Get funky with Finding the Funk. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

It ain’t over until it’s over, and there is still one full weekend of Hot Doc’ing left! First up, get grooving and body-moving with Finding the Funk (, 1:30 p.m. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema), a history of the musical genre of funk. Interviewing James Brown, George Clinton, and Sly, the doc looks back at the good old days to see how the genre influenced contemporary tunes.

Today is the last day to see the excellent Anita (4 p.m. Isabel Bader Theatre). Oscar-winning director Freida Mock looks at Anita Hill’s story: the woman who stood up before Clarence Thomas was sworn into the U.S. Supreme court as he had sexually harassed her. In a time when feminism is thought of as a dirty word, this is a powerful testament to recalling why the movement remains important.

Also playing for the last time today is Michelle Latier’s Alias (, 8:45 p.m. Scotiabank Theatre). We’ve already suggested checking it out, but we’ll do it again! The doc is a nuanced and beautiful portrait of not only her subjects (rappers from Regent Park), but also this city.

Canadian Sepctrum is unique among the 11 programmes on this year’s Hot Docs schedule, because it features only films by Canadian documentarians, be they veterans or first-timers. Hot Docs’ mandate is to promote our national film culture, so the docs that fall under this heading are particularly important components of the festival.

Click any of the images below for more information about a particular Canadian Spectrum film. Or, check out our nifty Hot Docs 2013 hub for a list of all our reviews to date.

TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE DIRECTED BY RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK

NCR: NOT CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE DIRECTED BY JOHN KASTNER

THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE DIRECTED BY LIZ MARSHALL

CHI DIRECTED BY ANNE WHEELER

BUYING SEX DIRECTED BY TERESA MACINNES AND KENT NASON

ALIAS DIRECTED BY MICHELLE LATIMER

15 REASONS TO LIVE DIRECTED BY ALAN ZWEIG

Zen as medicine in Free the Mind. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

Hot Docs day nine and we’re feeling fine! Here’s what to see to keep those nice vibes going.

Kick things off by letting it all go with Free the Mind (, 6 p.m., ROM Theatre), a doc about how yoga can help vets and kids with PTSD. It’s both a portrait of those suffering from the syndrome and a look into the science of studying the human brain.

Gangster of Love (, 9 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre) looks at the (hetero) dating game in Croatia and, in the process, proves man-children aren’t only a North American problem. Following matchmaker Nedo as he tries to find a life partner for Maya, the doc falls into some romantic comedy conventions, but is a spirited take on the subject.

Not to harsh the nice buzz we have going, but Blood Brother (, 9:30 p.m., Isabel Bader Theatre) might not be the best way to end the day. Though it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance this year, the film is a classic white-guy-doing-good-in-[insert impoverished nation] tale. Here, two young Americans travel to India and find themselves, but also ignore the real stories of the people in front of them.

Rock and roll gets brotherly in Mistaken for Strangers. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

On the eighth day of Hot Docs, the film gods gave to thee…three docs that got our reviewers’ thumbs up.

Straight from Sundance, The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear (, 6 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre) looks at the lives of young Georgians (that’s Georgia the country, not the state) in an innovative way. Director Tinatin Gurchiani put out a casting call for citizens between the ages of 15 and 25 who felt their lives merited being in a doc. Mixing interviews with reenactments, the result is a compelling look at life in one corner of Eastern Europe.

A Dream in the Making (, 9:45 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox) is set in one of the most impoverished neighbourhoods in Warsaw, Poland. The film’s young protagonist idolizes Bruce Lee and dreams of becoming a stunt man. Though the story is slight, Bartosz M. Kowalski shoots beautifully and refuses easy allegories and generalizations of Polish youth.

Last but not least, the Nightvision program continues to impress with Mistaken for Strangers (, 11:59 p.m., Bloor Hot Docs Cinema). A new take on the “rockumentary,” here the creative differences fall along family lines, as the frontman for The National invites his younger brother to tour with the band as a roadie.

After Tiller looks at the abortion debate. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

A week into Hot Docs 2013—my how time flies when you’re having a doc of a good time!—and today’s offerings keep up the pace.

Torontonian Liz Marshall’s The Ghosts in our Machine (, 6:30 p.m. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema) is a complex and intricate look at animal-rights activism, through the (literal) lens of photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur. Eschewing sensational grim imagery—though there is some of that—the doc finds hope in an aspect of human behaviour that some of us never think twice about: eating animals.

Also playing today is Buying Sex (, 6 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox). Focusing on a recent Ontario court ruling that legalized some aspects of prostitution, Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason’s film looks at both sides of the debate, allowing sex workers to speak in favour and against. It’s a balanced look at a complex issue, though it lags a little near the end.

A must-see at the festival rounds off the day: Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s After Tiller (, 9 p.m. Isabel Bader Theatre). After the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, access to third-trimester abortions in the United States became incredibly limited. The documentary follows the four remaining doctors who still do the procedure. It tells their stories, professional and private. Set largely in abortion clinics, the film seeks to pull back the curtain on this highly political medical practice, taking it, and those who work in the field, out of the abstract.

International Spectrum is the most polyglot of Hot Docs 2013′s 11 film programmes, with a slate made up of submissions from countries that include Egypt, Serbia, Brazil, Finland, Denmark, and China, to name just a few. You won’t necessarily find many familiar names or topics among these selections, but then that’s the whole idea.

Click any of the images below for more information about a particular International Spectrum film. Or, check out our nifty Hot Docs 2013 hub for a list of all our reviews to date.

12 O’CLOCK BOYS DIRECTED BY LOTFY NATHAN

LOVE STILL DIRECTED BY GUZMÁN GARCIA

THE LAST STATION DIRECTED BY CATALINA VERGARA AND CRISTIAN SOTO

FOREST OF THE DANCING SPIRITS DIRECTED BY LINDA VASTRIK

DRAGON GIRLS DIRECTED BY INIGO WESTMEIER

ANOTHER NIGHT ON EARTH DIRECTED BY DAVID MUNOZ

Getting down for the environment in Fuck for Forest. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

On day six of Hot Docs, love—or, at least, sex—is in the air. And Gaza, too! What? Just roll with it, folks.

First up is the excellent Fuck for Forest (, 4 p.m. TIFF Bell Lighbox). Michal Marczak’s documentary embeds his camera with a Berlin-based group that makes porn and uses the profits to try and save the earth. Even during intimate moments, the film maintains an interesting observational distance from its subjects, which gives it a nature-documentary feel.

On a different note, Gaza Calling, from director Nahed Awwad, (, 6:30 p.m. ROM Theatre), examines the physical and symbolic gap between Palestinians and Israelis. Looking at the daily lives and struggles of those in the Palestinian territories, the doc captures the strife of a landless people trapped by bureaucracy.

If you’re still in the mood for love, Guzmán Garcia looks for romance at a Uruguayan dance hall in Love Still (, 9 p.m. Scotiabank). The film’s 11 vignettes, starring elderly patrons, reveal that even late-in-life matters of the heart remain beguiling, complicated, and, at times, painful.

DIRECTED BY LIDIA DUDA (Poland, Made in Poland)

SCREENINGS:

Friday, April 26, 1:30 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)

Saturday, April 27, 6:30 p.m.
Scotiabank (259 Richmond Street)

Friday, May 3, 9:00 p.m.
Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Avenue)

There are nearly no faces in Entangled. Shot largely from behind or from other positions that obscure the visages of its subjects, the film is an odd mixture of anonymity and intimate confessions. Centering on a pedophile and the boy he molested, the dynamics of victimhood become complicated when the abused child grows up and takes revenge. Now serving time in a juvenile detention centre, he tells his story, which director Lidia Duda interweaves with that of his abuser, now free.

Raising complex issues of revenge and recovery—the latter of which neither of the subjects seem to be able to achieve—the film is unflinching. Duda plunges into morally ambiguous territory, interviewing the molester, his victim, and both of their mothers. Largely using voiceover as the subjects go about their daily lives, Duda creates moments of disturbing juxtaposition. In one case she films the pedophile at a pool where young boys splash around him, while in voiceover he confesses that he is “drawn” to children. The images are at times hauntingly beautiful, but the decision to leave out the speakers’ faces becomes limiting. There is a final reveal of one face, but the film’s stagnation up to that point detracts from what is otherwise a powerful moment.

DIRECTED BY DAVID MUNOZ (Spain, International Spectrum)

SCREENINGS:

Tuesday, April 30, 7:00 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)

Thursday, May 2, 9:45 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)

Friday, May 3, 4:00 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)

David Muñoz’s Another Night on Earth aims to get at the heart of the Arab Spring by taking a back seat—quite literally. The documentary unfolds over nights in 12 different Cairo taxi cabs. The passengers leave, but the camera never does. It’s a powerfully simple idea, but unfortunately the chance encounters reveal too much. They lack any real cohesion.

Filmed shortly after Hosni Mubarak was forced from power in Egypt, all of the conversations are politically loaded. They touch on gas prices, lack of jobs, and women’s rights. (In one conversation, a young boy says he plays for FC Barcelona in video games, a European influence that rankles the cabbie.) Though the conversations are frank and sometimes funny, they’re too scattershot for a viewer to become truly invested in them. The aim of the doc may be to resist stereotypes, but its broad approach ends up being a hindrance.

Get hip with some hippies in American Commune. Image courtesy of Hot Docs.

It’s Hot Docs day five, and we’re still alive. Bet you didn’t see that rhyme coming! Later today, there will be screenings of three top-notch docs that make it worthwhile to stay up late on a weeknight.

American Commune (, 7 p.m. The Royal Cinema) looks at the rise and demise of a Tennessee hippie community. Interviewing members who left everything behind to join in all the peace and love, directors Nadine and Renee Mundo strike a balance between nostalgia and pain.

We can’t describe 12 O’Clock Boys (, 8:15 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox) better than our own Julian Carrington: “Like The Wire, but with wheelies.” Set in Baltimore, this doc by Lotfy Nathan follows an urban dirt-bike gang. It’s a compelling portrait of youthful rebellion.

For the night owls, there’s Searching for Bill (, 11:59 p.m. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema), in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen points his lens at the lost American Dream. After the titular Bill steals Bob’s car, the latter goes in search of him, not sure what he’s hoping to find.

Mr. Knia in Alias. Image courtesy GAT Media.

Who says Sunday is the day of rest? Well, a lot of people and some couple hundred years of history, but that doesn’t apply at Hot Docs! Today we suggest starting things off by keeping it local with Michelle Latimer’s Alias (, 1 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre). Set in Regent Park and following a group of aspiring rappers and their promoter, the documentary is an observational and beautiful portrait of the subjects and our city.

Staying in the vein of docs on art, though here a very different kind, Mika Mattila’s Chimeras () is playing at 1:30 p.m. today at the Scotiabank Theatre. Examining the contradictions in contemporary Chinese art, the film follows two artists: the well-established Wang Guangyi and an emerging presence, Liu Gang. Allowing the art and the artists to speak for themselves, Mattila’s camera steps back and observes, offering a contemplative work on a complex subject.

Moving things closer to home again, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible (, 9:30 p.m., Isabel Bader Theatre) takes on the age-old—and with Richard Kachkar’s trial, timely—topic of how to deal with mental illness in the justice system. After attacking and nearly killing Julie Bouvoir in 1999 in Cornwall, Sean Clifton was sentenced to jail, despite suffering from an untreated mental illness. Finding him 12 years on, John Kastner’s film delves into the complicated realm of forgiveness and recovery, navigating between Bouvoir and Clifton’s perspectives.

Chimeras looks at the roots and contradictions in contemporary Chinese art.

Day three of Hot Docs has some strong offerings for the first full weekend of the festival. Canadian favourite Alan Zweig turns his lens towards the philosophical, examining why despite all the trials and tribulations life is worth living in 15 Reasons to Live (, 6:30 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox). Having previous looked at what drives people to collect records (Vinyl) or what it means to search for love (Loveable), now Zweig is inspired by essayist Ray Robertson. Though it falters structurally at times, it is a warm and affecting film that probes far deeper than Hallmark card sentimentality.

Penny Lane’s Our Nixon (, 7 p.m., The Royal) tries for a new take on Tricky Dick, using found Super-8 footage shot by the president’s closest aides. It’s a neat idea, but those looking for sensational voyeurism and deep revelations alike will be disappointed. As an experiment in documentary form, however, it’s worth checking out.

Jumping across the globe, we land in Palestine with Axel Salvatori-Sinz’s The Shebabs of Yarmouk (, 4 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre). An observational doc, this isn’t a crash course in Middle Eastern politics, but rather a portrait of daily life, struggles, and aspirations of Palestinians. Salvatori-Sinz captures the inherent contradictions of Palestinian life: having no country but being bound in place by bureaucracy and history.