North America’s largest documentary festival offered glimpses of international cinematic wonders to Torontonians.
Firdaus Ali.
TORONTO: North America’s largest documentary festival, Hot Docs opened in Toronto on April 28 and offered glimpses of international cinematic wonders to Torontonians until Sunday, May 7. Each year, the festival presents a selection of over 100 cutting edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe.
This year Deepa Mehta’s film, Let’s Face it was screened among almost 100 films selected from 23 countries. The film unravels the turbulence behind domestic abuse and children, victims of domestic violence, break the silence and secrecy of family abuse for the first time. A compelling and purposeful call to action, the one-hour film puts a voice and a face to the global epidemic that is breeding a new generation of abusers.
Mehta’s journey into the dark corners of familial abuse among immigrants is uniquely and cleverly crafted to be the catalyst for open dialogue and discussion among all ethnic and cultural communities.
Offering the first ever glimpse into the hush-hush world of domestic violence from the perspective of its youngest prey, Mehta arms the subjects’ offspring with video cameras and an assignment to interview their respective parents. Unprompted, their interviews are jolting reminders that silence and secrecy are the domains of domestic violence and the killers of innocence. They are also inspiring profiles of courage, hope and determination
The Hot Docs Festival is a great platform for screening meaningful cinema and was founded in 1993 by the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, a national association of independent documentary filmmakers. In 1996, Hot Docs became a separately incorporated organisation with a mandate to showcase and support the work of Canadian and international documentary filmmakers and to promote excellence in documentary production.
Bombay Calling by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Samir Mallal and Ben Addelman was also played at the fest. Bombay Calling gives film buffs an insider’s look into a fast-paced and competitive world where call centre employees are continually pushed to sell, sell, sell telephone plans to UK customers.
Audiences get to meet colourful characters like Sweetie, who is able to financially support her family from her call centre earnings, and Charles, who admits to being a “ladies’ man.” Filmmakers Addelman and Mallal integrate upbeat music tracks and an array of Bollywood film clips in this doc that offers a fresh look into the role of capitalism in new India.
“Not your average presentations... Hot Docs’ special presentations are revered cultural events!
From our opening night presentation to the opening film of the Canadian Spectrum, this selection of highly-anticipated films is made up of documentaries screened outside of the official competition,” say festival the organisers.
A favourite at the festival is the international showcase segment, which received submissions from astonishing 80-plus countries from around the globe, providing a broad range of work from both well established and emerging documentary traditions. Hot Docs chose Japan as the country for this year’s “Made in... program” which provides provocative glimpses of the dynamic social, political and cultural issues facing those societies.
France was selected as the featured country in the national spotlight program for 2006. Internationally-renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog received the Outstanding Achievement Award this year.
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