Festival runs April 17-27 at these venues:
Al Green Theatre (Bloor JCC), 750 Spadina Av.
Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor W.
Cumberland Cinemas, 159 Cumberland
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex
Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles W.
ROM Theatre, 100 Queen’s Park
Royal Cinema, 608 College
Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge
Individual
screenings $10 (before 6pm)/$12 (after 6pm)/$5 (after 11pm). Festival
pass $90-$160. Tickets available at The Documentary Box Office, 87
Avenue, 416-637-5150. Go to www.hotdocs.ca for complete schedule.
HOTTEST DOCS
BE LIKE OTHERS ****
Directed by Tanaz Eshaghian. 74 min. Apr 21, 7:15pm, Isabel Bader; Apr 24, 4:15pm, Cumberland.
“Because [the Quran] does not specifically say that a sex change is a sin, we cannot call it a sin,” says a Muslim cleric by way of explaining why sex changes were officially sanctioned in Iran — a country where homosexuality is not merely stigmatized, but considered grounds for execution. Be Like Others probes the fallout of this fatwa, foregrounding the experiences of several young men in various stages of gender-reassignment. Formally polished and emotionally raw, Tanaz Eshaghian’s film puts the lie to Western notions of Iran as a homogenous society while tallying up the physical, emotional, and spiritual costs of this particular sort of “fitting in.” AN
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS ****
Directed by Aaron Rose, Joshua Leonard. 80 mins. Apr 19, 7pm, Cumberland; April 21, 1:30 pm, Cumberland.
It’s easy to dismiss Beautiful Losers as the product of hipsters trying to make art — until you scratch beneath the sensuous surface imagery of LA skateboarders and Harmony Korine tap dancing for spare change. Aaron Rose — owner of New York’s Alleged Gallery — cultivated a community of freaks in the mid-‘90s, artists who gleaned from folk traditions, graffiti and punk rock to express their own isolation and repressed anxiety. With sumptuous cinematography showcasing the gorgeous line art of Margaret Kilgallen, Ed Templeton, and Barry McGee — often transposed onto an inner city billboard or train compartment — Beautiful Losers flips a defiant middle finger to any art-school vernacular. CL
DANCE WITH A SERIAL KILLER ****
Directed by Nigel Williams. 72 min. April 20, 9:30pm, ROM; April 23, 11:30am, ROM.
In this real-life police procedural, the investigation of the 1989 death of a woman on a beach in Brittany eventually leads to the capture of Francis Heaulmes, a transient responsible for at least 40 murders all over France. “I think he came very close to getting away with it,” says Jean François Abgrall, the detective who put it all together. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that Heaulmes’ crimes would ever have been linked if not for the determination of the coolly methodical Abgrall, as well as a few convenient plot twists that would strain viewers’ credulity if this chilling story weren’t true. JA
EMOTICONS ****
Directed by Heddy Honigmann. 53 min. Apr 18, 7:15pm, ROM; Apr 19, noon, ROM.
Last year, Heddy Honigmann received Hot Docs’ Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of her career accomplishments, and Emoticons is a typically fine piece of work. It focuses on six teenaged girls in the Netherlands whose lives revolve around some form of online social networking; under Honigmann’s patient and empathetic gaze, they reveal the reasons for their detachment. Anyone expecting a portrait of “lost souls” may be surprised: by tracing the line from electronic congress to flesh-and-blood interaction, Emoticons reveals itself as a film about the joy of being found. AN
HOLD ME TIGHT, LET ME GO ****
Directed by Kim Longinotto. 100 min. April 19, 9:15pm, Isabel Bader; April 27, 3:30pm, Bloor.
The latest by one of Britain’s best documentary filmmakers is a typically intimate and powerful work about an extraordinary school in Oxford for emotionally troubled children. Apt to cuss out, spit on and punch their teachers — who display a restraint that can only be considered uncanny — these kids obviously have a lot of issues to work out. Patient and perceptive, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go illustrates the daunting complexity of each subject’s situation while bringing troubling issues of parenting and pedagogy directly to the fore. JA
THE RISE AND FALL OF GRUMPY BURGER ****
Directed by Matt Gallagher. 84 min. April 20, 7pm, Royal; April 23, 11:59pm, Bloor.
A not-so-epic tale of ambition, schlock and all-beef patties, Matt Gallagher’s very funny portrait of a filmmaker pal seems tailor-made for cult status. Windsor, Ontario’s very own Roger Corman, Marshall Sfalcin is happy to fill his no-budget, Z-grade productions with cardboard monsters and topless girls. No wonder things go awry when he tries to go legit with a movie about his grandfather’s restaurant, which may have beaten McDonald’s to the concept of fast food. When not stirring up battles in his family, Sfalcin ridicules Gallagher’s own efforts to turn this moviemaker’s life into a movie (and a great one at that). JA
SONG SUNG BLUE ****
Directed by Greg Kohs. 87 mins. April 18, 9pm, Bloor; April 20, 7:15pm, ROM.
As American gothic as it gets in Milwaukee, husband and wife performance duo Lightning & Thunder endure car crashes, hospitalization and a slowing appreciation for their schmaltzy Neil Diamond covers en route to a surefire comeback. Greg Kohs captures subjects — now paunchy and despondent, clad in sequined vests adorned with stars and stripes —?mired in bitter realism, testing the terms of unconditional love. This documentary is filled with poignant moments, the best of which involve an onstage duet with Eddie Vedder and a chain-smoking nuclear family squabbling over skillets at Denny’s. Overwrought and unbearably sentimental, Song Sung Blue is as heart-rending as Diamond’s guiltiest pleasures. CL
TRIAGE: DR. JAMES ORBINSKI’S HUMANITARIAN DILEMMA ****
Directed by Patrick Reed. 88 min. April 22, 9:15pm, Bloor; April 27, 7:15pm, Bloor.
A first-hand witness to some of the worst horrors in recent human history, Dr. James Orbinski admits that he feels “nearly uncontainable rage” at the people who allowed it all to happen, whether the perpetrators were Somali warlords, Hutu hate-mongers or indifferent politicians in the west. Unsurprisingly, Patrick Reed’s portrait of Orbinski — the Toronto-based former president of Médecins Sans Frontières and a veteran of the group’s interventions in Africa and the Balkans in the ‘90s — is defined as much by its anger as its sadness. Seen here on return visits to Somalia and Rwanda as he rekindles often painful memories in preparation for a forthcoming memoir, Orbinski is unfailingly articulate on the needs and demands of humanitarianism. He’s also visibly moved by encounters with people who lived through the same dark times. JA
WARM DOCS
AIR INDIA 182 ***
Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. 97 min. April 17, 9:30pm, Winter Garden; April 18, 1:30pm, Isabel Bader.
The events surrounding the worst terrorist attack ever inflicted on this country’s citizens get the docudrama treatment by Sturla Gunnarsson in Hot Docs’ Canadian opening film. Air India 182 draws great force from the recollections of relatives who lost loved ones, as well as the intelligence officials who were already keeping tabs on Sikh extremists before the bombing but who failed to piece the conspiracy together in time (or during recent trials, for that matter). Though the facts are compellingly presented, many of the dramatic recreations are awkward or unconvincing, making the production seem amateurish next to Paul Greengrass’ recent efforts to revitalize the docudrama form with Bloody Sunday, Omagh and United 93. JA
ALL TOGETHER NOW ***
Directed by Adrian Wills. 85 min. April 19, 9:15pm, Bloor; April 20, 3:45pm, Bloor.
Old, rich hippies and strangely attired circus folk join forces in Sin City to create a $180 million theatrical production. Of course, it’s all done in the name of Love, Cirque de Soleil’s lavish tribute to the Fab Four. As Adrian Wills’ film reveals, the biggest challenge to the producers is not figuring out what the hell to do with “Octopus’ Garden” but appeasing the various factions of the Beatles organization. (As it turns out, Paul and Ringo are more easygoing than John and George’s somewhat meddlesome widows.) But there’s not much room for disagreement in All Together Now, which offers such a positive view on Cirque’s efforts that it can seem more like an electronic press kit than a documentary. JA
CARTS OF DARKNESS ***
Directed by Murray Siple. 60 min. April 21, 7pm, Royal; April 24, noon, Isabel Bader.
Even the wildest snowboarders and mountain bikers are candy asses compared to the proponents of a very extreme extreme sport this doc uncovers in North Vancouver. When not picking bottles from blue boxes, the homeless men in Carts of Darkness love nothing more than racing their shopping carts down the area’s steep streets. But as Murray Siple illustrates in his engaging if sometimes overly earnest film, the need for speed is not the only thing afflicting his subjects’ troubled lives. JA
DADDY TRAN: A LIFE IN 3-D ***
Directed by Siu Ta. 47 mins. April 18, 9:30pm, Isabel Bader; April 19, 4:30pm, Al Green.
Vintage camera-store owner Hai Tran is a proud 3-D photographer, capturing the world with a constant need to snap its picture over and over. This does not please his largely annoyed family, who immigrated to Calgary after fleeing Vietnam with three point-and-shoots and a suitcase of photographs. While Ta does an adequate job of relaying the pressures of assimilation, he avoids confronting his subject with any harsh truths. Like Tran himself, the director never gets close for fear of disturbing the scene, resulting in an amicable yet impersonal work. CL
JUNIOR ***
Directed by Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault. 97 min. April 20, 7pm, Cumberland; April 22, 4:30pm, Innis.
Though this Quebecois hockey doc doesn’t delve into the perennially hot topic of violence in the junior leagues, it does convey a strong sense of the highly pressurized environment endured by the players and coaches of a troubled team from Baie-Comeau. Filmmakers Isabelle Lavigne and Stéphane Thibault’s unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall shooting style occasionally deprives events of sufficient context but there’s no shortage of drama in the lives of its four primary subjects, young players who each get speared by the bitch goddess that is pro hockey. JA
THE LAST CONTINENT ***
Directed by Jean Lemire. 105 min. April 19, 4pm, Isabel Bader; April 20, 12:45pm, Bloor.
Already a huge success in Quebec, this gorgeously shot eco-doc follows the travails of a French-Canadian expedition to study the effects of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula. As you might’ve guessed, the news ain’t good. In fact, it’s gotten so balmy down there, unexpected weather conditions leave the crew in serious jeopardy. Though director Jean Lemire tries to reassure viewers with grand vistas of icy landscapes, cute shots of seal pups and a somewhat overbearing musical score (Patrick Wilson contributes a song), his film is as alarming as any of Al Gore’s flow charts. JA
SECOND SKIN ***
Directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro. 90 min. Apr 21, 7:15pm, ROM; Apr 23, 1:30pm, Isabel Bader.
Second Skin doesn’t really say much more about the second-life phenomenon than South Park’s brilliant, Emmy-winning “Make Love, Not Warcraft” episode, but it’s still a sincere attempt to put a human face on avatar culture. The most interesting segments detail the tertiary industries that have sprung up around MMORPGs (that’s Massively Multi-player-Online-Role-Playing Games) — it seems, for instance, that there’s nothing that we North Americans can’t outsource to China. AN
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE ***
Directed by Errol Morris. 118 min. April 26, 9:15pm, Isabel Bader.
The infamous Private Lynndie England has a memorable meeting with Errol Morris’ trusty Interrotron as the director turns his attention to the abuses at Abu Ghraib. What Morris uncovers is inevitably disturbing, especially after hearing England and other guards explain how the notorious photos conceal as much as they reveal. But S.O.P. also suffers from certain elisions of its own, like the lack of any input by the prison’s former inmates — some did get their say in Rory Kennedy’s Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, a superior doc on the same subject. Likewise, Morris’ trademark recreations are often as superfluous as they are exquisitely shot — should such an ugly story really look so pretty? JA
STEYPA ***
Directed by Markus Andresson, Ragnheidur Gestsdottir. 67 mins. April 18, 7pm, Royal; April 20, 5pm, Innis Town Hall.
This vibrant, kinetic documentary should’ve been subtitled “everything you wanted to know about the Icelandic contemporary art scene but were afraid to ask.” From the artist Gabriela, who adorns herself in Hannibal Lecter–like dough masks, to Asmundur, who simulates the “Pepsi challenge” by pouring Coke into Fanta bottles, issues of commodification, cultural identity and locality are brought to the forefront. While Steypa’s pace occasionally slows to halted creative introspection, it’s still an intriguing view of fringe culture as its weirdest and most disparate, Björk cameo included. CL
TIGER SPIRIT ***
Directed by Min Sook Lee. 72 min. April 20, 6:30pm, Bloor; April 26, 12:45pm, Bloor.
The director of the 2005 Hot Docs prizewinner Hogtown: The Politics of Policing returns with a frankly personal film about the ongoing division of Korean families, many of whose members expected to be separated for a year or two by the civil war, not half a century. The efforts of a determined tiger hunter and the looming arrival of her first child also figure into Min Sook Lee’s scheme, but Tiger Spirit’s most powerful moments are supplied by a family who experience the joys and disappointments of reunification first-hand. JA
VIRTUAL JFK: VIETNAM IF KENNEDY HAD LIVED ***
Directed by Koji Masutani. 82 min. Apr 23, 9:45pm, Isabel Bader; Apr 26, 7pm, Royal.
Sadly, this is not a choose-your-own-adventure game where you get to duck Jackie en route to a midnight rendezvous with Marilyn. Instead, Koji Masutani’s film is an exercise in “counter-factual” history, spinning a credible scenario where Kennedy never died and the ‘60s took a very different direction. Less sensationalistic than recent alternate-reality exercises like C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America and Death of a President, Virtual JFK is nevertheless unsubtle in its juxtaposition of Vietnam and Iraq — and drawing equations between these quagmires is as predictable as it is problematic. AN
WESLEY WILLIS’ JOY RIDES ***
Directed by Chris Bagley, Kim Shively. 78 mins. Apr 20, 9:45pm, Cumberland; Apr 22, 11:45pm, Bloor.
Culled together in the years before its eponymous subject’s death in 2003, Chris Bagley and Kim Shively’s doc offers an intimate and affectionate look at the towering, Chicago-born outsider artist and indier-than-indie musician who gave us “Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald’s” and “Suck a Cheetah’s Dick,” to name but two Casio-tastic examples. The footage of Willis on stage and in repose (such as it is for a paranoid schizophrenic) is compelling, but the overall construction is dismayingly shapeless. AN
NOT-SO-HOT DOCS
PASSAGE **
Directed by John Walker. 111 mins. April 20, 9:45pm, Royal; April 23, 4:15pm, ROM.
Self-reflexive in his construction, filmmaker John Walker recapitulates the discovery of the Arctic Circle by British subject Sir John Franklin — or was it Hudson’s Bay explorer John Rae? A reliance on “Heritage Minute”–style re-enactments stifles the round-table discussions of historicity with actors and crew searching for their motivation, while appearances by Charles Dickens’ great-grandson and Native activist Tagak Curley contribute little to the debate. Walker turns this story of ‘round-the-world voyaging and rumoured cannibalism into a total snooze fest, though the Nunavut landscapes are picturesque. CL
S & M: SHORT AND MALE **
Directed by Howard Goldberg. 86 min. Apr 24, 7pm, Royal; Apr 27, 1:45pm, Isabel Bader.
Dully conventional technique and a cloying musical score exacerbate the shortcomings of this doc about heightism. Director Howard Goldberg’s concerns about the indignities suffered by his short-statured brethren are not without merit — in addition to the predictable personal gripes of the North American interviewees, there’s a section on height-based hiring practices in China that suggests Randy Newman lyrics rewritten as corporate policy — but the ratio of cutesy interludes to actual insight proves lopsided in the wrong direction. AN