This week, Librarian Phil Hallman and Professor Johannes von Moltke are leading a group of doctoral students on an excursion to the Toronto Film Festival. Phil, a regular attendee of the festival, has been in Toronto since last week and will meet the group when it arrives on Wednesday evening, September 12th. First up, for those with the stamina for it after the trip: a midnight screening of Barry Levinson's The Bay.

Starting Thursday, September 13, it's everyone for her/himself in some 80 different films that members of the group will be seeing until they return on Sunday, September 16. In between, they're fortunate to have the expertise of TIFF personnel to show them around behind the scenes, and of UT Film Professor Kay Armatage, a former programmer at TIFF, to share her perspective on the festival. They'll be blogging nightly, doubtless with increasingly groggy posts, which you can follow under um@tiff!