Hot Docs
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“There is a Certain Freedom to Being an Outsider”: Garrett Zevgetis on Best and Most Beautiful Things
Boston-based filmmaker Garrett Zevgetis’s SXSW-premiering Best and Most Beautiful Things (its title a nod to Helen Keller’s words) is a cinematic portrait of a young woman in Bangor, Maine, a recent high school graduate who is searching for a job to suit her skills. An anime devotee whose rebel fashion sense seems to be influenced by her vast Werecat Sisters doll collection, Michelle Smith also happens to be legally blind and has Asperger’s syndrome. As the doc progresses, though, disabilities fade into the background, upstaged by Michelle’s determination to assert her individuality (including exploring BDSM) and live her life on […]
by Lauren Wissot on Dec 2, 2016 -
Sexploitation Star Kitten Natividad on Russ Meyer, Roger Ebert, Porn and the Hot Docs-premiering League of Exotique Dancers
Rama Rau’s League of Exotique Dancers is an absolutely delightful and lovingly crafted doc structured around a group of legendary striptease artists as they prepare to return to the stage for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend in Las Vegas — a trip which becomes merely an excuse for the filmmaker to delve deeply into the extraordinary lives of some truly groundbreaking women. Among the timelessly sexy inductees is none other than Kitten Natividad, best known as cult director Russ Meyer’s buxom muse. Prior to the film’s Hot Docs premiere, Filmmaker was fortunate enough to catch up with the Beneath […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 28, 2016 -
Hot Docs Selects Forum Projects for 2016
The Hot Docs Forum, the annual pitching event that stimulates international co-production financing, has announced this year’s 19 projects, representing 16 different countries. Selected from over 200 submissions, the below projects will present their pitches in front of a round table of leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and delegates from around the world. One high profile project, Objective: Change the World, otherwise known as “the Bill Nye film,” has already managed to raise $859,000 via Kickstarter, making it the most funded documentary ever on the crowdfunding platform. “We want to congratulate this year’s incredibly diverse projects, which showcase a […]
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 9, 2016 -
Eight Thoughts From the Pitch Round Table at Hot Docs Forum
From April 23-May 3, Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival spread its wings across the theaters of Toronto. Against that backdrop, the 16th Annual Hot Docs Forum and Conference Market featured another opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of documentary film funding and pitching. With 19 scheduled pitches (and one project picked out of a Mountie’s hat), I was once again given the chance to take the pulse of the documentary marketplace. Below are several thoughts culled from the front row at those pitch proceedings. 1. Get Your Trailer in Order So you’ve been chosen to be one […]
by Eli Brown on May 11, 2015 -
Hot Docs: Growing Crowds Amid Shrinking Funds
“There are more people here this year, but less money.” That’s how one veteran Canadian documentarian summed up the market at Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, which just wrapped in Toronto. At workshops and cocktail receptions, the chatter was as dark as the skies outside. Broadcasters here and abroad continue to slash their development and production budgets, and that’s forced doc directors to crowdfund on Indiegogo and Kickstarter to make up (part of) the shortfall, while others just leave the business. Sure, there were great films unveiled over the past 10 days at Hot Docs. Thomas Wallner’s Before The Last […]
by Allan Tong on May 5, 2014 -
Girls Interrupted: Juliet Lammers and Lorraine Price on Last Woman Standing
When I met Canadian director Juliet Lammers during the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival – where we served together on a sprawling panel – her film Last Woman Standing, which made the Hot Docs 2013 Netflix Audience Award top five, wasn’t even on my radar. But it certainly should have been. Co-directed by Lammers and Lorraine Price, Last Woman Standing is more than a riveting sports flick (though it’s that as well). Unique in approach, the doc focuses just as much on the relationship rift between Ariane Fortin and Mary Spencer, two of the world’s best boxers, as it does […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 27, 2014 -
More Than Saunas and Kaurismäkis: The Second Finnish Film Affair
“Love & Anarchy” may have been the motto of the 26th Helsinki International Film Festival, which took over the Finnish capital the last ten days of September, but hospitality and order ruled the three-day Finnish Film Affair. The industry event, which takes place during the fest and is now in its second year, was created in 2012 to highlight Finnish films and connect international professionals (mostly sales agents, distributors, and programmers) with the Nordic country’s surprisingly robust film scene. To that end, works in progress were presented alongside prestigious festival hits. And an abundance of networking opportunities at nightly parties […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 7, 2013 -
All in the Family: Shawney Cohen on Hot Docs Opener The Manor
The titular subject referred to in Shawney Cohen’s debut feature has nothing to do with ladies and lords, but with the Cohen family business – a combo strip club/motel in a small Canadian town. And The Manor has nothing to do with in the ins and outs of the sex industry, so to speak, but with the inner workings of the Cohen family, which includes Shawney’s 400-pound father (who bought the place when the director was only six) and 85-pound anorexic mother. Ultimately, the doc’s not so much north-of-the-border, reality TV than a nuanced portrait of a loving yet dysfunctional […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 25, 2013 -
TRAILER WATCH: “DESPITE THE GODS”
On Facebook, Hammer to Nail’s Michael Tully describes this as “The Trailer of the Century!” And certainly Penny Vozniak‘s Despite the Gods — a doc about Jennifer Lynch making her third feature, Hisss, in India — looks incredibly compelling and entertaining. Judge for yourself below! The movie premieres at Hot Docs at the end of next month, and I’m looking forward to hopefully catching up with it shortly afterward.
by Nick Dawson on Mar 28, 2012 -
IFP JOINS SHOOTING PEOPLE AND NYWIFT IN FIRST U.S. DELEGATION TO HOT DOCS
The IFP have announced they have teamed up with fellow organizations Shooting People and New York Women in Film & Television to lead the first-ever U.S. delegation to Hot Docs. The members of these organizations will get to attend the Toronto Documentary Forum, International Co-Production Day, and be featured in the Digital Doc Shop market. In addition, the delegation will receive other perks: access to all 255 screenings, Digital Doc Shop screenings, and all Hot Docs discussions, including the Kickstart panels, Hot Docs Talks, CoffeeTalks, and Micro Meanings. There will be over 1,900 documentary professionals from around the world, over […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 12, 2010
