By Ashley Carter

Canadian Programmers Lynne Fernie and Gisèle Gordon introduce the selection of local films. Photo by Brett Lamb.

You love documentaries. We love documentaries. And what better way to forget our differences and come together in this love than at Hot Docs? Repping 171 titles from 39 countries, the 16th annual documentary festival and confab announced its full slate today at a jammed press conference at Revival.
Alongside three newly announced Canadian films (from John Greyson, Kevin McMahon, and Larry Weinstein) screening in the Special Presentations program, this year marks the first time a nationally-produced doc has actually opened the festival, with the world premiere of local filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal’s Act of God (focusing, in part, on author and lightning-strike survivor Paul Auster).
Other high-profile—and freshly announced—premieres include Kirby Dick’s Outrage, about closeted American politicos who campaign against the LGBT community; Mercedes Stalenhoef’s Carmen Meets Borat, about the Romanian villagers who were made to look like Kazakhstani doofuses in Borat; Gary Hustwit’s (director of Helvetica! You love fonts now!) Objectified about our relationship with manufactured objects; and Louie Psihoyos’ The Cove, about Japan’s dolphin slaughter.
Alongside the usual Canadian and International programs, this year’s themed programs include Next (a program about the arts and the creative process), Made in South Korea (pretty self-explanatory), and Let’s Make Money (a timely look at cashmoney and the need and greed associated with it—aptly featuring the Toronto-based doc Clubland, about our skeezy and storied entertainment district).
Rounding out the schedule are three retrospectives: Focus on Ron Mann (a mid-career study of your hometown boy), the Outstanding Achievement Award Retrospective honouring Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, and a Spotlight on the NFB at 70 showcasing choice NFB-produced films as selected by guest programmers.
For full deets and listings, check the Hot Docs website. And look forward to our further coverage of the festival which will mostly consist of us telling you to see Best Worst Movie (a documentary about the cult phenomenon that is the glorious Troll 2. Parts of which were shot at a Troll 2 screening at the Bloor this past year).
Hot Docs runs from April 30 to May 10.