“A Day in the Life” with Open Roof Festival’s Alicia Fletcher

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.

Alicia Fletcher at Open Roof Festival 2018
Alicia Fletcher at Open Roof Festival 2018
Alicia Fletcher hosting a 35mm screening of Showgirls for Ladies of Burlesque at the Royal Cinema with author Adam Nayman
Alicia Fletcher hosting a 35mm screening of Showgirls for Ladies of Burlesque at the Royal Cinema with author Adam Nayman
Attending Berlinale 2018
Attending Berlinale 2018
Hosting an Xmas trashtastic John Waters screening for Ladies of Burlesque
Hosting an Xmas trashtastic John Waters screening for Ladies of Burlesque
Open Roof Festival opening night screening of Rushmore. Photo credit: Joseph Michael Photography
Open Roof Festival - setting up the event. Photo credit: Joseph Michael Photography
Open Roof Festival – setting up the event. Photo credit: Joseph Michael Photography
In Park City, Utah attending the Sundance Film Festival
In Park City, Utah attending the Sundance Film Festival
Research trip to Twin Peaks Double R Diner
Research trip to Twin Peaks Double R Diner

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.

 

 

 

About Joel Levy 2542 Articles
Editor-In-Chief at Toronto Guardian. Photographer and Writer for Toronto Guardian and Joel Levy Photography