Music underpins eclectic array of Toronto film festival features

By Solarina Ho TORONTO (Reuters) – From dramas about mentors and their apprentices, to imaginative musicals, biopics, and documentaries, music underpinned an eclectic swathe of movies appearing at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. These ranged from high profile galas like Francois Girard's 'Boychoir' and the Canadian premiere of Sundance favorite 'Whiplash' to Ethan Hawke's intimate and well received study of a former concert pianist. Girard, who also made 'Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould' and 'The Red Violin', said he does not want to be pigeonholed as a director of music-related projects, but that once again a story centered around this theme spoke to him. "I trust music more than the words when it comes to depicting emotions." Girard's 'Boychoir' and director Damien Chazelle's semi-autobiographical 'Whiplash' both portray students striving for greatness under genius teachers – one simply demanding and one monstrously abusive.