31 shots from the Men’s FASHION Born to be Blue TIFF party, featuring the always dreamy Ethan Hawke

by Jacquelyn Francis September 14, 2015

A buzzy, attractive crowd turned out in their finest to celebrate the TIFF premiere of Born to be Blue at an after-party hosted by Men’s FASHION at The Citizen on King Street West.

This new cinematic take on the late, legendary—though tragic—jazz trumpeter Chet Baker stars Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) as Baker and Carmen Ejogo (Selma), and was directed by Robert Budreau, who appears on the cover of the fall edition of Men’s FASHION.

In between sampling deep-fried pickles and oysters shucked personally by the night’s executive chef, Jacob Wigglesworth, we locked eyes with the likes of Born to be Blue cast member Callum Keith Rennie (50 Shades of Grey) and Budreau, who surveyed the crowd attending his TIFF party with pleasure. Other revelers in the house included filmmaker Bruce LaBruce; designers Kirk Pickersgill of Greta Constantine and Sunny Fong of VAWK; model Paul Mason and FASHION Magazine Editor-In-Chief Bernadette Morra. Holding court on a cozy leather chesterfield observing guests as they arrived were St. Joseph Media, Senior VP Lilia Lozinski and Men’s FASHION Editor-In-Chief David Livingstone.

The evening’s highlight was a dreamy 30-minute set by the Born to Be Blue band, a local jazz quartet featuring Kevin Turcotte, who played the trumpet parts for Ethan Hawke’s performance in the film. But there was little time to be lulled by the music once Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta and her Beeba Boys cast (members of which appear over six pages in the new issue of Men’s FASHION) stormed the joint. The Vancouver-set Sikh gangster flick features Waris Ahluwalia, Gabe Grey and Ali Kazmi, to name a few, and they added a nice dash of film-fest glamour to the evening. The boys breezed into The Citizen looking sharp, smiled in the VIP section for a few snappies then departed en masse, kind of like the gang they play on film.