Cineforum falls victim to Toronto’s war on fun
After surviving near-certain doom in 2008, Reg Hartt’s one-of-a-kind Cineforum has been shut down for doing what it has always done, namely, running a theatre in a house. According to Cineforum’s Web site, Hartt received an e-mail in March notifying him that his advertising habits (ie., the ubiquitous black-and-white posters all over the city) had been reported to the Toronto Advertising Hall of Shame and the licensing and standards committee. Shortly after, Hartt was notified by the city that Cineforum must close. The irascible film archivist has defeated opposition before—he was shut down in 1992 but reopened with a little help from his friend Jane Jacobs—and he’s not exactly known as a pushover. As such, we don’t think we’ve heard the last of the Cineforum just yet.
