With an historic public park set to close for redevelopment, an eccentric yet lovable group of park regulars and staff members live out the final year while confronting its controversial transformation into a private spa and water park.
Content Advisory:
The final year of Ontario Place before redevelopment is observed in Your Tomorrow. When it opened in 1972, the provincial park Ontario Place was envisioned as a mirror for Ontario’s people. However, due to mismanagement by the Ontario Government, the amusement park that operated on the site closed after the 2012 season. It is now slated for redevelopment, most controversially by the construction of a spa by the European company Therme. In the months before the park is shuttered for development, the activities of visitors, staff, and activists are observed.
Your Tomorrow Synopsis
Your Tomorrow is an observational documentary directed by Ali Weinstein (Mermaids), who has already documented the end of a Toronto institution as a producer of the 2020 doc There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace. Despite the amusement park being closed for over a decade, Your Tomorrow shows how Ontario Place was still being visited by people for its parkland and beaches, one of whom being wearable computer pioneer Steve Mann, subject of the 2001 documentary Cyberman. Ontario Place’s security staff, led by veteran Sherm, consists of twentysomethings too young to remember Ontario Place from its heyday, shown in the film via archival footage.
My Thoughts on Your Tomorrow
Like many people who grew up in Toronto in the last five decades, I have fond memories of visiting Ontario Place in the 1980s and 1990s, often as a side attraction included in the admission of the Canadian National Exhibition. I still find it sad that Ontario Place was closed immediately after its 40th anniversary season, with many of the buildings left to rot. The Ontario Government led by premiere Doug Ford sees Ontario Place as merely real estate to be developed and countless trees are being cut down to make way for a private spa. While Your Tomorrow opts not to give any of its own opinions on the redevelopment and opts to let the viewers interpret what is undoubtedly the end of an era.