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What Rocks At Hot Docs?
Photo still of Billy The Kid from their website.
If you are a huge fan of reality, then this is the film fest for you. Hot Docs, North America’s biggest documentary film festival, kicks off tonight with the Canadian Premiere of In The Shadow Of The Moon. For the next 10 days, more than 100 documentaries from around the world will be showcased in our fair city.
If you are looking to get your socks knocked off, but don’t know where to begin, then check out Torontoist’s Top Picks after the jump.
Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica is already creating a lot of stir. The film studies the world’s most popular font and discusses typography as a social study. Its Canadian premiere is at the Royal on Saturday, April 21 at 9:45 p.m.
Jennifer Venditti’s Billy the Kid is one of the most anticipated features at this years Hot Docs. Fresh from winning the documentary Jury Prize at South By South West in Austin, Tex., the film shows the struggles of Billy, a boy who describes himself as being “different in the brain” trying to make it through adolescence in small town Maine. It screens at the Bloor on Friday, April 20 at 9 p.m.
A documentary about a documentary filmmaker? In Manufacturing Dissent, Canadian filmmakers Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine follow the infamous shit-disturber Michael Moore through the release of his movie Fahrenheit 9/11, through to the 2004 US election. Its Canadian premiere is at the Bloor at 9 p.m. on Sunday April 22.
Forever takes us on a tour through the world-famous Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris (yes, the one where Jim Morrison is buried), in this poetic and powerful meditation on relations between the living and the dead. Honigmann will be honored with the prestigious “Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award,” presented annually in recognition of a filmmaker’s enduring contribution to the documentary form. Check it out at the Isabel Bader Theatre at 9:30 p.m. on April 27.
Jennifer Fox’s Flying – Confessions Of A Free Woman follows the 40-something Fox through three years and 17 countries as she investigates whether or not a woman can truly be free. She discusses topics such as masturbation, alimony, and motherhood and features women in both first and third world countries. It premieres at noon on Friday April 20 at the ROM.
If local Politics are your bag, there’s a whole series of cinema devoted to the subject. Called “Doc The Vote,” this programme takes a look at all kinds of civic engagement. Campaign follows a candidate with no previous political experience as he runs in a heated election.Citizen Sam follows long-serving, right-wing, and quadriplegic city councillor Sam Sullivan as he runs for mayor in Vancouver’s last election. Montreal squeegee kids Punk The Vote! in the last Federal Election. And activists mock the Toronto Municipal Elections compete in City Idol.
If your bag consists of politics in general, check out Enemies Of Happiness, which follows a young Afghani woman running for office despite death threats, assassination attempts, and war. It created a stir at Sundance, and it’s sure to do the same here. It is playing at the Bloor on Saturday April 21 at 4 p.m.
And of course, Let’s All Hate Toronto by Canadian filmmakers Albert Nerenberg and Rob Spence. This one can’t be missed whether you love or hate Toronto. Its world premiere is at the Bloor at 6:30 on Friday, April 20.
With files from Rhonda Riche