TIFF: cars and bikes on a roll during festival

LINDA MCAVOY FILE PHOTO FOR THE TORONTO STAR

Filmed in Toronto last November, One Week stars Joshua Jackson and a 1973 Norton Commando 850, owned by Malcolm Byard.

Linda McAvoy

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The Toronto International Film Festival is in town this week, showcasing 312 feature films and 249 shorts from 64 countries.

Somewhere in those 20,693 minutes of film, there's got to be some sort of automotive connection, right?

Of course, there's the usual phalanx of celebrity-filled limousines clogging Toronto's streets, creating traffic and parking woes for fans and movie stars alike.

With more than 1,000 official TIFF guests (not including the media and industry types) attending festival events and activities, "transportation needs are abundant," admits Naoko Kumagai, acting director of media relations for the festival, who points out that some stars will be reducing their carbon footprint by riding in the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid that is making its Canadian debut (Cadillac is the festival's official automotive partner).

But aside from watching all the pretty, polished movie stars alight from the pretty polished cars, for your viewing pleasure, TIFF is also offering several roadtrip movies.

Long a favourite genre of both filmmakers and gearheads, the highway odysseys being screened over the course of the 10-day festival include One Week, a drama that stars a 1973 Norton Commando 850 – oh, and actor Joshua Jackson.

Interviewed during filming in Toronto last November, Jackson, an experienced road tripper who himself owns a 2004 Triumph Speedmaster, knew the film would involve a lot of time aboard the Norton, as his character travelled from Toronto to Tofino, B.C.

"I couldn't have taken this job, I don't think, if I didn't know how to ride a motorcycle, because nine-tenths of the film is on the bike and about what being on a road trip is and feels like," said the Vancouver-born actor.

Both Jackson and the Norton are in town for the festival, with the motorcycle to be featured at an invitation-only party thrown by film distributor Mongrel Media.

Actors Tim Robbins and Michael Peña as well as Canada's own Rachel McAdams also put in a lot of windshield time for their roles in the American film The Lucky One, playing a trio of soldiers on leave trying to make sense of their lives during an unexpected road trip across the United States.

In Wendy and Lucy, actress Michelle Williams hits the road alongside her canine companion Lucy, driving from Indiana to Alaska, with the plot turning once her beat-up Honda breaks down in Oregon.

Even the international film category boasts a roadtrip movie of sorts with Iceland's Country Wedding (Sveitabrúðkaup), which follows along as wedding guests pile into two buses (one for the bride's family and one for the groom's) then get lost en route to the church.

And finally, though not a roadtrip movie, Flash of Genius definitely has an automotive component as it's a film based on the true story of college professor and inventor Robert Kearns' battle with the American automobile industry over his invention of the intermittent windshield wiper.

The Toronto International Film Festival (tiff08.ca) runs until Sept. 13.

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