Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.
Knock Down the House follows four grassroots campaigns, including that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as they strive to shake up the establishment.
#FemalePleasure (Switzerland/Germany, 97 min.) Dir. Barbara Miller Program: Changing Face of Europe (North American Premier) Barbara Miller’s indictment of the demonization of female sexuality is all over the place–but in a good way. She travels to the U.S., Germany and Italy, Japan and India to support the fact that men’s desire to control women when it comes to sex is absolutely universal. In Brooklyn, New York, Deborah Feldman describes how she left her Chassidic community when she could no longer bear the restrictions on women. Women are consistently devalued and female sexuality in that culture, she says, is considered toxic,
Symphony of the Ursus Factory (Poland, 61 min.) Dir. Jaśmina Wójcik Programme: Artscapes (North American Premiere) If there’s a prize for strangest film at Hot Docs, please bestow the golden laurels upon Symphony of the Ursus Factory. This wonderfully bizarre film by Jaśmina Wójcik might be the most audaciously original film of the festival. Falling somewhere between a Phillip Borsos industrial opus and a Pina Bausch dance, Symphony of the Ursus Factory is an ode to the working class that is full of human spirit and the most humane elements of industry. The doc assembles workers, mechanics, engineers, and administrators from the now-defunct Ursus Factory, which
Marek Edelman…And There Was Love in the Ghetto (Poland, 79 min.) Dir. Jolanta Dylewska Programme: International Spectrum (World Premiere) If making out during Schindler’s List is your game, and I hope it’s not, then Marek Edelman is the film for you. Never has a Holocaust documentary featured such detailed attention to wartime bosoms. This film is unequivocally the biggest jaw-dropper of a disappointment at Hot Docs this year. The focus of Marek Edelman…And There Was Love in the Ghetto simply feels disrespectful even if the final title cards explain how Marek Edelman, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, had seen too much horror in his lifetime and
Toxic Beauty (Canada, 90 min.) Dir. Phyllis Ellis Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere) With all the doom and gloom environmental documentaries out there, many might have missed the greatest ecological disaster closest to home. For all the manufactured landscapes and rivers turned to toxic waste lands by chemical pollution, too little consideration (at least in the movies) has been paid to the harmful effects of the daily use of products that are killing the planet. Toxic Beauty sounds the alarm with an eye-opening exposé that some of the worst pollution happens in one’s own body. While not an “environmental film” per se, Toxic
Kifaru (USA/Kenya, 79 min.) Dir. David Hambridge Programme: Animal Magnetism (International Premiere) This year’s edition of Hot Docs features a great theme programme called Animal Magnetism. It’s a series of docs that allows audiences to walk and talk with the animals, enjoy companionship with four-legged friends, and feed the hunger for furried non-fiction that’s been aching since the release of Kedi far too long ago. The wonderful series draws upon many themes via accessible approaches. Most significantly, Animal Magnetism is a shrewdly programmed spotlight of environmental films. The docs in the selection engage with the relationships between humans and non-human animals, and the
Drag Kids (Canada, 80 min.) Dir. Megan Wennberg Programme: Canadian Spectrum (World Premere) Four pre-teens, the film’s eponymous Drag Kids, delight in dressing up and going over the top on make up to achieve their ideal of 21st century glam. Then they strut their stuff in contests and venues that admit children. Stephan, Jason, and Nemis are boy drag queens; Bracken is a Vancouver girl who calls herself a “hyper queen,” meaning she wildly exaggerates her natural femininity. Montreal’s Nemis, known as Queen Lactacia, has become a star in the world of child drag. Wennberg’s energetic doc makes the point
Beauty and Decay (Germany, 79 min.) Dir. Annekatrin Hendel Programme: Artscapes (International Premiere) When director Annekatrin Hendel introduced Beauty and Decay at Hot Docs, she invited audiences to experience a country that hasn’t existed for 30 years. It’s an odd statement to make, since people come and people go, but geography roughly stays the same. Borders and social currents, however, are prone to change, and the sly German filmmaker was hinting at the fact that art is born out of a specific moment in a certain milieu. This sentiment is especially true of the subjects of her film Beauty and Decay, which transports
The El Duce Tapes (USA, 106 min.) Dir. Rodney Ascher, David Lawrence, Interviews directed by Ryan Sexton Programme: Nightvision (World Premiere) As The El Duce Tapes evolves into unexpected psychological, and in a way, political complexity, Eldon Hoke, shock rock drummer and frontman for his ‘90s band The Mentors, fantasizes about being an American dictator. El Duce barks that he would “build a Berlin Wall which is actually a Mexican wall, and not allow any immigrants to sneak into this country.” Hoke was also fond of ranting about unlimited pussy grabbing and Golden Showers. The doc, consisting mainly of VHS footage ex-actor Ryan Sexton
Who Let The Dogs Out (Canada, 60min.) Dir. Brent Hodge Programme: Nightvision (Canadian Premiere) On first blush Brent Hodge’s Who Let The Dogs Out is a silly film about a silly song, tracing with great humour one man’s search for meaning from a ghastly pop hit with an infectious chorus. Along the way the film uncovers deeper veins that question the very nature of creativity itself, finding that shared experiences shape work in numerous ways, resulting in performances, all drawing from a common well, where questions of authorship and ownership become murkier the closer one gazes upon them. The film is based
