Few places feel as close to home as Toronto.

Perhaps that is because, in many ways, it reminds me of São Paulo, the city where I grew up.

Anyone who has lived in a truly large city knows the rhythm I mean. The constant hum of traffic. The crowded subway platforms. The distant, and sometimes not so distant, sound of ambulances moving through the night. It is a pulse that never really stops.

São Paulo is home to more than 11 million people. Toronto, with nearly 3 million residents, is smaller by comparison. Yet both cities share something beyond numbers. They carry an energy that is difficult to describe and impossible to ignore.

There is also a certain comfort in that movement. At ten o’clock at night, when hunger suddenly arrives, there is always somewhere still open. A light on. A place to go. A city continuing its conversation with itself long after the sun has set.

Living in Moncton, I have come to appreciate quieter rhythms. Atlantic Canada has given me many things, including space to breathe. But being back in a large city reminds me of a part of myself that was shaped by noise, motion, and possibility.

This trip carried an additional layer of meaning.

I was in Toronto to attend the Hot Docs Festival, an experience that left me genuinely inspired. I spent days surrounded by stories, filmmakers, and audiences who believe in the power of documentary cinema to help us better understand one another.

I also had the opportunity to watch films at TIFF as an industry member. Even writing those words feels surreal. There was a time when I could not have imagined being part of that world, not even in my wildest dreams.

Moments like these make me think about the strange and beautiful ways life unfolds. Sometimes we spend years moving toward something without realizing it. Then one day, we find ourselves standing inside a moment we once believed belonged only to other people.

Toronto reminded me of many things. Of where I come from. Of how far I have traveled. And of the quiet truth that home is not always a place.

Sometimes, home is a feeling.

Sometimes, it appears unexpectedly in the noise of a city, in a movie theatre seat, or in the realization that a dream you never dared to name has somehow found its way to you.

Image: Personal Archive April 2026