“What the fuck am I doing here?” asks the narrator towards the end of Lost Boys. A similar question passed through this reviewer’s mind multiple times whilst screening the film. Lost Boys is both inspired and driven by questionable choices. It has an admirable premise, but the execution is way off and the result is
Systems Down, one of this year’s themed programs at Hot Docs, features a collection of stories about individuals fighting against broken structures of oppression. Fitting snugly into the theme of the good fight soldiering on is Faceless, Jennifer Ngo’s dizzying portrait of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that waged amid a warzone of
“Chinese rock ‘n’ roll is like a rolling egg,” says musician Cui Jian at the end of You Are the Days to Come. “Yet, we have not been broken or harmed. I hope that one day the egg will hatch and a new life will be ready to fly.” You Are the Days to Come
“My body stinks of strawberries and work when I wake up,” says Ashley Solis, the teenager at the heart of the new doc Fruits of Labor. The film follows Solis and her family as they work to make ends meet as a Mexican-American immigrant family on the central coast of California. Your next bowl of
In Haiti, the term zo reken (meaning “Shark Bone”) refers both to a local cane alcohol and the popular 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser that can be seen weaving through the congested streets. Frequently used by both Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the police, the vehicle is both a source of humanitarian aid and a symbol of
Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s Archipelago is an animated essay that navigates territories real and imagined while interrogating the mythology and history of Quebec.
Vladimir Dvorkin was a prolific artist who painted thousands of beautiful portraits during his lifetime. One wouldn’t know it, however, from gallery catalogues, exhibition reviews, or Google searches. One wouldn’t even know of him by looking at signatures on paintings made by his own hand, for Dvorkin was a ghost painter. For years, the Russian-born
Someone Like Me and One of Ours intimately confront identity and belonging.
Bank Job is a decidedly unserious film about a serious subject: debt. Filmmaking duo Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell document their grassroots debt-abolishing project in a new documentary with a fictional heist twist. It might be the most fun you have at Hot Docs, if you buy into the scheme. “You could make a film
The winner of the 2017 Corus-Hot Docs Forum Pitch Prize, Israeli director Michal Weits’ Blue Box links her family story linked to bitter debates about Israel’s founding. The filmmaker’s great-grandfather, Joseph (Yosef) Weitz emigrated to Palestine from Eastern Europe as an 18-year-old labourer in 1908. In the 1930s, he became director of the non-profit Jewish
