Almost Almost Famous (Canada/USA, 84 min.) Dir. Barry Lank Nowadays everyone wants to be famous—and it’s possible to achieve stardom in an instant. With social media spin and “influence,” one can easily skyrocket to the spotlight without doing anything extraordinary. This isn’t anything new, mind you, but it’s gotten way, way, way out of control
The DOC Institute Honours recognized Amar Wala with the BMO-DOC Vanguard Award, sponsored and presented by BMO Bank of Montreal, and cinematographer Zoe Dirse with the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award, sponsored and presented by Rogers Group of Funds.
Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out in America (Canada, 98 min.) Dir. Brigitte Berman Hugh Hefner’s claim to fame might his centerfold spreads of bunnies and beavers, but he did a lot more than publish some dirty magazines. Oscar winner Brigitte Berman returns to the world of the late Playboy icon following her 2009 documentary Hugh
Prosecuting Evil: the Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz (Canada, 83 min.) Dir. Barry Avrich Barry Avrich’s new documentary Prosecuting Evil: the Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz is a Holocaust film with a difference: this one has a happy ending. Ferencz was in his early twenties, when he witnessed the aftermath of the one of the worst atrocities
Nothing Like a Dame (UK, 82 min.) Dir. Roger Michell Enjoy a few pitchers of afternoon gins with acting royalty in Nothing Like a Dame. This easygoing documentary from Notting Hill and My Cousin Rachel director Roger Michell joins four of the finest actresses of any generation or kingdom for an afternoon of reflection, merriment, and gossip. Dames Judi Dench,
Over this evening and the next, staunch filmmaker and author Julian Samuel will have two of his major documentaries screened at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Both take on the subject of libraries: where they’ve been and what their current incarnation means to society and—dare I say it?—civilization. The screenings are free but the talk in the films and,
The Price of Everything (USA, 98 min.) Dir. Nathaniel Kahn “I think there are three kinds of people in this world,” says Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman of Global Fine Arts at Sotheby’s auction house, to director Nathaniel Kahn in The Price of Everything. “Those who see, those who see when they are shown, and those who will
Mental (Japan/USA, 135 min.) Dir: Kazuhiro Soda Programme: Kazuhiro Soda: Making Images Speak Near the end of his 2008 doc Mental, Kazuhiro Soda gets questioned by one of the psychiatric patients he’s interviewing. The man, a schizophrenic, who like many of the other patients in the film, shows clarity of mind that contradicts stereotypes about the
I Think You’ve Been Looking for Me (Canada, 44 min.) Dir. Kacim Steets Family is an endless source of inspiration for documentary filmmakers. While these wild-but-true yarns can often be too personal for their own good, they can, if revealed carefully, tap into part of the collective consciousness and extend the story beyond one family
The Waldheim Waltz (Austria, 93 min.) Dir: Ruth Beckermann Programme: Special Presentations If Donald Trump had been US president when the Kurt Waldheim scandal erupted in the 1980s, he would have ignored public evidence (and confidential CIA reports) that Waldheim lied about his Nazi affiliations during the war. “Kurt is a good man,” Trump would have said.