If there is one thing I can take away from this year’s edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, it is that I don’t think I saw any documentaries that I actively disliked. While there were some films I was underwhelmed by, there was nothing I saw that I wouldn’t recommend in some…
Winner, Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary The indigenous contributions to music history are revealed in Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. In 1907, the first recording of native music was made, since it was believed that the culture of the First Nation’s community would disappear. However, as it turns out, the indigenous…
A group of Syrian activists risk their lives to spread the truth about ISIS in City of Ghosts. In 2014, the city of Raqqa in Syria is taken over by the terrorist group Daesh, more commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS. With ISIS spreading propaganda about life in the city under…
Electronic dance trio Major Lazer becomes the first major American act to play in Cuba in Give Me Future. After the United States set out to improve their relationship with Cuba, the electronic dance trio Major Lazer decide to play a concert in the communist country, becoming the first major American act to do so…
A Hong Kong teenager leads protests against the Chinese government in Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower. Due to its years as a British colony, Hong Kong has always has a much more westernized culture than that of mainland China. When the Chinese national education plan is introduced, seemingly introducing communist practices to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong…
A Tokyo-based Canadian craftsman and an American designer team up to make Japanese woodblock prints depicting video game pop culture icons in Ukiyo-e Heroes. Ukiyo-e is the 400 year old art of Japanese woodblock printing. David Bull moved to Japan from Canada in the 1980s to learn this art and now he is one of the only 10…
A woman chronicles her and others experiences with chronic fatigue syndrome in Unrest. Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea seemed to have a bright future ahead of herself when she was suddenly struck with a mysterious illness that left her bedridden. Brea would later learn that she was suffering from ME, more commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome….
Three couples deal with life after divorce in Every Other Couple. Kaisa & Ville, Yka & Jonna, and Sanna & Mikko are three Finnish couples, who have all seen their marriages come to an end through separation or divorce. The couples are followed as they adjust to their new status and relationship to their children….
A Swiss farm girl is curious to learn the truth about a local legend in The Girl Down Loch Änzi. Laura is a 12 year old girl, who lives with her family of a charcoal burners on a farm in the Swiss mountains. Laura has becomes obsessed with the local legend of the Änziloch Maiden, who…
A woman seeks out closure for her older sister’s suicide in 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide. In 2008, photographer Ruth Litoff was found death in her Manhattan apartment, after having killed herself. Six year later, Ruth’s younger sister Hope removes her sister’s belongings from storage, with the hope that she can piece together the events that…
