Story, Yes. Presentation, No.

People might hate me if I said it was bad. People might love me if I said it was bad. But really, I’m not so sure if it was actually bad… or good for that matter. It was okay.

David and Jesse Gilmore came to Harbord Collegiate on Friday, January 29th, 2010. The auditorium was packed with students and teachers anxiously waiting to hear the story of this man and his son. The lights dimmed and everyone’s voices were hushed. “Hello?” David said into the soundless microphone. After a few seconds of tapping it, he spoke into the mic about their “Film Club” and how it all began. They watched three films a week from all kinds of genres. Each film had a purpose, a meaning, something valuable to teach Jesse. And from watching three films a week, Jesse, a high school drop-out turned out okay. During the presentation, they played video clips of some of the movies they had watched for the film club. The likes of actors Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, and George Clooney were featured on the white screen. Directors Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg were highlighted too. A Q&A session was held afterwards. I especially liked Ms. West’s question, “Why weren’t there any female actors featured in any of those clips?” They didn’t answer the question the way I wanted them to.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the content was bad or anything like that. In fact, I find their story fascinating; I even went to the library to check out David’s book. I just found that the way they presented the whole thing was somewhat of a drag. Ordinary, nothing special. If you were walking by and didn’t know what was going on, you would have thought that it was just another assembly. This is a man who is a famous Canadian author who tours the world telling his and his son’s story. You would think that they would have put on a more engaging presentation. The story was there, but the presentation was not. Too bad, it would have been great.

(written on February 11th, 2010)