film

Hot Docs 2014: Doc of the Dead Review

Doc of the Dead Nightvision Let’s face it, the walking (un)dead are everywhere these days, from Brad Pitt blockbusters and cuddly slippers to porn parodies and shooting ranges. The smelly masses of corpses have never been more popular, so a documentary like Doc of the Dead was inevitable. This is the definitive documentary guide to […]

Hot Docs 2014: Divide in Concord Review

Divide in Concord World Showcase The hot button push to move away from the use of bottled water and towards more environmentally sustainable drinking options moves to one of America’s most historic towns in Kris Kaczor’s well meaning, but scattershot examination of a different kind of revolution. Spurred on by something her grandson told her […]

Hot Docs 2014: David & Me Review

David & Me Canadian Spectrum An admirably well intentioned but highly scattershot human rights doc, it feels bad ragging on this story of a friendship between a man in Toronto and a wrongfully convicted Brooklyn inmate, but there’s just too little focus to sustain even 70 minutes. Ray Klonsky is a reformed fake thug kid […]

Hot Docs 2014: A Different Kind of Boy Review

A Different Kind of Boy Made in Denmark The Danish documentary A Different Kind of Boy isn’t even an hour long, and yet it manages to exude charm, elicits genuine anxiety, and presents a complete, complex picture of a boy with autism and his brother’s attempt to bond with him. Essentially divided into two parts, […]

Hot Docs 2014: Demonstration Review

Demonstration Special Presentations A well meaning, but utterly failed experiment to create a “doc ballet,” Demonstration has been culled together from the footage of 32 student filmographers in the Master of Creative Documentary Program at Pompeu Fabra University under the guidance of Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky. On March 29th, 2012, thousands of protestors in Barcelona […]

Hot Docs 2014: The Darkside Review

The Darkside Mystery, Myth, and Legend If nothing else, Warwick Thornton’s documentary The Darkside is certainly an original concept. Over many months Thornton collected a series of ghost stories from a variety of sources across Australia then shot first person retellings of the best ones along with re-enactments from local actors. The 13 stories depicted […]

Hot Docs 2014: Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart Review

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart Special Presentations Pamela Smart’s sensationalistic 1991 trial involving a high school employee who not only slept with a student, but talked that student into murdering her husband was an instant pop culture phenomenon. It was the first trial ever broadcast live on television and was eventually turned into a […]

Hot Docs 2014: Bintou Review

Bintou World Showcase Hard at work in her sewing room in Burkina Faso and worlds away from the high fashion runways of Europe, Bintou runs a successful dressmaking business.  She works night and day whipping up outfits for white ex-pats who never haggle at her prices as she travels door to door on her bicycle. […]

Hot Docs 2014: Art and Craft Review

Art and Craft Nightvision A wildly different and highly amusing kind of cat and mouse film, Art and Craft follows the overlapping timelines of a not so dangerous, but assuredly deceitful art forger and one overly obsessive investigator and former registrar that’s determined to take him down. Quiet, unassuming, and mentally challenged Mark Landis from […]

Hot Docs 2014: Before the Last Curtain Falls Review

Before the Last Curtain Falls Canadian Spectrum When the Belgian stage production Gardenia opened in 2010 it was a massive success: playing over 200 shows in 25 countries. The show is as much a performance art piece as it is cabaret, starring older gay and trans performers. The film follows the cast through their final […]

Hot Docs 2014: Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case Review

Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case Made in Denmark A fleet and funny look at a man under house arrest who has been deemed the most influential artist in the world, Andreas Johnsen’s look at the post-arrest and home imprisonment life of Chinese firebrand Ai Weiwei serves as a near perfect follow up to Alison Klayman’s […]

Hot Docs 2014: Advanced Style Review

Advanced Style Next The rare example of a fashion based documentary that doesn’t wallow in privilege or ageism, Advanced Style looks at the subjects of street style photographer Ari Seth Cohen’s blog devoted to stylish women over the age of 50. It isn’t particularly deep (most fashion docs aren’t), but the women being profiled are […]

Hot Docs 2014: Absences Review

Absences World Showcase The latest from award winning Canadian filmmaker Carole Laganière concerns the holes left by the various departures of others in our lives. Framed by Laganière’s own experience dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s and having to watch a loved one slip away before her eyes, she extends the definition of absence a bit […]

Hot Docs 2014: 112 Weddings Review

112 Weddings Love, Factually 112 Weddings is misleading in a number of ways, none of them favourable. A personal experiment from long time wedding videographer turned documentary filmmaker Doug Block, 112 Weddings doesn’t examine that many matrimonial ceremonies. It’s just the total career count of wedding videos Block has been commissioned to make as of […]

The Great Hot Docs Contest!

Three times a day, every day, we will be giving away pairs of tickets to some of the great films playing at this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. Check this space often as we'll be giving away a pair of tickets to something different every few hours!