I’ve long believed that one sign of a good documentary is if it can draw in those who sit down not caring much about the subject matter. For me, JOAN RIVERS – A PIECE OF WORK is certainly an example of a doc where I don’t much care for the subject. And yet, the successful…
Hot Docs Reaction: TEENAGE PAPARAZZO
“Hi my name is Adrian and I’m a celebrity…at least I play one on TV.” There have been a lot of films at Hot Docs that I’ve loved a lot more than TEENAGE PAPARAZZO. There have been a lot that I’ve disliked a lot more than it as well. Very few however, have left me…
Hot Docs Reaction: A DRUMMER’S DREAM
Deep in Canadian cottage country, they amass. They are the butt of many a musical joke, but without them much of the greatest music ever made could never have been. They are drummers – young drummers, old drummers, rock drummers, Latin drummers. Literally drummers from all walks of life. They have gathered to teach and…
Hot Docs Reaction: WASTE LAND
Nineteen docs into this festival…and I might have just watched my favorite. WASTE LAND is a documentary from Brazil about a project by artist Vik Muniz. Muniz went back to his native Brazil, where outside of Sao Paolo is a landfill dump named Gardin Gramacho. Because Sao Paolo has no recycling program, the dump is…
Hot Docs Reaction: NÉNETTE
One of the best parts of attending a film festival is the way you get to see films you might not have otherwise seen…and might not ever have the chance to see again. Case in point, NÉNETTE – the film that has its audience staring at an Orangutan for seventy minutes. I can see that…
Hot Docs Reaction: THE PARKING LOT MOVIE
As I watched THE PARKING LOT MOVIE, I couldn’t help but think back on Tyler Durden and how he saw so much potential being squandered on people pumping gas and waiting tables…something tells me, he’d include parking lot attendants in that bracket. Indeed, the men of THE PARKING LOT MOVIE all seem to have so…
Hot Docs Reaction: AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE
In some ways it’s difficult to write about a film like AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE. Not to play the cop-out card, but for many reasons you’ll either like it, or you won’t. For starters, there’s the fact that we are listening to a person tell their life story piece by piece through cobbled monologues.…