Alicia Fletcher communicates in all ways film–from classics to kitsch, to the so good it’s bad, to contemporary indie darlings. Whether it’s the longstanding silent film series Silent Revue, the vaudeville-inspired film and performance program Ladies of Burlesque”, various director retrospectives at TIFF’s Cinematheque, or helming Open Roof Festival – Toronto’s preeminent outdoor festival celebrating all things #MoviesMusicBeer – Alicia manages a variety of Toronto’s most beloved cinematic events.
She can wax poetic on obscure films from the Weimar era, or defend the artistic merit of both Paddington films with equal measures of enthusiasm. She’s obsessed with the podcast You Must Remember This and has multiple well-worn copies of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon. As Director of Operations for Open Roof Festival, you can find her scouring the aisles of various big box stores trying to find the best deal on Peanut M&M’s or researching the various ins and outs of commercial generators. Sometimes if you look up at a random television screen in a restaurant or transit station, you’ll see a video of Alicia explaining the cultural value of Predator or On the Waterfront for the Hollywood Suite channel (she gets recognized frequently when there’s a free cable preview). She writes a lot and is recurrently featured in Cinema Scope magazine – she is often told that she is someone’s mom’s favourite film critic. She has the lucky happenstance of travelling around the world to various film festivals as an accredited film critic. Whether it’s Berlin, San Francisco, or at Sundance, she’s watching film after film after film, carefully calculating whether it should come to Toronto and be a part of one of her various projects. She dreams of one day creating a mobile cinema out of a vintage Airstream. You’ll often spot her wearing her “Written and Directed by Elaine May” t-shirt.
What ‘hood are you in?
High Park/Lower Junction
What do you do?
Film event production and programming: Open Roof Festival, Silent Revue, Ladies of Burlesque, curator at TIFF Cinematheque
What are you currently working on?
Running Open Roof Festival 2018. You can learn more about the Festival here.
Where can we find your work?
Open Roof Festival, which presents screenings every Wednesday night from June 20-August 22; Ladies of Burlesque, which takes place monthly at the Royal Cinema; Silent Revue at the Revue Cinema (starting in the Fall); and TIFF Cinematheque throughout the year.
