“My boss outsourced my job but gets to keep his” Funny thing about complaining – we all do it. Heck, the city I call home that is hosting this film festival seems to partake in it with unheralded gusto. Thus a doc about complaining was probably something begging to be made. However, Finnish artists Tellervo…
Hot Docs Reaction: HIS & HERS
As a whimsical score echoes from the soundtrack, HIS & HERS begins with a shot of a newborn infant girl. As it happens, she’s the only woman out of the seventy we meet in the next eighty minutes who doesn’t say a word. Pity – I imagine she has a lot on her mind. The…
Running On Faith: DAVID WANTS TO FLY Plays Hot Docs
Imagine meeting your idol. Imagine that the meeting isn’t just a moment to express admiration, get a photo, or snag an autograph. Imagine instead that they reach out a hand of encouragement. In a practically unsolicited show of support, your idol offers to mentor you in a way that can make you more creative and…
Hot Docs Reaction: LISTEN TO THIS
In Toronto’s inner city, Thompson Egbo-Egbo has started an Arts Foundation that looks to instil a positive change and a sense of self worth into elementary school students. Much of this is done by getting the students to express themselves through music. We get a sometimes sad, but ultimately moving look at their work through…
Hot Docs Reaction: GASLAND
Remember that part of ERIN BROCKOVICH where an entire county was getting sick because an energy company was contaminating the drinking water. Kinda scary concept isn’t it? Well prepare to be scared, because as Josh Fox’s documentary GASLAND points out, an awful lot of America is dealing with water and air contamination. Right off the…
Hot Docs Reaction: THE "SOCALLED" MOVIE
There are a handful of artists out there who colour with every crayon in the box. Then there’s Socalled. There aren’t enough colours in the box for what he wants to colour. Especially since he wants to colour the world using music, magic, art, and film. Every single idea in his head is truly original,…
Speed of Sound: SOUNDTRACKER Plays Hot Docs
When director Nick Sherman first read about Gordon Hempton, he saw a chance to make a documentary that could evoke naturalists like Muir and Thoreau. In Hempton, he had a subject matter that felt a deep connection to the natural world, and a desire to preserve it. However, in documenting Hempton’s lifes work and passion,…