Hot Docs ‘22: Even More Brief Encounters With the Best Told Real-Life Stories on the Planet
By Jim Slotek, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, Liam Lacey and Bonnie Laufer
The 29th edition of Hot Docs, the world’s largest documentary film festival, continues apace! Seen anything great yet? You will, guaranteed. With 226 documentaries from 63 countries (chosen from a total of 2,563 submissions), 49 percent directed by women, the Festival truly has something for everyone.
Running through May 8 in cinemas across Toronto — as well as online via streaming to audiences across Canada — the Festival offers programming that reflects every corner and concern of our world, with films from Colombia to Croatia to Canada, Armenia to Austria, Serbia to Switzerland, Mexico to Mali and all points in between represented.
In addition to our preview of the event, Original-Cin offers mini-reviews and interview throughout the Fest to help you pick the best stuff to see. Herewith, our third batch of capsule reviews. (Click here for the first roundup and here for the second).
Attica is a rage-inducing dive into one of America’s ugliest exposes into institutionalized racism. The 1971 organized uprising of inmates at the Attica Penitentiary protesting the treatment of Black inmates garnered worldwide attention. But their message of entrenched racism and brutal treatment of its Black inmates got lost in the bravura of prison officials, police, and even the President who took to the world stage as though it were an opportunity to publicly display an unyielding might against resistance. The result became a real-life horror. Directors Traci Curry and Stanley Nelson combine hard-hitting footage of the riot, with eyewitness testimonies to create a shocking account of events during and after the five-day standoff. It hardly seems possible that the world watched while these atrocities unfolded. For others, these atrocities are all too familiar. Attica is not just a time-capsule documentary but a passport into examining a failed system that thrives even today. TE
Mon, May 2, 1:45pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; online streaming now available.
Relative
Three Spanish-speaking female immigrants to Canada talk about their lives. We hear them speaking, but we don’t see their faces until the very end of the film. Writer/director Lina Rodriguez interweaves their stories while showing us sun-dappled, abstract images of ordinary daily life: hands on a steering wheel, washing dishes, putting a child’s hair up in pigtails. The women speak conversationally and even lightheartedly about their lives, even when their stories are harrowing. One talks about living through an assault on her apartment building by Pablo Escobar and his gang; another talks about a defining incident with a drunken, abusive husband. They also talk about ordinary things like being mothers, businesses they’d like to own, the connection to their home culture, adjusting to life in a new country. You’d think we’d have trouble connecting to these women having not seen their faces. But Colombian/Canadian Rodriguez is a masterful storyteller. My Two Voices draws us in and gets at the idea that we all have stories. By the time we see their beautiful faces, we feel like we’re seeing old friends.
Tue, May 3, at 11:30 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, featuring a Q&A with the director & producer; online streaming now until May 4.
Director Tracey Arcabasso Smith tackles the topic of childhood sexual abuse—her own—and spins a gripping tale of a dark legacy of intergenerational family secrets. Smith confronts the matriarchs in her family; her mother and grandmother, both who have been the sexual victims of their own cousins, fathers, and grandfathers. They share their stories reluctantly, seemingly out of a duty to the filmmaker, still clinging to the belief that true survival means putting the past behind them. But the most damning revelations come not from the telling of first-person accounts but from footage of home movies where the aggressive behaviour of some of the patriarchs are played out in uncomfortable interactions under the guise of ‘good’ family fun. Smith’s film also reveals how victims downplay and compartmentalize the trauma and contribute to keeping the secret. Perhaps the greatest achievement in Relative is in the director’s immense restraint when dealing with the frustrating mantra from the people she loves reinforcing their own docile acceptance “Did he hit you?” Smith asks her grandmother. “When I needed it,” the grandmother answers, “And sometimes even when I didn’t.” TE
Sun, May 1, 2:15 pm, Varsity 8; Fri, May 6, 2:15 pm, Isabel Badger Theatre; online streaming begins May 2, 9 am.
Delightful is not word you’d expect to hear describing a film about a 14-year-old boy abandoned by his otherwise loving mother. But in director Reed Harkness’ SAM NOW, the delight comes from Sam, the filmmaker’s charismatic half-brother. Harkness captures the heart of his family in good times and bad reaching back through home footage shot on Super 8 of a SAM THEN before giving us the SAM NOW. Reed chronicles the search for the woman who one day disappeared from their lives without so much as a goodbye or a note. It’s a tough tale bound to incite strong feelings from its viewers that don’t necessarily jibe with the film’s participants. And there are truths in the movie that pop up in unexpected places from unexpected people. SAM NOW is frustrating, heartfelt, and indeed, delightful. TE
Sun, May 1, 5:45 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; Thu, May 5, 2:45 Varsity 8; online streaming begins May 2, 9 am.
Elsbeth Fraanje chronicles the efforts of a charismatic, quick-witted, easy-to-laugh disabled woman who lives her life in a body that was, according to her own assessment, never meant to be hers. She is confined to a wheelchair, referring to condition as ‘spastic.’ Through her life she has clung to her mother’s statement that sexual activity helps make a person whole. Now, at 58 years old, the woman is determined to claim her right to feeling whole. She ventures on a journey of sexual actualization through sex shops, lingerie stores, and a catalogue of sexual facilitators. Sexual Healing is a frank film about one life seeking fulfillment in a way most of us take for granted. Touching, funny, sensual and rewarding, Sexual Healing is naughty in all the nice ways. TE
Sun, May 1, 11:30 am TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Thu, May 5, 5:15 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; online streaming begins May 2, 9 am.
Shabu
Referring to a documentary as being a slice of life might seem a bit redundant, but if Shabu were a docudrama or otherwise a fictional narrative, slice of life would be exactly how I’d refer to it. The film centres around Shabu, a 14-year-old Norwegian boy who steals then wrecks his grandmother’s car. But Shabu adores his grandmother and cannot bear the ostracization she imposes on him. And so, he is determined to make amends, earn the money to pay for any damages and fines incurred, and get back to the business of being an urban dwelling teenager determined to become a famous hip-hop musician. Shabu is a disarming film filled with the natural charm coming from its characters, Shabu, his friends, his girlfriend, and family. But the film achieves a narrative style that sticks to such a tight consecutive timeline, with all angles covered and no hints of a fourth wall broken, that it feels suspiciously scripted. It’s an observation, not an accusation, and no doubt an exemplary feat of documentary filmmaking, but a style that ironically leaves me feeling less engaged with the characters. TE
Tue, May 3, 5:15pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3; Sat, May 7, 10:45 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; online streaming begins May 4, 9 am.