Hot Docs windup

The Toronto Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival just completed another very successful run with 204 new and exciting documentary films screened throughout the Toronto area in front of an estimated 180,000 audience members.

One of the advantages of having a festival such as Hot Docs in town is that we get the opportunity to see a lot of interesting and challenging films that we might not otherwise be able to watch. Many of the films presented by Hot Docs are shown at the Festival and then disappear. But that is changing. With the advent of the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre, Toronto now has a venue that is almost exclusively dedicated to the presentation of documentary films. And I know that some of my favourite films screened at this year’s Hot Docs festival will be showing up in the near future at the Bloor. So keep your eyes open and watch the theatre’s listings.

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I’ll just give you a taste of the Festival with a few of the titles I enjoyed or found interesting or even remarkable. I can’t give a full review because of restrictions placed on coverage of the Festival, but here are some of the films that you may want to catch if and when they show up at the Bloor Cinema or even at other theatres in the Toronto area. THE MANOR was the opening night film at this year’s Hot Docs. It wasn’t an extraordinary film but it does tell a remarkable story about an unusual family. Shawney Cohen’s father bought a strip club in the Ontario city of Guelph some thirty years ago. Since then, Shawney’s father’s health has deteriorated. His weight has ballooned to some 400 pounds and he has been unable to change his eating habits. Shawney’s mother, on the other hand, weighs 85 pounds and is unable to force herself to eat enough to put on some weight. Shawney and his brother run the family business. The film deals with the complicated relationship between members of the family. ANITA tells about the difficulties Anita Hill faced when she charged United States Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas, with sexual harassment. The charges and Ms. Hill’s subsequent testimony at the Senate confirmation hearings are revisited and the difficulties which she suffered are discussed for the first time on film. It is a most fascinating film. MUSCLE SHOALS, Alabama is a small, undistinguished town on the banks of the Tennessee River. But tucked away in that town is a recording studio that has made the town famous in the world of R & B and Soul music. It is to this town that such “A List” recording artists as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones and many others have come to record their music. The town seems to invigorate singers and musicians from around the world and gives their music the lift they need to make them successful. The film tells an uplifting story about the magic that exists in this town and in the recording wizardry of the music makers who live here. QUALITY BALLS THE DAVID STEINBERG STORY was brought to the screen by Barry Avrich, a veteran filmmaker and advertising executive who tells the wonderful story of Winnipeg born comedian, David Steinberg. From a cutting edge stand up comic to an in demand television director who has worked on such shows as “Seinfeld”, “Mad About You”, “Golden Girls” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, we watch as Steinberg literally grows up on stage and in front of the camera. It is a wonderful and beautiful film bio of an innovative and creative show business legend. GOOD OL’ FREDA has to be my favourite film at the festival. It tells the story of Freda Kelly who was plucked out of a secretarial pool when she was seventeen and hired to be Brian Epstein’s secretary. Over the next ten years Freda worked for and got to know Brian and his clients, The Beatles, in a very personal way. During this time Freda also ran The Beatles’ fan club and made sure that everyone who wrote to them received a personal response, even during the years when some 2,000 letters a day would pour in. And Freda seems to be the same generous and self-effacing person she was fifty years ago. This is a must see film for everyone who lived through those glorious years of Beatlemania.