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Hot Docs: Our Weekend Picks
Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival begins tonight and there is a lot on offer with 99 films this year, so you’ll forgive us if we only cover this weekend’s picks today. After all, we haven’t even picked up our pass yet!
Friday April 28th
Dear Pyongyang (6:30pm, ROM) – North Korea holds a fascination, right or wrongly, for many of us, and the rare glimpse we’re allowed into this secretive nation are important to foster understanding of a member of the ‘Axis of Evil’. The story of the daughter of Korean communists living in Japan visiting and discovering the lives of her father and brothers in Pyongyang sounds like a moving and interesting document.
The Railroad All Stars (9:30pm, Bader) – Prostitutes form a soccer team in Guatemala, facing discrimination and police repression! Sound like uplifting pap, but should thankfully balance the story with the realities of being a sex worker for mere pennies a day.
Darkon (10:15pm, Bloor) – Let the picture speak for itself. This (not annoyingly ironic) documentary about Darkon, a Live Action RPG played by otherwise normal people who dress up as medieval warriors and hit each other with foam weapons for fun at the weekends. Now if that doesn’t sound like something worth seeing I don’t know what to do with you.
Saturday April 29th
Black Gold (1:30pm, Bloor) – Do you like coffee? How do you like it? Milky? With a couple of spoonfuls of THIRD WORLD EXPLOITATION? That’s the topic explored here in a British doc covering the dissonance between the Starbucks PR machine (“seriously dudes, we pay more than the market price for coffee”) and the reality (they don’t actually support Fair Trade farmers).
Beyond Beats with Heavy Metal Junior (4:45pm, ROM) – Heavy Metal Junior is a short film about a Scottish heavy metal band called Hatred with the average age of 10. How awesome does that sound? The main feature, Beyond Beats, is an exploration of manhood in hip-hop culture, tackling the issues of sexism, homophobia and violence that seems to pervade the work, at least as seen in the media at large.
Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story (6:30pm, Bloor) – Ahem, yes, another film about North Korea. We’re sorry, okay? We just find that place really interesting, particularly the sound of this tale of North Korea’s campaign to kidnap Japanese citizens over the last 20 years framed by one particular, sad, story.
Sunday April 30th
Raised to Be Heroes with They Chose China (6:15pm, Al Green) – Doubtlessly likely to be controversial, Raised to Be Heroes centers on the contentious objectors from the Israeli military, but is (naturally) intended to be a serious documentary on the topic, and comes paired with They Chose China, the unusual story of 21 American servicemen who chose to remain in China after the Korean War.
Wordplay (7pm, Bader) – Sudoku might rule the roost right now, but the humble crossword may yet have a resurgence thanks to this documentary covering the history and appeal of the puzzle, with testimonials from the likes of Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart? Really? I wonder if he’s good at Scrabble?
Oilcrash (9:15pm Bloor) – Coffee might be the new black gold, but where does that leave our rapidly crashing oil reserves? This film covers the history of oil production and the consequences of our gas guzzling ways. Possibly a good primer if you’re planning on having any arguments about the oil sands in Alberta.
This is only our opinion of what currently stands out to us, but please check out the whole listing. We haven’t even covered possible hits such as A Lion in the House, The Duckling, or Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness.