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| Reg Hartt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Reginald Hartt (1946-06-12) June 12, 1946 (age 78) Minto, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Occupation | |
| Period | 1965–present |
| Subject | Film |
| Website | |
| cineforum | |
Reginald Hartt (born June 12, 1946) is a film archivist in Toronto, Ontario. He is known for his stagings of historical and contemporary films at his 40-seat theatre, The Cineforum.
Career
Beginning in 1965, Hartt originally screened his films in rented locations. These included the Bathurst Street Church and the Spadina Hotel, as well as Sneaky Dee's, Rochdale College, and locations on Queen Street West and Mirvish Village. From 1970 to 1975, he served as Director of Cinema Studies at Toronto's Rochdale College. He has lectured at art galleries, colleges, museums, schools, theatres, and universities across Canada and in the United States.
Since 1992, he has shown the movies in the front parlor of his Bathurst Street home. An inscription in ancient Greek over the front door reads, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Hartt's black and white typewriter-text-with-film-stills advertising posters are ubiquitous around downtown Toronto to the point where they were used as part of the background of a comic book cover.
Film presentations
The films he nominally screens include "the anarchist surrealist hallucinatory film festival" featuring works of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel, and "the sex and violence cartoon festival" featuring racy Bugs Bunny cartoons, including some of the infamous Censored Eleven. Other offerings include "Kid Dracula" (Murnau's Nosferatu set to Radiohead's Kid A) and a clean print of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Although met with controversy, his screening of Triumph of the Will is understood to be educational and has been described as such by Bernie Farber (former executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress) and author Jane Jacobs, among others. Hartt's collection includes films by Winsor McCay and Mike Jittlov.
Past presentations have included guest programmers. The complete Zatoichi film franchise series was hosted by Grey Coyote of Paradise Bound Music. Charlie Huisken of This Ain't the Rosedale Library is a frequent guest programmer, as were Jamie Ross and also Andre Skinner of Canteen Knockout. Nima Hoda did an in-depth look at the music of Bernard Herrmann for Jason and the Argonauts.
Hartt is known for delivering inspired addresses on the subject of Jesus Christ, cartoons, or anecdotes concerning his varied life experiences as a prologue to, or during, the breaks in his longer programs. His residency at Rochdale College, where he was director of cinema studies, is the topic of a spoken word performance, and he has hosted poetry readings. Hartt has been host to many famous artists and writers, including writer John Robert Colombo, film historian Elwy Yost, rock journalist Al Aronowitz, Jane Jacobs, science-fiction writer Judith Merril, British artist Peter Moore, Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, Bernard B. Brown, and Pierre Berton, who gave his last public reading at the Cineforum.
References
- Eckler, Rebecca (August 25, 1999). "'Home' movies like you've never seen before". National Post. Don Mills, Ont. p. B3.
- Annable, Kristin (February 28, 2012). "Film maven Reg Hartt vows to keep screening at home cinema". The National Post.
- Ladha, Raheem (11 November 2014). "Altered Spaces, From Education to Art: A History of Film Culture at Rochdale College". Local Film Cultures: Toronto.
- Sloan, Will (January 20, 2009). "Could This Be Your Last Chance to Hear Reg Hartt?". The Varsity. Toronto, Ont.
- Solomon, Lawrence. "Ford's blow for film freedom". Financial Post.
- Wherry, Aaron (May 17, 2003). ""Reg Hartt's favourite eatery is his kitchen". National Post. Don Mills, Ont. p. TO2.
Footnotes
- Valpy, Michael (March 9, 1995). "The life and times of Reg Hartt". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont. p. A2.
- LaRiviere, Serafin (November 28, 2012). "Poster legend: It's hard to imagine street poles before Reg Hartt". Xtra.
- Ennis, Garith; Larosa, Lewis; Palmer, Tom (2004). The Punisher. Vol. 2. MAX Comics.
- The Telegraph Journal. Saint John, New Brunswick. September 20, 1995.
- The Kensington Drum. April 1995.
- Eye Magazine. May 13, 1993.