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| Barbara Kopple's Harlan County USA is the must-see of Hot Docs 2014 |
One of the better pleasures of Hot Docs is also the sense that the festival offers the only chance for many folks to see these films. Half the fun, I’ve found, is to simply pick a venue for a day and see whatever’s playing. I’ll pick one film I really want to see and just do, say, a “Lightbox day,” so I can just sample different films without much pre-screening knowledge. (And save on subway tokens!) It’s a strategy that allows for the sense of discovery one hopes to find at a festival, and it’s an approach I’d recommend to any students and seniors taking advantage of the free daytime screenings.
I’m a bit behind on Hot Docs
coverage this year since I didn’t get a chance to attend many press screenings
this time. I only caught one (Super Duper
Alice Cooper) compared to a bunch last year. I’ve also scaled back on
screeners this year since I found that I barely left my laptop last Hot Docs
and was somewhat maxed out by the time the festival began. (I’m also a bit tired of watching films on my computer.) It’s a lot more fun to take in
the Q&As and to stand in line and chat about movies with the masses, anyways,
and the whole point of going to a festival is to be part of the film culture.
I have managed to see about ten films before the festival,
though, and they’ve all been good. (I’ll be contributing some reviews to the
blog at Point of View, so make sure to follow them! Other reviews will be posted
here.) Full reviews are under embargo for the time being, so I’ve made the list
of top picks for the festival using a mix of films I seen and recommend, and a
handful of films that mark my most anticipated films of the festival.
Here, in alphabetical order, are your ten best bets for Hot
Docs ’14:
(International Spectrum, USA)
Actress Brandy Burre isn’t a household name, but that
doesn’t mean she lacks talent. The actress, best known for her role as Theresa
D’Agostino on HBO’s The Wire, returns
to acting after starting a family. This film premiered at the True/False Film
Festival in Missouri to great acclaim for director Robert Greene’s portrait of
the actress struggling to balance the roles of wife, mother, and artist. The
question spills beyond Burre’s own ability to juggle, as the balance of
artistic success and motherhood is also tackled in the Canadian documentary Come Worry with Us! about the eclectic
band Silver Mount Zion and its touring with its first band baby. (Check back
soon for a review of that one, too!) These portraits of the arts are just a few
of the notable tales of film and feminism at the festival this year.
(Nightvision, UK/Canada)
If you think going to see a
documentary is so fetch, then Beyond
Clueless is the film for you. This debut feature by UK wunderkind film
critic Charlie Lyne examines the ageless genre of teen movies and asks whether
these supposedly clueless films are actually as simple as they appear. Old
favourites like The Craft, Clueless, and The Faculty take audiences back to the wild days of the 1990s when
DVDs were a thing of the future and Northern Getaway defined style. (Facepalm.)
Fairuza Balk narrates this blast from the past that celebrates our love for the
most unsung product of 1990s cinema this side of Showgirls.
(Next,
Australia)
Is
television the new film? Some folks say that the idiot box is becoming more
cinematic by the season, and one show that paved the way for intelligent small
screen drama is Jane Campion’s excellent miniseries Top of the Lake. Hot Doc-ers looking to explore arts and
entertainment should head to the Next programme (my favourite of the festival)
and look deeper into the creative process of Lake in Clare Young’s From
the Bottom of the Lake, which offers a behind-the-scenes portrait of the miniseries
starring Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss. Top of the Lake should be fresh in
viewers’ minds—take the chance to watch the six-episode show if you haven’t
seen it—so use this intimate look at the recent production as a litmus test for
the (alleged) battle between television and film… in a movie theatre, no less!
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| Jane Campion giving Elisabeth Moss direction on the set of Top of the Lake |
(Special
Presentations, USA)
It
should not be taken as a slight on Hot Docs if I say that the must-see film of
the festival is from 1976. I’m simply becoming a sucker for retrospective
screenings at film festivals. This year’s Hot Docs has full retro programs on
the works of some hidden gems (see the Redux programme) and the career of Adam
Curtis, but it’s the Special Presentation screening of Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County USA that should be on
every Hot Doc-ers schedule. Harlan County
USA is arguably the best American documentary ever made, so the chance to
see the film with an extended discussion with director Barbara Koppel (Shut Up and Sing) is a rare opportunity.
The legacy of Harlan County USA,
which won the 1976 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, is evident in virtually
every political, activist, and feminist doc that’s come in the years since it
was first released. Lisa Simpson even parodied one of its memorable protest ballads! Harlan County USA is still an incendiary
political portrait, and Kopple’s story of the coal miners’ strike still feels
relevant today. Start lining up today!
(Special Presentations, USA)
Big Bird is coming to town! Big Bird is coming to town! I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
marks one of the more high profile world premieres in the Special Presentations
portion of the festival. Big Bird
tells audiences how to get to Sesame Street with this archival exploration
about Caroll Spinney, the talent behind such iconic characters as Big Bird and
Oscar the Grouch. It’s rare to see a film that reveals so much insight into
such a universal cornerstone of childhood for audiences who grew up under Big
Bird’s wing. Big Bird boasts a whopping
five—yes, five—screenings during Hot Docs, so expect it to be one of the
buzziest films of the festival. (Four of said five screenings are free for
students and seniors, so chances are that anyone who wants to see the film will
be able to get a ticket.)
(Canadian
Spectrum, Canada)
The
films of Denis Côté are an exciting peculiarity in the contemporary Canadian
film scene. Last year’s Vic + Flo Saw a
Bear is a gripping odyssey of slow-burn cinema while his 2012 documentary Bestiaire is something to behold (or
revile, depending on one’s taste). Côté’s latest doc, Joy of Man’s Desiring, falls in the vein of Bestiaire with its observational eye, but this offering bids a
finer artistry and a heightened craftsmanship. It’s an exciting hybrid of a
doc—part conventional observation and part meditative docudrama—that is sure to
be one of the more notable Canadian productions of the festival. (Check back
soon for a review!)
(Shorts,
Canada)
The National Film Board of Canada has a whopping seven films
at Hot Docs this year including the world premieres of the latest films from
John Kastner (Out of Mind, Out of Sight)
and Julie Kwan (Everything Will Be),
but the must-see Canadian film of the festival so far is the NFB’s short Jutra. This flat-out brilliant tribute
to one of the most influential filmmakers in Canadian cinema is a formally and
thematically ambitious film. Director Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, who was
recently announced as heading to the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes with Jutra, is clearly one to watch. Jutra screens with the swell
observational doc Guidelines. (Check
back soon for reviews!)
(Next, Canada)
Here’s a one-of-a-kind event at Hot Docs for anyone looking
to take the film experience beyond a screening. Mugshot, for screenings at the Isabel Bader, invites audiences to
explore an on-site exhibit of vintage mugshots, presented in collaboration with
the Stephen Bulger Gallery, before and after the screening. The film and the
photography exhibit give Hot Doc-ers a glimpse into the snapshots that continue
to fascinate popular culture with every drunken grin from the Justin Biebers of
the world or with every hilarious mess of the Nick Noltes. It’s a rare chance
to watch a movie and then put one’s knowledge into practice by diving into an
archive of the film’s subject.
(Special Presentations, Italy/France)
Not only is Gianfranco Rosi’s Sacro GRA the first Italian film to win the Golden Lion at the
Venice Film Festival since 1998’s The Way
We Laughed, but it’s also the first documentary to win the prize in the
history of the festival. That’s no small feat. Sacro GRA whisks audiences to Italy and gives a portrait of Rome as
a city in the midst of radical change as it follows the lives of citizens
working and living in a ring road around the busy city. (It seems like a fine
companion piece to last summer’s The
Venice Syndrome.) There’s a host of prizewinners from various international
film festivals at Hot Docs this year, but Sacro
GRA offers a fine starting point for anyone looking to show off a little
trivia and make some friends in line. Bonus: After the film, you can debate
whether it deserved to beat the likes of Philomena
and Under the Skin!
(Special Presentations, Canada)
TIFF isn’t the only Toronto film festival to mix star
wattage with major films, and Super Duper
Alice Cooper should bring the house down when the devil himself comes to
town for a screening of this electrifying film. Super Duper Alice Cooper is an all-encompassing “rock opera” that
combines a wealth of archival excerpts, concert footage, and exclusive
interviews for a rockin’ collage of Cooper’s rise to fame. Cooper himself will
be on hand for the film, which will screen as a Hot Docs Live special
presentation on April 28 and be simulcast in select Cineplex theatres across
the country. This special event will feature an audience Q&A with Alice
Cooper and directors Reginald Harkema, Scot McFadyen, and Sean Dunn, so check
your local listings if you’re not in town for the festival! (And check back
soon for a review!)
What are you excited to see at Hot Docs this year?
Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more information on this
year’s festival. Hot Docs runs April 24 - May 4.
