Hot Docs Turns 30: We've Seen 'Em, Read 'Em While They're Hot!
By Original-Cin Staff
Appropriately, on the celebratory occasion of its 30th Anniversary, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is coming off an Oscar “contact high.”
Two of last year’s films went Hollywood. The Canadian-made Navalny won Best Documentary Feature, while Fire of Love was a well-loved nominee.
The lesson: Throw a few hundred cutting edge docs against the screen, and some of them will stick.
The themes are as wide and conflicted as human experience itself. Animal rights activism, the effects of space, the Indigenous right to hunt seals, wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, child soldiers, whimsical obsessions (from Barbie to taxidermy), solved and unsolved crimes, homelessness, deep sea free-diving, and witchcraft. But every film has a human face.
Original-Cin writers have screened a plethora of films from this year’s Hot Docs bounty, which runs from April 27 to May 7, 2023 at Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, Scotiabank Theatre, Isabel Bader Theatre and the TIFF Bell Lightbox (some, but not all, are screenable online).
These include the opening night feature Twice Colonized, about the Inuit activist/lawyer Aaju Peter, who has lived with and experienced both Denmark’s and Canada’s treatment of Native culture. CLICK HERE to read our interview with Aaju Peter. And watch for our interview with Barry Avrich, director of Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella.
Reviewers: Kim Hughes, Karen Gordon, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey, Thom Ernst, John Kirk, Bonnie Laufer and Jim Slotek
Before the Sun.
Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun
Sat, Apr 29, 2:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7; Wed, May 3, 3 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; streaming online (Canada online) May 5 to 9.
In Alberta, Logan Red Crow spends her days caring for the horses on her family’s ranch. But she dreams of winning the Indian relay race which requires competitors not only to ride bareback but to blaze three horses around the track, switching twice during the race, thus spiking the excitement and the risk of catastrophic injury. That the relay is male dominated goes without saying. But with the unwavering support of her family, Logan slowly gains confidence, skill, and dexterity, using her last-place finish in a relay at age 15 — but a finish just the same — as a springboard to glory. Before the Sun is about horses and horse-racing but it is, most touchingly, a father-daughter story showing what love can nourish. The film is also visually sumptuous, with director Banchi Hanuse contrasting the wide-open vistas of the prairies against tight close-ups of the seemingly contemplative horses, beautiful all. KH
Fri, Apr. 28, 2:30 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox
An Asian Ghost Story, from director Bo Wang, is one of three shorts in the Markers Shorts Program. Despite its ethereal title and a few haunting images spattered through its 38 minutes, Wang’s film has more to do with a cultural shift in Hong Kong’s Imperial past. The ghost here exists in manufactured wigs, an export banned by the American government in 1965. The wigs become vessels of a past—even if only symbolically—that carry the spirit of those whose hairs are painstakingly woven into each wig. Wang infuses the story with a surreal and comical in delivery. TE
Sun, Apr 30, 3:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Fri, May 5, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7; streaming online (Canada only) May 5-9.
A synopsis of Angel Applicant, a decade-in-the-making film by Ken August Meyer, sounds like an emotional stickup: A filmmaker with a life-threatening auto-immune disease finds solace in the squiggly abstract art of Paul Klee. In practice, Meyer’s film, which won the documentary prize at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, is a thought-provoking personal essay about the reflecting mirrors of life and art. A commercial art director by trade, Meyer weaves together intimate family moments, re-enactments, and animation to chronicle the progress of his condition which distorted his appearance and created scar tissue throughout his organs. He was drawn to the later works of Klee who had the same condition, affecting his late-career technique and themes. The film culminates in Bern, Switzerland, where Meyer meets with the painter’s grandson and gleans comfort from the “empathetic ghost” behind Klee’s final works. LL
Black Barbie: A Documentary.
Sat, Apr 29, 2:15 pm Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Tues, May 2, 3:30 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Sat, May 6, 4:45 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox 2.
With Greta Gerwig’s much-anticipated Barbie movie coming to theaters this summer, Black Barbie: A Documentary is perfectly timed at Hot Docs. The film takes a look at the true story of Black Barbie from her origins to her contemporary presence in Mattel’s doll universe. Director Lagueria Davis gives us an insider’s look into the world of Barbie, mainly because her aunt worked at Mattel and was instrumental in the development and merchandising of the original Black Barbie doll. It’s both fascinating and entertaining to watch Davis’s aunt Beulah and her colleagues interviewed, giving us a front-row seat as they discuss the creation, marketing, and growing popularity of Black Barbie. Will Black Barbie have her comeback? It’s worth the watch to find out. BL
Fri. April 28, 8:45 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Fri. May 5, 6 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox 2. Streaming online.
Rama Rau’s film rounds up three young women who self-identify as witches, each seeking their heritage. The search is colourful, though the title isn’t exactly accurate. One of the three, Toronto’s Laura Hokstad, is a “solitary witch,” a coven-less free-agent, as it were. She visits Scotland to explore the lives of ancestors who were burned as witches. Toronto singer Ayo Leilani travels to New Orleans to meet a founder of the Black Witches movement. And Andra Maria Zlatescu travels to her native Romania to meet Eastern Europe’s most powerful witch. What is a witch, anyway? The movie is short on details. The closest it comes is Hokstad’s guide, an avuncular Scotsman who explains that accusations of witchcraft were usually an excuse for crass theft of women’s wealth and property (in other words, no supernaturalism involved). I wish I’d learned more, but self-discovery overpowers all here. JS
Sun. April 30, 2:45 p.m.. Isabel Bader Theatre; Thurs. May 4, 5 p.m. Scotiabank Theatre 7. Streaming online.
One of the worst tendencies of crime investigation is to decide guilt early and gravitate to evidence that supports it. That’s the subtext of this doc by Sherien Barsoum. In 2011, Cindy Ali, a Trinidadian-Canadian mother of four, phoned 911. reporting her home was being invaded by two masked men dressed in black suits. When a first responder arrived, Cindy was unconscious and her special needs daughter Cynara was dead on a couch. At every legal step, Cindy was treated as a prime suspect, counter-evidence be damned. The film follows both her ordeal, and the solid support she received from both her church and her family in her fight against a murder conviction. It’s a story whose ending has yet to be told, but a riveting one. JS
Fri, Apr 29, 6 pm and Sat, Apr 26, 11:15 am, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sun, May 7, 11 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
Throughout the COVID pandemic, famed American food critic and memoirist Ruth Reichl Zoomed colleagues and acquaintances — farmers, ranchers, chefs, restauranteurs and, perhaps most notably, Alice Waters — to take the temperature of her industry. What she found, of course, was “a disaster moment for the food system,” though as the film reveals, the breakdown was already well underway with the pandemic merely hastening the avalanche. Foodies and their ilk will find little revelatory information in Food and Country; the precariousness of both contemporary agriculture and the restaurant business is well-documented, and the latter has already reacted post-pandemic in ways including (but not limited to) expanding their repertoire of services and offering better wages. Reichl, also a producer, focuses on individuals rather than agri-giants which would necessarily demand forays into issues of climate disaster and worker exploitation. But the whole exercise feels weirdly dated and very narrow in scope. Time is better spent with Mark Bittman’s riveting Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal from 2021, which summarily upends everything we think we know about food production while offering real world solutions. KH
Mon, May 1, 9:15 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Fri, May 5, 8:30 PM, Scotiabank Theatre 7; streaming online (Canada only), May 5-7. Streaming online
A personal essay and record of a cultural moment, filmmaker San San F Young’s, fleet, poignant Hong Kong Mixtape, traces how, after returning from school in England, she became engaged in her home country’s counter-cultural movement and anti-authoritarian protests. She profiles artist-activists such as the dance troupe, Dancemocracy, the rapper, Luna, and the anonymous collective behind the “Lady Liberty” statues (a white plaster figure of a woman in a gas mask, wielding an umbrella). San sees these artists’ work as a rupture from Hong Kong’s business-first conformity, with works that are pointed and sardonic. (“I can be subtle — but now’s not the right time,” says performance artist, Kacey Wong.) Then, in June 2020, China imposed a “national security law” outlawing any form of expression deemed subversive: “And just like that, everything we made is illegal,” says Young. In its concluding chapter, the film shifts to the diasporic arts community, scattered in cities around the world, where the cultural protestors remain committed to the possibility of a democratic Hong Kong. L.L.
House of the Wickedest Man in the World
Wed, May 3, 8:15 p.m. Scotia Bank Theatre
Part of the Nightvision Shorts Program is Finnish director Jan Ijäs’ House of the Wickedest Man in the World. Ijäs story is part biography, part true-crime (if occultism is indeed a crime) part poetry reading and part avante-garde filmmaking. Throughout Ijäs focuses his camera on the ruins of infamous occultist Aleister Crowley’s Italian villa. Poetry and verses from Crowley’s diary are read like incantations designed to awaken the dead. The film does little to dissuade any unfounded belief that Crowley was truly evil, but there is glorious delight in the ways the film perpetuates the myth and the legend. TE
Tues. May 2, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4, 2:15 p.m.; Fri. May 5, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, 8:45 p.m.; streaming (Canada only) May 5-9.
Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies makes the case that the Russian war against Ukraine started nine years ago, not only with the 2014 annexation of Crimea, but with the shooting down of Malaysian Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, killing 283 international passengers and 15 crew aboard.
While this unusual collage film has sequences that resemble an investigative documentary doc, it’s ultimately an art-documentary hybrid. Liubyi uses found video footage, trial coverage, clips from dissembling Russian TV hosts, audio files, and social media posts that were part of the Dutch investigation and trial, interweaved to provide a poetic commemoration to the tragedy. The shock waves of the tragedy are better exemplified in scenes with middle-aged Dutch musician, Robby Oehlers, whose cousin and her boyfriend died in the plane. He travels to the crash site, where debris and personal effects of the passengers are still lying on the ground. LL
Mon, May 1, 5:30 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre; Sun, May 7, 11:45 am, Scotiabank Theatre 6; streaming online (Canada only) May 5 to 9.
When we meet Jacqueline Jencquel in her son Tuki Jencquel’s unvarnished film about her, she is two months shy of her 75th birthday in October 2018. Launching into a diatribe about heaven and hell, Jacqueline asserts herself as forceful and opinionated. Also smart, crude, highly sexual, and determined to die in January 2020, not because she is ill but because she can guarantee agency over herself in way that lingering on into dotage — and thus, potentially upping her chances of succumbing to murder, disease, or terrorist attack — cannot. If the root of Tuki Jencquel’s film is robust discussion about right-to-die issues, it is largely lost in the swirl of his bombastic mother who is captivating in the way of a car crash and possibly motivated less by fear of incapacitation than by vanity, though that may just be an uncharitable guess from a disenchanted viewer. KH
Lac-Mégantic This Is Not An Accident
Sat Apr 29, 4 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
At about 1 am, July 6, 2013, an unmanned 73-car freight train carrying tanks of crude oil rolled forward on its tracks down a slope into the town of Lac-Mégantic in southeast Quebec, where it derailed and exploded, destroying half the downtown and taking 47 lives. Directed by from Philippe Falardeau (the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar), this powerful, well-balanced four-part series re-examines the decade-old disaster, the lingering impact on the town and the lessons that haven’t been learned. Based on a book by investigative reporter, Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, the series begins with archival footage and victims’ accounts of the night half the downtown was destroyed, progresses through the search for missing people, the political response, the forced evictions of citizens, criminal trial and organization of a class action suit. The final episode of the series focuses on a different derailment near Field, British Columbia, where three rail-workers were killed, followed by accusations of cover-ups in Canadian Pacific’s internal investigation. The most troubling takeaway from the series is that little has been done to prevent another catastrophic “accident:” from happening again. LL
Love To Love You: Donna Summer.
Love To Love You, Donna Summer
Fri, Apr 28, 9 pm, Sun, Apr 30 12:15 pm, and Mon, May 1, 9:15 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Prepare to meet the real Donna Summer in this in-depth look at the Queen of Disco's life through home videos and archival interviews with friends, relatives, colleagues, and the subject herself. Having seen the Broadway musical, I thought I had a good grasp on Summer’s life. But this documentary co-directed by Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano (who is Summer's daughter) shows us everything the singer went through, from her childhood to her rise to fame and her untimely death from lung cancer. Although filled with fascinating revelations, it focuses on her music. I defy anyone not to bop along to all of Summer’s classic and memorable disco tunes. BL
.
Tue, May 2, 10:30 a.m. Isabel Bader Theatre; streaming (Canada only) online, May 5-9.
A decade ago, Tablet, the online Jewish magazine, called the self-taught artist, Nathan Hilu, “the greatest Jewish Outsider artist you’ve never heard of.” The accolade marked a couple of New York exhibitions of the artist’s idiosyncratic drawings and writings, chronicling the period he served as an 18-year-old U.S. soldier assigned to guard the Nazi leadership at the Nuremberg trials. In this capacity he encountered Albert Speer, Hermann Goering and Julius Streicher. Hilu’s name faded away again until he caught the attention of filmmaker, Elan Golad. Hilu, eager to be in the spotlight again, was in his nineties at the time of filming. We see him bundled in layers of clothes, hunched over his drawing paper, compulsively talking about his experiences seven decades ago, interrupted by archival clips, photos and talking-head commentary from art curator, Laura Kruger, and lawyer, Eli Rosenbaum, the llongtime Department of Justice ”Nazi hunter.” Though largely conventional, the film takes an intriguing turn in the last third, when we learn that some of what Nathan “remembers” cannot be verified, placing his testimony in the grey zone between historical memory and imaginative interpretation. L.L.
Tues, May 2, 8 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre; Thurs, May 4, 1:45 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; Sun, May 7, 8 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; streaming online (Canada only) May 5 to 9.
The coming of the apocalypse has been heralded across millennia. It’s just been kind of… slow in arriving. But if American Evangelical Christians have their way, a unified Jerusalem will soon be forthcoming, ushering the return of Christ and the salvation of the beforementioned. Which is a thorny proposition, to say the least, stirring religion into already fraught American foreign policy and influencing global affairs in ways that are insidious and, paradoxically, antisemitic in the extreme. Praying for Armageddon is a mildly sensational peek at what’s happening with the religious right — key players include Christians United for Israel founder John Hagee, televangelist Robert Jeffress, and sword-wielding bikers who preach. It would be easy to laugh at those who believe the Book of Revelations verbatim except that the estimated 100 million of them, representing 30 percent of U.S. voters according to the doc, aren’t laughing. And they’re armed to the teeth. Evangelicals’ impact on U.S. politics — in particular, Trumpian policy — is sweeping and real. In following a “give ‘em enough rope” playbook, Norwegian director Tonje Hessen Schei lets the devout show their true colours but more apposite counterarguments, both secular and academic, would have vastly bolstered the investigative reporting of journalist Lee Fang, who mostly battles for righteous answers alone. A feminist perspective also would have been fascinating and welcome. KH
Sat, Apr 29, 8 PM, TIFF BELL Lightbox, 4. Wed, May 3, 11 AM, Scotiabank Theatre 6; streaming online (Canada only) May 5-9.
The television franchise, CSI introduced mass audiences to forensic crime techniques, but they hardly prepared audiences for Pure Unknown, an observational documentary about Milan-based forensics professor, Dr. Cristina Cattaneo and the hands-on work of examining anonymous corpses for the stories they reveal. The unidentified, unclaimed bodies of men and women that serve as teaching tools for her medical classes at the University of Milan are known as “pure unknowns.” But what was once a job involving a few dozen cases a year has become an overwhelming task because of Europe’s migration crisis.: One of Cataneo’s assignments was to attempt to catalogue the bodies of more than 1,000 Africans who died in one catastrophe in 2015, when the ship they were trapped in capsized off Libya. The film tells us nothing about Cattaneo’s background or motives — her world appears to revolve around her work and pet dogs — but she emerges as an intellectually serious, heroic figure, advocating for the dead and their families with national and international governments, to find funds and change laws to identify of the dead, notify their families and make the unknown known again. LL
Revir - Everything You Hold Dear
Mon. May 1, 8:30 p.m. TIFF Bell Lighthouse 3; Thurs. May 4, 11:15 a.m. Scotiabank Theatre 7.
One of the most unusual dysfunctional family stories on offer, Peter Hammer introduces us to adult Danish siblings Sune and Susie Baltzersen, who live a co-dependant life while the socially awkward Susie carries on her dream of being a professional taxidermist (sometimes spotting an ideal subject grazing in the woods near their country home, and dispatching it). One of those docs that unexpectedly becomes a soap opera, the camera is there as Sune and Susie’s estranged mother re-enters their life. The timing is terrible, coming as it does while Susie is preparing for the European Taxidermy Championships in Budapest. A strange and intriguing bit of cinematic voyeurism. JS
The Rise of Wagner.
Sat, Apr 29, 8:15 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre; Wed, May 3, 9 pm, Tiff Bell Lightbox 1. Streaming online.
Renee King-Sonnen is a character, a colourful middle-aged Texas woman with an energetic Roseanne Barr vibe, and an evangelical devotion to animal rights. She had a come-to-vegan moment after hitting bottom and going to rehab, before moving to her husband’s cattle ranch near Houston in 2009 where she bonded with the livestock. She convinced her husband, Tommy, to turn their ranch into an animal sanctuary, named Rowdy Girl after a pet calf. Since then, through her Rancher Advocacy Program, she has persuaded other ranchers to transform factory farms and ranches into spaces for mushrooms and plant crops. Scenes show Renee singing to and petting animals, practicing her affirmations, and spreading her message visitors to her sanctuary. The animals, particularly Sealy the gobbler, are entertaining, somewhat softening the repetitiousness of Renee’s preaching. LL
Satan Wants You.
Thurs, Apr 27, 8:15 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; Fri, May 5, 8:15 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.
The “satanic panic” that gripped North America from the mid-70s to the early 90s was a phenomenon with repercussive comparisons today, and it can all be traced back to one psychiatrist’s unethical and exploitative relationship with his patient. Beginning with a look at the 1976 bestselling book Michelle Remembers, co-authored by Dr. Lawrence Pazder and his patient-then-wife, Michelle Smith, the book details her account of enduring satanic ritual abuse. While the book became an instant sensation, it ignited an overwhelming fear of satanism and childhood abuse that had no factual basis. Michelle’s story became the template for law enforcement, social workers, and medical professionals to identify the hallmarks of satanic ritual abuse and cult behaviour. Pazder and Smith were recognized as experts in the subject. When the origins of Smith’s story are more closely examined in this incredibly captivating story, and we begin to learn more about the nature of their relationship, the dangers of unsubstantiated “big lies” are revealed and, shockingly, how society hasn’t really changed in the way it accepts these grandiose fictions. JK
Screening as part of the Human Kind Shorts Program, and streaming online (Canada online) May 5 to 9.
“I had no idea something so small and cute could upend my marriage, and even turn my life completely upside down.” So says newlywed Ken at the start of this delightful short which blends live action and vivid animation to tell the story of how the kitten of the title made Kenyan Ken’s marriage to American Kaila at first fraught — think decimated furniture beyond the gilded threshold — and then a beacon of open communication. It wasn’t without minor trauma for all involved, but the fleet 17-minute film provides outsize charm and a very happy ending for this ridiculously charismatic couple. The feline is pretty sweet, too. KH
Sat, Apr 29, 5:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Thurs, May 4, 4:15 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.
A narrow case study in guerrilla philanthropy, Someone Lives Here follows Khaleel Seivwright, a Toronto carpenter who, during the midst of the COVID pandemic, witnessed the crisis of crowded homeless shelters and new tent communities, and decided to take action. He began building insulated wooden shelters for unsheltered people to sleep in, raising money from thousands of supporters and earning international press. Eventually, the city took legal action to halt the new shelters, claiming the structures were unsafe; a man died in a wooden structure fire. The film, which is an advocacy project, paints former Mayor John Tory and fire chief Jim Jessop as motivated more by control than compassion. A broader film might look at the ethical debate raised in American cities which have allowed new communities of people, housed in wooden shelter without water, electricity, or sanitation. LL
Sat, Apr 29, 6:15 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Fri, May 5, 9:15 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sat, May 6, 3:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.
Stephen Curry: Underrated celebrates the NBA superstar’s journey on and off the court. The underdog — always considered too short to play basketball — is chronicled via archival footage and on-camera interviews, with the film documenting Curry’s rise from a college player at a tiny backwater division to a four-time NBA champion, building one of the most dominant sports dynasties in the world. It also takes us inside his home life, where we meet his three adorable children while Curry returns to online school to complete a degree. It seems fitting that Stephen Curry: Underrated is showcased at Hot Docs. Curry didn't just spend time on NBA courts during his time in Toronto. He also played for the Queensway Christian College Saints boys basketball team in 2001 and 2002, and lived in the city for two years while his father played for the Raptors. BL
Sat Apr 29, 3:30 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Wed, May 3, 8:45 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; streaming (Canada only) May 5-9.
A quirky convention of “extreme adventure” documentaries is that the film crew, who may be doing things as dangerous as the participants to get the footage, must pretend to be invisible. In this Canadian caving documentary, director Francois-Xavier de Ruydts and his crew go down into the dark, cold, claustrophobic underground tunnels to film people who do this stuff every weekend.
The film cuts back and forth between two separate Canadian teams in different locations, both attempting to set records. In the Bisaro Anima cave in southeast British Columbia, Calgary’s Katie Graham and her support team attempt to reach a Canadian depth record, partly by scuba diving. Meanwhile, on northern Vancouver Island, Franck Tuot and his group are searching for a connection between two tunnels to reveal the longest cave in the country. Though the labyrinths are forebodingly weird, the sense of awe is subverted by the surface-level interviews: “I like the reward that comes at the end of the struggle,” explains the cheerful Graham, “so most things I do are some version of suffering,” As another spelunker puts it, “If I see a virgin passage I’m, like, gone; I just can’t help myself.” LL
Trained to See: Three Women and the War
Sat., May 6. 11:30 a.m. Scotiabank Theatre 6
At first glance, Theatre of Violence promises a thought-provoking look into the culpability of former Lord’s Resistance Army child-soldier, Dominic Ongwen, at trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. His defence? That he was both perpetrator and victim of his crimes and that his brutal life in the LRA, abducted at a young age, should somehow reduce his guilt of the crimes he is charged with.
Ongwen’s defence lawyer, Krispus Ayena, shares his thinking in the documentary. He raises vague questions about the corrupt nature of the Ugandan government, the after-effects of Colonialism and the influence of Uganda’s mixed grill of Christian, Muslim and Traditional belief systems in an attempt to provide context into his client’s upbringing. Even the nature of the International Criminal Court itself is not safe from inquiry.
In short, it’s a film that requires more than just a glance and Ongwen’s guilt is not just a product of his environment. JK
The Disappearance of Shere Hite,
Wednesday, May 3, 8:30 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre: Saturday May 6, 2:30pm, Tiff Bell Lightbox 3.
Academic, feminist sex researcher Shere Hite’s 1976 book “The Hite Report”, rattled the cultural foundations of North American in a profound way. The book was a round up of women’s most intimate thoughts about their experiences, feelings and attitudes towards sex and sexuality. It opened a dialogue about female sexuality that was embraced by a wide coalition of women, and was an important moment in the feminist movement. But it was deeply uncomfortable for the broader culture, and male dominated media of the time, and made her a target. Academy Award nominated director Nicole Newnham, has made a life-and-times documentary around Hite that has, surprising relevance to today’s attitude and politics. KG
Sat, Apr. 29, 5:30 p.m. Isabel Bader Theatre; Mon, May 1, 11:00 a.m. Isable Bader Theatre
Director Maite Alberdi presents a thoughtful and heartbreaking diary of Augusto Gongora, one of Chile’s most outspoken and recognizable commentators on social and cultural issues, as he battles through the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s. By his side, throughout moments of clarity and agonizing bouts of confusion, is his wife, Chilean actress, Paulina Urrutia. Alberdi captures moments both tender and heartbreaking. But The Eternal Memory is more than just a film about a disease. It’s a film about how memory defines how we fit into this world, and perhaps even more poignantly, it’s a film that charts how one approaches the end of a love affair. TE
Sat., April 29, 5pm, Scotiabank Theatre #6 and Tues., May 2, 11:45 AM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2. Streaming online.
A very precise view of the inconsistencies in Russian culture that have existed from the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Director, Marianna Katt takes us to Yekaterinaburg in the Russian heartland and skillfully portrays the hypocrisy of the government and the lackadaisical attitude of the Russian population through the perspectives of a few political dissidents who want to make change. Stymied by malaise and a repressive government, viewers get a sense of modern-day Russian society and a sense of the political culture in the four years leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. JK
Sun, April 30, 3:30 pm, Hot Doc Ted Rogers Cinema; Tues May 4, 7 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Sat, May 6, 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1. Online streaming begins Fri, May 5, 12 am.
I thought I knew all the dangers of a trip to Mars: prolonged zero gravity, exposure to radiation, plus the usual risks of rocket travel. But add to that the perils of social isolation, the stress of being constantly observed by mission control, and the psychological turmoil of being tens of millions of kms from home. It’s a recipe for depression, chaos, even madness. Director Ido Mizrahy talks to NASA operational psychologist Al Holland and others, and includes excerpts from anonymous journals kept by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. It’s an eye-opening look into the human side of long-duration space travel, and includes details of some interesting workarounds, including virtual-reality trips back home (ironic since many on Earth use VR to experience a facsimile of space travel) and A.I. psychologists. Perhaps the scariest idea is to put astronauts into a state of hibernation, with the ship’s computer looking after them until they reach Mars. Has no one at NASA seen 2001: A Space Odyssey? CK
The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain
Wed, May 3, 6:00 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Fri, May 5, 5:30 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre. Online streaming begins Fri, May 5, 12 a.m.
Albert Einstein died 68 years ago, and every so often someone wonders: Where’s his brain? It wasn’t cremated with the rest of him. It was taken by Tom Harvey, a Princeton Hospital pathologist. In 1978, journalist Steven Levy interviewed him and published “I Found Einstein’s Brain.” In 1994 a documentary showed Japanese professor Kenji Sugimoto getting a slice of it from Harvey. In 1997, Harper’s published “Driving Mr. Albert.” 2001 brought the book Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein’s Brain, by Carolyn Abraham. Director Michelle Shephard is thus merely the latest to explore the tale, but if you’re not familiar with the details, it’s a humdinger. She traces Harvey’s life before and after the fateful autopsy, and the brain’s sometimes ignominious travels, which included a crossing at Niagara Falls, where Canadian neuroscientist Sandra Witelson took possession of the grey matter. Where is it now? That would be telling. Let’s just say it’s relatively safe. CK
Thurs, Apr 27, 5:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; Wed, May 3, 11:30 am, Scotiabank Theatre 5; streaming online (Canada online) May 5 to 9.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Matthew Desmond lately, but the scope and depth of American poverty, with its entrenched racial bias, seems like an issue primed to explode, dwarfing even guns and abortion as a hot topic. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking. But The Only Doctor is yet another arrow in the quiver of the debate. Clay Country is Georgia’s poorest, and its 3,000 inhabitants, 60 percent black and 40 percent white, have been without an area hospital since the 1980s. For years, Dr. Karen Kinsell has been the county’s only healthcare provider. If she retires, who helps? Macon’s Mercer School of Medicine proposes a partnership with Kinsell where they would take over her clinic, using it as a model for rural healthcare. The money would be a salvation. But Kinsell is sagely dubious about any institution remaining focused on helping those like the elderly woman we meet who has been bed-ridden for 14 years but prefers this option to a nursing home, where she once worked and witnessed horrors. Is this really OK with the inhabitants of the world’s richest nation? Or with any of us, for that matter? Yet another Gandhi-ian barometer of our humanity or stunning lack thereof. KH
Mon, May 1, 5:15 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox 2; Fri, May 5, 2:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7.
An incredible indictment of how Russia extends its global influence through a mercenary army known as the Wagner Group. The lack of humanity and the distinct cruelty these paramilitary operatives demonstrate in a video of the torture and execution of a young Syrian Army deserter is representative of the style of thinking of Vladimir Putin in his clumsy attempts to assert Russian power. But the sloppiness of this thinking and the lack of readiness of the Russian military in comparison to the well-trained and experienced Wagner mercenaries only highlights how badly Russia needs them to protect commercial interests and support fragile governments, like in many African nations in which they have an economic partnership with China. By using the personal stories of those personally affected by this group as well as the biographies of those connected to it, Benoit Bringer shows us the true nature of evil of Putin’s international policies as well as his utter disregard for humanity. JK
Trained to See: Three Women and the War
Mon, May 1, 8:15 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre; Sun, May 7, 12:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7. Streaming online.
Luzia Schmid’s film is a visual textbook that effortlessly describes the sacrifice and determination in the pursuit of journalism. Not only were the women spotlighted here groundbreakers, but they were also pioneers in presenting accurate stories of World War II, ones that needed to be shown. If you have a must-see list at the Hot Docs Festival, this should be added to it. The film is personal and relevant. One instantly feels connected to Martha Gellhorn, Margaret Bourke-White, and Lee Miller. The stories of their lives, interconnected with their work covering the entirety of World War Two. It’s an anatomy of a hard-core journalist’s work. For WWII enthusiasts and aspiring journalists, this is required viewing. JK
Thurs. April 27, 6:30 p.m. Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Fri. April 28, 5:30 p.m. Isabel Bader Theatre, Mon. May 1, 3:30 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.
To Arctic Indigenous peoples, there are no boundaries. But irrepressible activist Aaju Peter grew up having to deal those invisible lines. An Inuit born in Greenland, she was shipped to Denmark to learn a “real” tongue, came home unable to speak to her own people, and moved to Iqaluit to get away from the Danes. Canada having its own Indigenous issues, she grew up working tirelessly on a plethora of concerns affecting Indigenous peoples, both here and in the EU. A lawyer and an Order of Canada recipient, she is shown in Lin Alluna’s film being utterly herself, rocking out and dancing to her favourite tunes, and dealing with almost unbearable personal tragedy that unfolds during filming. It’s a portrait of an unforgettable fighter for justice. JS
Fri, Apr. 28, 8:30 p.m. Scotia Bank Theatre; Mon, May 1, 2:30 p.m .TIFF Bell Lightbox. Streaming online.
It’s hard to imagine spending more time than is necessary - and before it’s required - with people who willingly dedicate their lives to transitioning people from mortal ground to below the ground (and variations of the same). But this is exactly what director Georges Hannan has done in the film Undertaker for Life. Hannan’s film offers a unique understanding of what it takes to be a mortician—of the men and women who have chosen a career few would define as glamorous and even fewer who look forward to using their services. T
Sun., May 3, 8:15 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox 3; Fri. May 5, 11:45 a.m. Scotiabank Theatre 5. Streaming online.
The feel-good movie of Hot Docs. Megan Wennberg’s film profiles six senior competitive synchronized swimmers - all between the ages of 63 and 83, and all preparing for their age-division showdown at the Masters Championship in Maine, U.S.A. Their motivations range from the social, to health consciousness, to good old-fashioned competitive fire (exhibited by lifelong competitor Sue Nesbitt, who vows to “defeat Father Time”). There’s even a few game, if awkward, male competitors in a sport that has almost always been exclusively female. With plenty of dire films on the schedule, here’s one to leave you smiling. JS
Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella
Mon. May 1, 6:30 p.m. Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Tues. May 2, 6:30 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox 1; Fri. May 5, 11:15 a.m. Isabel Bader Theatre. Streaming online.
The first Jewish woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada, and arguably the most progressive justice to wear the robe, Rosalie Abella’s combination of determination and eccentric amiability saw her career boosted by, of all people, top Conservatives (including Brian Mulroney and Roy McMurtry). She created the term “employment equity” and fought to see it applied across the board in favour of women, Indigenous people, people of colour and the disabled. Barry Avrich’s film – peppered with Abella’s favourite Gershwin tunes - follows her home, to a house decorated with colour and kitsch, and an adoring husband (the late author Irving Abella). Human and humane, we need more like her on the bench. JS