Harried Hot Docs' 2024: Carrying on Regardless
Hot Docs 2024
by Liz Braun
Although it’s a “fragile time for artistic spaces in Canada,” according to Hot Docs executives, the respected documentary film festival is ready to go for its 31st year with a reduced but strong line-up of movies at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, April 25 to May 5..
Hot Docs President Marie Nelson spoke at a press conference Tuesday morning and addressed recent internal strife at the organization.
Born Hungry’s Sash Simpson, a runaway from India, who was adopted into a 31-sibling Toronto family and became a world-renowned chef.
To wit: Artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy and 10 programmers have resigned in the last few days, for reasons that have yet to be made clear publicly and have generated much speculation. Nelson appeared to be saying that the door was open for any programmer who wanted to return, this year or next.
Nelson also told Canadian media earlier in March that the festival has experienced dire financial woes since the pandemic, something Hot Docs has in common with other film festivals and live entertainment.
This year’s version of Hot Docs began with more than 2500 submissions, from which 168 documentaries (120 features) were chosen, from 64 countries. There are 83 world and international premieres on tap for Hot Docs’ audiences. The lineup represents an apparent drop in presentations by more than 20%.
And, in keeping with the festival’s equity aims, 54 percent of the documentaries are directed by women.
The festival’s opening film is Luther: Never Too Much, a wonderful biopic of R&B great Luther Vandross from director Dawn Porter that wowed audiences at Sundance. The movie is part of a new Hot Docs program — Pop/Life — of films about music and musicians. That program also includes Eno, a biopic of artist and musician Brian Eno that’s actually a different movie each time it plays, thanks to director Gary Hustwit and the use of an AI algorithm to create the doc.
Highlights of the 2024 lineup include many films in the Special Presentations program, including Barry Avrich’s Born Hungry, the story of one of the world’s top chefs, Sash Simpson, who started life as a runaway on the streets of India and was adopted by a Canadian family; Lucy Lawless’ Never Look Away, about New Zealand combat photojournalist Margaret Moth; Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries, an account of a sexual assault and the high-profile landmark court case in Japan that followed, and Jon Ornoy’s Lost In The Shuffle, an intriguing doc about a medieval murder case and sleight of hand artist Shawn Farquhar.
The Canadian Spectrum Competition this year includes 13 titles, including the highly anticipated Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (from Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, about a pioneering black trans performer in Toronto in the ‘60s); Tova Krentzman’s Fire Tower, an examination of our relationship to nature high above the boreal forest, and My Dad’s Tapes, a film about family, identity and grief, directed by Kurtis Watson.
Other highlights: Made in Spain features documentaries from the best of that country's young filmmaking talent and includes three world premieres.
The 2024 Outstanding Achievement Award goes to filmmaker Raoul Peck (I am Not Your Negro; Silver Dollar Road). There is also a focus on Canadian cinematographer Iris Ing.
For all tickets and info visit hotdocs.ca