U of T’s St. George campus was buzzing at the dawn of May, and it wasn’t because of exams. Television crews hosted interviews amid the school’s historic sites, and long line-ups of film aficionados stretched around venues like the Isabel Bader Theatre and Innis Town Hall. What was all this swanky commotion about? Hot Docs!
Now in its 13th year, and premiering 101 international documentaries, Hot Docs serves as a launch pad for films seeking industry attention, and is renowned for being North America’s largest documentary festival.
With box office figures for documentary films on the rise following the success of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 (and those blasted marching penguins) it is no coincidence that Hot Docs is celebrating a record year. Attendance at the festival has risen by 25 percent with 50,000 audience members and 1,800 industry reps showing up at the screenings.
The festival even garnered the attention of Hollywood A-listers Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Gael Garcia Bernal who all turned up for the screening of Wordplay.
The success of Hot Docs, and documentary films in general, is a testament to the fact that images of the real world are more engaging than most Hollywood concoctions. And with the current events being as interesting as they are, there is a good chance that the festival’s success will continue.
So without further adieu, here’s the low down on what’s hot, and what’s not at this year’s Hot Docs.
Fuck
(dir. Steve Anderson)
Fuck you. Fuck me. Fuck off. These phrases and more are discussed in first-time filmmaker Steve Anderson’s look at the queen mother of all dirty words, the f-bomb. Comedians, linguists, gonzo journalists, reverends, and rappers alike weighed in on the implications of what the word means to a rapidly dividing America. The biggest laughs from the sold-out Friday screening came from talking head Pat Boone, a conservative 1950’s heartthrob-turned-born-again Christian suggesting that his own surname be substituted instead of the almighty curse word itself. (Somehow, “We got totally booned last night!” just doesn’t sound as satisfying…) While Anderson’s documentary is an entertaining look at language, U.S. political anxieties, and human repression, too much reliance on flashy graphics and animation stoped the viewer from grasping the core message. Essentially, when it comes to America, we’re fucked either way. -CHANDLER LEVACK
Rating: VVV
The Railroad Allstars
(dir. Chema Rodriquez)
How do two-dollar hookers raise awareness of the violence their occupation invites? Playing soccer may not seem like the obvious answer, but that’s exactly what a group of South American prostitutes do in Chema Rodriguez’s film, The Railroad Allstars. Hailing from a degenerate wasteland by some Guatemalan train tracks, where protection is a perpetual dream and respect is a passing notion, the ensemble of surprisingly articulate women turn to competition to win attention for their cause. However, even playing soccer turns out to be problematic for the women of ill repute, since their cause is one which society would rather ignore. Rodriguez’s film exhibits a profound admiration for the group, who maintain a buoyant nature despite the sordid conditions they endure. Even though the ladies never win a game, their relentless hope is nothing short of inspirational. -Radheyan Simonpillai
Rating: VVVv
The World According to Sesame Street
(dir. Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Linda Hawkins)
With all the horrors and tragedies in the world today, we need films like this to restore faith in the human race. This beautiful, wonderful work documents the evolving history of Sesame Street. The film focuses on Sesame co-productions in Bangladesh, Kosovo, and South Africa, and the people who come together in those areas to give hope to some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. A message of mutual respect and hope for a better future combine with the basic educational agenda of Sesame Street, but in formats tailored to each specific country. Design teams from both the United States and the co-production countries create indigenous Muppets and “Streets”, with local languages being dubbed over classic American segments. Towards the end of the film, a village square in a Bengali town is shown crowded with children, waiting excitedly as a man wheels in a television on a cart. He attaches the set to a car battery, and the faces of the kids light up as Sesame Street comes to life on the screen. The children’s beaming faces were aptly mirrored by those of the audience at the screening of this charming and affecting film.
-JENNIFER FABRO
Rating: VVVVV
Citadel
(dir. Atom Egoyan)
We’ve all been there. You’re a guest in someone’s home, and all of a sudden it happens. You’re abruptly forced to take a seat in the living room while the bubbly host readies the VCR, DVD player or (if you’re really unlucky) slide projector and subjects you to an in-depth analysis of his family vacation to God-knows-where. Sitting there, you can’t help but think to yourself, “Why am I watching this?” So, you crank up that smile and feign interest while he describes why he shot this and that, and then tries to muster up some revelation or deeper meaning about the trip, as if going on vacation requires a grand justification! This is exactly what watching Atom Egoyan’s recalibrated travelogue, Citadel, is like. Essentially it is a collection of home videos that the celebrated director shot on his family’s trip to Lebanon edited together as an experiment in the documentary genre. Egoyan, whose impressive body of work (which includes the acclaimed films Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter) could lure many an unsuspecting cinephile to a theatre seat, positions the film as both a love song to his wife and a future epistle to his son. With self-deprecating humour that rarely hits the mark, this dry exercise of Ego’s own flatulence falls fabulously flat. Maybe you just had to be there. -RS
Rating: Vv
Uganda Rising
(dir. Jesse James Miller, Pete McCormack)
Not for the faint of heart, Uganda Rising aims to expose viewers to the graphic violence and ongoing ethnic strife which still occur in what many people wrongly assume is a stable African nation. While filmmakers Jesse James Miller and Pete McCormack retrace the missteps towards massacre back to the arbitrary borders drawn by British colonial overseers, the film’s main focus is the disturbing practice of child conscription. Since armed conflict broke out between Government troops under the command of former rebel Yoweri Museveni and a new rebel faction called The Lord’s Resistance Army in 1986, the LRA has succeeded in abducting more than twenty-five thousand children from crowded displacement camps in Northern Uganda. Apparently receiving his gruesome orders from God, the LRA’s prophetic leader Joseph Kony forces these “new recruits”-some as young as ten-to commit acts of unimaginable horror against their own families, enemies of the LRA, captured civilians and even each other. The idea being to force-fashion large groups of impressionable children into masochistic killing machines.
One young abduction survivor recalls how he was forced-with an AK-47 trained on his head-to cut down a large tree with a machete and then use the thick branches to smash the heads of seven captured villagers. Once the seven were bludgeoned to death he was forced to lick the bloody brain matter that spilt from the heads of each of his victims. He was only thirteen at the time. Cut together with expert interviews from politico luminaries Noam Chomsky and Canada’s own Lloyd Axworthy, the horror of Uganda Rising makes everyday grief (like the high price of theatre popcorn) seem totally absurd. -JORDAN BIMM
Rating: VVVV
Wordplay
(dir. Patrick Creadon)
Who would have thought that a documentary about one of the most solitary American pastimes could become the hottest commodity on the festival circuit? However, that’s just what Patrick Creadon’s festive ode to the crossword puzzle does. The film pivots itself on the antics of the New York Times crossword editor, Will Shortz, who graduated from Indiana University in a program of his own design-enigmatology! Moving letter by letter through Shortz’s eccentric workflow and showing the enthusiastic reception the puzzles get from his legion of fans (who include Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton) Wordplay comically reveals how one of the most overlooked cultural diversions is to many nothing short of a religious devotion.
Within this covenant we get to know the “puzzle gurus,” who are to the crossword what Trekkies are to the Starship Enterprise. These individuals gather annually at Shortz’ American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, a showdown that feels less like pencil and paper drudgery and more like the 100-metre dash. Just like its subject matter, Wordplay may amount to an insignificant passing of time, but its a rollicking good one at that. As for the final verdict on the film, here’s a clue: Marvel’s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Four. -RS
Rating: VVVV
Shadow Company
(dir. Nick Bicanic)
Nick Bicanic’s absorbing probe into the corporate world of hired guns asks one tough question: is it any less tragic to die for money than it is for a political cause? The search for an answer ricochets back and forth, as the newbie filmmaker interviews a variety of corporate analysts, militants, and private security contractors who offer their insights about the risky lives of the 20,000 mercenaries currently deployed in Iraq. Bicanic does a fine job of dissecting the spectrum of circumstances, justifications, and dangers that orbit a trade where any trained “professional”, with an itchy trigger finger, can get to see action and collect a hefty salary. One character describes this situation with private military firms as “the corporate evolution of the age-old mercenary trade.” Though Shadow Company may stumble at times with due to a scattershot focus, the film still draws up a great potent essay. These mercenaries are men who lack immediate social justification for their actions but are readily compensated to take a political stance; not knowing where they stand morally until it’s too late. – RS
Rating: VVVv
