My Own Private River & Idaho

As you might guess these are two variations on Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. These films can are being shown for free and non-stop between 10 AM and 10 PM everyday of the festival at the smaller of the two TIFF Lightbox exhibition spaces on the ground floor. The room is set up like a church basement where one might go for group therapy for drug addiction. The cheap linoleum and metal folding chairs are there to add to the grim atmosphere.

My Own Private River is a re-edited version My Own Private Idaho with some unused footage that re-focuses the film on River Phoenix. This original footage is now over twenty years old and River Phoenix died almost as long ago. To make a new film out of old footage is rather eery. The effect is a familiar story but from the point of view of a ghost.

Idaho is based on an earlier script and shot in super eight. The two protagonists are played by much younger actors making the story far more disturbing. Their isolation becomes all the more acute, because no one wants to know. Be warned that the poor sound quality makes the dialogue almost incomprehensible. If you do not know the plot of the story you will get lost.