Tomorrow, Thursday, April 28 sees the kick off of North America’s biggest nonfiction event, Toronto’s Hot Docs. Running through Sunday, May 8, this year’s 23rd edition will present approximately 150 new and recent feature documentaries, as well as retrospective programming, shorts, special talks, and the concurrent industry-focused Hot Docs Forum. Notably, this year is the first event under new Director of Programming Shane Smith, a well-liked veteran programmer whose past experience includes Toronto, Sundance, Inside Out, and the Worldwide Short film fests. I’m looking forward to heading north this weekend and checking out several of his selections, including the overview below:
Among the nearly three dozen Special Presentations are several world premiere titles, including: Kevin McMahon’s look at our collective impact on the planet, SPACESHIP EARTH; Beth Murphy’s portrait of an Afghan school’s mission to educate girls, WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS; Jared P Scott’s consideration of climate change’s affect on international security, THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES; Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas’ investigation into a wine scandal, SOUR GRAPES (pictured); Brendan Byrne’s chronicle of the pivotal irish Republican political prisoner’s hunger strike BOBBY SANDS: 66 DAYS; and Rama Rau’s burlesque history, LEAGUE OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS.
Contenders in the International Spectrum competition also making their world premiere include: Juan Mejia Botero and Jake Kheel’s DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS (pictured), an investigation of resource-based conflict between Haiti and the Dominic Republic; Jonny von Wallström’s THE PEARL OF AFRICA, about the struggles of a trans woman in her native Uganda; Pete Gleeson’s HOTEL COOLGARDIE, an exposé on workplace sexual harassment in the Australian outback; and Catalina Mesa’s THE INFINITE FLIGHT OF DAYS, which captures a small Colombian village through the stories shared by a group of local women.
Also debuting at the festival are several entries in the Canadian Spectrum competition: Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s ANGRY INUK, which finds Inuit activists defending their traditional hunting against animal rights groups; John Bolton’s AIM FOR THE ROSES (pictured), about a musician’s homage to a legendary Canadian daredevil; Ali Kazimi’s RANDOM ACTS OF LEGACY, a home movie-based history of a Chinese-American family; Nathan Drillot and Jeff Petry’s WIZARD MODE, about an autistic pinball champion; Christy Garland’s CHEER UP, on Finland’s worst cheerleading team; Danic Champoux’s A CENTRE-SUD TALE, a personal appreciation of the filmmaker’s humble upbringing; Anjali Nayar’s GUN RUNNERS, about two former Kenyan guerrillas turned professional runners; and Tiffany Hsiung’s THE APOLOGY, which follows three aged former comfort women as they speak out about the abuse they suffered in WWII.
Three dozen features are included in the non-competitive World Showcase, among them world premieres CITY 40 (pictured), Samira Goetschel’s exploration of a sheltered community around Russia’s nuclear stockpile; A REVOLUTION IN FOUR SEASONS, Jessie Deeter’s portrait of female Tunisian political opponents; AIDA’S SECRETS, Alon Schwarz and Shaul Schwarz’s chronicle of a long-separated family’s reunion; and OVERRULED, Farnaz Jurabchian and Mohammadreza Jurabchian’s profile of Afghan refugees struggling to survive as ballboys in Iranian tennis clubs.
The festival’s annual spotlight on nonfiction from another country this year focuses on Australia, and includes Aaron Petersen’s ZACH’S CEREMONY (pictured), a longitudinal portrait of a boy trying to connect with his indigenous roots; Hollie Fifer’s THE OPPOSITION, which follows a Papua New Guinean leader’s attempts to stop development that threatens to displace the local populace; and Dan Jackson’s IN THE SHADOW OF THE HILL, a look at the protests that arose against the police pacification of Rio’s favelas.
Hot Docs’ popular Nightvisions program returns with several eclectic films, including Johan Palmgren’s THE SEX TEMPLE, about the controversial partnership between a queer Swedish theatre and a straight swingers club; and Colm Quinn’s MATTRESS MEN (pictured), a winning story of redemption through the creative marketing of an unlikely salesman.
Finally, several new thematic sidebars have been introduced this year, such as Artscapes, focused on arts and culture, which includes Tal Barda and Noam Pinchas’ THE WONDERFUL KINGDOM OF PAPA ALAEV (pictured), about a multi-generational Tajikistani folk music family, and Pierre Bismuth’s WHERE IS ROCKY II?, about a Sisyphean quest to find a legendary fake rock supposedly planted in the Mojave Desert by Ed Ruscha; The Pursuit of Happiness, which explores ideas of fulfillment in works like Jay Cheel’s HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE, following two men obsessed with time travel, and Raymonde Provencher’s CAFÉ DÉSIRS, about the impact of sexual repression on Algerian men; and Command + Control, which looks at questions of power in films like the anonymously-helmed WHOSE COUNTRY?, which interrogates Egyptian police corruption.
what (not) to doc 