rEAR WINDOW

Fort York
Opening Night! Friday, August 21 2020

Rear Window

With short film Dinette and the World Premiere of short film The Women’s Hour

Our unique celebration of Ten Years of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show opens with Alfred Hitchcock’s heat wave classic Rear Window, a thrilling murder mystery that builds tension by confining its voyeuristic protagonists to a small city apartment. Lucky ticket holders safely spaced out on the grass at Fort York will be joined by nosy neighbours in the condo high rises flanking the southern side of the historic site, who will be able to enjoy this whole screening series from their own rear windows and balconies.

A true highlight of the opening night programme, short film The Women’s Hour will be presented at Fort York for its World Premiere. From the minds of Toronto sketch comedy duo Briana Templeton and Gwynne Phillips, AKA The Templeton Philharmonic, The Women’s Hour is a brand-new dark suspense-comedy funded by TOPS to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our signature project, Christie Pits Film Festival - a programme which was scheduled for this summer but will instead be presented in full next year. Templeton and Phillips play two rival actresses cast opposite one another in a 1959 murder mystery film. Directed by collaborator Allison Johnston, The Women’s Hour promises thrills and laughs as it plays with the forms and conventions of the classical thriller, shifting between the onscreen and offscreen worlds of a film-within-a-film.

To give context to this new work by festival alumni, audiences will be treated to this filmmaking team’s previous short film Dinette, which screened at the festival in 2019. This suspenseful drama transports us to a 1948 diner for a meeting between Marlene, who has a secret, and Georgia, who knows the truth and is none too pleased about it. Deftly deploying pitch-perfect period dialogue, the Templeton Philharmonic duo tease out the dissonance between the decorum expected of ladies in polite society and the dark deeds they’re really capable of.

Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock, 1954

World Premiere of short film The Women’s Hour directed by Allison Johnston, written by and starring Briana Templeton & Gwynne Phillips, 2020

With short film Dinette
directed by Gwynne Phillips and Christopher Lazar, written by and starring Briana Templeton & Gwynne Phillips, 2017

Friday, August 21, 2020
Admission: Get your free tickets here
There will be no admission without an advance ticket
Donations make our programming possible

Venue: "Walled Fort" of Fort York National Historic Site - entry at west gates of 100 Garrison Road

Event details:
Gates open @ 6:30pm / Showtime @ sundown
COVID-19 on-site protocols - please read before attending
Snacks and alcoholic beverages for sale (no outside alcohol permitted)
BYOBlanket & Chairs
Please see the accessibility features of Fort York
Films are screened with captioning
This programme is rated General and is suitable for most audiences, but includes some mature themes

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