I have heard a lot of great reviews about Hot Docs. For those who are not familiar with the Hot Docs Festival it is an internationally renowned festival in its 16Th year of operation. This year Hot Docs will present more than 150 films. All films in official competitions will be receiving their first Toronto showing, with many screenings being world, international, North American or Canadian premieres. For most screenings, directors will be in attendance to introduce their films and to participate in post-show Q & A sessions with the audience. Hot Docs has a You Tube site. You can view trailers of films. As well you can view their site by clicking on the link beside the posts.
I've been living in Toronto nearly three years and I still have yet to go to the Hot Docs Festival. However, this year I am attending. Unfortunately I live on a small budget, and so, I may only be able to see 3 or 4 films. The great thing about these documentaries is that some are short and therefore paired with another documentary in one viewing. If I choose my schedule carefully I can see more than 3 or 4 films. Of course that all depends on whether the shows aren't sold out. For those who are on a low budget like me the tickets are $12. each, which is reasonable in Toronto. Had I acted sooner I might have been a volunteer. Volunteers can go to all the films. For those with a bigger budget Hot Doc passes are also available.
After reviewing my picks I realized that I chose a lot of films about children and teens that faced hardships and circumstances unfamiliar to me. While I grew up poor and had a father with an unforgiving mental illness, it was nothing compared to the lives of the children in these films.
Richard Cardinal, a young Métis boy who lived in 28 different foster homes, shelters, and lock-ups from the ages of 4 to 17 committed suicide. In Children of God we find children living on the streets next to a temple in Nepal collecting gold fillings and anything else of value from dead people. In Tinar a boy is hired to tend to a large cow herd in the mountainous regions of Iran. He eats and sleeps with the cows in a life of loneliness and poverty. In Which Way Home we follow the lives of three unaccompanied children embarking on a dangerous journey from Latin America to the US to be with their parents who had years earlier migrated to the US for work. About Face... shares the painful story of a mentally ill mother who throws her baby daughter into a camp fire. She was badly burned. At 24 the young woman decides to meet her mother and begins a long journey to forgive, heal, and move forward. Sweety... the murder of a 16 year old girl by her teen friends depicts the horror of some of our youth today. And last, Ganesh: Boy Wonder, a powerful story about a boy born with a horrible facial deformity is introduced to a Canadian plastic surgeon who offers hope for the first time in this boys' life.
I have also chosen a few odd ball films: Jackpot, The Way We Get By and Plane Days. When I was much younger than I am now I had glimpses of bingo halls and church basements and the people that played frequently. I tried playing but I was unlucky and slow to call out. The rooms were always smoky, and reeked of Avon perfume and Old Navy cologne. Is it different today than it was when I was growing up? I have always been curious about people's hobbies and motives behind each. Plane Days is a humourous look at how some people pass the time. If I make it to senior-hood I could be one of those people. I hail originally from New Brunswick, Canada, and have been to Bangor, Maine a few times. I doubt that it's a tourist stop, for when I was young, it seemed more like a strip mall town. Three seniors sit in the airport greeting and saying goodbye to soldiers going to and from Iraq. What sorrows and histories drive them to use their retirement time in this way?
Both City of Borders and Outrage deal with issues of homophobia and the struggle for freedom to be gay and "out". I am glad to be a lesbian in Canada where Members of Parliament are out of the closet and supporting our rights to marry, have or adopt children. In the United States, politicians are in the closet fighting to quash gay rights and freedoms. In the city of Jerusalem people of opposing nationalities and religions gather at the gay bar Shushan to find acceptance and community while religious fundamentalists strive to reverse anti-discrimination laws.
I am intrigued by the mystery surrounding the men in Diary of a Times Square Thief and The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy. Where is the diarist and why did the other man starve himself to death?
Both The Beekeepers and Act of God reference the environment, one in which lightning is viewed in awe and in terror for those who have been hit, and the other, the frightening possibility of the extinction of bees and the ramifications of their extinction.
Now that I have chosen my picks, I now have to pare down to what I can afford!
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DIARY OF A TIMES SQUARE THIEF
Director - Klaas Bense
A mysterious diary from the 1980s, full of haunting prose and photos depicting New York's seedy underground, is purchased on EBay. What has become of the diary's troubled but ambitious writer and the desolate souls he briefly knew?
If you looked back at your life, what would you regret? Director Klaas Bense ponders this question after purchasing a mysterious diary on EBay. The diary belonged to a young man who moved to New York City in the 1980s, aspiring to become the next William Burroughs. Though talented, the young writer fails to be published and quickly descends into a life of drugs and crime. Inspired by the stories and photos captured in the diary, Bense travels to New York to discover what has become of the young writer and those who crossed his path. Through intimate interviews with former residents of the notorious Times Square Hotel, we are reminded to look deeper into the forgotten faces we encounter everyday. Filled with vivid character portraits and haunting images of New York's seedy underground, Diary of a Times Square Thief meditates on redemption, fate, and the beauty of human connection.
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THE SOUND OF INSECTS: RECORD OF A MUMMY
Director - Peter Liechti
A hunter in a remote and idyllic forest stumbles on a make-shift tent fashioned from sheets of plastic and containing the mummified remains of a corpse. A detailed journal found on site reveals the man committed suicide by self-imposed starvation. Who was this man? Why did he kill himself in such a manner? Inspired by this true event and by the novella Until I Am a Mummy by Shimada Masahiko, Insects sensuously evokes the mysterious man's last days. Director Peter Liechti, known for using experimental and impressionistic elements in his documentaries, layers lush images and sounds from the forest with sudden cacophonous flashes from an anonymous urban setting to draw us into the mummy's experience. Driving the story is narration-affectingly performed by Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler-from the mummy's journal entries. Insects is a hypnotic, mesmerizing affirmation of life from one man's radical renunciation of it. Shannon Abel.
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CITY OF BORDERS
Director - Yun Suh
In the heart of Jerusalem stands an unusual symbol of unity that defies generations of segregation, violence, and prejudice: a gay bar called Shushan. People of opposing nationalities and religions gather here to find acceptance and community while religious fundamentalists strive to reverse anti-discrimination laws. City of Borders follows the intersecting lives of several Shushan regulars in their daily struggle for dignity and acceptance. The bar's founder, Sa'ar, fights for visibility and ethnic diversity. Palestinian Samira tries to remain as devoted to her family as she is to her Jewish lover. Devout Muslim Boody risks his life sneaking through razor wire from the West Bank, while former Israeli soldier Adam Russo is stabbed by an Orthodox Jew while marching in Jerusalem's gay pride parade. Yun Suh's thoughtful and inspiring film explores the bond that is forged when people from warring worlds embrace their inherent commonalities rather than be defined by their differences.
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OUTRAGE
Director - Kirby Dick
Outrage delivers a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to. Boldly revealing the hidden lives of some of the United States' most powerful policymakers, award-winning filmmaker Kirby Dick details the harm they've inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media's complicity in keeping their secrets. Sure to be one of the year's most explosive documentaries, Outrage could also very well be a game changer in the ongoing battle for same sex civil rights in the United States.
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RICHARD CARDINAL: CRY FROM A DIARY OF A MÉTIS CHILD
Director - Alanis Obomsawin
Richard Cardinal, a young Métis boy with the soul of a poet, lived in 28 different foster homes, shelters, and lock-ups from the ages of 4 to 17, when he tragically hung himself. His painfully eloquent diary pleads for understanding and love. Through heartfelt readings from his diary, Richard is heard for the first time in his short life. A stunning indictment of systemic racism and neglect, this film helped change child welfare policy in Alberta.
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GANESH: BOY WONDER
Director - Srinivas Krishna
Hindus pray to Lord Ganesh before any major journey. He can put obstacles in the way or remove them. He is the Lord of Obstacles.
Krishna and Jayamma have a happy marriage and a beautiful daughter. Now they would like a son. They pray to the god Ganesh to bless them with a boy, never dreaming that their son would actually look like his namesake, the elephant-headed deity. Nor could they have imagined that an accidental meeting with a reporter's brother, after they had given up all hope of finding medical help, would trigger a life-changing series of events. A local television story on Ganesh's facial deformity flashes his face around the globe, connecting a young boy and his struggling working-class family in India to a Canadian plastic surgeon. Acclaimed feature filmmaker Srinivas Krishna makes his documentary debut with this powerful and moving story about love, faith and hope.
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CHILDREN OF GOD
Director - Seung-Jun Yi
Nepalese Hindus believe the Bagmati River flows directly to heaven, gathering the souls of those who are cremated at the steps of the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu and carrying them off to their new home. But for 12-year-old Alesh Poudel, home is on the streets next to the temple. Fishing for coins from the river with magnets and scavenging everything from gold fillings to offerings to the gods, Alesh and his young siblings eke out a contented life from the river, while a more dangerous one lures them to the nearby city streets. Director Yi Seung-Juni's close relationship with-and paternal concern for-his subjects comes through clearly and tenderly in the sincerity and intimacy they share with each other and with the camera. Children of God is a beautifully composed, moving and poetic portrait of a life lived on the steps of heaven.
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ACT OF GOD
Director - Jennifer Baichwal
"I can't accept that it happened for a reason, nor can I really accept that there is no reason. The only way to carry on is to be humble, and a little bit in awe of these things you can't really understand," observes James O'Reilly, contemplating a lightning strike. Accidents, chance, fate, and the elusive quest for understanding underpin Jennifer Baichwal's elegant and captivating new work, an exploration of the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. For the writer Paul Auster, involved in a strike at age 14, it deeply affected his life and art. "It opened up a whole realm of speculation that I've continued to live with ever since," says Auster. The improvisational guitarist Fred Frith underscores how accidents spark "the beginning of something." Indeed, as a visually and aurally seductive reverie to storytelling, our attempt to make sense of things, Act of God may be Baichwal's cinematic ars poetica.
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TINAR
Director - Mahdi Moniri
Set in the majestic mountainous region of Iran, this compelling doc follows the life of a boy named Tinar, a hired cowherd. Tinar works alone; his father lives elsewhere on the mountain with his new wife and family. Tinar's job is to keep careful watch over a fairly large herd of milking cows. He eats, sleeps, and even plays with them; they are his only companions. As the seasons change, a pastoral portrait of Tinar and his life gradually turns into a harrowing and lonely account of a boy longing for escape and love. What Tinar wants most is to go to school like his step-siblings, or to join his brother, who has escaped their father and now works in the city with their uncle. Tinar's spirit is remarkably resilient, though, making his story even more heartbreaking. A moving account of the effects of poverty.
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WHICH WAY HOME
Director - Rebecca Cammisa
Each year, thousands of people in Latin America risk their lives to make the long journey north through Mexico in search of a better life in the United States. Many are forced to leave their families behind, hoping that one day they can either return with new-found wealth or bring their families to join them. Rebecca Cammisa's enlightening and heart-wrenching film follows three unaccompanied children as they make the dangerous and demanding trek through Latin America to the US. As the children meet all manner of challenges along the way, they are awaited by their anxious parents who themselves have faced an arduous journey in establishing a new life for their families in the land of opportunity. Award-winning director Cammisa brings a compassionate eye to this thoughtful portrait of the journey to achieve the American dream.
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ABOUT FACE: THE STORY OF GWENDELLIN BRADSHAW
Director - Mary Rosanne Katzke
As a baby, Gwen Bradshaw was horribly disfigured after being tossed into a campfire by her distraught mother, suffering from post-partum psychosis. Her father, unable to forgive her mother, took Gwen away and raised her on his own. She never saw her mother again. Now 24, Gwen, estranged from her father, is recovering in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt. About Face picks up Gwen's incredible story as she begins a five-year journey to find the answers she needs to forgive, heal, and move forward. Gwen's inspirational efforts to change her life are filled with ups and downs. She attends a conference for burn victims, finds romance and heartbreak, and connects with a half-sister. But her quest for self-acceptance culminates in the search for her mentally ill mother. Will meeting her mother give Gwen the sense of family and belonging she has longed for?
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THE BEEKEEPERS
Director - Richard Knox Robinson
A ghostly black-and-white transmission warns of Colony Collapse Disorder. The alert is interrupted by static. The voices of beekeepers, environmentalists, and writers echo out from the past and present to announce the annihilation of bees, with humans soon to follow. Is this a message sent from the future? Stop. No, this is happening now. Stop. If honeybees are our oracles, the canaries in the coal mine that is our planet, are we at the end of days? Stop.
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SWEETY. THE FRIENDS, BETRAYAL AND MURDER OF MAJA BRADARIC
Director - Menna Laura Meijer
A girl is seen from behind ... The wind whips her hair around her neck in a silent frenzy of tightening knots ... Everything happens behind her back. On November 17, 2003, Maja Bradaric was strangled by three of her friends. She was just 16. Maja's intimates ask themselves why none of them saw it coming. Gorgeous cinematography sets a sullen, otherworldly mood; the soundtrack speaks for the dead. Sweety innovates by combining actual home video with re-enactments so stylish they feel interchangeably real. Cell phone footage could be archival or artificial-it doesn't matter. Adolescence is a dream, a fantasy without responsibility. Maja and her friends are typical teens: out of control, grasping, testing, and posturing. But the power dynamic of their clique is less typical. The love/hate turbulence in this peer group is extreme, with frenemies plotting, planning, and concealing a murder.
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JACKPOT
Director - Alan Black
It's 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. Do you know where your parents are? While many of us are sleeping or reading the paper, hardcore regulars are staking out their favorite seats at their favorite tables at Delta Bingo, where everyone has a story and a dream. The bingo hall, like some of its regulars, is a little worn down, but it offers a respite from the harsh realities of a big, lonely city. Day after day, week after week soon becomes decades for the regulars, who are convinced that if they hit the jackpot their problems will be solved. The pressure is intense since winning sometimes means being able to pay bills or make rent. For others, it's a way out of a life of hardship and heartbreak. A beautifully filmed meditation on the nature of luck and a reminder that we all need dreams, even if they are always one number away.
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PLANE DAYS
Directors - Benjamin Kracun, Ewan McNicol
Is it a Virgin? A Thai? An American? Young and old gather behind the perimeter fence at Heathrow Airport to swap stories and swig wine. They make a game of identifying aircraft by their engine noise or as tiny specks on the horizon. Entire days are spent recording and collecting airplane registration numbers. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of plane spotting, a rare pastime that makes a hobby of civilian surveillance.
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THE WAY WE GET BY
Director - Aron Gaudet
Bangor International Airport in Maine is the launching pad for troops on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan. It's also their first glimpse of home when they return. A small group of Bangor senior citizens have made it their mission to personally welcome and send off each individual soldier. Since 2003, they have greeted more than 800,000. The Way We Get By follows Bill, Joan, and Jerry as they sit on "hot standby." Joan, who struggles with chronic pain, often sleeps in her recliner awaiting a call that a plane is arriving. Jerry and his faithful dog Flanagan have become so attached to the airport they often sit in a car at the end of the runway to watch the planes take off. Bill, who battles financial debt and loneliness, is always the first to greet the troops as they arrive. A moving look at what millions of seniors face every day.
