About My Liberty (Japan, 165 minutes) Dir. Takahashi Nishihara) By Liam Lacey In 2015 and 2016, Japan witnessed the biggest student protest movement since the 1960s. The cause was a bill by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party that would allow Japan, for the first time since the country’s surrender in 1945, to
Maison du Bonheur (Canada, 64 min.) Dir. Sofia Bohdanowicz Programme: World Showcase (North American Premiere) Taking a trip to Paris, director Sofia Bohdanowicz visits with Juliane Sellam, the grandmother of a colleague, for her second feature film Maison du Bonheur. Sellam, a 77-year old astrologer who has lived in her lovely Montmartre home for
Gilbert (USA, 96 min.) Dir. Neil Berkeley Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere) Gilbert Gottfried has been compared to Lenny Bruce because like Lenny, he is a taboo-breaking, absurdity puncturing stand-up comic, whose most outrageous gags have landed him in deep shit. There was the 9/11 joke that prompted someone in the audience at a
69 Minutes of 86 Days (Norway, 71 minutes) Dir: Egil Håskjold Larsen Programme: International Spectrum. (North American Premiere) The most emblematic photograph of the Syrian war to date was that of the corpse of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, drowned on the Mediterranean beach in September 2015, after his refugee family’s third attempt to reach the
A Cambodian Spring (UK, 121 minutes) Dir. Chris Kelly Programme: International Spectrum (World Premiere) A visceral, complex film that should come with a “For further study” list, A Cambodian Spring was made over six years by the Irish, London-based filmmaker, Chris Kelly. This unavoidably complicated examination of Cambodia in the new millennium involves the
The Force (USA, 93 min.) Dir. Peter Nicks Programme: World Showcase (Canadian Premiere) It’s often easy for verité filmmakers to become so precious about their technique that they lose track of the narrative, allowing formal purity to come at the expense of content. So it’s refreshing to see that with The Force, the filmmakers
Quest (USA, 107 min.) Dir. Jonathan Olshefski Programme: World Showcase (International Premiere) Quest may be one of the most important films about the American experience ever filmed. A wonderful, captivating portrayal of a family, which spans the time from Obama’s inauguration through to the election of Trump, the film manages to be both epic
I Am Another You (USA, 85 min.) dir. Nanfu Wang Programme: International Spectrum (International Premiere) I Am Another You is an intricately layered, visually seductive exploration of the longing for absolute freedom, the thin white line between vision and madness, and director Nanfu Wang’s search for her own identity via her main character. Having
Chasing Coral (USA, 93 min.) Dir. Jeff Orlowsi Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere) In a cinematic landscape teeming with environmental advocacy docs calling attention to the woes of climate change, Chasing Coral manages to stand apart from the pack by focussing on a part of the planet witnessed by only a select few. The
The subject of the 2017 Hot Docs Focus On retrospective, Maya Gallus is a sophisticated, innovative feminist filmmaker. Since her sensational debut feature Elizabeth Smart: On the Side of the Angels premiered at TIFF (then called the Festival of Festivals) in 1991, she has created an exciting and provocative body of work, which includes Girl Inside (2007), Dish: Women, Waitressing & the Art of