documentary

Interview: Justin Ludwig

Step into the pit as we talk to Canadian documentarian, punk rock frontman, and proud atheist Justin Ludwig about his film ChristCORE and how he learned to have a better understanding of the world of Christian punk and metal despite not being a believer himself. We also talk about the crossover success of Christian rock, how the bands politically believed a lot of the same things he did, and how to potentially really screw over Chik-Fil-A.

Interview: Alex Winter

Dork Shelf sits down with director and actor Alex Winter to talk about his documentary about the rise and fall of the internet giant Napster, Downloaded which played at Hot Docs this year. (And yes, we brought up Bill and Ted and his proposed 3-D reboot of The Gate.)

Hot Docs 2013 Kicks Into High Gear

With Hot Docs 2013 in high gear after last night's opening we come back today with our biggest assembly of reviews yet. Here for your reading pleasure are a look at 17 more films playing this year at one of the biggest all documentary festivals in the world.

Interview: Matthew Pond

Dork Shelf catches up with Matthew Pond, one half of the directorial team behind the heavily anticipated Hot Docs 2013 title The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne, to talk about filming the life story of one of the most prolific jewel thieves in American history.

Interview: Amy Finkel

Dork Shelf talks to Amy Finkel, director of the Hot Docs 2013 selection, Furever: a film about the preservation of the memory of dead pets. We talk about the stigma surrounding the grieving process, who stands to profit from it, her personal connection to the material, and why cremation might be the most suspect method of memorializing a pet shown in the film.

Docs in Brief

A pair of documentaries open for limited runs at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema this week leading up to their prized festival next weekend. Both are histories of a sort, but one (A Fierce Green Fire) works a lot better than the other (Bert Stern: Original Mad Man).

Revolution Review

As an environmental advocacy documentary, Rob Stewart's Revolution is pretty standard and simplistic, but it comes with a layer of personal emotion that's rare for this kind of material.

Contest: See REVOLUTION Across Canada

Enter for a chance to win one of five pairs of passes to see the documentary Revolution in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, or Victoria, courtesy of Dork Shelf and D Films. Vancouver screening is Monday, April 8th. All other cities on Thursday, April 11th.

The Rep Readies for Release

Nearly a year after completion and more than several months after the closure of its subject - the Toronto Underground Cinema - filmmaker Morgan White's ode to old school cinemas The Rep will finally be coming to theatres that can book it for free and keep 100% of what it makes. We talked to White on the day of his announcement to get his thoughts and ask him why.

Leviathan Review

Leviathan is an experimental documentary that experiments more than it documents. Shot aboard a commercial fishing boat in the North Atlantic, the only thing you’ll learn about commercial fishing is that it’s a wet and ugly endeavour. Filmmaker/ Harvard anthropology professor Lucien Castaing-Taylor and co-director Véréna Paravel are contributing to a tradition of ethnographic filmmaking that concerns itself more with observation and ways of seeing than it does with telling a story.

Greedy Lying Bastards Review

Undeniably fascinating, terrifying and entertaining, the climate change polemic Greedy Lying Bastards still finds itself being occasionally undercut by a level of smugness that would make Michael Moore blush.

Shepard and Dark Review

A touching though sometimes lagging story about enduring friendship, Shepard and Dark highlights aspects of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark’s relationship that has now spanned half a century. The impetus for the documentary is the archiving of hundreds of letters that passed back and forth between them over the decades. As much about the individual men as their correspondence, one can’t help but feel this lingering film would have been much more compelling as a documentary short as opposed to feature length.

Of Two Minds Review

While many documentaries about issues as sensitive as mental illness can be clouded in excessive fact-listing or sentimentality, Douglas Blush and Lisa Klein’s examination of bipolar disorder Of Two Minds deftly avoids the obvious traps, never attempting to rally or manipulate the audience

The Bitter Buddha Review

The Bitter Buddha takes a fascinating backstage look at one of the most fascinating, lesser known, and most widely admired comedians working today, Eddie Pepitone.