Spencer Moreland's photo taken by a large moth
Hey! My name's Spencer and on this very day, I want to tell you about my TAAFI journey.
In the early days of 2019 (remember 2019? I don't) I was asked by Joel Mackenzie, who was asked by Barnabas Wornoff, who was asked by a strange alien being made of music and light, if I wanted to work on a goopy little signal film for the upcoming TAAFI Film "Festivale" "Internationale" Now, keep in mind, at this point, I had never been to a TAAFI before. As far as I was concerned, "taffy" was a sweet and sticky confection that was better in your mind than it is in your mouth. Turns out it was so much more.
With our mission clearly laid out in front of us, Joel and I strapped ourselves into The Animation Machine and began to oscillate wildly, producing enough animation energy to create an entire signal film in one crazy night. Joel had a baby immediately after, which was totally unrelated to the film, but it meant he had to tend to this child and send me in his stead to deliver another kind of baby - our animated signal film featuring a weird dog inside a computer. Hot off the presses, I packed it in my suitcase and travelled to Tooroontoo and hand-delivered it to the man himself, Barnabas P. Jones.
He snatched it from my hands and boomed, "Thank you! Now, please leave immediately!"
I began to weep openly in public. I begged him right there on Bloor, in front of The Hot Docs Cinema and dozens of animation-hungry festival attendees, "Please, Barnabas J. Tinseltones! Please let me stay and enjoy the wonderful films of TAAFI with the popcorn and the cocktails and the revealing behind-the-scenes talks with a dazzling array of talented filmmakers from all across the GTA!"
He must have been feeling particularly gracious that day. He looked down at me with a mixture of pity and malice and coldly muttered, "Ok, just get up off the ground. You're making everyone sick."
Barn and I became fast friends ever since. Our friendship is so fast you can barely even see it. And every TAAFI event since, Barney has tricked me into doing stuff for him - like running online drink n draw events, hosting Q+A's with brilliant filmmakers like Jonni Philips, and most recently, assisting in programming the schedule for the ever-approaching TAAFI INDUSTRY CONFERENCE, or as I'm calling it, the TAAFI FAMILY REUNION. After 17 long years of isolation, we will finally be able to awkwardly bump into each other as we relearn how to hug, eventually giving up and deciding to just sit down and listen to all the great talks that are planned!
And boy, are there some great ones planned. There's even more that AREN'T planned. Those will also be great. It's all going to be great, and you shouldn't miss it! So be there, why don't ya!
That's my TAAFI story. None of it is true and you wasted your time reading it.
The end. 🍖
