Hot Docs Guest List Welcomes Everyone from George A. Romero to Miss Cleo

Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero will attend Hot Docs for Doc of the Dead

Hot Docs released the list of special guests expected to attend the 2014 festival. Hot Docs, which begins next Thursday, anticipates the appearance of a record number of 186 filmmakers in addition to a range of high profile guests ranging from rocker Alice Cooper to filmmaker George A. Romero to TV psychic Miss Cleo. Yes, Miss Cleo will be at Hot Docs! Guests usually appear at one or more screenings (usually the first two depending on scheduling), while other guests like George Takei and Caroll Spinney will appear in extended Q&A sessions in the Scotiabank Big Ideas Series. (Check the schedule for time and information.) Plan accordingly because the interactive Q&A sessions are what the festival’s all about!

The list of guests expected to attend Hot Docs includes:

Miss Cleo in Hotline

Brandy Burre from Actress (D: Robert Greene | USA | 2014 | 87 min) – The Wire’s Brandy Burre returns to acting after starting a family, trying to find a balance between the demanding roles of mother, lover, wife and performer.

Ari Seth Cohen and several of the fashionable ladies from Advanced Style (D: Lina Plioplyte | USA | 2014 | 72 min) – Blogger Ari Seth Cohen photographs the most stylish and creative older women on the streets of New York City.

Gruff Rhys from American Interior (D: Gruff Rhys, Dylan Goch | UK | 2014 | 90 min) – Gruff Rhys is a Welsh musician who performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals.

Louis Ortiz from Bronx Obama (D: Ryan Murdock | USA | 2014 | 91 min) – Louis Ortiz is an American impersonator with an uncanny resemblance to Barack Obama.

Ajit George and Vijay Veerappan from The Backward Class (D: Madeleine Grant | Canada | 2014 | 91 min) – Ajit George has been the Director of Operations for the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project since 2008, and Vijay Veerappan was in the school’s inaugural graduating class in 2010.

Gerrit Becker and Danilo Povolo from Before the Last Curtain Falls (D: Thomas Wallner | Germany, Belgium | 2014 | 86 min) – Two members of Cabaret Follies, a comic transvestite theatre company that tours Belgium.

Paul Katami, Kris Perry, Sandy Stier and Jeff Zarrillo from The Case Against 8 (D: Ben Cotner, Ryan White | USA | 2014 | 112 min) – The brave plaintiffs who took part in the case to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Justin from Children 404 (D: Pavel Loparev, Askold Kurov | Russia | 2014 | 70 min) – A courageous Russian LGBT teenager.

George Romero from Doc of the Dead (D: Alexandre Philippe | USA | 2014 | 82 min) – George Romero is an American-Canadian filmmaker known as the godfather of the zombie genre.

Jill Appel, Janet Rothrock and Adriana Cohen from Divide in Concord (D: Kris Kaczor | USA | 2013 | 82 min) – Three Concord residents involved in the town’s fight over bottled water.

Anthony Lynch, Kasey White and Maria Rivera from The Homestretch (D: Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly | USA | 2014 | 90 min) – Two of the three teens featured in the film and selfless teacher Maria Rivera.

James Randi from An Honest Liar (D: Justin Weinstein, Tyler Measom | USA | 2014 | 91 min) – James Randi, known as The Amazing Randi, has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world’s most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.

Miss Cleo from Hotline (D: Tony Shaff | USA | 2014 | 80 min) – Miss Cleo is an American psychic who achieved fame as a spokeswoman for the Psychic Readers Network.

Caroll Spinney from I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (D: Chad Walker, Dave LaMattina | USA | 2014 | 85 min) – Master puppeteer Caroll Spinney is the man who brought Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life.

Gabriella Coleman, Cory Doctorow and Lawrence Lessig from The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Schwartz (D: Brian Knappenberger | USA | 2014 | 105 min) – Best-selling author Cory Doctorow, hacker-culture expert Gabriella Coleman and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig speak about the issues raised in the film.

Kristin Beck from Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story (D: Mark Herzog, Sandrine Orabona | USA | 2014 | 90 min) – Kristin Beck is a former United States Navy SEAL who came out as a trans woman.

Poe Ballantine from Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere (D: Dave Jannetta | USA | 2014 | 95 min) – Poe Ballantine is an American fiction and nonfiction writer.

Cenk Uygur from Mad as Hell (D: Andrew Napier | USA | 2014 | 80 min) – Cenk Uygur is a Turkish-American political commentator, Internet personality, and political activist.

Giuseppe Marinoni from Marinoni (D: Tony Girardin | Canada | 2014 | 90 min) – Giuseppe Marinoni is a revered 75-year-old bicycle craftsman and competitive cyclist.

Sylvia Earle from Mission Blue (D: Robert Nixon, Fisher Stevens | USA | 2013 | 95 min) – Internationally renowned oceanographer and eco-activist Dr. Sylvia Earle is passionately committed to saving the world’s oceans and its imperiled inhabitants.

Allessandro Gualtieri from The Nose – Searching for Blamage (D: Paul Rigter | Netherlands | 2013 | 53 min) – Allessandro Gualtieri is a radical Italian perfumer who launched his own perfume line in 2007.

Jay Reinke from The Overnighters (D: Jesse Moss | USA | 2013 | 100 min) – Pastor Jay Reinke started a program called “The Overnighters” in his church to help down-on-their-luck men working in Williston, North Dakota.

Matthew VanDyke from Point and Shoot (D: Marshall Curry | USA | 2014 | 82 min) – Matthew VanDyke is a freedom fighter, former POW, and documentary filmmaker.

Razan Shalab-al-Sham and Mouaz Moustafa from Red Lines (D: Andrea Kalin, Oliver Lukacs | USA | 2014 | 98 min) – Mouaz Moustafa is the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force , and Razan Shalab-al-Sham serves as the organizations’s field director.

Sophie and Moe Harkat from The Secret Trial 5 (D: Amar Wala | Canada | 2014 | 84 min) – Security certificate detainee Moe Harkat and his wife Sophie.

The Iron Sheik from The Sheik (D: Igal Hecht | Canada | 2014 | 95 min) – Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri is better known as legendary wrestler and performer The Iron Sheik.

Alice Cooper from Super Duper Alice Cooper (D: Reginald Harkema, Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn | Canada | 2014 | 86 min) – Born Vincent Furnier, Alice Cooper is an American rock star whose career spans five decades.

George Takei from To Be Takei (D: Jennifer Kroot, Bill Weber | USA | 2014 | 93 min) – Pop culture icon George Takei is an American actor, author and activist, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek.

Inna Schevchenko from Ukraine is not a Brothel (D: Kitty Green | Australia, Ukraine | 2013 | 80 min) – Inna Shevchenko is a member of the Ukrainian feminist protest group FEMEN.

Hot Docs runs April 24 – May 4.

Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more information