25th anniversaries are ripe occasions for nostalgia and good feelings, and Hot Docs delivers both on its silver anniversary.
Canada's Documentary Magazine
Netizens (USA, 97 min.) Dir. Cynthia Lowen Programme: Silence Breakers (International Premiere) Hot Docs spotlights the Silence Breakers this year with a special line-up of films that capture the passion, energy, rage, and impact of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s precipitous fall that rocked Hollywood and workplace relations
Witkin & Witkin (Mexico, 93 min.) Dir. Trisha Ziff Program: Made in Mexico (International Premiere) Being a twin can sometimes feel like being in a circus sideshow. People gawk. They stare. They ask questions nobody would ever ask a “single.” As a twin, I can relate to the stories presented in Witkin & Witkin
The Distant Barking of Dogs (Denamrk/Finland/Sweden, 86 min.) Dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont “Every dog is a lion in its own house.” It is almost a cliché at this point for documentaries about war to focus on the neutral, innocent civilians who could not care less about the conflict and just want to get on
Obscuro Barroco (France/Greece, 60 min.) Dir. Evangelia Kranioti Programme: Nightvisions (North American Premiere) A lyric ode to bodies and cities, an essay on self-invention, a multi-sensory immersion in the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival: Obscuro Barroco is, gloriously, all those things. Drawing on Clarice Lispector’s novel Água Viva, trans activist
Few filmmakers have the legacy and longevity as Hot Docs' 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award winner Barbara Kopple. POV offers an appreciation of her works, including Harlan County, USA, American Dream, Shut Up and Sing, and Miss Sharon Jones.
Ask Samara Chadwick how she describes her high school years and the director admits she often poses the query herself. “It’s a question that I was asking people during the first interviews,” said Chadwick, speaking with POV from Switzerland via Skype ahead of 1999’s Hot Docs premiere. “The stories you tell most often become the most distorted. I wanted
The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution (Canada, 75 min.) Dir. Maya Gallus Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere – Opening Night) There’s a bad meme called ‘Get back in the kitchen!’ that social media users (male ones) use to keep women in their place. The “joke” is gendered and draws upon outdated roles in which women
Yuqi Kang has made a film that’s rich in its appreciation of the vagaries of life—and sadness is only one of many emotions evoked in A Little Wisdom.
Over the Limit (Poland, Germany, Finland, 74 minutes) Dir: Marta Prus Programme: World Showcase. (North American Premiere) When asked about her personal goals, Russian rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun responds by saying, “We should push past our limits.” Throughout the film Mamun’s goal is met, over and over, as she practices and performs her routines