Hot Docs

8 Must-See Documentaries That Haven't Been Finished Yet From the Hot Docs Pitch Forum

Anthony Kaufman — Tue, 10 May 2016 15:49:31 GMT

"This is the fucking one."

So said Amazon Studios development executive Brianna Little during the 17th edition of the Hot Docs Forum, one of the world’s largest and most important conferences for pitching in-the-works documentary projects.

It was a rare moment of effusive praise for the Forum, revealing not just Little’s first-timer enthusiasm, but also a general feeling among the documentary executives that this year’s 20 nonfiction projects were a largely solid bunch. Only one of the docs faced outright negative criticism, while the rest of the 19 films (representing more than a dozen different countries) were mostly warmly welcomed by the 300 key funders and other decision-makers sitting in the massive wood-paneled room within the University of Toronto’s Hart House.

READ MORE: Hot Docs 2016 Announces Full Lineup

Hot Docs Forum isn’t a place where deals are signed in the hallways, but it does spark anticipation, meetings, and for a couple of films, cash prizes. This year’s winner of the Best Canadian pitch and CDN$10,000 in cash went to "Showgirls of Pakistan," a compelling story of female dancers in Punjab’s smut theatres (which was unfortunately undermined by an overly sensationalistic and over-cut trailer).

Another pitch from first-time Italian director Giovanni Totaro called "Happy Winter" received the Cuban Hat Award, which included CDN $1,223.50 as well as industry passes to 2017 Hot Docs, Doc Leipzig, an IDFA accreditation, and consulting sessions with various industry experts. "Happy Winter" won over the audience with newcomer Totaro’s nervous excitement — one industry exec compared his "charm offensive" to Roberto Benigni’s — and a beautifully shot winsome clip reel about working-class Italian families on vacation on Palermo’s Mondello Beach.

Other highlights of the two-day forum were "The Patriot," a dark tale of extreme nationalist ideologies and twisted vengeance in the digital age from "Censored Voices" producer-editor Daniel Sivan and produced by Zafrir Kochanovsky of Israel’s TTV Productions, as well as projects from Pulse Films ("XY Chelsea") and Parabola Films ("Billy"). Because of media blackouts on the three projects, further information on the docs is embargoed.

Another surprise was Patricia Gillespie’s stunning and stylish trailer for "American Monster," a dark Southern Gothic true-crime look at the pathology of American violence, which turned out to be the Forum’s first-ever docu-series pitch. This news turned out to stymie most of the broadcasters in attendance. Originally set up as a feature documentary, the project made a deal just a couple days before the Forum with Morgan Spurlock’s Warrior Poets to develop the film into a multi-part series. Outside-the-box companies showed strong interest, including VICE Media ("This is the most creative and compelling thing I’ve seen at Hot Docs," noted VICE development exec John Turner) and Norway’s VGTV ("I’d like to make an offer," said acquisitions head Hans Andreas Fay), but it was Forum moderator Axel Arno from Stockholm’s SVT who seemed to surmise what most everyone was thinking: "I know Netflix is in the room," he said, "they will find you."

Netflix came up a few times during the conference as the proverbial elephant in the room. During the Forum’s most commercial pitch, for "The Last Animals" about elephant and rhino poaching, from photojournalist-turned-filmmaker Kate Brooks and heavyweight producer Laurie David ("An Inconvenient Truth"), it was BBC Storyville’s always candid Nick Fraser who declared, "If I was I Netflix, I would buy this on the spot."

"The Last Animals" grabbed the attention of the executives on the roundtable like no other pitch in the 48-Hour Forum. It was the project that made Amazon’s Briana Little gush, and other executives follow suit with praise for the trailer’s "strong images" and effective use of "pulling at heartstrings." PBS’s Marie Nelson said she was not ready to concede the documentary to Netflix and could be instrumental in helping aid the filmmakers with their outreach and impact campaign, while Mette Hoffmann Meyer, head of docs and coproductions for Denmark’s Danish Broadcasting Companies, suggested the world’s public broadcasters could all pull together to coordinate a simultaneous "The Last Animals" airing event as way to keep the nonprofits in the game. But in discussions after the pitch, the general consensus is that "The Last Animals" will be picked up by a more commercial entity.

One such company HBO already has a first-look deal with "Rules To Live By," another favorite project at the Forum. While the story of director Hope Litoff’s search to understand the suicide of her sister artist Ruth Litoff may sound like a downer, Litoff has described the tone of the film as "witty, sad, often outrageous and even funny." BC’s Nick Fraser called the project "very brave and terrific," and praised the trailer for its "texture" and the way it beautifully expressed her observations. Produced by Beth Levison ("The Trials of Spring," "Lemon") and shot by Dan Gold ("Blue Vinyl"), "Rules to Live By" has already received support by the IFP and an Accelerator Grant from Chicken & Egg.

A compelling sports story arrived in Poland’s "Over the Limit," an intimate portrait of the world’s most outstanding rhythmic gymnast, Russia’s Margarita Mamun. The film follows Mamun for over a year as she readies to compete in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On the page, the project did not seem like it would stand out, but many of the executives were taken by the filmmaker’s profound access into this sheltered community. "This is one of those stories that transcends nationality," said PBS’s Mariel Nelson, "and it’s something I’d love to see at PBS."

Another foreign pitch that turned heads, David Baksh and Anna Thomson’s "Yoghurt Utopia" tells the quirky and surprising story of a Spanish yogurt factory set up in the forest, where the hundreds of workers are all hospital patients with mental illnesses. Supported by the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, the film will reveal how the endeavor has become both a commercial success, amidst trying economic times for Spain, but also a revolutionary approach by Catalan psychiatrist Cristobal Colon to treating and empowering the disabled. Champions in the room included Arte France’s Mark Edwards, Amazon’s Brianne Little, and Vice’s John Turner who found Colon to be a compelling central character with a “beautiful, youthful energy” that he thought would resonate with their audience. More on the project can be found here.

From Chicago-based Kartemquin Films came another foreign favorite, "Eating Up Easter," a surprisingly moving look at the Rapu Nui residents of the Pacific Island nation of Easter Island, as they grapple with a rapidly growing tourism trade and increasing loads of trash and pollution. A classic tale of globalization and its discontents, the trailer also benefited from two compelling sets of characters, a crotchety grandmother who strives for sustainability in a recycling center in the background of the majestic Easter Island statues and a young couple trying to heal their community through music. Companies such as Japanese broadcaster NHK, Arte France, and Germany’s RTL Television all showed interest in the project. Because of financing the project has received from ITVS’s Diversity Development Fund, it will eventually find a home in the U.S. on one of PBS’s strands.

READ MORE: 5 New Must-See Documentaries From the 2016 Hot Docs Festival

The last but not least project in the Forum was "Mudflow" from Oscar-winning nonfiction filmmaker Cynthia Wade ("Freeheld," "Shelter Dogs"), co-director Sasha Friedlander and producer Tracie Holder ("Joe Papp in Five Acts"). Focusing on the plight of Indonesian villagers in the wake of a massive mud volcano, the project showed off gorgeous cataclysmic images of the area, along with a potentially stirring and complex story of the collision of politics, people and corporate interests in the region. Executives from NHK, Participant Media, Danish Broadcasting and Al Jazeera all showed interest, while Dutch broadcasting exec Margje de Koning offered a valuable lesson for perhaps all documentary-makers: "Beauty," she said, "is very important when we see harsh stories."

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Hot Docs Documentary Gets Dramatically Censored at the Last Minute

Chris O'Falt — Mon, 02 May 2016 17:37:09 GMT

It's hardly unprecedented for a documentary to encounter legal challenges based on some of its footage, but the challenge facing "The Opposition" is especially down to the wire: The filmmakers behind the new documentary received notice last Friday that they would not be able to use footage of one its four main subjects, former Papua New Guinean politician Dame Carol Kidu, at the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. The film tells the story of a residents of Port Moresby and their fight to prevent their homes from being leveled at the hands by the Paga Hill Development Company, who wanted to build a hotel and marina on the land.

Back in 2012, when filming commenced, Dame Carol Kidu was one of the leaders standing up for the human rights of the settlers. As she can be seen in this dramatic footage — which was shot as part of "The Opposition" and, according to the film’s producer Rebecca Barry, was posted to YouTube by Kidu herself — Kidu was on the front lines, bravely standing up to armed policemen pleading for the demolition to stop so that residents could get their possessions out of their homes before they were bulldozed.

Since that time, Kidu has switched sides, and has been hired by the Paga Hill Development Company to help with the relocation of the residents. Five weeks ago, with the support of the development company, she brought a legal action against the filmmakers, trying to prevent them from using footage of herself, including onscreen interviews, for which Kidu signed an industry standard release form authorizing the filmmakers to publicly and commercially use the footage. Barry and director Hollie Fifer were aware that Kidu was concerned about the film, but they were caught completely off guard by the lawsuit — which was for breach of contract, not defamation.

"Not only did she sign a release form, she continued to stay engaged and allowed filming," Barry told Indiewire. "In 2014, she did a final interview with us in which she directly addresses the issues surrounding Paga Hill Development Company and her role as consultant. We also showed her a rough cut, which is extremely rare, a fine cut, we took aboard her feedback, and gave her right of reply at the end of the film in the form of text card. So for her to now say she didn’t know what the film is about, and basically change her mind, sets a really dangerous precedent."

When the filmmakers were discussing with Kidu about the final coda to the film, they were sideswiped by the lawsuit that claims Kidu was misled about the nature of the film. However, the judge did not rule against the use of any footage in "The Opposition," but rather that it could not be used prior to a hearing in June.

This left Fifer facing two possibilities: recut her film and present a redacted version at Hot Docs — or wait until after the matter was legally settled so that she could present the full version of the film somewhere else. As the legal battle was brewing, Fifer took the precaution of starting to get her post-production team in place and recruited actress Sarah Snook ("Steve Jobs") to provide voiceover narrative, which ultimately replaced the nine minutes of redacted footage. Then, once the judge made his ruling on April 23, she and her team worked around the clock for nine days so she could fly with a new version of the film to Toronto this weekend.

"It was a really hard decision because there's the real film and the redacted version, and I consider them two different pieces," Fifer told Indiewire. "It's heartbreaking to know the Hot Docs audience won't see the real film, but I think there's an opportunity here to have a wider discussion about freedom of speech and how hard it is for documentary filmmakers to be able to tell [our stories]. In a sense, we are just allowing the process to be transparent."

5 New Must-See Documentaries From the 2016 Hot Docs Festival

David Ehrlich, Steve Greene and Eric Kohn — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:51:47 GMT

READ MORE: Hot Docs 2016 Announces Full Lineup

Documentaries are flourishing on film and television alike, but few film festivals provide a platform for the art form on the scale of the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, which opens its 26th edition this week in Toronto. The widely-attended event unites influential figures in the non-fiction filmmaking community with general audiences eager to consume a broad spectrum of new work. This year's edition features a whopping 232 titles from 51 countries. Here are five notable highlights.

"66 Days: Bobby Sands"

Joining Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” as one of the most visceral and comprehensive films ever made about the Troubles, Brendan Byrne’s new documentary begins as an intimate chronicle of Bobby Sands’ fatal hunger strike before widening into a study of colonialism as a war of attrition. Sands — who, in 1981, refused food for 66 days in an effort to force the British government to recognize incarcerated IRA members as political prisoners rather than common criminals — is one of the most famous Irishmen in recent history. And yet, as one person reflects early in the film: “So little is known about Sands’ life that you can fill in the blanks however you want.” While Byrne’s film features talking head interviews with people who knew him personally (one guy played on his football team, another fed him the prison food that he didn’t eat), “66 Days” is less interested in demystifying Sands as a martyr than it is in dissecting how he became one. Using loads of choice archival footage, and even a pinch of animation to depict Sands becoming dislocated from his own body, Byrne conceives of a hunger strike as something akin to a work of art. In doing so, he makes one of his own. —David Ehrlich

"Hotel Dallas"

"Dallas" memorably used dream reasoning to retroactively delete a whole season’s worth of episodes from the show’s canon, so it’s no surprise that a documentary springing from a generation culturally influenced by the 80s primetime soap wastes no time reinventing its own internal logic. Director (and quasi-star) Livia Ungur initially charts how “Dallas” became the first trickle of western culture into her own life in Romania during the waning years of Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime. But “Hotel Dallas” quickly embraces an amorphous approach to examining the show’s lingering aftereffects, decades after the show went off the air. (Come for the black-and-white reenactment of a pivotal “Dallas” car accident scene, stay for the montage where time literally begins to reverse.) Ungur’s companion through this bizarre artistic essay is Patrick Duffy, the impetus for and benefactor of that notorious 1986 retcon. As a Lynchian version of his “Dallas” Bobby Ewing character, Duffy speaks to and with Ungur as she visits with family members and tries to reconcile her life as an artist in New York. Through the lens of a family whose ups and downs dovetail with the Ewings in some unexpected ways, “Hotel Dallas” doesn’t reflect American entertainment as much as it refracts it, reveling in its own unclassifiable spirit. —Steve Greene

"Operation Avalanche"

Although it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Matt Johnson's sophomore feature following his 2013 debut "The Dirties" merits inclusion here for one specific reason: it's technically not a documentary. Instead, "Operation Avalanche" follows a fictionalized version of Johnson and his pal Owen Williams as a pair of dopey filmmakers in the late sixties who uncover a CIA conspiracy to fake the moon landing. Their odyssey takes them from secure meetings with top officials to a Stanley Kubrick film shoot. But this isn't your average mockumentary. As with "The Dirties," Johnson displays a tremendous command over the non-fiction form, blending multiple formats, archival materials and inventive camerawork to create a truly convincing sense of time and place. The result is a gripping comedic thriller that suggests "Dr. Strangelove" by way of Christopher Guest. The continually engaging mashup of genres outdoes most contemporary studio comedies for sheer entertainment value — it's got slapstick moments and killer chase scenes alike — but Johnson also proves himself adroit at showing how documentary techniques create a precise framing device to rendering historical events on a personal scale. While not a documentary, it's a shrewd meditation on the public's relationship to real life, and nobody's carving out a niche in that area better than this inventive filmmaker. —Eric Kohn

"Sour Grapes"

The “F For Fake” of the wine community, Reuben Atlas and Jerry Rothwell’s “Sour Grapes” is a doc that’s almost as cagey as its subject. In fact, the film doesn’t reveal what — or who — its subject really is for the first 30 minutes or so, as it jauntily dives into the weird world of wine auctions that sprung up during the dot com boom. Through that strange lens, the film introduces us to an eccentric collection of super-rich men who get together and spend their “fuck you” money on absurdly expensive bottles of Burgundy. Slowly, a young Indonesian immigrant begins to emerge from the pack, a genius young oenophile who has a mysterious family background and one of the most refined palettes that any of his friends have ever seen. Needless to say, it’s not a huge surprise to learn that all is not quite what it seems, but as his story begins to collapse, his downfall uncorks a number of fascinating questions about what ultimately determines the true value of art. —DE

"What He Did"

In 1988, Danish writer Jens Michael Schau killed his longtime partner and fellow novelist, Christian Kampmann. The lives of the two men and the events leading up to the night of the murder formed the basis for both Schau’s memoirs and a resultant theatrical work presented by the Mungo Park theatre in Allerød, Denmark. Weaving together on-camera testimony from Schau and behind-the-scenes footage of the play’s production, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s film foregoes a meticulous dissection of the crime and focuses instead on the surreal process of constructing an artistic narrative. As Schau sits in on the preliminary production meetings, the shock doesn’t come from the fact that a convicted killer is collaborating on his own story, but instead from the calm, rational approach of the play's director and performers. Throughout these discussions, as Schau observes the various edits and creative liberties affecting this public presentation of his life’s story, he becomes a ghost who is both haunter and haunted. His reticence to participate in both the documentary and an impending public reading of his work (at one point, Schau himself tells the camera, “This is a bad idea”) offers an intriguing parallel to the ethical questions pondered by the Mungo Park creative team. Some may find the film a bit too removed or clinical in its approach, but there’s a reward in finding the tiny differences in Schau’s telling of the story and what’s put on stage. “What He Did” doesn’t posit Schau as a maltreated genius or a despised monster, but showing him exist in a space almost impossibly between those two. —SG

'As I AM: The Life And Time$ of DJ AM' Clip: Exclusive Look at the EDM Legend Impersonating Daft Punk

Riyad Mamedyarov — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:16:26 GMT

The EDM community is known for a few things, namely drinking, drugging, and partying like it's their last day on earth. From raving to dancing, the hedonistic fans live for debauchery and fast-paced, easily-consumable entertainment. The party never ends with EDM, especially for the superhero-status DJs who are incessantly showered with adoration, love, and anything they could ever imagine. But is that life really all that sustainable?

READ MORE: Meet the 2015 Tribeca Filmmakers #11: Kevin Kerlake Gets Behind the DJ Booth and Behind the Headlines for 'As I AM'

In Kevin Kerslake's newest documentary, the prolific director sets out to showcase the the contemporary in music culture through the eyes of prophetic DJ, Adam Goldstein. From Nirvana to Lana Del Rey, the documentarian and music video director is frequently ahead of the curve when it comes to capturing the music that defines generations. In his newest tell-all documentary, Kerslake tackles the tumultuous and tragic life of EDM superstar, DJ AM. The former Crazy Town emcee. DJ AM lived through it all including drug addiction, professional feuds, and a near-fatal plane crash. But even as Goldstein was given a second lease on life time after time, he would soon succumb to his own devices, as well as the EDM communities pressures. Check out Indiewire's exclusive clip of the film above.

"As I AM: The Life And Time$ of DJ AM" is produced by Manifest and Integral Entertainment Group, with distribution by Abramorama. It premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival before screening at Hot Docs later that year. "As I AM" will be released in theaters on May 27 in NYC and on June 3 in LA.

READ MORE: Film Acquisition Rundown, Week of April 18: Music Box Films Saves 'Mia Madre,' Tribeca Market Heats Up and More

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Hot Docs Exclusive: Trailer For 'Age Of Consequences' Explores The Massive Risk Of Climate Change

Edward Davis — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:14:22 GMT

That the discussion around climate change is framed as a "debate" in many quarters, enables the perception that there isn't already reams of scientific data pointing to an alarming increase in the temperature of the globe. It creates an aura of doubt that prevents real change in the energy sector and how we live our daily lives that could prevent catastrophic consequences down the road. And putting a spotlight on just how reckless enabling the small voice of dissenters of climate change can be is explored in the upcoming documentary "The Age Of Consequences," and today we have the exclusive teaser trailer.

Directed by Jared P. Scott ("Requiem for the American Dream"), the film contextualizes the alarming consequences of societal inaction on climate change, that will include conflict, resource scarcity, mass migration and border tensions that will impact global stability and national security. With analysis from a variety of experts and Pentagon insiders, "The Age of Consequences" is a wake up call that the time to start addressing the issue in a real way is right now.

"The Age Of Consequences" will premiere at Hot Docs Film Festival on Sunday, May 1st. Watch below.

Hot Docs 2016 Announces Full Lineup, Including 'Tickled,' 'Operation Avalanche' and More

Kate Erbland — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:16:52 GMT

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has today announced its full film lineup for its upcoming 23rd edition, including such buzzy titles as "Tickled," "Operation Avalanche," "Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru" and many more. The festival previously announced a strong slate of titles already garnering acclaim on the festival circuit, including "Sonita," "Trapped," "De Palma" and "Gleason." From a reported 2,735 film submissions, the festival culled 232 titles from 51 countries to fill out their 12 screening programs. Hot Docs has also announced that work by female filmmakers will represent close to 40% of their 2016 program.

READ MORE: Hot Docs 2016 Adds More Documentary Features to Slate, Including 'Sonita' and 'De Palma'

Of today's announcement, Hot Docs director of programming Shane Smith said, "With films from a Festival-high of 51 countries, this year’s Hot Docs truly does span the globe, bringing Toronto audiences the best in documentaries from at home and abroad. With the expansion of our adventurous new program DocX into its own venue, an enhanced focus on short docs and the inclusion of long-form documentary work, Hot Docs continues to recognize and support masterful documentary storytelling in all of its forms. We can’t wait to share this year’s outspoken and outstanding program with Toronto audiences."

Highlights from this year's festival include opening night film "League of Exotique Dancers," Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen's cyberbullying-centric "Audrie & Daisy," Ezra Edelman's saga-spanning "O.J. Simpson: Made in America" and the Canadian premiere of Matt Johnson's wild "Operation Avalanche." The festival boasts a wide range of sections, including DocX (their interdisciplinary section), the Nightvision series and a number of slates dedicated to specific areas of the globe, including Australia and Canada.

Additionally, this year's Hot Docs will present two retrospective programs: Focus On Rosie Dransfeld, a mid-career retrospective of the filmmaker’s work, and the Outstanding Achievement Award Retrospective, honoring the timeless work of documentary filmmaker Steve James.

You can check out the complete lineup, along with scheduling and ticketing information, on the festival's official website.

READ MORE: Watch: Meet the Trailblazing Women Featured in This Year's Hot Docs Opener, 'League of Exotique Dancers'

The 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will run from April 28 - May 8 in Toronto.

Watch: Meet the Trailblazing Women Featured in This Year's Hot Docs Opener, 'League of Exotique Dancers'

Kate Erbland — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:30:00 GMT

This year's Hot Docs is set to kick off with a real bang, thanks to the film festival's recently announced opening night film, Rama Rau's "League of Exotique Dancers." The new feature takes us inside the wild, wonderful world of burlesque dancing and some of the extraordinary women who pioneered the art form during a time when such expression wasn't exactly accepted by society at large.

Per its official synopsis, the film "sets the stage for a provocative and eye-opening 'backstage tour' of the golden age of Burlesque through the colourful lives of unforgettable women who made it glitter. Our guides are none other than inductees of the Burlesque Hall of Fame, all titans of tease and each possessing a way with words as uninhibited and captivating as her routines.Illuminated by well-known and rare, never-before-seen, archival material and accentuated by a soundtrack and original music which captures the mood of the era, League of Exotique Dancers peels off the layers of glitter to expose the sexism, racism and widespread stigma faced by Burlesque striptease performers and, indeed, the wider array of working women in that tumultuous era."

READ MORE: Hot Docs 2016 Adds More Documentary Features to Slate, Including 'Sonita' and 'De Palma'

The film features such burlesque luminaries as Judith Stein, Kitten Natividad, Holiday O’Hara, Gina Bon Bon, Lovey Goldmine, Delilah Jones, Marinka and Toni Elling.

"League of Exotique Dancers" will open Hot Docs with its world premiere, taking place on Thursday, April 28 at 7PM at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. Other screenings will follow throughout the festival.

Check out our exclusive trailer for the film above, and get to know your new favorite exotique pioneers.

The 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will run from April 28 - May 8 in Toronto.

Hot Docs 2016 Adds More Documentary Features to Slate, Including 'Sonita' and 'De Palma'

Kate Erbland — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 14:31:29 GMT

Toronto's own Hot Docs Film Festival has announced the addition of 14 documentary features that will screen as part of this year’s Special Presentations program. Per the festival, Special Presentations section "features a high-profile collection of world and international premieres, award winners from the recent international festival circuit and works by master filmmakers or featuring some star subjects."

This year's picks are rife with captivating subjects, from Bobby Sands to David Byrne, Brian De Palma to Mel Brooks. This portion of the slate also includes a number of award-winning docs, including Sundance winners "Sonita," "Trapped" and "Life, Animated."

READ MORE: 8 Great Documentary Discoveries from Hot Docs 2015

The 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will run from April 28 - May 8 in Toronto. The complete Special Presentations program and the full selection of films set to screen at the fest, including the 2016 opening night film, will be announced on March 22.

Check out the new additions to the Special Presentation section below, with all synopses provided by Hot Docs.

"The Age of Conseqeunces"
D: Jared P. Scott | USA | 2016 | 78 min | World Premiere
Sounding an alarm over the critical and disturbing effects of societal inaction, this revealing film highlights the irreversible impacts of climate change—resource scarcity, mass migration and conflict—through the lens of global stability and national security.

"American Movie"
D: Chris Smith | USA | 1999 | 107 min | Cinema Eye Legacy Screening
In this beloved cult classic, an aspiring filmmaker struggles to complete a hilariously lo-fi horror film, only to be derailed by personal demons and the staggering ineptitude of his production team.

"Bobby Sands: 66 Days"
D: Brendan Byrne | Ireland, UK | 2016 | 105 min | World Premiere
This riveting account of a turning point in the Troubles in Northern Ireland is taken straight from the diary of Bobby Sands, who led protests of imprisoned Irish Republicans and a hunger strike with momentous consequences.

"Contemporary Color"
D: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | USA | 2016 | 96 min | International Premiere
An extraordinary lineup of top music stars including event mastermind David Byrne of The Talking Heads, Nelly Furtado, St. Vincent and more perform live with 10 “colour guard” teams—perfectly synchronized students in pep-rally choreography—in this one-of-a-kind, kaleidoscopic event.

"De Palma"
D: Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow | USA | 2015 | 107 min | Canadian Premiere
From "Carrie" to "Mission: Impossible" to "Scarface" and beyond, Brian de Palma has created some of cinema’s most iconic work. In this career-spanning, funny and candid conversation, he reveals his unique perspective on life, work and the past 50 years in film.

"Gleason"
D: Clay Tweel | USA | 2016 | 110 min | International Premiere
At age 34, former NFL defensive back and New Orleans hero Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS. With limited time left to live, he purposefully records his spirited and inspiring life—a heartfelt time capsule for his newborn son.

"Hip Hop Evolution"
D: Darby Wheeler | Co-D: Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn | Canada | 2016 | 90 min | World Premiere
Acclaimed Canadian rapper Shad travels to the Bronx and Harlem to talk with hip-hop’s originators and biggest stars—Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash among others—tracing its evolution from underground to global phenomenon.

"The Last Laugh"
D: Ferne Pearlstein | USA | 2016 | 85 min | International Premiere
Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Carl Reiner, a 90-year-old Auschwitz survivor and others uproariously debate and test the limits of comedy’s ultimate taboo: how to joke about the Holocaust, or if it’s even ethical to try.

"The Legacy of Frida Kahlo"
D: Tadasuke Kotani | Japan | 2015 | 89 min | Canadian Premiere
A renowned Japanese photographer inventories iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe and personal belongings, recently discovered 58 years after her death, lending deserved importance to fashion and “women’s work,” while resurrecting the dead through clothing and talismans.

"Life, Animated"
D: Roger Ross Williams | USA | 2015 | 91 min | International Premiere
Disney cartoons play a key role in helping a young autistic boy communicate and understand the world around him in this moving testament to coming-of-age through fantasy, from Academy Award–winning director Roger Ross Williams.

"Sonita"
D: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami | Iran, Germany, Switzerland | 2015 | 90 min | Canadian Premiere
After her family attempts to sell her into marriage, a young Afghan refugee in Iran channels her frustrations and seizes her destiny through music. Grabbing the mic, she spits fiery rhymes in the face of oppressive traditions.

"Sour Grapes"
D: Jerry Rothwell, Reuben Atlas | USA, UK, France | 2016 | 86 min | World Premiere
Controversy erupts when an unassuming young man floods the American wine market with fake vintages valued in the millions, bamboozling the wine world elite, in this humorous and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con on the eve of the 2008 stock market crash.

"Trapped"
D: Dawn Porter | USA | 2016 | 80 min | International Premiere
American women’s right to abortion is no longer clear, as 288 dubious laws slyly crafted by the right have decimated access. While a watershed Supreme Court battle looms, witness the human stakes of the right to choose.

"Under the Gun"
D: Stephanie Soechtig | USA | 2016 | 110 min | International Premiere
With razor-sharp arguments and insight, Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric (the team behind "Fed Up") craft a gripping indictment of American gun culture, meeting communities shattered by shootings and exposing the politics that allow the epidemic of violence to persist.

Watch: Exclusive Trailer for 'Thank You for Playing' Will Unexpectedly Move You

Jake Spencer — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 17:41:05 GMT

READ MORE: Here's What Happens When Great Indie Horror Directors Make a Video Game

David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall's new documentary "Thank You for Playing" takes audiences inside the world of video games in a brand new, and totally unexpected, way.

The film's official synopsis reads: "When Ryan Green, a video game programmer, learns that his young son Joel has cancer, he and his wife begin documenting their emotional journey in the form of an unusually beautiful and poetic video game. 'Thank You for Playing' follows Ryan and his family over two years through the creation of 'That Dragon, Cancer' as it evolves from a cathartic exercise into a critically acclaimed work of art that sets the gaming industry abuzz. Lauded as 'unimaginably intimate' by The New Yorker and 'profoundly moving by Indiewire, 'Thank You for Playing' is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the ability of art and technology to document profound experiences in the modern age."

The game is "That Dragon, Cancer," which was eventually released in January of this year. As the Numinous team describes it: "'That Dragon, Cancer' is a video-game developer's love letter to his son; an immersive adventure game to inspire love for others; a memorial for hundreds who have fought cancer. It is a poetic and playful interactive retelling of Joel Green’s 4-year fight against cancer, and an autobiographical memoir of how parents Ryan and Amy embrace hope in the face of death."

The film is directed, produced and edited by Osit and Zouhali-Worrall and features original material from "That Dragon, Cancer," which is animated by Ryan Green, Ryan Cousins and Josh Larson.

The film will be released in select theaters beginning March 18. Check out our exclusive trailer above.

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Watch: Discover One-Of-A-Kind Music From Around the World in 'Hot Sugar's Cold World' Trailer

Sonya Saepoff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:35:51 GMT

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Take a journey with director Adam Bhala Lough and Hot Sugar as they discover new kinds of sounds from random objects all over the world. The inspiration behind this film was in creating new kinds of sounds to use in modern music. From the trailer, this documentary looks like a fun adventure of musical proportions. The film is executive produced by David Gordon Green, Danny McBride and Jody Hill.

The official synopsis reads: "'Hot Sugar’s Cold World' is a fly-on-the-wall look into the life of a modern-day Mozart, Nick Koenig (Hot Sugar), as he creates one-of-a-kind music made entirely out of sounds from the world around him. Nick lives every young musician’s dream, but when his internet-famous girlfriend goes on tour and they split, he flies to Paris where he grew up to move on with his life, while hunting for increasingly unique and exotic sounds to sample and turn into beats."

The doc includes appearances by former members of Das Racist, legendary filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Martin Starr.

The film will be released on November 6 in theaters and iTunes with special live performances to follow across the U.S. and Canada.

READ MORE: The 12 Breakouts of the 2015 SXSW Film Festival

Watch: Horse Freaks Out in Exclusive Clip From Award-Winning Documentary 'Unbranded'

Sonya Saepoff — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 15:12:01 GMT

READ MORE: Gravitas Ventures Acquires Award-Winning Adventure Doc 'Unbranded'

Starting as a Kickstarter campaign, "Unbranded" has become an award-winning documentary and is set to be released in theaters and On Demand this weekend. The film took home the Audience Awards at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival -- where it had its world premiere -- and the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival this year. The movie was directed by Phillip Baribeau ("Mountain Men"), who also served as co-cinematographer with Korey Kaczmarek ("American River Renegades").

The official film synopsis reads: "Sixteen mustangs, four men, one dream: to ride border to border, Mexico to Canada, up the spine of the American West. The documentary...tracks four fresh-out-of-college buddies as they take on wild mustangs to be their trusted mounts, and set out on the adventure of a lifetime. Their wildness of spirit, in both man and horse, is quickly dwarfed by the wilderness they must navigate: a 3000-mile gauntlet through five states that is equally indescribable and unforgiving. In this story of rugged independence, [the film] reveals the true interdependence of man, animal and nature."

Gravitas Ventures will release the award-winning documentary feature in theaters nationwide and on VOD tomorrow, September 25. Watch the exclusive clip above and prepare to sympathize for the horses.

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Hot Docs Hires Former TIFF Member Shane Smith as Director of Programming

Kaeli Van Cott — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 15:21:43 GMT

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Hot Docs has announced that Shane Smith will be the organization's new director of programming, starting on October 5.

"Shane has built a well-earned reputation as a champion of original and visionary filmmakers, and his innovative programming reflects his own passion to inspire, inform and entertain filmgoers," said executive director Brett Hendrie. "His outstanding eye for great docs will help ensure that Hot Docs continues to bring the most outspoken and outstanding films to the festival every year. I can’t wait for our audiences to meet him."

Smith previously worked at the Toronto International Film Festival as the director of special projects, where he oversaw initiatives and events like the TIFF Bell Lightbox, TIFF in the Park, Nuit Blanche, the digiPlaySpace traveling exhibition and Short Cuts programming for TIFF. Beforehand, he was the director of public programs at TIFF.

As director of programming at Hot Docs, Smith will head a programming team that includes senior Canadian programmer Lynne Fernie and a full staff of programmers specializing in Canadian and international films. He will develop the programming vision for the festival, contribute to the long-term planning of the organization and work with other departments to create new initiatives.

Current programming manager Sarafina DiFelice will move to the newly created position of associate director of programming. In this new position, she will take on new strategic assignments to build Hot Doc's brand, outreach and reputation.

READ MORE: How Hot Docs Helps Underappreciated Documentaries Find Life

Gravitas Ventures Acquires Award-Winning Adventure Doc 'Unbranded'

David Canfield — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 17:53:46 GMT

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Gravitas Ventures has snagged distribution rights for "Unbranded," Phillip Baribeau's award-winning documentary centered on a group's grueling 3,000-mile trek across five states.

The film's official synopsis reads: "'Unbranded' follows the story of Ben Masters, Thomas Glover, Jonny Fitzsimons and Ben Thamer as they travel through the deepest backcountry from Mexico through the American West up to Canada, with 16 Mustangs chosen and trained for this purpose. The ride took five and a half months through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, in famously challenging and beautiful country such as Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park."

A crowdfunding success story, the film raised $171,000 on Kickstarter from over 1,000 backers and later inspired the adoption of 50,000 wild horses living in holding pens throughout the American West.

"We are thrilled to be working with the very innovative Gravitas Ventures team!" said Cindy Meehl, Executive Producer. "Their excitement over this film is exactly what we were looking for to help us deliver it to the U.S market. We have a fanatic and devoted fan base that has followed the 3000 mile ride through the press and can't wait to see it on film! The 'Unbranded' team looks forward to our partnership with Gravitas Ventures as we watch this film and its beautiful message grow."

"'Unbranded' is breathtaking in both scope of what’s been accomplished by these four young men and in how incredible the settings are throughout. We know audiences of varied backgrounds -- from families to animal lovers to just documentary and film fans -- are going to enjoy this remarkable adventure," said Nolan Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Gravitas Ventures.

Gravitas will release the film theatrically and On Demand on September 25.

READ MORE: Gravitas Ventures Acquires SXSW Winner 'Peace Officer'

Hot Docs Director of Programming Charlotte Cook Set to Depart

Shipra Harbola Gupta — Wed, 27 May 2015 15:48:38 GMT

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Cook is leaving "to pursue to pursue a new, to-be-announced career opportunity at the intersection of documentary film production and curation," according to an announcement issued by the festival.

Cook's successor has yet to be named and although she will be leaving the post at the end of this month, she will continue to assist with the transition throughout the rest of the summer. Over at Medium, Cook writes about her time at Hot Docs.

The official announcement from Hot Docs also included the following statement of gratitude from the festival: "Hot Docs thanks Charlotte for her incredible work, which has raised the caliber and reputation of the Festival's programming slate. Her focus on smart films for engaged audiences has resonated and proven that big ideas and documentary subjects can become stars of a festival. We wish her all the best."

READ MORE: 8 Great Documentary Discoveries from Hot Docs 2015

Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 5 Strategies for Working with Archival Footage

Eric Hynes — Thu, 07 May 2015 14:39:58 GMT

READ MORE: 8 Great Documentary Discoveries from Hot Docs 2015

In recent years, it seems that every aspect of nonfiction filmmaking is ripe for innovation and experimentation, including the use of archival footage. Alongside new strategies for shooting, structuring, narrating, interviewing, dramatizing and advocating, there have been myriad ways of employing archival footage. From films comprised entirely of archival footage or audio ("Senna," "Listen to Me Marlon"), to archival footage being held in reserve for a crucial and emotional reveal ("Waltz With Bashir"), to turning over the box and constructing a narrative out of the treasures in the pile ("Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck"), there seems to be no end to the ways in which documentarians can marshal archival material to support, amplify, shape and define their art.

At this year's Hot Docs Film Festival, three directors spoke with veteran filmmaker Manfred Becker about how they approached and incorporated archival material in their festival films. Jessica Edwards talked about her film "Mavis!," which brings the story of soul singer Mavis Staples to rollicking life; Douglas Tirola recounted the challenges of exhuming the ecstatically bawdy remains of America's most notorious and influential comedy magazine with "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of National Lampoon"; and archival documentary veteran Michèle Hozer described how "Sugar Coated," a penetrating examination of today's culture and business of sugar, sent her to back to the archives to discover uncanny patterns of discourse.

READ MORE: How 'Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead' Director Pulled off a Documentary About The National Lampoon

Before the discussion started, Becker offered a working definition for archival elements of nonfiction filmmaking -- noting how the process can be both exciting and perilous. "The use of archival in documentary film is the re-appropriation of previously recorded documents, images and sounds from the historical world," he said, "which comes with all kinds of beautiful possibilities, creatively, but it also has to do with responsibility and is fraught with dangers." Distilled from the discussion that followed, these five strategies for working with archival footage encompass both creative possibilities as well as ethical and legal quandaries.

Focus on archival material that illustrates your subject in a unique way.

"I wanted to try and have "[Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead]" exist as more of a scripted movie, where you feel like you’re really back in that time. The idea was to put it together in a way where it didn’t feel like you were cutting so drastically between 2014 and the past," said Tirola. "For instance, when somebody says, 'we came to New York in the early '70s,' but you don't have footage of them in the early '70s, and you don't want to use one of the few pictures you have [in that spot]—many documentaries will go to an archive house and get some random footage of New York in the '70s."

Tirola, however, decided to take a more creative approach to the dilemna. "We decided because the movie is based for a large part on this magazine, The National Lampoon, that we would pretend those archive houses did not exist, and every image in the movie that isn't either an interview or footage that we found of the actual characters or photos, was going to be from the magazine," he said, giving an example of a scene where one of the founders freaks out and goes to Martha's Vineyard, takes a lot of acid and puts mud on his face. "We looked to see if there was anything of a beach that anybody drew or made a photograph of. And then we manipulated the [original magazine] artwork to tell the story. That was the idea all the way through—to use the magazine to get you back into the era. You get more of what their point of view of the world is, which is off kilter," he explained.

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Position archival material within the present tense of the film.

"I think it's very easy, especially if you're making a music film and if it's about one person, to fall into [making] this historical document," said Edwards. "But the reason I was attracted to Mavis to begin with was her vitality now. I wanted to tell her history but I didn't want it to appear historical."

One challenge was how to present Mavis in connection to the civil rights movement of the 1960s without making it feel stale. Mavis "influenced and was influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King, and so we were talking about how to position Mavis in that history. Every time we started to use that black and white footage of the Selma March and things like that, it started to feel like a historical document as opposed to a contemporary piece of the movement," said Edwards. "For Mavis the movement didn’t end in the '60s, it's still going on."

Edwards said she "made a conscious decision that anything having to do with archival in the film is really included in her [place in the present]." So when the film was telling an MLK story, Edwards said, they would film at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama where Mavis and her family first met MLK. Edwards explained, "we shot contemporary footage of the church and used that as she was telling the story. So to me it's really about keeping her in the now, which was a challenge the whole way through. In documentaries there are cues that archival gives you, and in this context it becomes a time machine. But what ended up happening because we didn't use this strategy is that we had to be careful about our timeline. We had to position people properly within her history."

Use archival footage to create a parallel between the past and present.

"Here I was with 'Sugar Coated' —a contemporary subject—but archival footage found me again," joked Hozer before explaining the premise of the documentary. "When we started to research we found old footage that talked about the exact same issue. We found vintage films that could have been made today," said Hozer. "The old adage that history is repeating itself came to mind. As a filmmaker you want to be part of the debate, but you also want to show patterns of human behavior and in society. I thought the best way is to show the old debate and the new debate. Until we understand where we've been we don’t know how to solve the problem today."

READ MORE: 5 Key Takeaways from the Documentary Preservation Summit

Set aside more money and time for archival work than you think you’ll need. And get a good lawyer.

"The thing with archival footage is once you start working with it it's extremely labor-intensive," said Hozer. "It's not like verité footage where you can let a shot run on for 10 or 20 seconds. Sometimes with archival footage it's every two or three seconds that you're cutting to something new." Also, the budget can easily get out-of-control. "With archival footage you never know what your budget is. You state a number and your producers will tell you 'no way, you'll never spend that much,' and by the time production is over you’ve spent twice as much," said Hozer. She explained how costs escalate. "For one really important clip they might want thousands of dollars and you just have to pay—it just works too well in the film [to not pay for it]. So it’s very unpredictable."

Then there are the legal concerns. "Not only are you working with this footage, but you're working with lawyers to deal with footage in terms of making sure that you're not discrediting anyone," said Hozer. "We finished the movie in January and we spent two months with the lawyers, going back and forth. It was as if we were defending a thesis. Everything had to be footnoted, all the archival footage had to be dissected, how we were using it, do we have the proper rights? It was an arduous process."

Tirola had to deal with legal issues on "Drunk Stoned Dead" as well. He explained, "We had a clip of John Belushi when he was with National Lampoon doing an Off-Broadway show called 'Lemmings,' and in the middle of the song they had written, he does a parody of Joe Cocker, and sings about one verse of 'Get By With a Little Help with My Friends,' which the Beatles wrote. Not easy to deal with at all. But we were told by our attorney that we could use it because it was part of [the Lemmings performance]. Then when we tried to have a little bit of the song go under some commentary, the lawyers were like, 'no, you have to re-edit it—you can't use that music as just background music. It has to be its own piece."

"They love to edit the film for you. If you get a lawyer who's a big proponent of fair use, they'll act as your advocate. It's not that you're using it without permission, it's that you're using it in a way that you don’t have to pay for it," said Edwards.

But fair use isn't a panacea either. "Don't ever think of fair use as a 'get out of jail' card. You could get in trouble," cautioned Becker. "I've known people who've made films that are brilliant, and used a clip that wasn’t quite cleared or halfway cleared, and then suddenly festivals want it and yet they couldn’t distribute it because it wasn't cleared. Better to connect your dots in the first place."

Utilize YouTube and other direct-access online sources for both research and sourcing, but be aware that it's not as easy at it seems.

"We used YouTube a lot as a research tool. The first way was to see what was out there. The second was to see what was out there so that I could try to avoid using it," said Edwards. "Because the dirty secret about archive now as opposed to fifteen years ago is that the access you have to the history of whoever and whatever is so much more vast. So for me I was a bit obsessed with finding things that nobody had ever seen before, or using things that were a surprise to people, especially to fans of Mavis." Edwards cautioned the audience, "Just because you found it on YouTube doesn’t mean you have the right to use it."

Hozer said she also relied on YouTube for material "because part of the sugar debate gets fought on YouTube. One of our characters is considered to have re-launched the sugar debate within the last four years because he put onto YouTube a dry, 90-minute talk on sugar that went viral. Yes it's a great research tool—it helps you find a lot of material. But official researchers hate the fact that you use it, because you say go find the original or find me the rights, and they go 'yeah right.'" Tracking down those rights can be very difficult, she said.

"Today's visual researchers are a bit like travel agents, because now everything is available online," said Hozer, who added that she prefers to do her own research. "I know what images I’m looking for. I often do this at night, going to Getty Images or the CBS library, all these archival sites. As a filmmaker it’s like watching rushes—it's always there." Even if you employ visual researchers early on in the process, Hozer said, "what you end up doing is 'hey, I found all these clips that are now in the film—find me the rights.' Or you give your visual researcher really tough pieces to find, pieces that take way more work. I don't think it's a dying craft, but because there's much more online visual researchers can be used in a different way."

READ MORE: Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 4 Things to Understand About Fair Use

Frederick Wiseman on How to Stay in the Business of Making Movies for 50 Years

Eric Hynes — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:27:52 GMT

At this year's Hot Docs Film Festival, North America's biggest annual documentary survey and industry powwow, something remarkable and strange transpired. Frederick Wiseman, arguably the world's greatest living documentary filmmaker, made a public appeal for financing for his next film, "In Jackson Heights." It was something he'd never done before in his near-50-year career. As 19 other filmmaking teams—most of whom were half to 75% of his age— would do at the Hot Docs Forum (read Anthony Kaufman's coverage here), the 85 year-old legend faced a 25-strong table of international broadcasters, funders and programmers, and delivered an elevator pitch. Why, you might ask, would Wiseman put himself out there in that way?

"I'm playing the game to do what's necessary to attract the people who have money," Wiseman simply and pragmatically told moderator Piya Chattopadhyay the night prior, seated alongside longtime collaborator Karen Konicek, who heads up Wiseman's production-distribution company Zipporah Films, and serves as executive producer on all his projects. During an hour-long discussion at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theater complex, the director and his producer revealed how they've been able to complete over 40 films since 1967 (Konicek came on board in 1982), and how they've been able to reliably disseminate them without compromising his vision for what, how (and especially how long) the films need to be. Here are seven invaluable pointers—encompassing both process and philosophy—from the indefatigable master of American documentary film.

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Know and embrace your strengths, and get help in areas of weakness.

Konicek: What I think is true in any kind of working relationship is that you come to it with different strengths. Fred makes the films, and I love the business side of it—the organizing and distribution side. Fred doesn't have to bother with that, and can keep on going with his projects. Or he'll step into it [when he wants]. The key [for filmmakers] is to find someone who can do things that you don't want to do or aren't really good at.

Wiseman: It makes it extremely easy for me that Karen is so well organized and does all that.

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Ask for access, and be honest about your intentions.

Wiseman: Permission [from subjects and institutions] is relatively easy to get. My great secret is that I ask. There are very few things that I wanted to do that I haven't been able to get permission for. I try to find somebody that knows me and who knows the person from whom I'm requesting permission. So the person I find then calls up, say, the head of the board of education in Philadelphia and says, "Wiseman wants to make a film." The fact that I'm vouched for by somebody that the superintendant of schools in Philadelphia knew made it easier for me to get access. That hasn't always been the case, but I would say that half the time what I just described is what occurs.

I wasn't kidding when I say that what I do is ask. It's just that there are different ways of asking. I always try to be extremely straightforward. No bullshit. I explain what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, where the film's going to be shown. That it's a small crew—no lights, no interviews, no additional music. That we'll take four to 12 weeks to shoot, and a year to edit. I make all that very clear. I make it clear that I have editorial control. And if someone says "yes" in a meeting, I then write them a letter summarizing the meeting and ask them to send me back a signed copy of that letter. Which in fact is a contract, even though it's not written in legal language.

I try to anticipate every problem in advance. For example, the editorial control problem. Nobody can say to me when I've finished editing the film and show it to the people who gave me permission, "oh, we don't like that scene." If they don't accept the idea from the beginning that I have complete control over it, then I don't do [the film]. It's extremely important to be direct, honest and straightforward from the beginning. Because other people's bullshit meters are just as good as you think yours is. If they think they're being conned, then they won't let you make the movie.

Be prepared, and address all contingencies beforehand.

Konicek: Once Fred says I want to shoot, and these are my dates, we put together what we call the Production Bible, in which everything is laid out for wherever Fred's going. I love this because it's a whole brainstorming challenge: where is the closest Whole Foods? Where's Fedex? How late is Fedex open? We put all this together so that when Fred goes on the shoot, hopefully he will want for nothing. And if he does, it's a phone call and the account is set up and we are good to go. It's setting up all of your insurance, making sure all of that is clear, and your car rental and your parking spot, so that when Fred is there, night or day, he should be able to go to this or that tab and find what he wants.

Know your budget, and pursue numerous avenues of financing no matter how much you hate to ask for money.

Konicek: We do all the outreach we can, work on the proposals together, and come up with a budget. We often go back to our previous budget and work from that as a starting point. A lot of it depends on where the shoot is. If the shoot is in Austin, Texas, the living situation is very different and the budget reflects that.

Wiseman: When I first started out, the average budget was about $75,000 and now it's about half a million—for the same work. Since 1966 there's been a bit of inflation. If the films have changed at all I like to think it's a consequence of the fact that I've learned something over the years. Mainly by trying not to repeat the mistakes I've previously made. But that has nothing to do with the market.

Konicek: We've been very fortunate to be supported by PBS and a handful of other foundations over the years—Ford, ITVS, the LEFF Foundation, Pershing Square. But we have troubles getting funds—that's why we're here. It's not easy. I don't know that there's any magic to success with that.

Wiseman: You just have to keep at it. The moment you think you're entitled to the money and that you shouldn't have to slog to get it, is the moment when you should quit. It's gotten harder because there's less money available. The budget for the National Endowment for the Arts in America hasn't changed in about 25 years. Meanwhile the population has gone up and the new equipment means that there are more people asking for money. The PBS programming fund budget has been around $250 million forever, and that's not much considering all the people that want to make movies. So it is harder. People who might have given you $150,000 will now offer $35,000 because their budget is slashed or they want to spread it out more. [Asking for money] is the worst and most demeaning part of it. But obviously it's absolutely necessary. You do it because you want to make the movies. It's part of the biz, but it's the least attractive part of the biz. The fact that I've succeeded in getting the money doesn't mean that I like doing it.

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Be creative and resourceful on the business side of things.

Konicek: We've been talking about a Kickstarter campaign, and wondering if that's something we might want to do. But that takes a lot of time and we're a very small group of people. We have two support staff at the office—a full time office manager and a part time project assistant. And then it's us. So there's a time factor. What I really love is when, for example, I just worked with Film Podium in Zurich, who put on a retrospective of 9 or 10 of Fred's films, and then he spoke and did a Master Class there. That helps us because it brings in some rental revenue and then Fred speaks, and all of that generates interest in his films, and in people coming to our website and buying the DVDs, which we sell out of our office. We just do it by hand, every step.

Wiseman: I can make more money talking about movies than making them. But unfortunately I have to make them in order to get invited to talk about them.

Take charge of your own distribution.

Wiseman: I gave my first two films, "Titicut Follies" and "High School," to a distributor who made a lot of money on them both but I didn't see anything. I figured I'm not going to lose 100% margin of error, so I started my own company, Zipporah Films, to distribute my films. And it's worked out, particularly since Karen arrived.

Konicek: Our usual distribution model is that before Fred actually finishes a film, when he gets to the fine cut stage, we start speaking to film festivals to let them know about the film. With that we also start talking to theaters. We work with a very wonderful theater rep in New York, Michael Tuckman, who helps us launch the film theatrically. We set up our PBS broadcast and we work on our DVD release. That's our usual path for distribution. And now we're talking now about streaming Fred's films from our website. We have a very good DVD business, but again, we're a small business with only so much time in our day. We came a little late to the DVD business—we released Fred's films on DVD in 2007. That's been really great for us, but truly we package them from our office, we invoice people, we do it all by hand. We like that model, so we're stepping into streaming with the idea that it would be a similar thing. Fred and I both like the engagement with the people that use his films. It keeps us involved.

Stay passionate.

Wiseman: I'm in the phase now where I'm a couple of months away from finishing "In Jackson Heights." In order to avoid severe postpartum depression, I have to start thinking about another project. It's really whatever interests me at the time. I have to be really interested in order to spend a year of very intensive work on it. I can't have a half-assed interest—I have to feel passionately about it. Whether I'm deceiving myself or not is another matter. But as long as I'm successful at deceiving myself it'll work.

Konicek: Fred has the ideas, and then I have the adventure of learning. I've worked with Fred on 27 or so films over 34 years, and what's been so great for me is that it's always a different challenge, a different topic, and it's an adventure from the production all the way through distribution.

Wiseman: I enjoy the filmmaking part of it. It's completely absorbing. You roll the dice that you think if you hang around a place long enough that you'll get enough material out of which you can cut a film. And if you're lucky enough, sometimes you stumble across absolutely spectacular situations that you're not responsible for creating or imagining, but you are responsible for recognizing and figuring out how to use it. Then in the last stages of editing I'll work seven days a week for three or four months, and I don't really get tired. It's fascinating to see the film emerge from the chaos of the rushes. That's really why I do it. Because it's fun.

READ MORE: How Hot Docs Helps Underappreciated Documentaries Find Life

The Top 8 Pitches at the Hot Docs Forum: What Worked and What Didn't

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 01 May 2015 20:23:09 GMT

No one was handing over big checks of money at the Hot Docs Forum, the Canadian documentary festival's international co-financing market event. But along with IDFA's pitching sessions in Amsterdam in the fall, there may be no higher profile place in the world to pitch a nonfiction project. With 69 buyers from some of the world's most esteemed broadcasters and documentary backers—from PBS to CNN, Arte to ZDF, the BBC to the CBC—one industry attendee dubbed it "the world series" of nonfiction pitches.

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For two days, The Forum takes place inside the hothouse Hart House room, where some 200-industry onlookers sit on wooden bleachers surrounding a central table, where nerve-rattled pitchers have approximately seven minutes to hawk their projects. Twenty doc films had their precious chance in the spotlight. Prodded, questioned, encouraged and cajoled by the veteran broadcasters sitting around the table, many doc producers emerged triumphant, with promises of meetings and potential investment, while others were left scraping their wounded egos off the wooden floor.

By all accounts, the second day's pitches were stronger than the first.

One of the most formidable pitches was also in need of the most financing. "The Jazz Ambassadors," directed by Hugo Berkeley ("A Normal Life") and already partnered with Channel THIRTEEN in New York, was seeking over $1.6 million to complete its ambitious project. The film tells the story of the American government's efforts to win the Cold War by dispatching jazz legends like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzie Gillespie on a worldwide music tour in order to dispel negative propaganda about the blight of U.S. racism. The pitch's strongly edited excerpt of archival footage clearly laid out the film's lucid argument and central conflict: the struggle of these musicians between patriotism and outrage. Companies including Arte in France, NHK in Japan and PBS in the U.S. all showed enthusiasm for the project.
Two of the most successful pitches also came as surprises to the attendees. Though the projects' written treatments didn't catch the attention of broadcasters, their spoken pitches and accompanying visual material ended up swaying the backers.

One of these was MC2 Communication Media's "Living with Giants," winner of this year's Shaw Media $10,000 Pitch Prize for a Canadian project. The film enters the world of Paulusie Kasudluak, a young Inuk facing new responsibilities and transitions into adulthood that prove overwhelming. The filmmaking team brought an extraordinarily beautiful trailer, which combined intimate footage of the young man and his family with imaginative imagery associated with the mythic dimensions of his Inuit heritage. Broadcasters, like Chris White, newly installed chief of POV, appreciated the project's intimacy, while others hailed the scale and beauty of the imagery. Even the table's perennially most outspoken critic, BBC Films Storyville's Nick Fraser found the trailer to be "moving and beautiful," though he challenged the filmmakers to come up with a better, more reflective title.

When one of the teams' filmmakers tried to justify the title, another stepped in, saying he'd be happy to find a new name for the project. One of the unspoken rules of Hot Doc Forum, it seems, is to graciously accept the advice of the experts.

Another surprise came with the pitch of "When Good Sleeps" (working title), a U.S.-German production about a controversial Iranian musician who escaped his native country, after receiving a fatwa against him, and who now lives and performs, under constant threat, in Germany. With seed financing from the Catapult Film Fund and backing from German broadcaster WDR, the project looked on the page like another vague story of an activist musician.

But with the pitch, which clearly outlined the film's three-act structure, and the accompanying footage—which revealed a compelling character, the high stakes of his situation and an intriguing Romeo & Juliet story—the decision-makers became convinced. Chris White said the pitch "hit all the right notes for POV," while Fraser called the pitch "fantastic," with only one reservation: the filmmaker's decision to use animation, which seemed to undermine the strength of their characters and their verite footage.
Other warmly received pitches, singled out for their lighter, refreshingly humorous approaches, included Vaishali Sinha's and Mridu Candra's "Ask the Sexpert," which follows a longtime Indian sex-advice columnist against a backdrop of the country's ban on comprehensive sex education in schools; Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday's "Big Sonia," (a former Indiewire Project of the Month) about the filmmaker's grandmother, a Kansas City-based Holocaust survivor; "Post-Punk Disorder," a hilarious Finnish sequel to "The Punk Syndrome," about a group of mentally disabled punk rockers; and a surprise randomly selected "Mountie Hat" pitch from the crowd of participants, "Searching for the Mercury 13," about a secret 1950s U.S. program focused on training female astronauts.

Few filmmakers could humble the distinguished industry professionals offering criticism and support, but when documentary veteran Frederick Wiseman showed up in the hot seat with his latest project, "In Jackson Heights," the tables seemed to be turned. The third in a trilogy of films about communities—after "Belfast, Maine," and "Aspen"—"In Jackson Heights" provides a mosaic of the rich diversity of the area—the trailer shows an array of different peoples (Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, East Asians, transgendered people, etc.). When Danish broadcasting doc chief Mette Hoffman Meyer suggested Wiseman consider making a shorter version than his usual 3-hour standard in order to play in primetime slots, Wiseman shot her down, suggesting that his complicated subjects demand a long running time. The audience cheered, extra delighted by the fact that a filmmaker had finally been able to stand their ground.

Certainly, many of the other pitches didn't turn out that way. Projects such as South Africa's "The New Missionaries," U.S.'s "Selling our Daughters," Poland's "Reporter," Quebec's "Thief's Bazaar" may have to go back to the drawing board.

If there was any consistent concern among the industry experts regarding the pitches, it was the fleshing out and definition of the project's central characters. Those projects with compelling and clearly defined characters, and the filmmakers' ability to articulate a clear point of view on their principle subject, rose to the top. Perhaps at such early stages in the process, when narrative arc can remain ill defined, it was a memorable protagonist that won over the most cynical of broadcasters.

Ultimately, documentarians must recognize that nonfiction filmmaking can be a long and complicated process. For ITVS/Independent Lens executive Noland Walker, the Forum provides "a good opportunity" to explore that process, "to drill down with questions about a project and challenge the filmmakers," he said, "just as it's often good to challenge a subject."

READ MORE: Making a Living at Documentary Filmmaking is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why

Attention, Filmmakers: 6 Tips on Making Your First Documentary Feature

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 01 May 2015 14:25:00 GMT

When you're a first-time documentary filmmaker (or even an established one), there's always one key hurdle to surmount: funding. As Maya Newell, the Australian director of "Gayby Baby," told a crowd of budding documentarians at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival this week, "No one knows who you are, so they don't want to give you money."

But that didn't stop Newell, or the other first-timer directors who spoke on the Bell Media Kickstart panel "My First Doc," Canadians Suzanne Crocker ("All the Time in the World") and Amber Fares ("Speed Sisters"), all of whom shared advice on how to get funding and make your film in the right way.

READ MORE: Making a Living at Documentary Filmmaking is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why

Here are six tips from these trailblazing nonfiction filmmakers:

1. Crowdfund.

For both Newell and Fares, crowdfunding campaigns provided an initial boost to get their projects moving forward. Newell and her team spent three months planning out their campaign, contacting partners and organizations to help with outreach to target their audience. (The film provides a kids' eye view of what it's like to be a child of gay parents.) One of their most successful stunts came with the help of traditional media: Newell placed herself inside the audience of a current affairs TV program, which was addressing the film's central issue. When she got called on to ask a question, she flashed her T-shirt with the URL for the film's fundraising website. "We made $25,000 in an hour," she said. At the end of their campaign, the project raised $100,000 from over 1,500 people. "Eventually, the Australian film funding bodies came in," said Newell, "as they saw we must be doing something right." But after it all, Newell admits she felt a little dirty. "I lost all my pride," she said. "It's not dignified to ask for money."

2. Build constituencies and get media coverage.

As part of her early campaign, Fares targeted what she calls "all the different verticals" that could be interested in her film "Speed Sisters," about a team of Palestinian female racecar drivers. With the help of different car racing groups, women's rights communities and female-centered media, such as the website Jezebel, which gave the project some early press, Fares was able to tap into both a fundraising community and find early champions of the project.

3. Let the story be your guide.

Is it a feature or a short? A web project, a photo essay, or a written news article? Since the three filmmakers had never made a feature before, how did they know this was the one? "You're never ready to make a feature film," admitted Newell. "It's more about the story in front of you." Fares was filming on her own for two years before she got any official backers. "It took us a long time to even be able to say: 'This is a story,' she said. "You have to have a proof of concept."

READ MORE: How Hot Docs Helps Underappreciated Documentaries Find Life

4. Be open to change along the way.

Despite the need to have a clear vision for your project, the filmmakers also spoke about the importance of following the characters without too much rigidity. Crocker had no treatment or plan going into the making of her film. As Fares explained, "You have to have some idea of what you're shooting, but you have to be open to change and what's unfolding in front of you."

5. Bring in the experts.

Suzanne Crocker, who documents her own family's adventure living off the grid in the Canadian Yukon in "All the Time in the World," was a doctor. She never planned to make a documentary feature out of her excursion. But when she finally decided to take the plunge, it took three years to edit over 500 hours of footage. Having made a few animated short films, however, Crocker had been to events and festivals and began meeting people in the film industry. "This allowed me to meet people who knew people who connected me to people," she said. "I sent them the footage, and they said ‘yes.'" With the help of editor Michael Parfit, she was able to finish the documentary. "It was definitely important to bring in someone with a higher skill set," she admitted.

6. But trust your instincts.

When you're a newcomer, it's easy to be swayed by the advice of outsiders, executives or funders. "You can be pulled in a lot of different directions," said Crocker, who said it was important to her, for instance, to minimize the use of a more traditional expositional voiceover. While it's easy to give your project over to a producing team, Crocker said it's not just good practice creatively, but also when you pitch your project to potential buyers. Because, as Crocker explained, "Who is more passionate about your project than you? And passion is what people are looking for."

READ MORE: The Best Documentary Filmmaking Advice from Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Reality Checks: How Hot Docs Helps Underappreciated Documentaries Find Life

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 18:45:55 GMT

READ MORE: 'Raiders!' and 'Mavis!' Highlight Hot Docs 2015 Lineup

The clean and friendly Canadian city is home to two of the biggest film festivals on the planet, the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall, and Hot Docs, currently underway, which is North America's largest nonfiction festival. With 210 documentaries from 45 countries, Hot Docs has an expansive range of nonfiction cinema, and like TIFF is to narrative cinema, it's almost impossible to pigeonhole the programming.

"We're such a large festival — our audience will hit 200,000 people," Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook told Indiewire, "so we can show just about anything."

But while the scope of the festival demands an array of diverse documentaries, including a fair share of already proven pop-culture crowd-pleasers ("Tig," "Mavis!" "Raiders!" "Live from New York!") and the latest in accessible nonfiction journeys ("Unbranded"), a large majority of movies on display are challenging and formally groundbreaking documentaries that would get shorter shrift at other prominent North American festivals. For Cook, then, Hot Docs isn't just about expansiveness, but also advocacy.

"The commercial outlets can't take everything," she explained, "so our festival can elevate those films that deserve better, and help them get exposure."

Discovering the Gems

For instance, far-out films, such as Greek-born French filmmaker Evangelia Kranioti's "Exotica, Erotica, Etc.," a fever dream about an old prostitute and sailors at work, or Swiss newcomer Nicolas Steiner's "Above and Below," a visionary and otherworldly portrait of outliers in underground tunnels and spacesuits, may have flown under the radar at, respectively, Berlin and Rotterdam. But Hot Docs gives these emerging talents a platform to shine. (Of Steiner's project, a school thesis film, Cook added, "His talent is something we had to support.")

If festivals like True/False and CPH:DOX are celebrating the hybridity of current nonfiction practice, Cook sees less explicit docu-fiction blurring, and more risk-taking endeavors. "I get this real sense that documentary filmmakers are playing with cinematic form more, in general," she said. "Traditional fiction film requires more money, so it's a more constrained environment than documentaries." With docs, Cook has seen "a great freedom to experiment," she added.

Indeed, the festival’s choice to host the world premiere of British director Ross Sutherland's "Stand By For Tape Back-up" seems especially bold. A unique kind of mix-tape performance art-piece, which has shown in live versions throughout the U.K., the video feature is composed entirely of brief clips of ‘80s popular culture touchstones such as "Ghostbusters," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "Jaws" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller," recorded by the filmmaker's grandfather.

Over these deteriorating video images, which are replayed, slowed down, frozen and dissected, Sutherland speaks in voiceover—sometimes confessional, sometimes rapping—a funny and thoughtful running commentary, equal parts media re-appropriation and personal meditation on death, depression, and
grief.

Another festival highlight can be found in the world premiere of "Missing People," by David Shapiro (co-director of "Keep the River on Your Right"). The film follows Martina Batan, the director of a prominent New York art gallery, who has suffered through depression and insomnia ever since her teenage brother was killed in 1978. The unsolved murder has left her literally blocked—vividly illustrated by the large square Lego block she somnambulantly labors over in the wee hours of the night. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Lisa Rinzler and produced by doc veteran Alan Oxman, "Missing People" is a powerful and subtly touching portrait of psychological trauma and loneliness.

A Healthy Marketplace

Because Hot Docs is also the largest documentary market in North America, there is a huge presence of international buyers and programmers, looking for product. In the last few years, industry attendance has hovered around 2,400 professionals. "If you haven't sold internationally," said Cook, "this is the place to go."

"Radical Grace," for instance, which is a scrappy inspirational portrait of a group of elderly and affable feminist Catholic nuns fighting against strict Vatican orthodoxy, could get a big boost after its Hot Docs world premiere, where local press and audience buzz have the potential to drive industry attention. Producer Nicole Bernardi-Reis told Indiewire that there had been "some strong interest from a number of decision makers," and they will leave Hot Docs "with strong relationships that will definitely play a part in the launch of the film."

Promising New Directions

Real-life courtroom nail-biters are a major structuring device in several Hot Docs titles, including Andreas Koefoed's Danish entry "The Arms Drop," a compelling and emotionally satisfying conspiracy thriller, which interweaves the stories of two men caught in a web of geopolitical intrigue; one seeking justice for his unfair treatment by the British and Indian governments; the other facing extradition and, potentially, torture in India.

"The Arms Drop" is one of many films at Hot Docs that proves how cinematic the documentary form has become, with as many compelling characters and plot twists as any dramatic feature. If documentaries may have been perceived as educational or informational in the past, Hot Docs offers glaring evidence of the medium's breadth and accessibility.

As Cook recalled, "Before, there was this ingrained belief that there wasn't an audience for documentaries. But the way they are now being released on the same level as their fictional counterparts and being treated in the same way, the audience is out there."

READ MORE: 10 Special Presentations to Look Forward to at the 2015 Hot Docs Fest

Watch: Unlock the Truth Behind Teen Metal Band Doc 'Breaking a Monster'

Travis Clark — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 16:20:26 GMT

READ MORE: Meet the 2015 SXSW Filmmakers #23: Luke Meyer Follows Pre-Teen Metal Band in 'Breaking A Monster'

Indiewire's Nigel M. Smith moderated a panel at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival in March discussing the musical, coming-of-age documentary "Breaking a Monster," which chronicles the young rock band Unlocking the Truth and their journey to stardom as well as childhood obstacles. The band's 12 and 13-year-old members, Malcolm Brickhouse, Jarad Dawkins and Alec Atkins, the film's director, Luke Meyer, and producer Tom Davis spoke about the making of the film, gaining their parents' trust and what it was like following the band for a year.

Highlights from the talk are below. You can watch the entire discussion above. "Breaking a Monster" plays next at HotDocs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto.

Teens Enjoy Their Privacy

When asked what they thought of the rough cut, band member Dawkins revealed that he initially thought that some of his personal material should have been cut, in particular his relationship stories. Davis then revealed that it was Brickhouse who acted as the voice of reason for the group in this instance, saying, "We all have to commit to this thing." A band as young as they are were worried about privacy, but also had the courage to go through with what they knew was right for the film. "Now that I see it, I think that it's a great part of the movie," said Dawkins.

Age Wasn't the Only Challenge

The band recounted a moment in the film when a video blogger made offensive accusations towards the group, including that Sony only picked them up based on their race. "It was obvious that us being young and black and playing heavy metal was going to bring attention to us," said Brickhouse. "I wasn't oblivious to the fact that people may be interested in us for other reasons besides our talent." The band had to overcome stereotypes as they grew to stardom, such as being mistaken for a hip-hop band rather than heavy metal. "It's gonna happen everywhere," said Dawkins.

Could This Be the "Boyhood" of Documentaries?

The filmmakers may want to document the band's ongoing journey. "It's something we're talking about," said Davis. "It's something, with the right partner in place, it has crossed our mind." The band would also be open to it. "I'm always writing, I'm always motivated, I'm always open to new ideas," said Dawkins. "Anything that helps me and helps other people."

READ MORE: SXSW: 7 Must-See Music Documentaries At This Year's Festival

'Raiders!' and 'Mavis!' Highlight Hot Docs 2015 Lineup

David Canfield — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 16:09:21 GMT

READ MORE: Watch: A Civil Rights Icon and Music Legend Gets the Documentary Treatment in 'Mavis!' Trailer

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the largest festival for documentaries in North America, has unveiled its 2015 lineup.

Featuring 210 documentaries from around the world, this year's slate boasts impressive variety. "This year’s festival takes us around the world, showcasing stories from 45 different countries and the best in Canadian filmmaking," said Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook. "Through even more live and interactive experiences we have more ways than ever for the audience to be a part of the festival. Bringing this exceptional work to Toronto is a huge honor and we can’t wait to join the filmmakers in sharing their work with our incredible audience."

As a part of the Scotiabank Big Ideas Series, special guests will include comedian Tig Notaro, Major League Baseball player Billy Bean (subject of "Out to Win") and more. Read on for highlights of the festival program below, separate by section.
Special Presentations

"Tig," directed by Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York. A testament to comedian Tig Notaro’s defiant spirit and incredible humour in the face of adversity (Opening Night selection).

"The Arms Drop," directed by Andreas Koefoed. Follows a British arms dealer's hunt for the MI5 agent who betrayed him.

"The Bolivian Case," directed by Violeta Ayala. A sensational exposé about three teenage girls caught smuggling cocaine.

"Mavis!," directed by Jessica Edwards. A powerful film rich with songs and stories from music legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples.

"Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle," directed by Nick Berardini. An investigative look at the allegedly non-lethal TASER gun.

"War of Lies," directed by Matthias Bittner. A riveting account about the effects of misinformation about weapons of mass destruction.

"Western," directed by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross. A subtle portrait of the ever-growing divide between two towns straddling the US-Mexico border.

International Spectrum (Competitive)

"Blood Sisters," directed by Malin Andersson. The story of twin sisters bound by trauma.

"The Closer We Get," directed by Karen Guthrie. A sharply focused snapshot of strained family dynamics.

"Drawing the Tiger," directed by Amy Benson and Scott Squire. A powerful portrait of a studious daughter carrying her family's hopes for a brighter future.

"Stand By for Tape Back-Up," directed by Ross Sutherland. A poetic and humorous meditation on memory and loss.

Canadian Spectrum (Competitive)

"Haidi Gwaii: On the Edge of the World," directed by Charles Wilkinson. A look at a sustainable and healing community at risk from a proposed oil tanker route.

"Lowdown Tracks," directed by Shelly Saywell. Tells the stories of five transient musicians on Toronto's streets.

"The Messenger," directed by Su Rynard. Highlights ever-worsening environmental devastation through the alarming disappearance of songbirds.

"No Place to Hide: The Rehtaeh Parsons Story," directed by Rama Rau. An alarming account of the effects of cyber-bullying.

"Pinocchio," directed by André-Line Beauparlant. A deeply personal portrait of the struggle to trust someone who feels no obligation to the truth.
World Showcase

"(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies," directed by Yael Melamede. A fascinating and insightful study on honesty.

"End of the World," directed by Monika Pawluczuk. A revealing look at personal struggles as the Mayan doomsday prophecy looms in the night.

"Gayby Baby," directed by Maya Newell. A moving and honest film about the lives of children of same-sex parents.

"Peace Officer," directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber. A timely investigation of the controversies behind recent police shootings and the militarization of American law enforcement.

"Southern Rites," directed by Gillian Laub. A complex look at race relations and the true pace of progress in America.

Made In India

"English India," directed by Spandan Banerjee. A look at a country coming to terms with its own identity as it shakes off the weight of its colonial past.

"A Sinner in Mecca," directed by Parvez Sharma. A fascinating personal essay on a gay Muslim's inner-most struggles.

"The Superstars of Koti," directed by Anuj Adlakha and Farha Alam. A coming-of-age tale about three boys united as "chosen ones."

Screen on Screen

"Original Copy," directed by Florian Heinzen-Ziob and Georg Heinzen. A delightful ode to Mumbai's last one-of-a-kind film poster painter.

"Raiders!," directed by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen. The story of two friends painfully remaking "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"A Woman Like Me," directed by Elizabeth Giamatti and Alex Sichel. A funny and moving documentary-drama hybrid about the filmmaker’s tumultuous journey with terminal cancer.

For the full Hot Docs 2015 lineup, visit the festival's official website here.

READ MORE: Meet the 2015 SXSW Filmmakers #1: Alex Sichel and Elizabeth Giamatti Navigate a Terminal Illness in 'A Woman Like Me'

10 Special Presentations to Look Forward to at the 2015 Hot Docs Fest

Rosie Narasaki — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 19:24:04 GMT

READ MORE: Hot Docs 2014 Winners Announced: 'Out of Mind, Out of Sight' Wins Best Canadian Feature Documentary

Get ready: It's almost time for this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. This year's Special Presentations will feature a collection of high-profile documentaries, made up of films enjoying their world and international premieres, recent award winners and works from renowned filmmakers.

The 2015 Hot Docs Festival runs from April 23-May 3. Special Presentation titles appear below, ordered alphabetically:

"Around the World in 50 Concerts"
Take the title quite literally on this one: Award-winning director Heddy Honigmann's "Around the World in 50 Concerts" follows the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (based in the Netherlands) as they perform 50 concerts on six continents in honor of their 125th birthday.

"Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime"
Co-directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris, "Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime" tells the story of Sir Harold Evans, an editor of the Sunday Times on a journalistic crusade to get redress for Thalidomide victims.

"Foodies"
Gourmands the world over are sure to love this documentary (directed by Henrik Stockare, Thomas Jackson and Charlotte Landelius) on globe-trotting foodies and the international top restaurants they review online.

"Help us Find Sunil Tripathi"
Directed by Neil Broffman, "Help us Find Sunil Tripathi" unpacks the perils of the Internet as an x-factor, as a family searching for their missing son hits a major roadblock when the theory that he may be tied to the Boston Marathon bombing goes viral.

"Indian Point"
In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, Indian Point (a nuclear power plant located only 35 miles away from the millions who reside in New York City), has become a hotbed for politicians, big business, and activists alike. "Indian Point" (directed by Ivy Ivy Meeropol) gives us an inside look.

"Mavis!"
Follow Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers through six decades of music (with appearances from Staples herself, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and more) in this new documentary from Jessica Edwards.

"Music Lessons"
"Music Lessons" (directed by Michael Mabbot) explores community-building (and confidence-building) through music students and teachers at Sistema Toronto. There's a bonus here as well -- the Sistema Toronto Yorkwoods Orchestra will be performing live after the screening.

"Planetary"
Directed by Guy Reid, "Planetary" gives us beautiful cinematography as environmentalists, scientists and philosophers discuss the fate of our planet.

"Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle"
This thought-provoking documentary (from Nick Berardini) investigates if "non-lethal" TASER guns are really as safe as some say they are.

"What Happened, Miss Simone?"
"What Happened, Miss Simone?" (a film by Liz Garbus) is a close look at the "High Priestess of Soul's" jam-packed and rich life, complete with real footage, reenactments and a lot of original audio.

Hot Docs will run from April 23rd to May 3rd, and the remainder of the Special Presentations Program (including the opening night film) will be announced on March 17th.

READ MORE: Sundance Women Directors: Meet Liz Garbus - 'What Happened, Miss Simone?'

Hot Docs Announces 17 Special Presentation Screenings

Shipra Harbola Gupta — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 17:23:00 GMT

The Canadian documentary film festival Hot Docs has released the names of 17 films that will be screening as part of the festival's Special Presentation section.

Notable selections include "Dreamcatcher," "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," "(T)ERROR," "Welcome to Leith" and "Western," all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month.

Hot Docs will announce its complete lineup of films on March 17. The festival is slated to take place April 23-May 3. Check out the list below to learn more about 17 films that will be screening as Special Presentations.

THE ARMS DROP

D: Andreas Koefoed | Denmark | 2014 | 94 min | North American Premiere
After narrowly escaping execution and surviving eight years in an Indian prison, a British arms dealer hunts down the MI5 agent who betrayed him, leading to a shocking confrontation with the Danish terrorist who started it all.

BEING CANADIAN

D: Robert Cohen | Canada, USA | 2014 | 89 min | World Premiere
Calgary hometown boy turned Hollywood comedy guru Rob Cohen (The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory) returns to Canada on an epic quest to rediscover our national identity. Meeting up with Mike Myers, Seth Rogen and even the Trailer Park Boys along the way, just imagine Sherman’s March, but wearing a toque.

THE BOLIVIAN CASE

D: Violeta Ayala | Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, USA | 2015 | 75 min | World Premiere
Three Norwegian teenaged girlfriends get caught smuggling cocaine out of Bolivia. Each is guilty, so why does only one take the fall? Cue a tabloid media storm, professional kidnappers and a behind-bars pregnancy in this sensational exposé.

THE CIRCUS DYNASTY

D: Anders Riis-Hansen | Denmark | 2014 | 75 min | Canadian Premiere
The success and longevity of two of Europe’s greatest circus families hangs in the balance as their respective heirs fall for one another—but combining love and work may be their greatest challenge yet.

DEMOCRATS

D: Camilla Nielsson | Denmark | 2014 | 109 min | Canadian Premiere
Can sworn political enemies work together for a common good? Follow Zimbabwe’s unlikely coalition government of reigning dictator Mugabe’s party and his opposition as they slyly maneuver and reluctantly negotiate to forge a new constitution.

A DIFFERENT DRUMMER: CELEBRATING ECCENTRICS

D: John Zaritsky | Canada | 2014 | 86 min | Toronto Premiere
Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky celebrates eccentrics in this light-hearted but affectionate look at non-conformists—from a Utah cave dweller who hasn’t used money in 12 years to a beloved Vancouver psychic often seen with her pet duck in a buggy.

DREAMCATCHER

D: Kim Longinotto | UK | 2015 | 98 min | Canadian Premiere
Acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto crafts a deeply moving portrait of a former teenage prostitute who fought her way off the streets to become an unstoppable force for change in the lives of Chicago’s at-risk women.

DRONE

D: Tonje Hessen Schei | Norway | 2014 | 78 min | Canadian Premiere
A penetrating investigation into the war on terror’s defining weapon—the armed drone—featuring incisive analysis from pilots, military experts and powerless bystanders who live in fear of becoming the collateral damage of this high-tech weaponry.

EVERY LAST CHILD

D: Tom Roberts | UAE, Pakistan | 2015 | 82 min | Canadian Premiere
Caught in the crosshairs of violence and politics, healthcare workers are everyday heroes as they struggle to protect children from polio in Pakistan—the epicentre for this crippling disease that has once again become a global threat.

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

D: Jerry Rothwell | UK, Canada | 2015 | 112 min | Canadian Premiere
In the early 1970s, a group of young Canadians combined forces to create Greenpeace. Using interviews and previously unseen footage, this is the story of a group of friends who set out to change the world.

KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK

D: Brett Morgen | USA | 2015 | 132 min | Canadian Premiere
In this first fully authorized cinematic portrait of music legend Kurt Cobain, never-before-seen home movies, striking animation and interviews with those who knew him best take us into the life and mind of an icon.

THE LAST MOGUL

D: Barry Avrich | Canada, USA | 2005 | 110 min | Anniversary Screening
To celebrate 10 years since its release, a special screening of Barry Avrich’s The Last Mogul allows audiences to revisit this portrait of one of the most powerful men in show business: Lew Wasserman.

PARIS IS BURNING

D: Jennie Livingston | USA | 1990 | 71 min | Anniversary Screening
Electrifying audiences with a window into the fierce—and fiercely competitive—world of the 1980s New York black and Latino LGBT ball scene, this paradigm-shifting classic is as audacious and profound as the day it was released 25 years ago.

(T)ERROR

D: Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe | USA | 2014 | 93 min | International Premiere
This Sundance award winner exposes the shocking practices and murky justifications driving FBI counterterrorism investigations by following an informant who provides full access on the trail of a new suspect.

WAR OF LIES

D: Matthias Bittner | Germany | 2014 | 89 min | North American Premiere
How did one refugee in Germany become the US government’s justification for the 2003 Iraq invasion? The unrepentant Iraqi “engineer”—the lone source of weapons of mass destruction misinformation—finally reveals how the war based on his lie truly began.

WELCOME TO LEITH

D: Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker | USA | 2015 | 86 min | International Premiere
A real-life horror story unfolds in the near-deserted town of Leith, North Dakota, when a dangerous white supremacist attempts to buy up land in a plot to establish a community of neo-Nazis.

WESTERN

D: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | USA, Mexico | 2014 | 93 min | International Premiere
As a cowboy and a lawman navigate their rapidly changing hometowns and an ever-growing divide, Western paints a stunning and subtle portrait of two towns straddling the US-Mexico border that previously existed in harmony.

Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: Hot Docs Forum is Open for Submissions

Paula Bernstein — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:58:06 GMT

The 16th annual Hot Docs Forum is getting underway, with applications now being accepted through January 12.

The Forum, in which broadcasters, producers and funders from around the world hear documentary pitches and provide feedback, has changed its guidelines a bit this year and they now accept successful crowdfunding campaigns as a "third party trigger." Read more about submission guidelines here.

READ MORE: The Keys to a Successful Documentary Pitch from Hot Docs Forum 2014

Last year at the 15th annual Hot Docs Forum, the room was basically filled to capacity with about 350 people in the audience, in addition to the 36 Decision Makers around the table. From North Korea and Russia to Palestine and Norway, the 20 projects highlighted in the 15th Annual Hot Docs Forum represented 13 different countries selected from 128 submissions.

Among the successful Forum pitches of the past few years are upcoming documentaries such as "The Blue ID, "The Babushkas of Chernobyl," "In The Shadow of the Dream" and "Vidal vs Buckley," which has since been retitled "Best of Enemies."

READ MORE: Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: Every 2015 Lab, Grant and Film Festival Deadline

FilmBuff and Participant Media Announce the Multi-Platform Release of 'The Internet's Own Boy'

Sydney Levine — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:00:00 GMT

FilmBuff and Participant Media will have a multi-platform release of their compelling new documentary, “The Internet’s Own Boy” on Friday, June 27^th followed by a broadcast television premiere on Participant’s television network, Pivot, later in 2014. The film is available for pre-order today on Vimeo On Demand ( www.vimeo.com/ondemand/internetsownboy ) and iTunes (http://bit.ly/1pKulkX).

Produced, written and directed by Brian Knappenberger, the documentary first premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival before screening at the SXSW Film Festival and as the opening night selection at the Hot Docs Film Festival. Theatrically, “The Internet’s Own Boy” will open exclusively at the IFC Center in New York and at the Sundance Cinemas in Los Angeles as well as theaters in 15 other markets nationwide.

The documentary will be available to rent for $6.99 on all VOD platforms including Vimeo On Demand, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Comcast and DirecTV and, for the first month of release, will be offered to own exclusively through Vimeo On Demand ( www.vimeo.com/ondemand/internetsownboy) for $9.99.

“The Internet’s Own Boy” tells the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz's help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz's groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.

“We wanted to bring Aaron's story to as many people as possible, so the day ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ debuts in theaters, we are also offering the film across a variety of digital services and platforms in a model fitting with what Aaron architected and stood for" said Brian Knappenberger, Director, “The Internet’s Own Boy.” Aaron's story touched a nerve with people far beyond online communities. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties. Participant Media will leverage awareness of Aaron’s story to launch a social action campaign, timed to the film’s release, encouraging audiences to demand better oversight in the U.S. justice system.

The film was directed, written and produced by Brian Knappenberger (“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists”). Executive produced by Charles Annenberg Weingarten. John Dragonetti composed the score. This film is not rated and runs 105 minutes.

About FilmBuff

Founded in 2007, New York-based FilmBuff is the leading distributor of incomparable digital entertainment. The Company draws upon its deep relationships within the film industry to curate content that consistently informs, entertains and inspires. FilmBuff designs innovative digital strategies to supply content to all on-demand outlets. Serving as a bridge between filmmakers and audiences, FilmBuff actively engages in conversations with fellow entertainment lovers through its exclusive access, original content and unique voice. Find FilmBuff content on all cable, satellite and telco services, game consoles, online retailers, wireless platforms and hardware manufacturers worldwide. Connect with FilmBuff at www.FilmBuff.com and [AT] filmbuff.

About Participant Media

Participant Media is a global entertainment company founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll to focus on feature film, television, publishing and digital content that inspires social change. Participant’s more than 50 films include GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, SYRIANA, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC., WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’, THE HELP, CONTAGION and LINCOLN. Through its films, social action campaigns, digital network TakePart.com and Pivot, its new television network for Millennials, Participant seeks to entertain, encourage and empower every individual to take action.