Martin Luthur King had a dream. So did Tonya Lee Williams: it was the Reel World Film Festival - a film festival to promote films and film makers of cultural diversity. It was held this year in Toronto from March 31 to April 4, 2004.. This is the fourth year of the festival and it gets bigger and better every year. The list of sponsors includes CityTv, Xerox, Universal, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Telefilm Canada, Toronto Arts Council, Canadian Heritage and Wallace Studios among many others. The festival consists of industry series, 65 films from countries across the world such as India, Australia, England, German, United States, China and Mexico, festival awards and the smashing opening and closing gala parties. The opening gala film was Little Brother of War, a Canadian film directed which won this year’s Star TV! audience award for best film. This film was a sad but engaging drama about loss, self-discovery and emotional rebirth. The closing gala film, The Seat Filler, my favourite, portrayed the story of a young lawyer writing the bar who meets a beautiful singer while filling a seat for an important entertainment attorney. The opening and closing night parties, held at the Novotel hotel, were exciting evenings with many entertainment industry VIP’s in attendance.

With films from a wide diversity of cultures, Tonya’s dream has come true - this festival is now a significant and important film festival and mark your calendar for next year! I know I will.

See Photo Page: http://groups.msn.com/Torontoartsandevents

By: George C. Eyre