Hot Docs 2025: Back With a Vengeance and a Slate of Great Films, Pt. 1
By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Kim Hughes, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey, and Bonnie Laufer
Despite a very rocky year of funding and staffing turmoil, the Hot Docs documentary film festival returns for its 32nd year, running April 24 to May 4 in venues across Toronto and featuring 113 feature documentaries from 47 countries chosen from the 2,262 submissions, with 49 making world and international premieres.
That’s all good news for a festival that was on life support this time last year. There was an exodus of staff in 2024; then Marie Nelson bailed after only a year as Hot Docs’ boss. Interim executive director Janice Dawe kept Hot Docs on course for the last year and she will hand the reins to the new executive director, TIFF veteran Diana Sanchez, for the 2025 festival.
At a recent press conference announcing the 2025 lineup, Dawe said, “I think there were questions whether we’d be here today — and we are.” That’s lucky for us as this year’s lineup of documentaries is excellent, reflecting societies, people, issues and events in ways that are genuinely thrilling or heartbreaking or inspiring, sometimes all three.
While it’s impossible to cover all the films, Original-Cin has endeavoured to cover many we intuited might be good. Now as always though, our advice to festivalgoers remains the same: scout out films covering topics you care about but be willing to take a chance on anything that looks cool or weird or interesting. The risks of failure are small but the opportunities for rewards are vast.
We will return tomorrow with a bunch more capsule reviews while updating these articles as embargoes lift. Also watch out for filmmaker interviews. Thanks for reading.
Ai Weiwei’s Turandot
Italy, USA, 78 minutes
Fri, Apr. 25, 6:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sun, Apr. 27, 1:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
One of the world’s most famous artists, activists, and sometime political prisoner, Ai Weiwei is not a fan of opera or music in general. But the choice of him as a director (with help) of an updated version of Puccini’s opera at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera gave him a chance to inject his art between the arias. (The set includes a topographic map of the world, the heights of which indicate social classes). A lifetime friendship with choreographer Chiang Ching plays a big part. A bigger part is played by the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine (the music director and leading lady both being Ukrainians). Doc director Maxim Derevianko does a fine job riding out the storm en route to the finished production. JS
USA, France, China, 84 minutes
Sat, Apr. 26, 1:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Tue, Apr. 29, 5:25 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
The winner of the top prize at the recent Copenhagen International Film Festival, Deming Cheng’s exquisite directorial debut embodies the idea of visual poetry. Subtitled “A Letter to Childhood,” the film follows Gong Youbin from the age of 8 to 13, growing up on a poor mountain farm with his father and grandparents. An early black-and-white scene shows Youbin in a classroom where the teacher is encouraging the children to write poetry. Throughout, the film uses calligraphic interstitial title cards to display Youbin and his classmates’ short wistful poems, reflecting the passage of time and their rural surroundings. As the years pass, the film shifts from black-and-white to beautifully muted colour tones, resonating with influences from historical documentary photography to traditional Chinese nature painting. LL
Canada, Venezuela, Ecuador, 83 minutes
Mon, Apr. 28, 5:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Wed, Apr. 30, 11:30 am, TIFF Lightbox 4.
A poem of love and loss about Venezuela, from director Rosana Matecki, with a focus on ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. A violent dictatorship and economic collapse have prompted eight million to flee and abandon the wreckage of Venezuela; Matecki looks at the lives of those left behind — a woman whose village lies submerged after government-mandated flooding, the grieving parents of a young man killed during freedom protests, a former accountant who lives completely alone in the house where he is a caretaker, the home owners having fled 12 years prior. The people are starving and desperate and determined to one day regain lives of dignity and freedom. Devastating message, stunning cinematography. LB
Germany, 86 minutes
Fri, May 2, 5 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Sun, May 4, 10:30 am, TIFF Lightbox 2.
Circusboy taps into a collective daydream where we all imagine running away to join the circus. For nine-year-old Santino Franc, that dream is reality. As he approaches his tenth birthday, Santino isn’t visiting the circus for a party — the circus is his hometown. Director Julia Lemke follows a year in the life of a multigenerational circus family, focusing on the tightrope bond between Santino and his great-grandfather. Through the elder's stories, revealed in animated flashbacks, the film uncovers a rich tapestry of family lore, tradition, and the balancing act of living a life where you are either standing in the centre ring, or once again the new kid in a new town. A film full of heart and joy. TE
Climate in Therapy
Sweden, Norway, 64 minutes
Sat, Apr. 26, 4:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Mon, Apr. 28, 12 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
Do you worry about the future of Earth’s climate for yourself, your children or humanity? Imagine if you were also one of the scientists researching, studying, and even communicating that information. Director Nathan Grossman brings together seven climate scientists and one therapist to unpack their feelings. They discuss, as one says: “The gap between the way the world is and the way the world should be.” And: “Feeling powerless and responsible at the same time.” Also: Being a woman of colour in the world of science. Or just being a scientist. One participant doesn’t like to say when he does, lest it put up a wall between him and others. It’s a fascinating journey but, at 64 minutes and on a clearly limited budget, it skimps a bit on the scientists’ backgrounds. And that information would have lofted this doc skyward. CK
UK, 100 minutes
Sun, Apr. 27, 2:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Tues, Apr. 29, 8:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
I don’t often think of the effect of narration in a doc. But filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer’s whisper of a voice both serves and underserves this look at the mission of a group of young biologists from London's Natural History Museum to identify (via video and capture) the strange lifeforms three miles deep in the Pacific’s Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone. Her elegant narrative works when a sense of wonder is on order. But the film has a dark(ish) side when it moves to a fruitless meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), whose inability to regulate creates an atmosphere of lawlessness for nations that are looking to mine this strange new world for rare metals. The grad students and scientists on the ship are an upbeat and likeable lot, prone to give new species names like Gummy Squirrel and Headless Chicken Monster. But will their discoveries provide fodder for environmental protection, or be used in the service of rampant industry? JS
Austria, 80 minutes
Fri, Apr. 25, 8 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Sun, Apr. 27, 11:30 am, TIFF Lightbox 2.
When the U.S government let the Afghanistan government fall to the Taliban in August 2021, the country’s Austrian ambassador, feminist journalist and author Manizha Bakhtari, found herself representing a regime without international recognition which she abhorred. In an early scene in Nathalie Halla’s documentary, we see Bakhtari reading a letter from a nameless Taliban HR official telling her she has been fired. She says aloud, “Well mister, I’m not taking orders from you or your Islamic Emirate.” Halla follows Bakhtari over three years as she continues to serve as ambassador, taking her cause to international organizations and coordinating, by phone, a program for school-age girls to attend secret classes. The film is at its best when it captures the heroic absurdity of Bakhtari’s life, as a diplomat who refuses to let the world forget her country’s women. LL
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
USA, 97 minutes
Sun, Apr. 27, 6 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Wed, Apr. 30, 8:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sun, May 4, 11:15 am, TIFF Lightbox 3.
Marlee Matlin is a legend, not just as the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her starring role in 1986’s Children of a Lesser God but for her tireless efforts to be heard. The insightful and moving new documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, directed by Shoshannah Stern, takes us beyond Matlin’s on-screen accomplishments to showcase her tireless efforts for equal representation for deaf actors to be treated with dignity and offered parity in roles. The film uses Matlin's own voice and American Sign Language, following her successes, challenges, personal life, and the impact she has had on the acting world and the deaf community. BL
India, Taiwan, USA, 90 minutes
Sun, Apr. 27, 5:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Tue, Apr. 29, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 2; Sat, May 3, 8:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
There is comedy, tragedy, and a lot of yelling in this fly on the wall–style doc about a state-run marriage counselling office ostensibly geared to helping women and tucked into a police station in the Indian city of Dehradun. The counselling officers, all militaristically uniformed women, are mandated to help preserve tradition by trying to keep fractured marriages — both arranged and love — together through robust consultation, particularly when children are involved. But these brisk (brusque?) interventions often seem to have negligible impact. And why save a marriage noted for alleged spousal abuse and fierce hostility from in-laws? Then again, as one counselling client observes, it’s cheap, and intractable men get comeuppance. The benefits for the female clients are less well-defined. KH
Australia, 19 minutes
Screening as part of the Shorts Program: Through the Cracks Fri, Apr. 25, 8:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Tues, Apr. 29, 2:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4.
Viewers are double dog dared not to be thoroughly charmed and a smidge heartbroken by Mother of Chooks, “chooks” being slang for chicken. The “mother” here is elderly firecracker Elaine Janes who keeps a flock as pets to ward off loneliness and stay engaged with the wider world as she takes her remarkably beautiful birds swimming, skateboarding, and on amusement park rides. Yes, really. Janes’ abiding fascination with her fluffy charges also embeds her with her community in the Australian town of Geelong, where her cheerful devotion is encouraged and cherished. Co-directors Maite Martin Samos and Jesse Samos Leaman show that we find our friends where we find them, and judge others at our peril. KH
Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance
Canada, 96 minutes
Thu, Apr. 24, 6:15 pm and 9:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sat, Apr. 26, 11:15 am, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sat, May 3, 10 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.
Hot Docs’ opening night film, Noam Gonick’s survey of the 2SLGBTQl+ civil rights movement in Canada, begins in 1967, with then Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau’s famous quote about the state having no place in the bedrooms of the nation. Says Tim McCaskill — one of the founders of the pioneering gay journal The Body Politic — Trudeau’s criminal code reform “dramatically changed the conversation” around same-sex relationships. Gonick’s film hops about more or less chronologically, mixing black and white and colour, contemporary interviews and archival footage, with sections focusing on lesbian, Indigenous, Asian, Black, and Latin activism, and segments devoted to legislative wins, the repercussions of the police raids, and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. Because the film casts such a wide net, there are inevitably quibbles about omissions and degrees of emphasis. But it serves its purpose by getting so many pioneering activists on record. LL
Canada, 87 mins
Sat, Apr. 26, 1:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Mon, Apr. 28, 7:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2.
When someone says they didn’t “get” a film, I often suggest that sometimes films are meant to be experienced rather than understood. Paul, directed by Denis Côté, is one such film. Paul is a young man dealing with depression, anxiety, and the belief he is overweight. Now, after months of self-exile, Paul commits to change through exercise and housecleaning. “Cleaning to Save My Life” is his mantra. But there’s another layer to Paul’s recovery; cleaning the houses of dominatrices. Although I’d have liked to see more about the healing merits of cleanliness and submission Côté, is happy just to document one man’s unique journey along his distinctive healing path. TE
Canada, 97 minutes
Mon, Apr. 28, 5 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Wed, Apr. 30, 2 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Basketball is a big deal for many First Nations people in British Columbia, specifically for the Skidegate Saints, a senior men’s basketball team from a community in Haida Gwaii, off the B.C. coast. The Saints have been perennial champions at the annual All Native Basketball Tournament in Prince Rupert, one of the largest Indigenous cultural events in Canada. Patrick Shannon’s film follows the team in the lead-up to the 2024 tournament, where the aging Saints prepare to face the “the huge and young” Burnaby Chiefs. The deeper story here is about how basketball — a sport first learned by kids at post-War residential schools — evolved into a communal ritual, a substitute for the ceremonial potlatch gatherings, banned by the Canadian government. The resurgent community pride led directly to the political fight for federal recognition of Haida land title, a victory that happened in February, after the film’s completion. LL
Canada, 90 minutes
Mon, Apr. 28, 8:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Fri, May 2, 2:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
Director Matt Gallagher’s examination of an Ontario man who posed online as a minor to lure potential sexual predators into confrontations he filmed and posted, with identifying details, on his YouTube channel for perceived vigilante justice is shattering, its layers impossible to summarize in a capsule review. But people — possibly innocent people denied due process — died because of Jason Nassr’s actions. So, was Nassr a hero exposing would-be evildoers or a reckless hack in search of clickbait? Gallagher travels far and wide in search of answers, interviewing relatives of the deceased and Nassr himself. The result is wholly uncomfortable and utterly unforgettable. Destined to be Hot Docs’ break-out hit. KH
Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man
Canada, 77 minutes
Sat, Apr. 26, 5:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Mon, Apr. 28, 10:45 am, TIFF Lightbox 2.
One of two docs I saw set in the Blackfoot Nation (#skoden is the other), this examination of masculinity as it plays out in a First Nations reserve in many ways mirrors that of most Western cultures. Prodigal son Sinakson Trevor Solway seeks to “find clarity” in a place where “masculinity was all around me but was unclear.” They play hockey and basketball. They struggle with the role of violence in their lives (one teen proudly plays a video of his first hockey fight at age 11), and even their male elders aren’t in sync (one basketball coach encourages his players to cry if they feel like it). And the movie keeps returning to the coterie of young men being trained as rodeo riders. The film doesn’t dwell on a “crisis of masculinity,” though the fact that one mentor must blow into a breathalyzer in his dashboard to start his car suggests grown-up lessons learned the hard way. Clarity isn’t on offer, but Blackfoot Man is an interesting overview of manhood in a challenging environment. JS