazines, Editor of POV and Montage magazines, and a freelance arts journalist. He has been instrumental in the creation and development of numerous festivals and arts organizations in Toronto. Notable amongst these are Ashkenaz, Hot Docs, Images, and Moving Pictures.