Hot Docs

Hot Docs Review: 'Detropia' A Beautiful & Affecting Portrait Of A City In Decline

Samantha Chater — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:57:00 GMT

"Detropia" is more than just a portrait of a city. The latest film from "Jesus Camp" filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady is ultimately a moving and powerful micro-portrait of a hurting nation.

Detroit, a city built on the manufacturing boom, largely of the Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors companies -- hence the nickname of “Motor City" -- is emblematic of both America’s success and the failures that have caused its slow and steady decline. Ewing and Grady harness what is powerful about the documentary film medium what is largely absent from news reports and op-eds -- the ability to create an empathetiic connection. Not that the film is a solution to America’s problems, but it is an eloquent and powerful awareness-builder.

The opening scene, the demolition of an abandoned house covered by a local TV news crew, informs us it's one of many, and it sets the tone of decay and destruction the film carries. In short, this is Detroit today. The rest of the film is comprised of various personal stories of local Detroit residents, young and old, who have remained in the city, despite half its population fleeing. From a local blogger/waitress who explores the fascinating abandoned and decaying buildings around town, to a United Auto Workers chapter head trying to deal with an unfeeling auto industry who’ve found greener pastures in Mexico, to a a retired teacher turned blues bar owner trying to make ends meet, to a couple of young installation artists who've relocated from Hawaii, among others. The latter couple are one of the too-brief but bright spots in "Detropia," people who are actively moving to Detroit to take advantage of the lowered cost of living. The apparent influx of young people into the city is one of the interesting counterpoints to the doom and gloom of all the decay.

All too many of the residents realise that globalization and international competition is one of the main reasons behind Detroit's downfall. One of the most candid, yet beautifully captured, moments is of a group of young people tearing down an abandoned house for scrap metal to sell. They are all too aware of the irony of their task, ripping apart Detroit’s ruined buildings for dollars per pound of scrap to export to China, who will then sell it back to the USA as something new.

Though the overall tone of the film is sombre, there is also a sense of ragged hope from many of the residents. The filmmakers also sit in on town meetings, where Mayor David Bing's plan to “downsize” or condense Detroit to better serve the remaining constituents is met with both outrage and proclamations of civic pride by the opponents of the proposal, who wish to maintain the integrity of the city they’ve lived in for so long. Also examined is the local opera company, another source of local pride, that has survived so far from auto industry patronage, but is now threatened with closure. The opera’s board has an engaging fighting spirit and determination to survive.

There is an eerie and majestic beauty to this once great city, which is captured in gorgeous HD between stories. In a candid moment, some Swiss tourists who happen upon a cafe comment on the novelty of the ageing and rundown look of the city, compared to the stark “newness” of Switzerland. However, notably absent is much talk of the city's high crime rate, though unemployment is more thoroughly explored. But as gritty as "Detropia" is, it’s not investigative journalism -- the film presents only a few facts and statistics, and it has no overarching narrative or narration to make the connection between the various personal stories, but instead, it allows the viewer to contemplate the subjective meaning behind what they are seeing.

A lyrical snapshot of a city on the brink, as well as a nation, "Detropia" is not only beautiful in form, but also a vital and affecting work, that hits close to home. [A-]

'Chasing Ice' and 'The Imposter' Take People's Choice and Filmmakers Awards at Hot Docs

Devin Lee Fuller — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:28:06 GMT

The votes have been tallied and now Hot Docs has announced the final winners at this year's festival. Jeff Orlowski's "Chasing Ice" took the People's Choice Award and Bart Layton's "The Imposter" won the Filmmakers Award.

"Chasing Ice" follows "National Geographic" photographer James Balog as he documents the world's changing glaciers, while "The Imposter" explores the mysterious return of a child three and a half year's after he was kidnapped.

This year's festival is reported as the largest edition ever with an estimated audience of 165,000 over 11 days.

"In these challenging times for Canadian doc-makers, our audience numbers have broken all previous records,” say Chris McDonald, Hot Docs executive director. “This country has a global reputation for outstanding documentary filmmaking, and Toronto audiences are quite possibly the best in the world. We need to support our filmmakers and their contributions to Canadian culture as best we can. As was so eloquently argued by director Kevin McMahon this weekend, documentary should be Canada’s national art form.”

Full press release below:

HOT DOCS’ LARGEST FESTIVAL EVER SEES AUDIENCES OF 165,000
CHASING ICE NAMED PEOPLE’S CHOICE AND THE IMPOSTER TAKES FILMMAKERS AWARD

Toronto, May 7, 2012 – Hot Docs has wrapped its most successful Festival to date with audience numbers reaching an estimated 165,000. The 11-day event featured 395 public screenings of 189 films on 14 screens across Toronto, an internationally renowned conference and market for documentary professionals, and Docs for Schools, a phenomenally popular education program for youth. New this year, Hot Docs partnered with Cineplex Entertainment to simulcast the Canadian premieres of two Canadian documentary films to 37 cinemas across the country. A total of 143 screenings went rush, and the box office saw a ten per cent increase in revenue. The Festival welcomed nearly 200 filmmakers and special guest subjects from across Canada and around the world to present their films and take part in special post-screening Q&A sessions with audiences. Official film selections were chosen from a total of 2085 films submitted to the Festival.

"In these challenging times for Canadian doc-makers, our audience numbers have broken all previous records,” say Chris McDonald, Hot Docs executive director. “This country has a global reputation for outstanding documentary filmmaking, and Toronto audiences are quite possibly the best in the world. We need to support our filmmakers and their contributions to Canadian culture as best we can. As was so eloquently argued by director Kevin McMahon this weekend, documentary should be Canada’s national art form.”

After the final screening yesterday, audience votes were tallied for the People's Choice Award. The winner is CHASING ICE (D: Jeff Orlowski, USA), which follows renowned National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. New this year, a cash prize for the People’s Choice Award winner was crowd-funded from audiences through Hot Docs’ Doc Ignite (www.hotdocs.ca/docignite) platform. Currently in excess of $4000, the public can further contribute to this cash prize until Monday, May 14.

The top ten audience favourites as determined by audience vote are:

1.         CHASING ICE (D: Jeff Orlowski, USA)
2.         BIG BOYS GONES BANANAS!* (D: Fredrik Gertten, Sweden)
3.         G-DOG (D: Freida Mock, USA)
4.         WE ARE WISCONSIN (D: Amie Williams, USA)
5.         LIFE IN STILLS (D: Tamar Tal, Israel)
6.         BROOKLYN CASTLE (D: Katie Dellamaggiore, USA)
7.         5 BROKEN CAMERAS (D: Guy Davidi, Emad Burnat; France, Israel, Palestine)
8.         JASON BECKER, NOT DEAD YET (D: Jessie Vile, UK)
9.         CALL ME KUCHU (D:Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright; USA)
10.       THE WORLD BEFORE HER (D: Nisha Pahuja; Canada, Germany, USA, UK)

Also during this year's Hot Docs Festival, attending filmmakers with official selections in the Festival were invited to vote for their favourite film. The winner of the 2012 Filmmakers Award is THE IMPOSTER (D: Bart Layton, UK).

A full week of industry programming entitled Doc to the Future was attended by 2279 delegates from around the world. Hot Docs mounted a roster of four workshops, 10 conference sessions, 20 networking and market events, three Kickstart panels for emerging filmmakers, 12 micro meetings, the Doc Summit, International Co-Production Day, and the Hot Docs Awards Presentation. The Hot Docs Forum, Hot Docs' key international co-financing market event, saw two days of brisk pitching, networking and deal-making. In total, 25 projects representing 14 countries were presented to a panel of over 170 key commissioning editors and funders. Hot Docs also hosted six official delegations from China, Germany, Israel, the Nordic region, South Africa, and the UK.

Doc for Schools, Hot Docs' education program that runs during the Festival and offers free in-theatre and in-school screenings of select Festival films, reached a record number of students in 2012. Close to 73,000 students participated in the program, including schools in Toronto and throughout Ontario.

First-Time Directing Duo Talk Ugandan LGBT Rights Doc 'Call Me Kuchu'

Peter Knegt — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:27:51 GMT

Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright's Ugandan LGBT rights doc "Call Me Kuchu" has been met with considerable accolades in its short span on the festival circuit.

Upon its world premiere at the Berlinale, the film won the Teddy Award for best LGBT documentary. Then last week, it made its North American debut at Hot Docs and ended up winning the prize for best international feature. Sure to be a staple on the film festival circuit for the next few months, the film takes on a pivotal international human rights issue: LGBT rights in Africa.

Specifically focused around LGBT people and activists in Uganda, "Call Me Kuchu" (gay and transgendered citizens are called "kuchus") centers around the life and tragic death of David Kato, a veteran activist who spent years fighting against his country’s insanely homophobic society. Among other terrifying things, an anti-homosexuality bill proposing death for HIV-positive gay men is introduced and Kato is one of the few brave enough to try and stop it. Unfortunately, after courageously changing the face of LGBT rights in the country, Kato was brutually murdered early last year.

Indiewire caught up with Zouhali-Worral and Fairfax Wright ahead of their Hot Docs premiere. Canonizing Kato's life and shedding light on the remarkable efforts of people like him, their first film as feature directors is a powerful and important one that should not be missed.

How did each of you get into filmmaking?

Katherine Fairfax Wright: In college, I studied anthropology and film, so for me documentary is a natural intersection of the two. I was the type of student who was really keen to think about a lot of things from a lot of angles, but perhaps not to the degree that would require one to hyper-focus on a single discipline or vocational niche. So filmmaking allows to me to pursue my myriad interests concurrently, to consider complex geo-political issues, questions of logic and of humanity, but with a creative mindset and output. A character-driven documentary such as "Call Me Kuchu" also enables me to explore a situation on a nuanced individual level from the point of view of a select few, but then to share that intimacy on a macro level with countless viewers and points of view—and I find that a really fascinating dynamic to take part in.

In terms of developing a skill set, my undergraduate studies were mostly film theory not practice, so as a supplement to that I began interning on a couple of film productions, then associate producing, then producing, set photography, and various other roles. But this is my first film in this capacity—as co-director, director of photography, and editor.

Malika Zouhali-Worrall: Before "Call Me Kuchu," I was working as a print and video journalist, reporting from the U.S., China and India for CNN.com and other publications. After a couple of years of freelancing, I started to feel creatively stifled by short-form journalism and having worked for a couple of production companies as a documentary researcher, I soon realized that the intimate, creative and in-depth nature of storytelling in documentary film was what I was yearning for. That was around the same time that I first heard about Victor Mukasa, a Ugandan transgender man who, in 2008, had won a landmark case against the country’s Attorney General in Uganda’s High Court. It was too late to make a film about Victor’s case alone, but it seemed that there was still a film to be made about the East African LGBT community, so I started speaking with activists in the region, and shared my research with Katy, who had also been closely following the situation there. From there we decided to make a film.

What was the genesis of "Call Me Kuchu" as a project? What drew you to the material?

Katherine Fairfax Wright: We had both read about the tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in October 2009, and we were increasingly disturbed by its implications. But Victor Mukasa’s case had also intrigued us, because it showed that while the country’s sodomy laws were still routinely enforced, and even harsher laws were being considered, the country’s judicial system was independent enough to allow LGBT people, or “kuchus,” to reclaim their constitutional rights. We also soon learned that there was an increasingly organized LGBT community in Uganda that was fighting state-sanctioned homophobia through the courts and other means. Within just a couple of weeks, we found ourselves on a plane bound for Kampala.

Malika Zouhali-Worrall: David was the first person we met up with after we arrived in Uganda. We had to find him in the restaurant of a specific hotel -- the only place he felt safe in the city center. He reeled off names and numbers and introduced us to various people in the kuchu community, so initially he was somewhat of a fixer to us. But as we spent more time with him, we were increasingly intrigued by his fierce intelligence and passion, and realized that he was one of the most outspoken activists in the community. It soon became clear that he was the protagonist of "Call Me Kuchu."

What do you hope people take from it?

Malika Zouhali-Worrall: "Call Me Kuchu" tells the story of the last year in the life of David Kato, Uganda’s first openly gay man, up until his brutal murder in early 2011. We followed David over the course of a year as he worked to combat both an Anti-Homosexuality Bill that proposed a death penalty for gay men, and a gay-bashing tabloid newspaper that was outing members of the LGBT community with vicious fervor.

Of course, David’s brutal murder changed our motivations for working on the film to some extent. While we had always been keen to get the story of Kampala’s kuchus out into the world, that sentiment became far more urgent and personal when David died. We had essentially documented the entire last year of his life, and since his life was cut short, we had been filming during a time when he was at the pinnacle of his activism, when his philosophies and oration were most concrete and well-formulated, and when his voice and understanding of the complexity of the scenario was strongest. Therefore, both of us felt the responsibility to honor his life by making the best film we could, and ensuring that it has as broad of a reach as possible.

Katherine Fairfax Wright: Since his murder, David has been mythologized as a courageous and passionate human rights activist -- which is exactly what he was. However, over the time that we spent filming with him, we also got to know a man who was charismatic yet vulnerable, sharp witted, and often afraid to sleep alone. As is true of the heroes of any movement, some of these character and situational subtleties have been overshadowed by the broad strokes of his accomplishments. Our hope is that "Call Me Kuchu," as a long-format character study, will help supplement the canonized David Kato, and ensure that people understand that he was a normal man who went to astounding lengths to liberate Uganda’s LGBT community.

We also hope our audiences will take away a fresh understanding of Kampala’s kuchus and what they’ve achieved as a community. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has received plenty of coverage from the international news media, however, in most cases the dominant narrative is that of victimization. While the LGBT community certainly suffers under Uganda’s harsh state-sanctioned homophobia, many of the kuchus we met were not only victims. David and his fellow activists worked hard to change their own fate through every means possible: the Ugandan courts, the United Nations, the international news media. There is a reason why everyone is talking about this issue, and it’s because the kuchus have worked relentlessly to push their movement forward. As a result, "Call Me Kuchu" is a nuanced story of empowerment as much as of persecution.

The access you got for the film is quite remarkable? How did you manage that?

Malika Zouhali-Worrall: As we said, David was among the first people we were in contact with when we started researching the film in 2009, and it was he who introduced us to the kuchu community, a gesture that proved to be a crucial step towards gaining the community’s trust. From there, we took careful measures to approach everyone respectfully, and explained exactly what we were trying to do. We also tried to make clear to them that we wanted to document their stories well beyond the sound bites they were accustomed to providing to journalists. We really had to convince them we were in it for the long run, that we wanted to be around for hours on end as they moved house, had meetings, watched TV, ate dinner, etc. There were definitely people who chose not to be filmed, and we respected their wishes of course. But those who decided to let us into their lives did so because they wanted to be involved in a project that would get their stories out, and we were surprised at the intimacy that engendered. In many cases, it seemed that those members of the LGBT community were looking for an outlet through which to share their individual experiences.

What were some other challenges? This must have been an emotionally stirring process, to say the least.

Katherine Fairfax Wright: Most definitely, and by far the hardest moments for us were in the weeks immediately after David was killed. One of the most difficult moments to film came when we visited David’s mother with Naome, David’s close friend and fellow activist, and Bishop Senyonjo, a retired bishop and staunch supporter of the LGBT community. We had spent time with David’s mother before so she was comfortable with us filming, but it was nonetheless a very tough experience. The pain of her loss was so raw, and our memories of David so fresh, that we were both sobbing as we tried to operate the cameras and sound equipment. It was moments like these that forced us more than ever to ask ourselves what exactly we wanted to achieve with the film and how we should go about it.

What do you think is the legacy of David's story? Where do you think the narrative regarding LGBT rights in Uganda is heading?

Malika Zouhali-Worrall: The power of David’s story lies in his relentless dedication to inculcate LGBT rights into the status quo in Uganda, and to change the situation for the kuchu community. He was willing to do interviews with Ugandan television when few others dared, to approach politicians who had made their views clear, and to file lawsuits against powerful gay-bashing newspapers in Uganda’s High Court. His legacy does live on: in fact, his memory has galvanized Kampala’s kuchus to redouble their efforts to repeal Uganda’s sodomy laws. In August last year, five months after David’s murder, the LGBT community launched the “Hate No More” campaign to educate the Ugandan population on LGBT rights. At the press conference, members of the LGBT community openly addressed the audience and the news media to describe the persecution they have suffered.

But as the LGBT activist community becomes stronger and more visible, so too do its opponents. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill that failed to pass last year, in part because of David’s work, has now been retabled in Uganda’s Parliament, and just a few weeks ago, the Minister of Ethics and Integrity shut down an LGBT activist meeting in Kampala. Needless to say, it’s still a very unstable time in Uganda for the kuchu community.

Hot Docs Review: 'Bones Brigade' Another Winning Look At Skateboarding Culture From Stacy Peralta

Samantha Chater — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:10:05 GMT

Most people don't have enough happen in their life to make one documentary, but it turns out Stacy Peralta has enough to make at least two. Eleven years after he delved into his own adolescent history with “Dogtown And Z-Boys,” Peralta has made another skateboarding doc about the next phase of his career after the Z-boys. When Peralta founded his skateboard company Powell Peralta in the late '70s, he brought together a bunch of unknown amateur skaters, cherry picked from around the USA -- including Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen, among others -- and created a skate team called the Bones Brigade. In case you know less about skating than me, these guys pretty much all grew up to be the top competitors of the 1980s, and went on to inspire and shape the next generation of skaters and their culture -- in short, they are skate legends.

Instead of the usual cautionary tales of too-much too-young burnouts that so many skateboarding docs end up telling, “Bones Brigade” instead follows the ultimate success story for Peralta and his kids. The Bones Brigade team did it all, from inventing revolutionary skate tricks to becoming skate video superstars and helping reinvigorate the sport when it seemed like another fad that might die away.

Not that it's all sunshine and roses the whole time, as they all seem to have suffered from some inner turmoil that comes with a lot of success, combined with coming of age. It's pretty sweet to see these grown-up kids talk about their teenage insecurities, family problems, responsibilities and how they all dealt with the fame and success. For the Bones Brigade team, it seems that Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk got a little more than the others, and as such they come off as some of the more screen-time worthy characters. Mountain struggled to come to terms with his own lack of ability as a skater amongst all these obviously gifted athletes, as well as his responsibilities as a young father. Mullen, on the other hand, grew up with his own difficult controlling father as well as a more withdrawn, introspective personality, and Hawk had a rivalry with fellow pro skater and former Bones Brigade member Christian Hosoi. One of the most interesting parts of the documentary is again Hawk and Mullen, the two that won the most competitions, talking about the pressures and the hollowness of competing and how they both managed to reignite their passion for the sport after burning out on competing.

With “Bones Brigade,” Peralta has managed to make a skateboarding documentary that while still being rambunctious is also at times more contemplative, often purely by nature of his now middle-aged interview subjects. Though this is clearly a personal project, Peralta does a great job at being relatively even handed with the ups and downs, and there are some hilarious quotes from Duane Peters and Tony Alva talking about the Bones Brigade squeaky clean image. Peralta also uses personal connection to his advantage by coaxing honest, insightful and often emotionally charged interviews out of some of his more difficult interview subjects.

One thing that has stood out in all of Peralta's films is his ability to mix old footage with new, with a fun rhythmic editing style and a stellar soundtrack. "Bones Brigade" is no exception, as Peralta makes particularly good use of the early skate videos of the Bones Bridgade, like “Future Primitive” and “The Search for Animal Chin” with a bunch of garage punk tracks thrown in to evoke a previously dormant (at least in me) sense of '80s nostalgia.

“Bones Brigade” is sure to be adored by skateboarding enthusiasts, and though it doesn't quite measure up to "Dogtown And Z-Boys," it's still a fun and interesting film for anyone interested in pop culture, skateboarding fan or no. [B+]

'World Before Her,' 'Call Me Kuchu' Lead Hot Docs Winners

Peter Knegt — Sat, 05 May 2012 14:31:59 GMT

Hot Docs has announced the winners of the festival's 2012 awards, with Nisha Pahuja's "The World Before Her" and Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright's "Call Me Kuchu" taking top prizes in the Canadian and international categories, respectively.

The ceremony took place at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto last night. Ten awards and $71,000 in cash prizes were presented to filmmakers.

The award for Best Canadian Feature was presented to THE WORLD BEFORE HER (D: Nisha Pahuja; P: Cornelia Principe, Nisha Pahuja, Ed Barreveld), a look at the clash between modernity and tradition faced by young women in India. Sponsored by the Documentary Organization of Canada, the award includes a $10,000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs.

“For its brave and provocative exploration of the role of women at its two extremes in contemporary Indian society, the jury recognizes the exceptional storytelling of THE WORLD BEFORE HER," the jury said.

The Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature was presented to PEACE OUT (D: Charles Wilkinson; P: Tina Schliessler), which explores the high costs of energy development in Canada’s pristine Peace River. Sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada and the DGC-Ontario, the award includes a $5000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs.

The jury stated: “For its intelligent treatment of the environmental debate around the Peace River, an urgent Canadian issue with global implications, the jury recognizes PEACE OUT as a necessary call to arms."

New this year, the Inspirit Foundation Pluralism Prize was awarded to a film in the Canadian Spectrum program that presents an accessible perspective (or perspectives) of one or more belief systems in such a way as to contribute to the development of mutual understanding, respect and inclusion among young people in society. Selected and presented by the Inspirit Foundation, the inaugural prize was awarded to THE BOXING GIRLS OF KABUL (D: Ariel J. Nasr; P: Annette Clark), the story of a courageous group of young Afghan women who risk persecution to become world-class boxers, training in a stadium where the Taliban once executed women. The award comes with a $10,000 prize courtesy of the Inspirit Foundation.

The award for Best International Feature was presented to CALL ME KUCHU (D: Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright; P: Malika Zouhali-Worrall; USA), which looks at the formidable efforts of Ugandan activist David Kato to fight his country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill and liberate his fellow LGBT citizens. Sponsored by A&E, the award includes a $10,000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: “CALL ME KUCHU explains a great injustice with life-and-death consequences and accomplishes the rare achievement of showing both the human tragedies and the triumphs of the struggle. Combining directorial intent with the prescience and persistence that enables a documentary's crew to be in an important place at an important time, we the Jury recognize CALL ME KUCHU for its wrenching yet inspiring depiction of people trying to succeed as humans and as activists in the face of hatred.” CALL ME KUCHU will screen again on Saturday, May 5, at 9:00 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West) and on Sunday, May 6, at 6:00 p.m. at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West).

The Special Jury Prize – International Feature was presented to THE LAW IN THESE PARTS (D: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz; P: Liran Atzmor, B.Z. Goldberg; Israel), in which the legal minds who worked in the Occupied Territories in the Gaza Strip speak candidly about creating a framework that has had a profound global impact. Sponsored by the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the award includes a $5000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs.

The jury explained: “We the Jury recognize THE LAW IN THESE PARTS for its brilliance and simplicity, turning the issues of history in Israel and the Palestinian Territories into a broader and more direct question: How precisely do civilized democracies process legally and morally complex actions in the name of survival? Viewing legislation through the lens of the people who enacted it long ago with a modern and forward-looking sense of filmmaking as art, THE LAW IN THESE PARTS reveals the fragile nature of international law in contemporary conflict.”

The HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award was shared by the directors of two films: Bill Ross and Turner Ross for TCHOUPITOULAS (P: Bill Ross, Turner Ross; USA), and Benjamin Kahlmeyer for MEANWHILE IN MAMELODI (P: Boris Frank; Germany, South Africa). The HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award is sponsored by HBO Documentary Films.

“We the Jury recognize these films because they have an indelible sense of place while speaking to universal concerns of community," the jury said. "We also recognize these films as they represent a superb combination of both the constructed and the found. While each film shows us places we think we know, whether New Orleans or Pretoria, both use the tools and craft of non-fiction storytelling to give the viewer different perspectives and new insights. The Jury awards these prizes in recognition of the merits of these films, but also to note how strongly and sincerely we look forward to the future works from these filmmakers as they continue to push the medium forward.”

The award for Best Mid-Length Documentary was presented to MY THAI BRIDE (D/P: David Tucker; Australia), the story of a Welshman’s complicated marriage to an attractive younger Thai woman. Sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts, the award includes a $3000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs.

Jury statement: “MY THAI BRIDE is a film that takes the story of an unlikely couple and through subtle analysis extends their human dramas into a moving examination of political, cultural and economic power dynamics. It is a film that destabilizes its viewer's empathy through a nuanced and even-handed portrayal of charged, contradictory terrain, and reframes who exactly is the conqueror and conquered.”

The Shorts and Mid-Length Jury also gave an honourable mention to NESSA (D: Loghman Khaledi; P: Katayoon Shahabi; Iran).

The award for Best Short Documentary was presented to FIVE FRAGMENTS OF THE EXTINCT EMPATHY (D: Anna Nykyri; P: Joonas Berghäll; Finland). The award includes a $3000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs.

"In just seven minutes this film creates a poetry of contraction between its stunning black and white imagery and grandiose music, to illustrate how cycles of violence persist and are imprinted upon the faces of Finnish women," the jury said.

The Shorts and Mid-Length Jury also gave an honourable mention to FAMILY NIGHTMARE (D/P: Dustin Guy Defa; USA).

The Hot Docs Board of Directors acknowledged Michel Brault as the recipient of the 2012 Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award, which was presented to the influential Canadian filmmaker at an event earlier in the day.

documentary's Don Haig Award, presented annually to a Canadian documentary filmmaker whose work demonstrates a unique voice and talent, was awarded to Montreal-based director Mia Donovan (INSIDE LARA ROXX, Hot Docs 2011 Official Selection). Awarded by the Don Haig Foundation, the prize includes a $20,000 cash prize courtesy of documentary. Director Charles Officer (MIGHTY JEROME, Hot Docs 2011 Official Selection) received an honourable mention.

The Lindalee Tracey Award, which honours "an emerging Canadian filmmaker with a passionate point of view, a strong sense of social justice and a sense of humour," was presented to Halifax filmmaker Jasmine Oore. As part of the award, the winner will receive a $5000 cash prize from the Lindalee Fund and $5000 in equipment rental donated by SIM Video International.

The 2012 awards for films in competition were determined by three juries.

The Canadian Feature Documentary Jury: Borislav Andjelic (film journalist; director of International Film Festival Belgrade), Maya Gallus (director, THE MYSTERY OF MAZO DE LA ROCHE), Dana O’Keefe (senior executive, Cinetic Media), Basil Tsiokos (programming associate, Sundance Film Festival; film journalist).

The International Feature Documentary Jury: Matthew Akers (director and cinematographer), Avril Benoît (director of communications, Doctors Without Borders - Canada), James Rocchi (film journalist), David Wilson (co-founder and co-director, True/False Film Fest).

The Shorts and Mid-Length Jury: Luis Ceriz (owner, Suspect Video), Marcelle Lean (executive director, Cinéfranco), Chi-hui Yang (film programmer, lecturer and writer).

So You Want To Make a Documentary: Tips From First Time Filmmakers at Hot Docs

Peter Knegt — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:00:26 GMT

So you want to make a documentary? A panel at Hot Docs this week showed just how two team of first time filmmakers did just that. Led by True/False's David Wilson, the panel was essentially a case study of two films -- Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet's "Only The Young," and Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright's "Call Me Kuchu."

Both docs -- coming off celebrated premieres at other fests (True/False for "Young"; Berlin for "Kuchu") -- are quite different in topic. "Young" depicts three American teenagers -- Garrison, Kevin and Skye -- over their last summer of high school. "Kuchu," meanwhile, is set in Uganda's LGBT community -- focusing primarily on David Kato, a veteran activist who has since been murdered.

But the films have one thing in common: Both are feature film debuts by duos of filmmakers who worked pretty much solely as a team, without very much money. So how did they do it? Here are a few pointers:

You have a film in your head, you want to do this. What's the process?

Tippet: We made a short film before we made this, and it kind of helped us figure out our style. We wanted to shoot everything on tripod, for example. I think with making the short it was a great calling card. We went on to play Sundance and SXSW with it, and it was there we met Derek Waters (the man behind "Drunk History) who decided to help us produce this. We just needed a little bit of money to get our own camera and get sound equipment, and no one really wanted to take a chance. Which was very frustrating -- the pitching process. But then Derek bought us harddrives, and we saved up money and bought our own equipment. At the end of the day, I don't think I'd want to do it any other way. We got to make the movie we wanted to make. No one bothered us about it.

Fairfax Wright: It's funny because in ways our process was very similar [to Tippet and Mims'], and in other ways very different. Part of it was just the urgency of this scenario. We were convinced we'd missed the story. So we just were trying to get all our equipment together. We had very little time. So we divided and conquered. Malika focused on research, and I focus on getting equipment. But we didn't have a chance to talk about style, and we also didn't know each other very well before we went. We knew that we had a lot in common and a mutual respect. But I had no idea what kind of films she liked. We'd never been to a movie together or even talked about movies together. Once we were in Uganda, it was just madness. We were shooting from seven in the morning until like 8pm everyday. And then we'd come back to our hostel and try to ingest all the footage. So that first trip, it was more about content and not so much about style. When we got back and started editing that footage, we had more time to think about things a bit more.

You want to apply for grants. How do you go about that? Do you do it before you start shooting?

Fairfax Wright: When we decided to do this, we were on planes four days later. So we didn't have time to do any of that stuff. But initially because I had all the equipment; it was just harddrives and plane tickets. We used our own money for that. But immediately once we got back we started cutting some scenes and writing to every grant under the sun. It was kind of fortunate because the previous film I'd worked on was about rape in the DRC and that was almost entirely funded by grants. It was kind of the only way I knew, and this was also a big social issue film. I think a lot of people don't realize what a resource those grants can be. Although they are very laborious and difficult to get. It can be kind of a distraction. We spent so much time cutting different trailers for different grants. It's like, this is a human rights grant so we should cut something that reflects that. But on the other hand, it allowed us to continually revisit scenes which is very helpful.

Zouhali-Worrall: I think even though it felt laborious at the time, it all ended up contributing to the edit of the final film.

What kind of budget does a film like this have, before the post-production costs?

Mims: Just the expenses of the harddrive and the equipment initially. So probably about $12,000.

Fairfax Wright: We had the expense of 8 round trip plane tickets to Uganda. So probably $12,000 plus another $10,000? We kept expenses down everywhere we could. We had no crew, we took public transit everywhere. Everything was just the cheapest way humanly possible.

What's the advantage to working in teams of two? And working primarily without a crew?

Tippet: Liz and I really wanted to figure out how we could make a movie and tell the story with just two people. So many other people seemed to need a large crew and a big camera and two people to help AC, etc. It seemed like a larger process than I was interested in doing. So we figured out that she could do sound, and we could work with a smaller camera, and do everything double system.

Mims: It was such an intimate way to make a film. We would have never made these kind of relationships with these kids otherwise. They always knew it was just going to be us.

Fairfax Wright: I think that dynamic was very important for us, too. Once we did have another person working with us and it totally changed the dynamic. I didn't like it at all. Although it was easier, I think there was something about the intimacy of it being the two of us day in and day out made all the difference.

Zouhali-Worrall: Although the guy that helped us was very muscly and often wore tank tops just to show his arms. Everyone fancied him. All of the gay community there was obsessed with him. So it kind of helped. I think he still gets chatted up in Facebook by most of them.

So pro-tip, bring really hot crew members to the field with you.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival continues through Sunday.

Hot Docs Review: 'The Final Member' Is Fascinating Phallic Fun

Kevin Jagernauth — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:58:00 GMT

There are few movies this year where you'll see a man get the stars and stripes of the American flag tattooed on the head of his penis. But then again, there are few documentaries like "The Final Member," a warm look at a quirky subject that gets to the human story behind it.

Meet Sigurdur Hjartarson, the founder and curator of the Icelandic Phallogical Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated to the penis. Receiving a bull penis as a gag gift in the '70s, something clicked in Sigurdur's brain and the next thing he knew, he was collecting specimens from any animal he could get his hands on, slowly filling his house with jars of penises of all shapes and sizes, from nearly every creature that walks, swims or flies that you can think of. With his home quickly becoming cluttered, his understanding family joked that he should he open a museum, and a lightbulb went off, and that's exactly what he did. Granted, it's not the Guggenheim, but the modestly sized building is really one of the few places where you can see the penis in the many shapes and sizes that nature has given it.

But now getting older and with his health getting worse, Sigurdur knows he will soon have to step down from the museum and before he does, he wants to make the collection complete. That's right, he wants a human penis. Enter 95-year-old Icelander Páll Arason and 60-something American Tom, both willing to leave their cocks to history, albeit with very different baggage attached. Pall is something of an Icelandic legend, an adventurer who cut a swath across the country's great wilderness, clearing paths, guiding tourists and visitors alike, showing them what the island had to offer. He is also a notorious womanizer, having slept with over 400 women -- not counting prostitutes he clarifies -- and he's something of celebrity for all his deeds both heroic and carnal. He offers to donate his penis after he passes away, entrusting his well traveled dong to the museum for everyone to look at for years and years to come.

Tom on the other hand is upping the stakes, offering to donate his member now -- while he's still alive -- willing to undergo surgery to make it happen. And he's bringing a lot...more...to the table. Amply endowed, his seven inch long, and particularly thick Elmo (named by his ex-wife, and no, not after the Muppet) is certainly more display worthy than Pall's skinnier, shorter five inches (which meets the bare minimum of the "legal length" Sigurdur is looking for). But Tom also has grander aspirations, hoping that his penis takes on some kind of celebrity, and before he even consults on the surgery, he's planning a comic book and starts getting a mirrored display case made for the glorious day when Elmo will be mounted in a museum for all to see.

Directors Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math mostly do a good job of not getting lost in the oddball nature of the entire premise and really deliver a story that turns out be utterly fascinating, and yes, at times funny too. Sigurdur turns out to be a multi-talented individual, with interests that are far ranging. He's an author of twenty-two books and he's also translated a work of 16th century literature, completing one of his two life dreams (and yes, the other one is getting a human penis for his museum). But it's Tom whose story emerges first as eccentric, but takes on elements of tragedy as we learn more. Without giving up the goods, it becomes apparent that there are deeper rooted issues and experiences that may be driving Tom to what he's doing, hinting at a man who's still has yet to deal with the darker furies lurking within him. Behind the comics, the dream of fame and fortune and yes, getting his penis tattooed (a particularly stomach churning sequence for any male member watching) Tom is clearly wrestling with some demons and they are manifesting themselves in a bizarre, exhibitionist way.

Running a lean 75 minutes however, you do wish "The Final Member" had padded things out a bit more. While we learn much about about both Sigurdur and Pall, Tom remains an enigma and the lack of interviews with his friends, co-workers, family -- really, anybody -- is a notable omission that prevents the film from being being a complete portrait of unique story. However, Bekhor and Math do such a good job of laying groundwork that when the finale does arrive (and we'll leave you to watch the film to experience the twists yourself) it's surprisingly moving, with Sigurdur's one time hobby and obsession turning into a life's work and the satisfaction in his face and heart, will be familliar to anybody who has pursued a passion wholly and without hesitation.

Peculiar as the tale is, it never gets in the way of itself and "The Final Member" ultimately reflects on how we choose to live our life, and even more, how we want it to be remembered. That it's a penis museum through which the narrative is pitched certainly makes it compelling and perhaps a novelty, but the sincerity and honesty of the stories within, as odd as they are, make "The Final Member" worth seeking out. [B]

Rick Springfield Heads To Hot Docs For 'An Affair of the Heart'

Peter Knegt — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:09:16 GMT

Thirty-one years after "Jessie's Girl" made him an 1980s pop culture icon, Rick Springfield can still rouse a crowd. On Sunday night in Toronto, Sylvia Caminer's Springfield-centric doc "An Affair of the Heart" made its international premiere after winning awards at US fests like Florida and Nashville. Fittingly, the crowd was dominated by middle-aged women clutching Springfield signature-ready posters because the film is just as much about Springfield's fans as it is about the single.

Springfield, 61, still gives over 100 performances a year. This includes on a "Springfield and Friends" cruise in which hundreds of fans join him on a ship that sails from Miami to the Bahamas. Caminer's doc take us on the cruise and to dozens of other performances across America (and one at massive outdoor hard rock concert in Sweden, where Springfield wins over a crowd that mostly seems to have no idea who he is).

The doc also focus on a good dozen of Springfield's biggest fans, who seem to devote their lives to following the singer. Springfield knows them all by name (as he seems to with all of his fans) and the charmingly cult-like community based around the singer quickly becomes clear. It never appears exploitative on Springfield's part. He comes across as enjoying the community just as much as his fans, and seems genuinely grateful for the career longevity they've given him.

The doc also makes a few husbands of Springfield addicts primary characters; for them, things aren't so fun. One candidly discusses his jealously for Rick, particularly since he once had hopes of becoming a rock star.

"I hate him," the husband says rather seriously in the film, in a moment that, oddly enough, probably drew the most laughter from audience.

After intense applause as Springfield and the film's team (including some of the fans featured in the film) took the stage after the film, the Q&A expectedly turned into a Rick lovefest.

"When I read your book I was upset for two months because you had sex with everybody in the '80s but me," one audience member said.

"We're going to change that tonight," Springfield joked in response.

Another asked where the scar on his chest came from, while a bunch of groupies in the back started asking who was all going to a Springfield concert planned in Mexico in the near future.

"You going?" Springfield asked. "Well, then you better start drinking now."

Check out full video from the Q&A here. "Affair" screens again this Thursday at Hot Docs.

Hot Docs Roundup: 'Despite The Gods' Fascinates, 'Beauty Is Embarrassing' Is Heartwarming & 'About Face' A Fun Look At Fashion

Samantha Chater — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:57:00 GMT

"Despite the Gods"
Aussie filmmaker Penny Vozniak's "Lost in La Mancha"-esque documentary “Despite The Gods," following director Jennifer Lynch and her experiences making her third film in India, is a low budget docu-delight. Lynch is the beating, empathic heart of the film, an endearing combination of raw emotional honesty and self-deprecating humor. After surviving a critical flogging at 19 for her first film "Boxing Helena," and enjoying the relative success of her second film "Surveillance," Lynch still had a lot to prove with her third film. However it is clear from day one this will not be the film she envisions it to be. The film in question is "Hisss," a Bollywood action tale of a snake that turns into a woman, and then back again. Though Vozniak's film is an interesting look behind the scenes at some the challenges of being an American director shooting in India (no call sheets or safety concerns here) it is the sympathetic portrait of Lynch's experiences and reactions as she struggles against the odds for 8 months (5 months over schedule) to get the film finished the way she sees it, that makes this documentary so absorbing. Lynch remains in good spirits, often in awe of India in all its chaos and mayhem, despite all the factors working against her. Even though her fight against the odds comes to naught, with her film taken away from her to be disastrously re-cut by producers, “Despite The Gods” is a fascinating look at filmmaking as well as a great portrait of Lynch herself. [B-]

"Beauty Is Embarrassing"
Though artist/art director/illustrator/puppeteer Wayne White’s name will be unfamiliar to most, after seeing the doc “Beauty is Embarrassing," he’ll be sure to have a whole new legion of fans. Director Neils Berkley manages to capture White’s charismatic combination of childlike spirit, misanthropic tendencies and bawdy humour, in a likable, if less than cohesive, package. "Beauty is Embarrassing” is comprised of interviews with friends (including Paul Reubens and Matt Groening) and family members as well with White himself, who also narrates, with Berkley mixing in clips of White’s TV work, old home movie footage and animated works from both White and his other half Mimi Pond, an artist in her own right. The doc spends a good chunk of time on what White was best known for, making puppets for the off-the-wall kids show “Pee Wee’s Playhouse," something he had no real prior experience in doing, but ended up being really, really good at, though it came to a bit of a sudden and disastrous end. His post-Pee Wee artistic slump working "for the man" and making music videos for Peter Gabriel and Smashing Pumpkins, is a period White seems less inclined in talking about, referring to the MTV Music Video Awards as the “worst night of my life," which is unfortunate because it sounds pretty interesting. It's his second-act success a decade later that the rest of the doc instead focuses on, as White found inspiration in painting quotable phrases on thrift store landscape paintings, which quickly became hot sellers in upscale L.A. galleries, something White, the perpetual subversive underdog, is not always at ease with. Though some of the mish-mash of footage will be hard to follow for some, Berkley has created an apt portrait of a unique personality and pop culture artist, and the result is both inspiring and heartwarming. [B+]

"About Face"
Photographer-slash-director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders talks to supermodels from the 1950s through to the '80s in his then-and-now documentary “About Face." Greenfield-Sanders' choice to interview some 15-odd supermodels probably widens the pool a little too much, as a lot of the women retread the same thematic ground, repeating the same thoughts on not feeling pretty growing up, whether or not they would have plastic surgery now, and coming to terms with being an ageing beauty. Unfortunately this does a disservice to the other interesting issues touched upon in the film, such as the exploitation of young girls, the heroin-chic period in fashion, the normalized sexual harassment within the business and the misogynistic beauty standards of modern society, which are alluded to, but not fully explored. One issue that Greenfield-Sanders does dig deeper into in the film is racism in the fashion and modeling world over the years, with the director talking to various models of color including Beverly Johnson and China Machado, who all have different and insightful perspectives on the discrimination within the industry that they helped to break down over the years. Some interviewees shine more memorably than others including feisty Avedon muse Machado, the former face of Lancome Isabella Rossellini and the always candid, uber-glamorous Jerry Hall, whose Southern drawl I could just listen to for hours. Greenfield-Sanders mixes these interviews, all beautifully shot with a photographer's considered eye, with carefully curated archive material from runway shows and fashion shoots through the ages. Overall, “About Face” is an elegant documentary about supermodels of the past, and though its hardly the complete history, its a fun film for fashion fans nonetheless. [B-]

Hot Docs Review: 'Big Easy Express' A Rambling, Affectionate Tour Documentary That Should Make Fans Happy

Samantha Chater — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:58:00 GMT

Director Emmett Malloy has returned with an excellent follow up to 2009’s “Under Great Northern Lights” with another winning concert documentary titled "Big Easy Express." In a tight 60-odd minutes, the film follows three bands, Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show, as they travel from San Francisco to New Orleans, Louisiana, on a sold-out 6-stop tour, aboard the most beautiful-looking train you've ever seen. From the opening tracking shot that follows 'Magnetic Zeroes' singer Jade Castrinos as she walks through the various rustic train cars, past Mumford and Sons playing in one, 'Old Crow' in another and right down the back to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Malloy's film is not only beautifully soundtracked, courtesy of all three bands, but is also dreamily captured.

Though essentially a live concert film, Malloy manages to chronicle the more intimate and visually arresting jam sessions happening off stage, either on one of the ornate train cars, or outside in the desert under the stunningly blue sky. With all the constant musical sequences, sometimes running one after the other, "Big Easy Express" can come off as an extended music video, which is not an altogether bad thing, as Malloy knows how to make a shot perfectly glossy, yet still manage to capture the live energy of the performance.

Malloy does feature short snippets of interviews with various band members (though Edward Sharpe is notably absent from these) but little more than how the bands know each other, how they love each other's music and being on the train tour, is really discussed. Questions like the logistical nature of the tour or where the idea came from are left unanswered. This is not an insightful documentary about any of the bands individually, instead the film chooses to focus on their mutual, earnest and clearly passionate love of performing.

Instead of the usual boring grind of touring a la Radiohead's "Meeting People Is Easy," "Big Easy Express" is a celebration of the romantic Woody Guthrie-cum-Jack Kerouac ideal of being on the road. You'd think with 100-odd people jammed onto a train for a week-and-a-half there would be some personal dramas, but according to the band members, despite some bathing less than others, it was nothing less than a love fest between all.

Malloy knows when to leave a good thing as well, and though die-hard fans could probably do with more live footage of each of the bands, this is something probably better served by DVD extras. The extended multi-band finale performance of Guthrie's "This Train is Bound for Glory" made up of a filmic collage from various performances is definitely a live highlight, and fan or not, its hard to deny the joy and skill that the musicians bring to the stage.

Both Malloy and cinematographer Giles Dunning (who also worked on "Under Great White Northern Lights") have a great eye for framing their shots, whether it be the vintage 1940s, 15-car silvery train coming round the bend, or the dramatic canyons and cloud bursting sky flying by through the top car window. Though Malloy mainly shot on digital, there are some great-looking snippets of 16-mm and Super 8 footage as well that add some fantastic texture to the film.

Though live-in-concert docs are often considered just for fans, "Big Easy Express" is a celebration of music in general (albeit for the more roots-folksy-country inclined) and it also serves as a lyrically shot travelogue, one that is sure to fuel some road trip style wanderlust. [B]

The 10 Hottest Docs to Watch at Hot Docs

Peter Knegt — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:40:07 GMT

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival began in Toronto last night with the Canadian premiere of Sundance hit "Al Weiwei: Never Sorry." The screening, at the festival's newly renovated hub The Bloor Cinema, kicks off 10 days and nights of North America's largest documentary festival.

While plenty of breakout films from Sundance and other major festivals will certainly be a big part of the festival, Hot Docs also offers plenty of opportunity for discovery. So here's 10 films you might not have heard of yet with buzz heading into Hot Docs. Check them out over the next 10 days in Toronto or -- quite likely -- at many doc film festivals to come:

Affair Of The Heart (directed by Sylvia Caminer)
A Rick Springfield documentary! Sylvia Caminer's "Affair of the Heart" takes on the "Jesse's Girl" singer, checking in with the now sixtysomething Springfield (who still does 100+ concerts a year) and his rabid fans. And yep, Springfield will indeed attend the film's premiere screening on April 29th.

Beauty is Embarrassing (directed by Neil Berkeley)
"Beauty is Embarrassing" is a portrait of American artist Wayne White, who began his career as a puppeteer and got his break as one of the creators of "Pee-wee's Playhouse." Director Neil Berkeley follows White's career through its various highs and lows, offer what Hot Docs calls "a reminder to us all that we should follow our passion." "Beauty" has its international premiere the first Saturday of Hot Docs.

El Huaso (directed by Carlo Guillermo Proto)
One of the many notable Canadian titles at the festival, "El Huaso" follows Gustavo Proto, a Chilean immigrant living in Toronto who is contemplating suicide. But before he makes the decision, he wants to live out his childhood dream of returning to Chile and becoming a huaso, a Chilean cowboy. "El Huaso" has its Hot Docs debut this April 28th.

Laura (directed by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa)
With a main character described "somewhere between Grey Gardens’ Little Edie and Breakfast at Tiffany’s Holly Golightly," Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa's doc looks like a whole lot of fun. Following Laura, a South American socialite and hoarder living in New York, the film screens this Sunday, April 29th.

The Mechanical Bride (directed by Allison de Fren)
One of the most anticipated world premieres at the fest, Allison de Fren's doc takes a look at the bizarre world of artificial love dolls. Her subjects in the film include a man who takes his doll out on dates and keeps her photo in his wallet, and a widower who bought a “divorcée” on eBay so as not to burden a real woman with his failing health. Sure to be provocative, the film premieres this Sunday night.

My Name is Faith (directed by Tiffany Sudela-Junker, Jason Banker and Jorge Torres-Torres)
Another world premiere, this Adrian Grenier-produced film looks at Faith, a young girl who suffers from Attachment Disorder, a condition associated with neglect from a parent in a child's first few years. Her newly adopted parents are trying to gain Faith's trust, but the film asks whether or not this is possible in light of the damage already done. "Faith" premieres May 2nd.

Only The Young (directed by Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet)
After having a very well-received preview screening at True/False last month, first time filmmakers Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet are bringing their "Only The Young" to Hot Docs. The film follows three American teenagers -- Garrison, Kevin and Skye -- over their last summer of high school. Gaining intimate access to a particularly tumultuous moment in these young lives, "Only The Young" is sure to be a festival favorite. It first screens on Tuesday, May 1.

Summer of Giacomo (directed by Alessandro Comodin)
Another debut film, Alessandro Comodin's "Summer of Giacomo" also tells a tale of youth, this time in Northeast Italy. Following Giacomo, a 19-year-old deaf boy on a summer's day spent with his childhood friend Stefania, the film is having its Canadian premiere April 30th after screening at fests like Locarno and Rotterdam. It should work as a lovely companion piece to "Only The Young" if you're looking for a double feature.

United in Anger: A History Of ACT UP (directed by Jim Hubbard)
You might have heard of David France's "How To Survive a Plague," which debuted at Sundance earlier this year. But there's another worthy AIDS documentary on the festival circuit this year in Jim Hubbard's "United in Anger: A History of Act Up," which is coming to Hot Docs on May 2nd after a premiere in MoMA's Documentary Fortnight in February.

Wildness (directed by Wu Tsang)
After screening at SXSW, Wu Tsang's "Wildness" makes its way to Hot Docs on May 2nd. In the film, Tsang plays homage to an East Los Angeles bar called the Silver Platter, a safe space in the Latino-LGBT community since 1963 where Tsang himself began a weekly party called "Wildness" in 2008. The film works as a portrait of a unique piece of LGBT history that often goes ignored.

For more information on all screenings, check out Hot Docs' website.

Hot Docs Announces Projects For This Year's Forum; Finalists For Doc Fund

Peter Knegt — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:18:18 GMT

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced 25 projects that will be presented in this year's Hot Docs Forum -- part of North America's largest documentary market. Taking place May 2 and 3, the projects were selected from 150 submissions from 15 different countries.

“The increasingly direct filmmaker-audience relationship is a new aspect of our industry which we are eager to see enhance the broadcaster funding model at the Forum,” says Hot Docs Forum and market director Elizabeth Radshaw, in a statement. “With a selection of projects from around the world, the 2012 Forum will be two days of dynamic pitches and feedback, with intense networking and professional development opportunities for all in attendance.”

Attended by over 500 leading industry professionals, the Forum is focused around a schedule of pre-selected international project presentations made to a roundtable of key international commissioning editors and an observers gallery composed of fellow producers, distributors, sales agents, funders and other buyers. Participating buyers confirmed to date include ARTE, Autlook Filmsales, BBC, CBC/SRC, China Central Television, E1 Entertainment, Ford Foundation, HBO, High Fidelity HDTV, Impact Partners, NHK, Participant Productions, PBS, RAI, SBS, SVT, TVOntario, YLE, ZDF and others.

The Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds Hot Docs Forum Pitch Prize will be awarded to the best Canadian pitch at the 2012 event, as determined by a committee of international (non-Canadian) commissioning editors in attendance. The winner will receive a $40,000 cash prize to be used toward the production and completion budget for their project.

The Cuban Hat Award will return to the 2012 Hot Docs Forum, continuing with their “real cash, no strings attached” prize. All the money raised over the two days of the event will be given to the observers’ favourite pitch, as determined by ballot. The Entertainment One “Mounties’ Hat” gives two Hot Docs Forum observers the chance to secure a last minute presentation slot during the event. Two business cards will be drawn and each individual will be granted one of two available 2012 pitch slots.

The following projects will be presented at this year’s Hot Docs Forum:

112 WEDDINGS, 112 Weddings, LLC (USA); AN HONEST LIAR, Left Turn Films (USA); THE AUDACITY OF LOUIS ORTIZ, Saving Daylight Productions/Trilogy Films (USA); THE BATTLE FOR RIO, Pumpernickel Films / FORTIES BB ltc (France, USA); CAUGHT IN THE NET, Know Productions (USA); ELEPHANT SOLDIERS, Bars Media (Armenia); HOLY GHETTO, OneWorld Group (Israel); HUMANIA, Momento Film/Adomeit Films (Sweden, Denmark); INDIAN SPACEMEN, Sequoia Films (UK); INSIDE JOKE: HOW HUMOUR INVENTED THE JEWS, Cave 7 Productions/Ventana Film-Und Fernsehproduktionsgesellschaft MBH (Canada, Germany); LEONE STARS, Mattru Media (Canada); LET THE FIRE BURN, The George Washington University (USA); MEN'S CHOICE, Ethnogeographic Research Foundation (Russia, Norway); MERKATO, A Dopest Ethiopian Productions (USA); THE PLEASURES OF THE SCENTS, Lowik Média Inc. (Canada); SAND WARS, La Compagnie des Taxi Brousse/Rappi Production (France); SANDS OF THE SKEI QUEEN, Marie-Vérité Films (South Africa); SECRET DAUGHTER, Lotus Films (USA); SHADOW GIRL, Storyline Entertainment Inc./Maremoto Productions (Chile, Canada); SHATTERED PIECES OF PEACE, Nonhlanhla Dlamini (Swaziland); SVALKA: YULA'S JOURNEY, Hanna Polak Films/Goats Hill (USA); THESE BIRDS WALK, Paperbag Rider Films (USA); TREND BEACONS, Markell Productions/Spier Films (Iceland, UK); VIDAL V. BUCKLEY, Tremolo Productions/Media Ranch Productions (USA); ZANTA, Tripod Media LLC (USA).

The festival also announced that six projects have been chosen to receive a total of $115,000 in development and production grants from the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund in its first round of disbursements. Two projects will receive development funds and four projects will receive production funds, selected from 140 submissions from over 29 different countries in Africa. The Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund is a $1-million production fund that provides financial support to independent filmmakers based in developing African countries, with the goal of increasing the quality and quantity of social, cultural and political documentaries produced on the continent.

Grant recipients will also be attending Hot Docs 2012, and will participate in International Co-Production Day on April 30, and take part in the filmmakers’ lab on April 28 and 29.

Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund Development Grant

BUDDHA OF AFRICA
Director and Producer: Nicole Schafer
Production Company: Thinking Strings Media
Country: South Africa/Malawi

BUDDHA OF AFRICA explores China’s rise in Africa through the story of a Malawian orphan being raised at a Chinese Buddhist orphanage near the country’s economic capital, Blantyre.

FIFIRÉ EN PAYS CUBALLO (FIFIRÉ IN CUBALLO’S LAND)
Producer: Sellou Diallo
Director: Mame Woury Thioubou
Production Company: Les Films de l’Atelier
Country: Senegal

In the past, the Fifiré celebration featured crocodile hunts, but no longer since the beasts have disappeared from Senegal River. Now young people, with no crocodiles to hunt or fish to catch, live facing cultural upheaval, caught between tradition and modernity.
Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund Production Grant

THE CHILDREN'S WIZARD ACCUSED
Producer: Nadège Ndembo
Director: Camille Mouyeke
Production Company: Horten’s Films
Country: Congo

Allegra, Thierry, and Mara are child witches, who have been driven from their families. In the streets and cities in Central Africa there are thousands like them, ages 2 to 16, who are accused of witchcraft and who, left to fend for themselves, stretch the limits of human dignity and the rights of the child.

JUST A BAND: THE MOVIE
Producers and Directors: Wanuri Kahiu & Anjali Nayar
Country: Kenya

JUST A BAND: THE MOVIE is a kaleidoscopic portrait of four artistically eclectic twenty-somethings who form Kenya’s super nerdy Afro-electro-pop group Just A Band. The film follows them through projects and performances – from their out-of-control street parties in downtown Nairobi to the making of their blaxploitation music-mentry HA-HE, which became Kenya’s first Internet meme.

NORWEGIAN CRIME IN CONGO
Producer and Director: Djo Tunda Munga
Production Company: Suka! Productions
Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Tjostolv Moland and Joshua French, two Norwegians citizens, were found guilty by a Congolese military tribunal of the death of a taxi driver in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, in September 2009. Behind the crime, thriller and investigation, the documentary will look at how the Congolese population is trapped in an environment where justice, the State, Western diplomacy and almost everything are dysfunctional.

WHOSE COUNTRY
Director and Producer: Mohamed Siam
Production Company: Arthkhana
Country: Egypt

Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Siam fervently seeks to expose the dark underbelly of the police through the uninhibited accounts of two assistant police officers who have served, for more than a decade, the old Egyptian regime. Enabled and encouraged by their police superiors to exercise power unjustly, the characters in the film recount stories of how Egyptian citizens have been harassed, kidnapped, tortured and, in some cases, even killed.

Hot Docs Sets 189 Films For 19th Edition

Peter Knegt — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:53:04 GMT

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced its lineup for its 19th edition, to run April 26-May 6 in Toronto, Canada. From over 2,000 submissions, the festival set 189 titles from 51 different countries.

“This is a big year for Hot Docs. With a new cinema we are committing more so than ever to documentary film as a force to be reckoned with,” said Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook, embarking on her first year in the position. “With the largest country representation the Festival has ever had, we will be hearing many new voices from all over the world. It’s wonderful to be able to bring such a great range of films to Toronto audiences, to champion documentary in a city that truly supports documentary as an art form.”

The festival will open with the Canadian premiere of Alison Klayman's Sundance hit "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," which will screen in the special presentations program alongside festival favorites like Bart Layton's "The Imposyer," Lauren Greenfield's "The Queen of Versailles," Kevin Macdonald's "Marley," James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot's "Indie Game: The Movie" and Christian Bonke and Andreas Koefoed's "Ballroom Dancer."

In the competitive Canadian Spectrum program, notable films include Christy Garland’s "The Bastard Sings The Sweetest Song," the story of a tumultuous mother-son relationship in Guyana; Omar Majeed and Ryan Mullins’ "The Frog Princes," the story of a developmentally challenged theatre group’s struggle to mount an ambitious production; Angad Singh Bhalla’s "Herman's House," a trip through the years with jailed Black Panther activist Herman Wallace; and Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math’s "The Final Member", which looks at Iceland’s penis museum’s search for a critical artifact.

In the competitive International Spectrum program, notable films include: Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ "Tchoupitoulas," the adventures of three teenagers exploring the heart of New Orleans at night; Ra'anan Alexandrowicz’s "The Law In These Parts," a candid glimpse into the legal minds behind the rules and regulations governing the Occupied Territories; Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet’s "Only The Young," a look at a last stolen summer of first loves; and Sean McAllister’s "The Reluctant Revolutionary," a portrait of a tour guide caught in the 2011 uprising in Yemen’s capital.

The Nightvision program includes: Chris James Thompson’s "Jeff," a biography of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer; Mary Kerr’s "Radioman," the story of Radioman, a fixture in the NYC film scene; and James Franco and Ian Olds’ "Francophrenia," a wild behind-the-scenes doc with James Franco on General Hospital.

Additionally, Hot Docs is pleased to present two retrospective programs: Focus On John Kastner, a mid-career retrospective of the Emmy Award-winning director’s work; and the Outstanding Achievement Award Retrospective, honouring the influential work of masterful Québécois filmmaker Michel Brault.

For a list of the entire Hot Docs lineup, check out the festival's website.

Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Opens Its Doors In Toronto

Peter Knegt — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:39:20 GMT

Tonight in Toronto, the newly renovated Bloor Cinema will make its official debut as the "Bloor Hot Docs Cinema" -- the primary venue for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and a year-round showcase for documentary programming in the city.

After two nights of open house screenings of Lucy Walker's "Waste Land" to give the public a free opportunity to check out the venue, the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema will open officially with secret sneak preview of a film that will be premiering at this year's film festival. Scheduled public programming kicks off Friday with "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey."

"This will be home to one of the only documentary cinemas anywhere," Hot Docs' executive director Chris MacDonald told Indiewire. " We are, however, under no illusions: our success as a festival doesn’t guarantee we will packing the cinema every night. It will require a lot of hard work, which we are game for. There is enough great content, we just need to build the audience.”

Originally one of the first "picture palaces" in Toronto when it opened back in 1913, the Bloor Cinema is a city icon. But under the threat of closure and redevelopment, Toronto film company Blue Ice Group decided to purchase it and team up with Hot Docs. Under renovation for seven months under architects Hariri Pontarini found inspiration in the venue’s past incarnations. The expanded lobby will feature a large, transparent wall enabling an open view from the street into the auditorium and the refreshed facade will feature a marquee with a large, vertical sign rising along the front of the building.

“This partnership is a game-changer for Hot Docs and great news for Toronto’s film lovers,” McDonald said. “Investors were anxious to purchase and develop the property, but the Bordonaro family was determined to leave the Bloor in cinema-loving hands. Hot Docs and Blue Ice are anxious to meet this challenge. In an era where arts and culture are at risk of funding cuts and indifference from some quarters, this is one of Toronto’s good news stories of the year. We are thrilled.”

As for the programming. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema programmer Robin Smith told Indiewire that the cinema will focus primarily on programming a selection of the best theatrical documentaries, both new and old, to what he sees as a "rapidly growing documentary audience in Toronto."

"Every month we will be premiering new first-run documentaries along with a collection of ongoing programming series that focus on the wide variety of genres/themes that exist in the doc world," he said.

Some first-run docs on tap for the next few months include Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker's "Fightville," Xun Yu's "The Vanishing Light Spring," Errol Morris' "Tabloid," Alex Stapleton's "Corman's World," David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's "Girl Model," and Dmitry Vasyukov and Werner Herzog's "Happy People: A Year in Taiga."

Additionally, they'll be showcasing classics docs via the Essential Docs series (which every Saturday afternoon shows one of the most acclaimed docs of all time) and showing rockumentary/concert films via a program called "ROCK-DOCS."

For for more information, check out the cinema's new website.

Ted Hope and David Guggenheim Headline 2012 Hot Docs' Annual Conference

Aaron Bogert — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:07:28 GMT

The Hot Docs Festival has announced this year's annual documentary film conference, Doc to the Future. This year's conference will focus on how the internet is rapidly changing the ways in which documentary filmmakers and audiences are able to interact.

The opening keynote talk for the conference will be given by producer Ted Hope. He will be focusing on topics such DIY distribution, and how certain innovations and tastemakers have influenced the world of documentary filmmaking in the last year.

Highights of the conference will also include a conversation with "Waiting for Superman" director Davis Guggenheim and this years recipient of the 2012 Hot Doc Mogul Award, Diane Weyermann.

The conference will also be a hosting a worskshop with filmmaker and media strategist Jon Reiss. This workshop will be focusing on the rapidly changing distribution and marketing landscape in the era of digital technology.

The Hot Docs festival will run from April 26-May 6 and Doc to the Future conference will be taking place from April 30-May 4.

Full Press Release Below

Toronto, February 29, 2012 – Hot Docs is pleased to announce the 2012
Hot Docs industry conference Doc to the Future, an innovative
conference program that will offer interactive sessions and practical
tools for working within the rapidly changing landscape of documentary
filmmaking. Highlights of the Doc to the Future program include
keynote presentation by producer Ted Hope, director Davis Guggenheim
(WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH) in conversation with
2012 Doc Mogul Diane Weyermann, and distribution expert Jon Reiss. Doc
to the Future will take place April 30-May 4, during the Hot Docs
Festival April 26-May 6.

“The Internet has changed the relationship between filmmaker and
audience, making it more direct than ever before,” says Elizabeth
Radshaw, Hot Docs Forum and Market Director. “Crowd-funding, digital
distribution, and interactive content, all marketed via social media,
mean that filmmakers need new tools and knowledge to effectively
connect with audiences.”

Doc to the Future responds to this changing relationship by providing
hands-on professional development opportunities, practical tools and
solutions, and insight into alternative funding, distribution and
screening platforms. With a tiered program to cater to a broad range
of levels, from emerging to established filmmaker, Doc to the Future
features multiple access points from introductory sessions to hands-on
workshops.

The conference will open with a keynote talk by celebrated producer
and industry commentator Ted Hope. Drawing on his extensive career
working outside the system, Hope is an avid proponent of innovative
ways of ‘doing’ from alternative funding to DIY distribution. A
working filmmaker who is firmly engaged in industry dialogues, Hope
will balance craft and business issues while examine the trends,
innovations, mavericks and tastemakers that have influenced the
documentary world over the past 12 months. In addition to outlining
the impact of last year’s significant developments, Hope will offer
insight into the future of documentary filmmaking, with comments and
hot tips for what the next year will bring.

Renowned director Davis Guggenheim will sit down with Participant
Media’s Diane Weyermann, recipient of the 2012 Hot Docs Doc Mogul
Award, to discuss her extensive experience with documentary
production. This conversation with Weyermann will offer insights to
her illustrious career, and will examine her philosophical approach to
documentaries and social action cinema. The session will also touch on
Guggenheim and Weyermann’s collaborations, such as WAITING FOR
“SUPERMAN” and the Academy Award-winning AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

Acclaimed filmmaker and media strategist Jon Reiss will host a
half-day workshop and speak at a session, both of which will focus on
navigating the changing distribution and marketing landscape. Reiss is
a consultant for numerous filmmakers and film organizations and author
of THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX OFFICE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO FILM
DISTRIBUTION IN THE DIGITAL ERA, the first step-by-step guide for
distributing and marketing films using hybrid and alternative
strategies. The session and workshop will provide valuable
opportunities for conference attendees to learn from Reiss’ vast
knowledge and experience with new distributions methods.

In addition to these key programs, Doc to the Future will feature
popular returning sessions including International Co-Production Day,
Kickstart, Micro Meetings and the Doc Summit. The conference will also
provide delegates with opportunities for one-on-one and small-table
meetings with leading thinkers and industry experts.

A number of limited-capacity, hot-topic workshop sessions will require
pre-session sign-up at the festival for registered delegates. The full
conference schedule will be announced in March.

Hot Docs Names Charlotte Cook Director of Programming

Peter Knegt — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:27:27 GMT

Last night at the opening edition of Hot Docs' year round Doc Soup screening series, the Toronto-based festival announced Charlotte Cook as their new director of programming. Cook comes to the festival from Frontline Club in London, UK where she was the head of film programming for the past two years. She replaces Sean Farnell, who announced his departure this summer.

Hot Docs' next edition will run April 26-May 6, 2012.

Full press release below.

Toronto, October 5, 2011 – Hot Docs is delighted to announce that Charlotte Cook will join the Hot Docs team as the organization's new director of programming. Cook was introduced to Toronto audiences tonight at the Toronto premiere of MARATHON BOY, the opening film in the 2011-12 Doc Soup screening series, which took place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
"Charlotte is a great addition to our team, and we are eager to introduce her to Hot Docs audiences, colleagues and friends," says executive director Chris McDonald. "Charlotte has impressive educational and professional experience, and a keen eye for programming. We know she will help Hot Docs to continue to bring the best that documentary has to offer to Toronto. We are lucky to have her onboard."
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be taking on this role with Hot Docs and joining this incredible team," says Cook. "This is a very exciting year for Hot Docs, it is such an important festival and I'm honoured to be able to be a part of it."
Cook comes to Hot Docs from Frontline Club in London, UK – the prestigious media centre dedicated to celebrating and showcasing quality journalism – where she was the head of film programming for the past two years. There, she was responsible for an ambitious program that showcased over 100 documentaries each year. In addition to managing and scheduling the film program, Cook also organized quarterly pitch events and managed the training program. Previously, Cook has worked with the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where she programmed the specialist strand Conflict | Reportage and managed several events, and was also a strand coordinator with BBC Storyville. Cook has written extensively on documentary for a number of different outlets and has worked with Channel 4 BritDoc Foundation on their Puma Creative Catalyst Fund. Cook holds a Master of Arts in documentary filmmaking from Royal Holloway, University of London.
In her role as director of programming at Hot Docs, Cook will head up an exceptional programming team that includes senior Canadian programmer Lynne Fernie and a staff of experienced programmers specializing in Canadian and international films. Cook will be responsible for developing the programming vision for the Festival, continuing Hot Docs' reputation for presenting a high-calibre documentary slate each year. Cook will contribute to the long-term visioning and strategic planning for the organization, working with various departments to help research and shape new initiatives, and with the wider senior management team to help direct existing projects, both online and live-event based.
After attending various festivals and industry events throughout October and November – including Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival; DOK Leipzig; CPH:DOX; and IDFA – Cook will re-locate to Toronto in December.

Hot Docs Review: Le Tigre Doc 'Who Took The Bomp?' Is A Must For Riot-Grrrl Fans

The Playlist — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:32:12 GMT

The documentary "Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour" is simple in that it captures what Le Tigre does best, and that was the furious bombast that was their live shows. Seeing them on stage in film format is, for fans of the queer-core female trio at least, bittersweet, since they’ve been on indefinite hiatus since 2006, but we suppose it's better than not seeing them at all.

Created out of footage shot by the band’s lighting director Carmine Covelli from their 2004-2005 twenty-something country tour, "Who Took the Bomp?" is more than a concert film and more than just a film for fans. As per usual rockumentaries, the film goes backstage as well as on the tour bus but it's the casual drop ins into hotel rooms in the early AM and a seemingly late night adventure into the hotel gym where the film feels most intimate and all-access. Le Tigre is hardly Mötley Crüe-esque in their antics backstage. We get to enjoy the distinct novelty of a bunch of girls (who seems as close as sisters) goofing around and having fun on the road as well as fighting for the politics of what Le Tigre is all about, both on stage and off. "Who Took the Bomp?" takes a look at what it's like as an all-girl band on tour.

In recent riot grrrl books such as "Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now!" much is made of the media’s agenda when it comes to all things feminist and all things music. So it's nice to finally see Kathleen Hanna and co. talk directly to the camera without worrying about sponsors or advertisers, and of course they have a lot to say.

Being an all-girl feminist queer-positive band in a sexist, homophobic male-centric rock 'n’ roll landscape, you're bound to run into a few issues on the road. Luckily, members Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, the three ladies of Le Tigre, couldn’t be more funny or articulate in talking it out. They field and humorously flip questions about graffitiing Kurt Cobain’s wall and then simply explain to the camera why they don’t want to answer those type of questions. Confronted with an all male Big Day Out festival tour they joke around with Hatebreed and get photos with Slipknot for their imaginary siblings. The political is also clearly personal. When Jane Magazine refuses to include the word lesbian in an advertisement for the band, Samson adds "it just hurts my feelings" and it actually does break your heart a little.

There are of course serious moments, but the best part of the film is how accessible and engaging the band appear. Relaxed and open to the camera, their personalities come through and it makes scenes that might seem superfluous -- such as what they pack on tour -- more essential and insightful. The film also serves to demystify Le Tigre as much as Le Tigre demystified being girls in a band. From laughing off a crossed wire adventure with a confused homophobe and subsequent egging on the streets of Sydney, it seems the girls can make a joke out of anything.

Director Kerthy Fix (who also co-directed "Strange Powers: Stephen Merritt and the Magnetic Fields") is clearly a fan of the band and has a good understanding of the message behind the music and its place in music history. She created something out of the on-the-fly shot footage that's more than just a curiosity for fans.

Hanna talks in the film about feminism disappearing from the pop culture landscape and all Le Tigre’s (and riot grrrls) work being forgotten in a few years. However with films like "Who Took the Bomp?" which captures the bands dance party friendly synth-pop and cool brand of feminism, it seems unlikely to be forgotten any time soon. More than likely the film will earn them new fans for years to come as their music and their message sound just as good today as they did when they arrived with a bang in the early aughts. [B] -- Samantha Chater.

"Somewhere Between" Wins Hot Docs Audience Award As Fest Breaks Attendance Record

Peter Knegt — Mon, 09 May 2011 09:14:30 GMT

Linda Goldstein Knowlton's "Somewhere Between" - which follows four remarkable Chinese-born adoptees as they come of age between two cultures - took the audience award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which came to a close this weekend. The festival saw its attendance reach a record 151,000. The 11-day event featured 360 public screenings of 199 films on 16 screens across Toronto, three Rooftop Docs screenings, a conference and market for documentary professionals, and Docs for Schools, a phenomenally popular education program for youth. A total 168 screenings went rush, and the box office saw a 24 per cent increase in revenue.

"Attendance at Hot Docs jumped by 11 per cent this year," said Hot Docs executive director, Chris McDonald in a statement. "Our audiences are clamouring for great docs, and our filmmakers are raving about the Festival's fantastic audiences. It is a perfect storm!"

Hot Docs announced its juried awards Friday night. Besides "Somewhere Between," its top ten audience favorites were as follows:

1. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN (D: Linda Goldstein Knowlton, USA)
2. GIVE UP TOMORROW (D: Michael Collins, USA/UK)
3. HOW TO DIE IN OREGON (D: Peter D. Richardson, USA)
4. WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE (D: Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus, USA)
5. SENNA (D: Asif Kapadia, UK)
6. BUCK (D: Cindy Meehl, USA)
7. JIG (D: Sue Bourne, Scotland)
8. ECO PIRATE: THE STORY OF PAUL WATSON (D: Trish Dolman, Canada)
9. BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER'S JOURNEY (D: Constance Marks, Philip Shane (Co-Director), USA)
10. KORAN BY HEART (D: Greg Barker, USA)

Also during this year's Hot Docs, attending filmmakers with official selections in the 2011 Festival were invited to vote for their favourite film. The winner of the Filmmakers Award was Michael Marczak's "At The Edge of Russia." In addition to the film and industry prizes presented over the course of the Festival, Hot Docs today announced that "PC Bang: The Rise of the Esports Hero," from producer Erica Landrock is the winner of the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Rendezvous Pitch Prize and recipient of a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of Shaw Media-Hot Docs Development Funds.

Hot Docs Review: 'Carol Channing: Larger than Life' Is Surface-Skimming, But Sweet

The Playlist — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:12:39 GMT

Director Dori Berinstein is clearly a devoted Broadway fan having already directed one critically acclaimed documentary on the business we call “show.” In fact, it's no surprise that Berinstein has made a film about the life of Broadway icon Carol Channing - "Carol Channing: Larger than Life" is a marriage of two people with a genuine love of live musical theater which giveth to the movie as much as it taketh away.

The Tony Award-winning actress best known for her roles in the Broadway productions of "Hello, Dolly!" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is nothing if not charming, and the documentary reflects that. It features a typical documentary mix of talking heads (Debbie Reynolds, Barbara Walters, Lily Tomlin) and archival footage, but Channing and her boundless energy and enthusiasm at 90 is what makes this movie a bit special. Berinstein lets the present day Channing run the show from start to finish while the rest (even the younger Channing in vintage TV spots) serve as suitable back up.

Channing’s effervescence combined with humility (she’d like to pay audiences for the privilege of performing on Broadway) is a winning combo and as one of the interviewees says she’s never heard a bad word about Channing in her whole life, and that's saying something. Her story about her first on-screen kiss with Clint Eastwood in "The First Traveling Saleslady" (1956) which didn’t go well at all despite their practicing and was subsequently cut -- is one in a string of delightful anecdotes peppered throughout the film.

Channing’s life is portrayed in the film as one of two loves - her high-school sweetheart Harry Kullijian, and performing on stage. We don’t see or hear much more about her personal life (despite her four marriages) apart from her relationship with Kullijian. Channing’s and Kullijian’s puppy love, break up and 60-years-later reunion and marriage in 2003 is a big part of the documentary and he is interviewed alongside Channing for much of the film. The movie also briefly details her longest and apparently most unhappy marriage with her third husband and her manager and publicist Charles Lowe -- mainly through interviews with everyone other than Channing indicating that she didn’t wish to share this part of her life on film. Her love of the stage shines through the film as well - Channing famously only missing half a show in her entire career due to food poisoning and this was also while she was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer while on the road with "Hello, Dolly!"

Beyond the funny stories and the mile-wide, pink-lipsticked smile, do we really feel like we know Channing by the end of film? Not so much. When compared to more incisive documentaries like "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," a million questions arise that are not addressed directly in the film spring to mind -- feelings about her battle with cancer and lack of children, the three other marriages, and her father’s racial ancestry (briefly touched on in the film). Somehow when Channing is up on screen smiling and doing a soft shoe it's easily forgotten.

There is much talk in the film (not only by Channing herself) about how her personality was too big for the big screen thus her stunted film career. Both her most successful on-stage roles in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "Hello, Dolly!" were recast with stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Streisand when made into film versions. It seems then that Berinstein’s clear admiration of Channing has achieved the seemingly impossible task of capturing Channing’s on stage charm and translating it onto celluloid - even while brushing over the details.

"Carol Channing: Larger than Life" is a sweet, if surface-skimming, portrait of a born entertainer (who still hasn’t stopped). I can’t imagine anyone leaving the theater not falling a bit in love with Channing -- and wanting to know a lot more about her life -- and in that the film succeeds and cements Channing’s status as a living legend. [B+] -- Samantha Chatter.

"Family Portrait," "Dragonslayer" Top Hot Docs Winners

Peter Knegt — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:59:11 GMT

The 2011 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival announced its winners this evening at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto. In a ceremony hosted by CBC Radio One's Jian Ghomeshi, 9 awards and over $72,000 in cash prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers. Julia Ivanova's "Family Portrait In Black and White" took the Best Canadian Feature Award, which came with a $15,000 prize.

"The award for Best Canadian Feature goes to an intimate, poetic film that bravely confronts nuance and complexity in its characters and its world," the jury said.

The film, which visits a ramshackle house in Ukraine where supermom Olga Nenya is raising 16 abandoned mixed-race children, premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault's "At Night, They Dance" and Thomas Selim Wallner's "The Guantanamo Trap" won Special Jury Prizes in the Canadian Feature section.

"The special jury prize is shared between two films, a powerful film that mobilizes compelling characters who face uncomfortable truths, piecing together the anatomy of a broken system - 'The Guantanamo Trap' by Thomas Selwin Wallmer, and a beautifully filmed, haunting and evocative documentary that invites us into a world we would never be able to enter otherwise - 'At Night They Dance' by Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault."

The Canadian Features Jury also acknowledged the film "Wiebo's War" (directed by David York) with an honourable mention.

The award for Best International Feature was presented to SXSW hit "Dragonslayer." Directed by Tristan Patterson, the film follows Californian skate-punk Skreech who stretches out his adolescence by riding empty pools, getting wasted and road-tripping. The award includes a $10,000 prize.

"We were captivated by a non-hero, in a capitalistic, nihilistic society in decline," the jury said. "We were drawn to the funky connection between the structure and content, the freshness of filmmaking and original non-linear storytelling. For these reasons we stand by 'Dragonslayer.'"

The Special Jury Prize for an international feature was presented to Massimo D'Anolfi's "The Castle," which remarkably eposes the ennui and heightened tensions of today's border security at Milan's Malpensa Airport.

The jury said with regard to "The Castle": "For portraying a liminal space in both humor and pain; for the uncompromising camera which sees it all; for noticing the hardship of a system trapped by its own obsession of security, turning a regular terminal into an intrusive checkpoint into Europe; for not neglecting those who resist; for us who look but don't see."

The International Features Jury also acknowledged the films "Grande Hotel" and "Hell and Back Again" with honorable mentions.

Other awards included best mid-length documentary, which went to Eline Flipse's "Our Newspaper," and best short documentary, which went to Catherine van Campen's "Flying Anne." The HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award was presented to director Michal Marczak for the film "At The Edge of Russia" in which a young recruit arrives at his Arctic post, hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement, and is charged with an absurd task: patrolling the nothingness.

The Hot Docs Board of Directors acknowledged the Terence Macartney-Filgate as the recipient of the 2011 Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award, which was presented to the influential Canadian filmmaker at an event earlier in the day. The documentary's Don Haig Award, presented annually to a Canadian documentary filmmaker, was awarded to Toronto-based writer and director Rama Rau. Awarded by the Don Haig Foundation, the prize includes a $20,000 cash prize generously sponsored by documentary.

The Lindalee Tracey Award, which honours an emerging Canadian filmmaker with a passionate point of view, a strong sense of social justice and a sense of humour, was presented to Quebec-based documentary filmmaker Alexandre Hamel. As part of the award, Hamel will receive a $6,000 cash prize and $3,000 in film stock donated by Kodak Canada.

The 2011 awards were determined by three juries, each consisting of three jury members.

The Canadian Features Jury was made up of Nathalie Barton (President of InformAction Films), Caroline Libresco (Senior Programmer for Sundance Film Festival), and Alan Zweig (Filmmaker); the International Features Jury was made up of Luciano Barisone (Director of Visions du Reel), Marianne Khoury (Filmmaker), and Philippa Kowarsky (Managing Director of Cinephil); and the Short and Mid-Length Films Jury was made up of Jason Anderson (Film Critic, Journalist, Teacher), Sarah Goodman (Filmmaker), and Malcolm Pullinger (Filmmaker).

The Sundance Channel People's Choice Award and audience top ten favourite films of the 2011 Festival, determined by audience ballot, will be announced on Monday, May 9.

Dispatch from Toronto | Hot Docs '11: Winning Pitches at the Hot Docs Forum

Basil Tsiokos — Fri, 06 May 2011 07:05:04 GMT

Over the past two days, over 120 funders, commissioning editors, and broadcasters from around the world gathered in Toronto to consider 28 pitches for new documentary projects as part of the Hot Docs Forum, the documentary festival's international co-financing market. Part performative theatre, part practical one-stop shop to connect with the primary decision makers of the non-fiction landscape, the Forum serves an important function for both sides of the pitching table, as well as the hundreds of observers in attendance both days. Filmmakers from pre-selected projects are given twenty minutes total to pitch and field questions and comments from the distinguished panel in the hopes of securing pre-sales, co-production, or acquisition deals to help them plug their financing gaps.

Having attended the Hot Docs Forum since 2009, as well as IDFA's own Forum the past two years, I personally was a bit disappointed in the overall offerings - a sentiment that other observers, and a few participants echoed, off the record. While there were a couple of frankly weak projects with uncertain focus, others simply just seemed uninspired or unoriginal, or just not particularly appropriate for the assembled decision makers and their respective strands.

That said, Forum Director Elizabeth Radshaw and her staff, as well as the independent international selection committee, can only work with what's submitted, and, of course, some of their selections were definitely memorable and impressive. Of the 23 pitches I observed, the following eight were notable for their potential and for the professionalism of their delivery:

"Unstable Elements"
Director/Producer: Madeleine Sackler
Producer: James Lawler
Executive Producer: Tom Stoppard
Country: USA
Production Company: Great Curve Films
Proposed Delivery: 3/1/2012
Financing Sought: $701,410 of $751,410 USD
Synopsis: "Unstable Elements" tracks an underground resistance group fighting for human rights in Belarus, where the secret police are called the KGB and where political dissenters disappear. The members of the Belarus Free Theater risk their lives staging illicit performances and campaigning around the world, meeting with dignitaries to expose what life is truly like under the last dictatorship in Europe.

While I'd be the first to confess that films about theater - or especially films that attempt to incorporate theatre as a stylistic element - tend to leave me cold, the team behind "The Lottery" have found an organic way to make it work in their story about the Belarus Free Theater - and generated a lot of questions and interest from the assembled decision makers.

"Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls"
Director: Juliet Lamont
Producer: Jessica Douglas-Henry
Country: Australia
Production Company: Iris Pictures Pty Ltd
Proposed Delivery: 3/1/2012
Financing Sought: $165,000 of $542,000 USD
Synopsis: Meet Australian expat "Miss Nikki" and her Tiger Girls, Myanmar's answer to 1990s British pop sensation the Spice Girls. Baby, Chilli, Electro, Tricky and Missy are the subversive young women from the country's first-ever girl band, who hope to gain success on the international music scene - a big dream in a country ruled by a military junta resistant to outside, especially Western, influence. This intimate documentary follows the fate of six young women who are literally putting their lives on the line to sing about freedom.

With the support of ITVS and Screen Australia already secured, this story of accidental activism is on track to successful completion. Exploring pop culture and the desire for fame and success against the backdrop of a repressive society, the project has a number of unusual hooks uncommon for a film about Burma.

"Uranium Drive-In"
Director: Susan Beraza
Producer: Michelle Hill
Executive Producer: Judith Kohin
Country: USA
Production Company: Reel Thing Productions
Proposed Delivery: 12/15/2011
Financing Sought: $315,250 of $378,250 USD
Synopsis: The proposed Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill in southwestern Colorado is creating a raging debate among residents, tearing the community apart. The nation's first uranium mill in 25 years promises to bring jobs and a stable economy to a region still struggling with health impacts, environmental harm and financial insecurity in the wake of the industry's last bust. "Uranium Drive-In" follows the lives of three families - one for the proposed mill, one against and one family struggling with their position. It focuses on the human aspect, how people, when faced with difficult choices, make decisions about their future.

Beraza and Kohin, who most recently had success with the doc "Bag It," turn their attention to another environmental subject with a personal connection - they live in the vicinity of the proposed mill. Their trailer featured some of the most beautiful cinematography of any of the pitches, indicating a visual sensibility that will uniquely capture their controversial, complex subject.

"Gideon's Army"
Director/Producer: Dawn Porter
Country: USA
Production Company: Trilogy Films
Proposed Delivery: 12/1/2012
Financing Sought: $148,250 of $368,250 USD
Synopsis: What is it like to represent a person accused of committing a terrible crime? In "Gideon's Army" we meet young lawyers working in the Deep South. Facing long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads, many will not last for even a year. But they now have help. Legal advocate Jonathan Rapping, founder of the Southern Public Defender Training Center, is spreading a revolution across the United States, training and mentoring the lawyers who represent the people society would rather forget.

The topic of "Gideon's Army" is close to home for former attorney turned documentary filmmaker Porter. She already has the Tribeca Film Institute and the Ford Foundation in her corner to help realize her film about the challenging lives and work of Southern public defenders, and strong central characters willing to tell their stories.

"Informant"
Director: Jamie Meltzer
Producer: George M Rush
Country: USA
Proposed Delivery: 10/1/2011
Financing Sought: $156,250 of $207,200 USD
Synopsis: "Informant" explores Brandon Darby's dual life as revolutionary activist and FBI informant. In 2005, Darby became an overnight hero, traveling to Katrina-devastated New Orleans, risking his life to rescue a stranded friend, and co-founding Common Ground, a hugely successful relief organization. In 2008, after two young activists were arrested for possessing Molotov cocktails at the Republican National Convention, Darby shocked close friends and activists nationwide, revealing he was an FBI informant.

Meltzer's has a proven track record with his previous non-fiction work, "Off the Charts" and "Welcome to Nollywood," while Rush has repped standout narratives like "Everything Strange and New" and "The Myth of the American Sleepover." Their new project has already been awarded a grant by Cinereach, and focuses on the fascinating and charismatic Brandon Darby, who was perhaps the most intriguing yet not fully explored element of the recent acclaimed doc "Better This World."

"The Dark Matter of Love"
Director: Sarah McCarthy
Producer: Al Morrow
Country: UK
Production Company: Met Film Production
Proposed Delivery: 1/6/2012
Financing Sought: $494,174 of $574,174 USD
Synopsis: This film is about three strange and ferocious things: love, science and small children. In it, an American family adopts three Russian children, twins and their sister. As the adopted children, and the adoptive family, learn how to form human relationships, we explore the scientific experiments that taught us the little we know about the dark matter of love.

Producer Morrow is a well-regarded producer whose most recent credits include "Donor Unknown" and "Men Who Swim," while director McCarthy charmed audiences at TIFF with "The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical," which sold to HBO and Channel 4. Their new project split the decision makers at the Forum, with some hoping for more science, and others less. The teaser shown used old scientific research as wry commentary, providing a different perspective to the typical adoption documentary, but the project's focus on the family bonding of a complicated adoption also promises a fair share of emotion and drama.

"Driven"
Director: Jonathan Howells
Producer: Rob Fletcher
Country: UK
Production Company: Start in Morocco Films Ltd
Proposed Delivery: 2/1/2012
Financing Sought: $271,260 of $373,075 USD
Synopsis: A story about two newlyweds who drove around the world in a 1934 London taxi in the 1950s, starting in Africa and ending in Japan. Now he's 84 years old. We follow Alfred's efforts to restore the taxi and take it 2,500 miles across America, accompanied by the son he didn't raise to surprise the woman he loved and left - and who he made that epic journey with 50 years earlier - so he can give her one last ride "before it's too late."

While road trip docs can be treacherous journeys indeed - often due to the boredom they generate in viewers - "Driven" should escape that trap, based on the strength of the footage the pitching team presented. Some broadcasters expressed concern that the story seemed too Hollywood, but I personally was charmed by the concept and intrigued by the access the filmmakers have to unique characters with a fascinating backstory.

"A Whole Lott More"
Director/Producer: Victor Buhler
Producer: Angel Vasquz
Country: UK
Production Company: Flying V Films
Proposed Delivery: 11/30/2011
Financing Sought: $231,872 of $308,872 USD
Synopsis: Lott Industries in Toledo, OH employs more than 1,200 workers with developmental disabilities. For decades, the company excelled in assembling car parts. However, with the decline of the auto industry in neighboring Detroit, Lott is threatened with closure. The company has 12 months to reinvent itself and to save the livelihoods of its disabled employees. "A Whole Lott More" follows Lott's critical year and brings to light how people with disabilities are excluded from the working world - a situation that must change.

The well-respected and accomplished Buhler has already received support from the Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation for this appealing story which was overwhelmingly positively received by the decision makers and by the observers. The latter selected it as one of the co-winners of the Cuban Hat Award, a cash-prize generated from donations by observers over the two days of the Forum. "Lott"'s trailer displayed strongly-defined characters and provided a very clear sense of how much is at stake for them if they lose their jobs. The project has the potential to showcase the disabled in a very different light than they're usually shown, and seems destined for audience accolades.

I should also note that William Hechter took home the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Forum Pitch Prize, $40,000 in cash, awarded to the best Canadian pitch, for his project on American songwriter Jerome Felder, AKA "Doc Pomus," while the above mentioned Cuban Hat Award was shared with the last-minute pitch by Canada's Nomad Films for their ayahuasca-focused project, "The Jungle Prescription." While the cash went to "Jungle" and "Lott," the Cuban Hat was awarded to the decision maker voted as the Forum observer's favorite - the irascible Nick Fraser from the BBC.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Basil Tsiokos is a Programming Associate, Documentary Features for Sundance, consults with documentary filmmakers and festivals, and co-produced Cameron Yates’ feature documentary “The Canal Street Madam.” Follow him on Twitter (@1basil1 and @CanalStMadamDoc) and visit his blog (what (not) to doc).

Hot Docs Debuts A Beautiful Epic with "National Parks Project"

Peter Knegt — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:23:13 GMT

Among the many Canadian docs making their debuts at Hot Docs this week is "The National Parks Project." With an assembly of 13 filmmakers and 39 musicians, project creators Joel McConvey, Geoff Morrison and Ryan J. Noth put together something distinctively epic.

Celebrating the centenary of Parks Canada, the omnibus project brought together the likes of filmmakers Zacharius Kunuk, Peter Lynch, Daniel Cockburn, Sturla Gunnarsson and John Walker, and musicians Sarah Harmer, Melissa Auf der Maur, Sam Roberts, Matt Mays, Cadence Weapon and The Besnard Lakes. In teams of three musicians and one filmmaker, they traveled to national parks in each of Canada's 13 provinces and territories, creating 13 unique -- and often quite experimental -- short films that paint a considerable picture of the dramatic diversity of the Canadian wilderness. The film previewed parts of the collection in Berlin and SXSW, but is debuting its full canvas here at Hot Docs.

"It's about nature and the wilderness," co-creator Geoff Morrison said. "But it's also about the arts. One of the goals was trying to come up with these interesting artistic collaborations between the musicians and the filmmakers that were somewhat off-kilter so they'd produce interesting results. And through the diversity of the artists we could mirror the diversity of the landscape that we were going through."

Morrison said that they also wanted to create something that wasn't overtly preaching a message of conservation.

"That's probably the thing I'm most proud of," he said. "You can watch these things and just get blown away. You watch this 13-minute experimental and esoteric nature film that you might otherwise not watch. No one has to tell the audience that this place is important and worth preserving. You can just sort of take that out of the images."

The project originated when Parks Canada approached co-creator Ryan Noth back in 2006 about a project that might "expose urban demographics to the Canadian wilderness." He came back to Morrison and Joel McConvey and together they considered how they could put something like this together.

"We just asked ourselves what would be the most interesting thing we would want to do or see or be a part of," Noth said. "And we were always music geeks and had this affinity for music. So it just came to us naturally to take our favorite filmmakers and musicians to a park in each province."

Noth, Morrison and McConvey curated the filmmakers themselves, with Louise Archambault, Keith Behrman, Daniel Cockburn, Hubert Davis, Sturla Gunnarsson, Zacharias Kunuk, Stéphane Lafleur, Peter Lynch, Catherine Martin, Kevin McMahon, Scott Smith, Jamie Travis and John Walker the chosen 13 that would head into the Canadian wilderness with a trio of musicians to capture an individual national park over a five-day shooting period. On a shoestring budget with minimal crews, each group of director and musicians had a DP, an on-set producer, a sound person who also doubled as a music recorders and a cook as they camped out in their respective park.

"The first trip I went on was this trip to was this northern park Sirmilik, which is north of Baffin Island," Morrison recalled of the Kunuk production. "You're traveling by snowmobiles and wooden sleds across the ice. Every time I watch the film I feel like it's the most powerful one, narratively. It's about this 80-year-old hunter and the changes he sees the land there. It blows me away every time. And I'm reminded about it being such a perilous environment. One of us could have died so easily... But more so, I'm reminded that I got to hang out and watch Zacharias Kunuk direct a film. That's a pretty special thing."

Other highlights included Cockburn taking on Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula (“the place you don’t remember”) in a piece scored by John Samson, Christine Fellows and Sandro Perri. Davis joining Kathleen Edwards, Sam Roberts and Matt Mays in Manitoba’s Wapusk National Park; and McMahon exploring Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories, with music by Olga Goreas, Jace Lasek and Shad.

Notable is that "The National Parks Project" did not result simply in a collection of films. It's also been turned into television series on Canada's Discovery HD, a collection of music available on iTunes, and an incredible interactive website that provides an outlet for the extensive amount of content the project ended up producing.

The film will screen again at the Royal Cinema in Toronto May 19, to celebrate the official centennial of Parks Canada.

Hot Docs Brings It All Home: 8 Documentaries You Should See

Basil Tsiokos — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:37:27 GMT

The 18th annual Hot Docs is an embarrassment of riches for documentary fans. Running April 28-May 8, it's virtually impossible to catch a screening of every film one would like to see. Spotlighting more than 200 Canadian and international documentaries for Toronto audiences, the festival makes for a lot of tough but attractive viewing choices.

The eight titles below share a particular focus on questions of home and belonging - from explorations of literal dwellings to broader questions of nationhood and community.

Belgian director Lotte Stoops' Mozambique-set "Grande Hotel," which premiered earlier this year at Rotterdam, focuses on the titular building, once briefly a testament to Portuguese colonialism and now a crumbling reminder of the limits of power. The former luxury hotel, which only opened its doors to business for a few short years, has since become home to 2500 squatters, forming their own communities in its stripped-down shell. Stoops follows present-day residents on a tour of sorts as they search out a specific room that has particular resonance to them, while archival footage and the voices of past hotel guests provide an insight into the space's glory days, when Africans would almost certainly not be welcomed except as employees.

Daniel Goldstein's Brooklyn condo is the point of contention in Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's "The Battle for Brooklyn," which makes its world premiere at Hot Docs. Goldstein's building is in the footprint of Mayor Bloomberg's ambitious Atlantic Yards' economic development plan for the borough. While there are many uncertainties about the benefits promised by the project, developers and the city government are determined to move forward, making questionable use of eminent domain laws to essentially force people out. Not willing to go without a fight, Goldstein becomes an activist, little realizing that his battle will take seven years and cost him a relationship. Galinsky and Hawley found a great underdog in Goldstein and have constructed a thoroughly engaging look at the infuriating erosion of individual rights in the interest of corporate concerns and political maneuvering.

Depending on your political views regarding Israel, Igal Hecht's "The Hilltops" will also likely have an exasperating effect. The Canadian filmmaker's newest film, which also has its world premiere here, looks at a number of West Bank settlements, the contentious Jewish communities built on occupied Palestinian territory in defiance of international and Israeli law. In a statement read before the screening, Hecht, who was unable to attend, acknowledged that he refused to kowtow to those who would want to see the settlers demonized, preferring instead to let audiences form their own opinions. While it's difficult to fully empathize with the subjects, Hecht certainly doesn't demonize or coddle them. In interviews with the filmmaker, they explain that they view the lands as unquestionably belonging to Israel and matter-of-factly (if not arrogantly and self-righteously) field his difficult questions about their violations of the law and refusal to acknowledge Palestinian nationhood.

Who exactly constitutes a true member of a nation is at the heart of Laura Fairrie's "The Battle for Barking," which had its world premiere last year at Sheffield. The nation in question is the UK, and the right-wing (critics would say fascist) British National Party's Nick Griffin is stirring up resentment against multiculturalism and immigration in advance of a Parliamentary election in order to unseat long time Labour MP Margaret Hodge. Screening during a particularly contentious Canadian national election this week, the riveting film resonated strongly with audiences, following both candidates as they rolled up their sleeves to get their platforms heard and to get the vote out. Fairrie does a laudable job gaining access to both campaigns, even if it was clear the BNP were particularly cautious about what they presented to her camera. Despite their reserve, the message of fear-mongering, scapegoating, and barely-disguised racist fears of the majority becoming the minority come to the forefront in tense confrontations with angry constituents, occasionally even leading to fisticuffs.

Though more subtle, similar concerns for a community's well-being and existence are at the heart of the machinations of the title figure of Erika Hnikova's Berlin Film Festival winner, "Matchmaking Mayor." In this wholly entertaining doc, the well-liked mayor of the small Slovak village of Zemplínske Hámre begins a crusade to get the single thirtysomethings in the community married. The film has an appropriately comic tone, detailing the great lengths the mayor and his staff go to to facilitate dating and baby-making, culminating in an absurd singles' dance complete with insulted invitees, forced icebreakers and innuendo-ridden announcements. But while the mayor's obsession is clearly due to a concern that his population will age out, certain comments indicate a corresponding fear of the potential disappearance of "pure" Slovaks, making his hands-on attempts at social engineering take on a somewhat more disturbing eugenic tone. Still, the film is by far one of the funniest docs I've seen in a long time.

Young German filmmakers Mareille Klein and Julie Kreuzer offer a nuanced look at a more explicitly disturbing subject in their film "No Entry No Exit." When residents of a small German town learn that a twice-convicted rapist/child molester, Karl D, has moved in with his brother Helmut and his family, they take to the streets outside Helmut's house in protest, virtually trapping everyone inside under near-constant surveillance. They believe that he's likely to hurt another young girl and want him out of their community. Helmut, on the other hand, can't believe his brother is guilty -- though he admits the first offense, Karl maintains his innocence for the second -- and refuses to be bullied into abandoning family or leaving his own community. With tensions running high over long months, the protest shifts in unexpected directions. Karl nearly recedes into the background as the mob mentality starts to target Helmut instead, while some protestors seek to hear Karl's view, enraging others from their tenuous alliance. Klein and Kreuzer intelligently craft their film -- one of my favorites of the fest so far -- refusing easy judgements in favor of a more complex consideration of the various shifting aspects of the story.

The strangely captivating "I Am Jesus," from the festival's Made in Italy spotlight, profiles three men who claim to be the second coming of the Christian Messiah - UK's David Shayler, who lives with anarchist squatters and harbors a few surprises; Brazil's INRI Cristo, whose followers largely consist of comely younger women; and Russia's mysterious Vissarion, around whom an entire community of international acolytes has formed in Siberia. Filmmakers Valerie Gudenus and Heloisa Sartorato profile not only these would-be saviors, but also their followers, exploring how and why their devotion exists. Especially in the case of the Siberian Messiah, who maintains more of a distance, and INRI Cristo, who's more of a publicity hound, the filmmakers focus more on the followers and the community they've built up, with the latter shown utilizing popular song parodies on YouTube to draw attention to their leader, and the latter willing to trek through subzero temperatures on a pilgrimage to receive Vissarion's blessings. This consideration of the importance of belonging as part of their faith elevates the project from being a more simplistic portrait of eccentrics.

Finally, this issue of belonging is key to Linda Goldstein Knowlton's "Somewhere Between," which had its world premiere at Hot Docs this week. The director of "The World According to Sesame Street" embarked on this film after she adopted her young daughter from China. Concerned about the questions her daughter might ask her about identity and cross-cultural adoption, Goldstein Knowlton sought out teenage girls who were similarly adopted from China and raised in the US. Her young subjects speak eloquently about their experiences, and on their varying desire to reconnect with their places of origin to gain a greater sense of self, reach closure with their pasts, or find a truer sense of belonging to their original cultural and homeland. While the doc is unquestionably emotionally affecting, I felt that two of the young women's stories -- Fang, who bonds with a little Chinese girl with cerebral palsy and helps her get adopted; and Hailey, whose return to the site of her abandonment yields surprising results -- overshadow the other two subjects, who I'm hard pressed to even remember at this point. In addition, the brief bookends, explaining via narration the filmmaker's personal reasons for making the film, are unnecessary; I'd prefer to see them gone completely. Still, the film is successful at getting to the heart of some rather huge issues around identity and belonging.