Your Tomorrow Review

In Your Tomorrow, director Ali Weinstein (Mermaids, #Blessed) uses an absorbing and comprehensive approach to a Canadian (and largely Toronto-specific) controversy. It requires a deft hand to turn the political into the personal and swivel it back, which Weinstein accomplishes with artistic maturity. What’s even more impressive is the way that the film advances the specifics of the redevelopment of Ontario Place to fashion a more encompassing and compelling statement about urban development worldwide. This film will touch anyone who cares about public spaces, especially those that are increasingly difficult to access in major cities.

Ontario Place originally opened in 1971 to much celebration and fanfare, especially by the provincial government of the time. Ads and songs helped build it up as a model of futurism and family fun, a respite from the pressures of urban living, and a natural escape for those without access to summer cottages. The buildings and planning of the landscape were modern for the time with the amount of green space allotted seen as a way to provide a comforting space for reflection.

Before long however, the grounds and the buildings were abandoned by this same level of government. But nature continued to thrive, and the people continued to use it as a haven. Some people incorporated this park into their daily routines, treating it like the oasis that it was meant to be. It may have been abandoned by the government, but it never forgotten was by the city’s inhabitants. This same level of government now has unilaterally decided to close off access to that space and to allow a foreign company to redevelop the land into a spa. Several trees have already been cut down.

Filmed over 100 days during the period leading up to the space being blocked off from the public, Weinstein follows individuals who use the space and those who work there. In this compelling observational documentary, she captures a range of individuals that is all encompassing and abundant, providing the film with a particularly layered experience. But it’s the level of intimacy that draws the viewer in. People recount their reasons for coming to Ontario Place and the benefits they receive from interacting with the various spaces.

During the course of such a period, nature has its cycles and seasons change. Through her decision to follow a small group of people, the audience is present for moments of joy as they interact with the environment and each other. One man grows plants, a sunflower, tomatoes; a retired couple take their daily constitutional and discuss life as they gaze over the horizon; another man tells of how going to the to the shoreline and being in that natural environment helped him through the pandemic. No one seems bothered by the neglected buildings – people climb them, photograph them – they are just part of this unique landscape. As people and animals keep using it, we see that it is a vital space.

The individuals are captivating in their candour, and Weinstein creates a level of comfort that allows individual personalities a chance to shine. It’s obvious that each person has a special bond with this place. She’s smart to rely on well-chosen moments that have a deep impact: there’s a particular heartbreaker involving a scene with a dog that doesn’t understand why his usual path for his walk is blocked. All of this becomes even more poignant as the filmmaker continues to weave in archival footage from Ontario Place’s opening – the ads that celebrated it as a place for the people.

Your Tomorrow captures more than just the importance of a natural setting. It captures the cycles of life and the very rhythms of daily lives that seem so ordinary but that can actually contain such poetry, such significance in the grander scheme of things. In the film, the ruins on the grounds of Ontario Place stand as a testament to the human spirit – people are still integrating their lives into and around them.

The greatest strength of Your Tomorrow is that here’s nothing preachy here. It would have been too easy to present an overriding account of facts and arguments for or against the controversial redevelopment of Ontario Place. Instead, Weinstein’s observational style uses the smallest of significant details to build up a larger vision of the impact, consequences of the government’s plans and the speed with which it happened. More importantly the film presents the impact on all who exist there and depend on it, whatever their reasons, be they people, animals or tomatoes.