Lavazza Inclucity at the Distillery District Scores

 

Eleven films. Seven nights. All under the stars.

June 25 - July 1

The ICFF Festival used to be the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, but it's now called the Lavazza Inclucity Festival.  Same people but a lot more things to see and do.  This festival has expanded so much that there is the Main Festival at the Distillery District downtown Toronto and also another theatre at a Cineplex in Vaughan and a new festival in Toronto, you can also watch some films from home. 

This year, because of the FIFA World Cup, there is a heavy emphasis on sports films and especially a high amount on Soccer or football, as they call it.

Films like Bend it like Beckham and Next Goal Wins return, and the Documentary from 1982 called Il Viaggio Degli Eroi about the 1982 World Cup Game that Italy won.

A couple of other films that were at TIFF that are going to be screening are Little Lorraine, Secret Agent, which also received an Academy Award nomination, and one of my TIFF favourites, Rental Family, bring tissues for this one.

The films are very diverse, and that's why they changed the name so they could include much more than just Italian films.

On Canada Day, the film is A Good Day.  

Other things happening at the festival include a foosball activation at the Distillery.

This year, Illuminarium is being taken over for Airtficial Visions, a project created of AI-created art in an immersive experience that pushes the boundaries of how art is generally seen.

And there's more:  

• A focus on Architecture with a panel discussion with a top Italian architect 
• ICFF loves Fashion, Fashion Frames,  where style becomes Cinema,  
• Music, TO the Beat, live music everyday and it's free to attend.
• Industry Days returns to inspire and inform members of the local film industry

The Closing Gala is going to be BIG!  

Patrick Dempsey will be doing an In Conversation at the TIFF Lightbox and will also be at the Gala, and Italy's most celebrated actress, Ornella Muti will be a guest at the Closing Night Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton.

What's not at the festival this year is the Late Night Horror movies, but there is a George Romero film screening.  

I hope I haven't left anything out.  This is a massive film festival that runs for a month.  No other festival in Toronto runs that long.

The coolest part and what might also be the hardest thing is the fact that the films are screened outdoors in a couple of spots in the Distillery.  On a beautiful night, you can't get much better, but with Toronto's ever-changing crazy weather, be prepared with a warm jacket and umbrella just in case.

This is the 15th year of the Festival.  I don't think I have missed any, even if I only got to see 1 film.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that there's always great food at an ICFF festival.  With the lead sponsor being Lavazza, you know there's going to be great coffee, and look out for some delicious Gelato from Mizzica, and Ferrero and Barilla are also sponsors, and there are many more.  The lead sponsor is Rogers.  

One thing to note is that they give you headphones to listen to the movies during the festival so they don't disturb the residents of the area and anything else going on there.

Get your tickets here:  ICFF - Lavazza IncluCity Festival

Enjoy La Dolce Vita

Parasisi-World Premiere at Hot Docs

 PARASISI

Directed by Zaidi Bil & Sébastien Segers

2026 - Run time: 1hr 1min.

Parasisi opens with a sobering fact: every year, gold mining releases between 50,000 and 80,000 kilograms of mercury into the environment. In Suriname, children are growing up with that poison quietly accumulating in their bodies.

Premiering at Hot Docs in the International Spectrum Competition, the documentary shows a hidden world of Indigenous people in the rainforest.

Who owns or belongs on this land and has the rights of it's use? For the Indigenous Wayana people — now only about 2,000 strong — parasisi means outsider, intruder. Through that word, the film looks at the effects of illegal gold mining that poisons rivers, religious missions that impose foreign beliefs, and medical systems that quietly hide the reasons for their illnesses.

Shot in black and white — though I couldn’t help wishing for color, given how lush the rainforest landscapes are — the film moves with a quiet, slow pace. On the surface, everything appears serene, but beneath that stillness lies a slow‑building unease. The camera lingers on the subtle ways mercury seeps into the land and water, revealing how environmental exploitation becomes normal in daily life.

As the land and its rivers are polluted once again, Indigenous communities are left to bear the cost of corporate greed — with little control, little protection, and few rights over their own futures.

Suriname is often called “the world’s greenest country,” with 90% of its territory covered by Amazon rainforest and home to many Indigenous communities. 

Parasisi is a stark reminder of the loss of the people's rights over their environments.