Toronto Pictures’ Senior Executives Host Gala Party to Launch New Entertainment Magazine, DARIA!

Veteran filmmaker, Bruno Pischiutta, President and CEO of Toronto Pictures, Inc., and Daria Trifu, Vice President of the Canadian film production company, recently hosted a gala party to launch Ms. Trifu’s new arts and entertainment magazine, DARIA!

Veteran filmmaker, Bruno Pischiutta, President and CEO of Toronto Pictures, Inc., and Daria Trifu, Vice President of the Canadian film production company, recently hosted a gala party to launch Ms. Trifu’s new arts and entertainment magazine, DARIA!

The party, which was held Friday evening, November 4th at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, coincided with the American Film Market (AFM), where the magazine was seen in the hands of literally hundreds of the major international trade event’s attendees.

Glossy in format and highly visual with exceptional photographs throughout, DARIA! is heavily dedicated to interviews with writers, producers, directors and other adjunct professionals within the entertainment industry.

Advertising is limited, and products shown are high-end in nature. The editorial focus is committed to artistic overviews of films in production or recently released, as well as changes in the global entertainment market, particularly as they affect independent productions.

Ms. Trifu, the magazine’s owner, namesake and Editor, introduced her new publication by saying, “We are committed to producing a very high quality magazine that exclusively addresses the interests of the entertainment industry, and particularly the independent film sector. By exploring recent independent film releases, as well as independent films currently in production or pre-production, we hope to inform our readers about the very strong global market for independent movies. We plan to publish DARIA! twice per year, and our next issue will be coincidental with the Festival in Cannes, where we will distribute several thousand copies.” She continued by adding "Right now the purpose of DARIA! is to get the attention of the world’s film and TV executives on different subjects and to become a “liaison” between Hollywood and great talent and products that are not yet in full light.”

A large focus of the publication’s premiere issue is Toronto Pictures’ recently shot film, Punctured Hope, an intense and refined feature film which reveals the startling ages-old tribal cultural practice of Trokosi that promotes the continued enslavement, mutilation and sexual abuse of West Africa’s young girls and women. The film, which will premiere in Cannes in May, was shot with an all-African cast, whose lead actress is, herself, a survivor of these culturally imbedded religious beliefs which have affected millions of African women over the past 300 years.

In concert with international efforts to re-educate and outlaw these repressive practices predicated on superstition and cultural lore, Toronto Pictures is donating 10% of the film’s profits to a West African foundation whose priority is the provision of enhanced educational, medical and infrastructural improvements to the village where the movie is being filmed.

Toronto Pictures is committed to developing and marketing films that are financially viable, yet violence-free. Toward that end, the Company is sponsoring the Monaco International Film Festival, which will be held in Monte-Carlo from December 2 through 5, 2005. The Monaco Festival is the third annual celebration of non-violent films hosted by the Principality of Monaco and showcases films of quality that contain no gratuitous violence.

Targeting a global audience, Toronto Pictures addresses broad-based topical issues in a dramatic format, always entertaining and often combined with documentary genre influences. Now in partnership with International Film Properties, Inc., the Company is seeking to expand its operations by acquiring equity in selected entertainment industry-based agencies in Eastern Europe.

Among those attending the Friday evening launch party was international Producer/Director David Winters, whose latest production, The King Maker, an historical Thai epic of Shakespearean dimensions, was introduced at the AFM and a subject of editorial inclusion in the premiere issue of DARIA!. Executive Producer Art Klein (Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School, now in distribution through Samuel Goldwin Films and Nobel Son currently shooting in Los Angeles and Starring, Danny DeVito, Alan Rickman and Eliza Dushku among others) and his son, Actor Hal B. Klein. Star Photographer Don Camp and film executive Charles Stroud were among the large gathering of independent film industry professionals invited to the gala. Also attending were Associate Producer of Punctured Hope John White, Director Andrea Galante and Program Consultant Anna Kim of the International Film Festival of Milano (MIFF).