Following the Canadian premiere of their horror documentary Satan Wants You at this year’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, I had the chance to speak with filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams about the film. The film recently went on to screen at the Fantasia Film Festival and today the film is opening …
Hot Docs 2023
The rise and fall of the 1990s “Crash TV” series is told in The American Gladiators Documentary. One of the earliest reality TV series, The American Gladiators, was a part sport, part game show, pitting amateur athletes against the titular gladiators. The show began in 1989 as the brainchild of former Elvis impersonator Johnny C. …
Former cattle ranchers transform their farm into an animal sanctuary in Rowdy Girl. Renee King-Sonnen is an animal lover who convinced her husband, Tommy, to turn vegan and convert their Texas Cattle Ranch into an animal sanctuary for farm animals. Now Renee runs a Rancher Advocacy Program to help farms transition from animal agriculture to …
The work of Hong Kong’s artists and activists is made illegal by China in Hong Kong Mixtape. Due to its years as a British colony, Hong Kong has typically been more progressive than communist mainland China. However, that began to change when China regained control of the city and began to police it with its …
The Dalkurd Football Club strives to be the first Kurdish team to play at the highest level in Europe in Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story. The Kurdish people are the largest state without a country, with Kurdistan being comprised of regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Formed by Kurdish refugees living in Sweden, the Dalkurd …
A group of women bare their souls in an Estonian smoke sauna in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. In Southern Estonia, a group of women gather in a traditional smoke sauna to cleanse themselves. Each of the women tells their own personal stories, with subjects ranging from having breast cancer, coming out as lesbian, and being a …
The rise of NBA star Stephen Curry is told in Stephen Curry: Underrated. In November 2021, Stephen Curry, point guard of the Golden State Warriors, beat the record previously held by Ray Allen for the most 3-pointers made in NBA history. However, Curry had to fight for his position, as he spent his entire career …
An Italian woman attempts to break the world record for the incredibly dangerous sport of freediving in The Deepest Breath. Freediving is an extreme sport where swimmers try to descend to the deepest depths in a single breath. Alessia Zecchini is an Italian woman following in the footsteps of the world’s greatest freediver Natalia Molchanova. …
The life of morticians is shown in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion in Undertaker for Life! If the world didn’t need undertakers, the people would be pretty happy. Director Georges Hannan tackles the taboo profession of preparing the dead for burial with earnestness and humour. This includes comparing embalming to changing the transmission on a car …
A pathologist spends decades with Albert Einstein’s brain in his possession in The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain. Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey was the chief pathologist of Princeton Hospital, who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein following the scientist’s death in April 1955. During the autopsy, Harvey decides to take Einstein’s brain from the corpses, …
The timeline of Y2K concerns and paranoia is revisited in Time Bomb Y2K. In the mid-1990s, there was an explosion in information technology and the level that we corrected. However, with this interconnectivity came the fear of the “Millenium Big,” first brought to attention by Canadian computer engineer Peter de Jager, who expressed concerns about …
Filmmaker Penny Lane documents her experience donating her kidney to a complete stranger in Confessions of a Good Samaritan. Once considered taboo by the medical professions, altruistic or “good samaritan” donations involve living people deciding to donate one of their vital organs to give to a complete stranger. Penny Lane is preparing to make such …
The religious right’s influence on U.S. politics and the country’s relations with Israel are explored in Praying for Armageddon. In the United States, fundamentalist evangelical Christian Zionists believe that every word of the bible is literally true and that the apocalypse would start with the second coming of Jesus Chris and true believers being raptured …
A woman born with a rare physical disability tries to find other people like her while combating ableism in society in Is There Anybody Out There? Ella Glendining was born without hip joints, and very small femurs, and Ella’s disability is so rare that there aren’t even proper statistics. Ella joins various online groups to …
China’s status as an authoritative surveillance state is exposed in Total Trust. Using the latest technologies, such as facial recognition technology and even COVID health checks, the communist government of China can enact authoritative control over its citizens. Several Chinese citizens document their horrifying experiences with the Chinese surveillance states. The central story comes from …
The little-known history of Black Barbie is told in Black Barbie: A Documentary. For decades the image of Barbie was that of a slim white girl with long blonde hair. However, Lagueria Davis learns through her aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, a former Mattel employee, that a special Black Barbie was released in 1980 and has …
The indie rock band July Talk puts on a concert at a drive-in during the COVID-19 pandemic in July Talk: Love Lives Here. The band July Talk, led by Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis, is forced to cancel their upcoming tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a contingency, the band plans to perform …
The horror documentary It’s Coming had its world premiere as part of the Nightvision program as part of the 2023 Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival. Shot, directed, produced, and edited by Shannon Alexander, the film follows Ashley Roland and her kids experiencing some paranormal activity in their Brooklyn apartment. Speaking on the phone with …
The Hot Docs 2023 Nightvision Shorts Program considsts of unexpected and unexplained films about hauntings, from the Penobscot Nation to Aleister Crowley’s villa, TikTok tics, a ghostly glitch, spirit poop and naked pagans jumping through fiery hoops. Belongings Morgan Talty is a man from the Penobscot Indian Nation, recounting the ghostly experiences he encountered in …
Michael J. Fox reminisces about his career and the struggles of three decades of having Parkinson’s in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia, Michael J. Fox developed the acting bug at a young age, getting cast in his first role in the 1978 CBC sitcom …
The man responsible for ensuring there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is interviewed two decades after the Iraq War in Blix Not Bombs. Hans Blix is a Swedish Diplomat assigned by the United Nations Security Council to perform weapons inspections in Iraq to ensure that the country was not harbouring Weapons of …
Read Our Interview with Director Shannon Alexander A Brooklyn family hopes to rid themselves of the malevolent spirits haunting them in It’s Coming. Ashley Roland is a mother of five and has been sensitive to supernatural entities since she was 11. After returning to her family’s ancestral Brooklyn apartment, Ashley and her kids witness strange …
Three millennial women identify as present-day witches in Coven. Over the generations, the concept of witches has evolved from a patriarchal fear of strong women to a religious form of spiritualism that is embraced. Three Toronto-based women have embraced Wiccan teachings in their own ways. Laura is a solitary witch who traces her ancestry to …
The story of a woman and a psychiatrist whose book helped kick off the 1980s Satanic Panic is told in Satan Wants You. In 1976, Michelle Smith visited Dr. Laurence Pazder in Victoria, British Columbia. During their sessions, Dr. Pazder supposedly uncovers repressed memories from Michelle’s childhood in the 1950s. She believes that she was …
A woman recreates the memories from her adolescence in You Were My First Boyfriend. After attending her high school reunion, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo became interested in recreating her memories from her teenage years in the 1990s. Cecilia stars in various recreations from her adolescence by hiring actors to play her teenage friends and classmates. This …
Two teams of cavers set out to break the records for the longest and deepest caves in Canada in Subterranean. Two groups of hobbyist cavers are on the verge of breaking two major records. Katie Graham and her team explore the Bisaro Anima cave in the Rocky Mountains, only 0.5 metres away from being declared …
A young Siksika woman follows her dreams of becoming an Indian relay rider in Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun. Logan Red Crow is a teenage Siksika woman who lives on her family’s ranch in Blackfoot Territory. Logan has been racing horses since she was 15, and she is preparing for one of the most dangerous …
A Toronto carpenter builds tiny homeless shelters amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Someone Lives Here. As Toronto’s homeless population rose throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto carpenter Khaleel Seivwright took it upon himself in the fall of 2020 to create tiny shelters that he would leave for the homeless in Toronto parks. While the public championed …
The COVID-19 pandemic exposes the broken food system in the United States in Food and Country. Mass agriculture in the United States is based on how cheap food can be produced. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, farmers are expected to continue planting as if everything is returning to normal. New York Times food critic …
The career of “Queen of Disco” Donna Summer is revisited in Love to Love You, Donna Summer. Raised as part of a family of gospel singers, Donna Summer first became known for her “20 Minutes of Love” 1975 orgasmic dance hit “Love to Love You, Baby.” This and her 1977 hit collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, …
Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter embarks on a journey to reclaim her language and culture in Twice Colonized. Aaju Peter has made it her lifelong fight to campaign for the rights of Inuit people, particularly against opposition to the Inuit’s hunting of seals. After her son suddenly dies of suicide, Aaju embarks on a journey to …