What if we tried to apply a filmic characterization to define the impact of the Internet on society? The Internet, with its shadowless psychological, visual and economic sweep, suctions the entertainment industry. Makes moot all our dearly held assumptions about identifying, engaging and selling the audience.

How could we explain our realization that the Internet, something no one can direct and shape in the usual way, has arrived as the medium of the era, shouldering aside newspapers, film and tv?

When in doubt, try Jay Scott. Just substitute the phrase ‘the Internet’ for the phrases ‘this film’ and ‘The Wars’ in the final sentence of Scott’s 1983 review of a Robin Phillips film:

‘An inordinate amount of expectation has been attached to this film, and it is a pleasure to be able to report that it carries most of it without strain. Flaws aside, The Wars is a historically important event and, like so many important historical events of late, it bruises the heart.’

And so far the Net has little soul, is more about convenience, connections and gadgets than illumination.

Now we must consider U8TV, Canada’s foremost adventure in the tongue-in-groove joining of television and cyberia. Alliance Atlantis says, whether the crtc grants it a digital specialty licence for this concept or no, it will work with content creators Tvforreal.com to create a ’24/7 reality-based tv station on the Internet.’ Eight young people will live in a loft, create and webcast ‘live, original entertainment, information and lifestyle shows’ and stay in front of the Web camera after the shows are made and transmitted so viewers online can watch their every move.

So far, content created for one medium – film, tv, print – has had dubious success online and we don’t know whether U8TV will make innovative use of the newest medium to tell the lofters’ stories in a catchy way. Nonetheless, aac and Tvforreal.com deserve a ‘Bravo!’ for moving forward so quickly and decisively, for giving us a first Canadian example of how original series content can look online. Whether the content borrows too much of tv’s sensibility for its reality-on-the-Web milieu remains to be seen.

Meantime, those of us healing our bruised hearts, holding on to film, can revel in a Canadian success story as the Toronto International Film Festival turns 25. The accomplishments the festival’s people, films and filmmakers have recorded in a quick quarter century are remarkable, especially in Canada where we like to eat our cultural young.

Take a minute to remark on the remembrances and photos we happily offer, and hope that the too-brief century of film in our midst stretches into the future forever. With any luck, this love of film will never face a Survivor challenge or fatal, digital reality check.