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Movies & TV

Hot Docs gets real again

Never mind the crocuses and the robins – the real sign of spring is the first Hot Docs press conference, which almost always takes place on a preposterously gorgeous morning.

The 2012 edition was no different, except for the location: executive director Chris McDonald and his staff rolled out their slate of announcements at the refurbished and rebranded Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, which will serve as the flagship venue for the festival, which will screen 189 features and shorts from a record 51 countries.

In addition to naming this year’s opening film – Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a profile of the Chinese artist and dissident which won the Special Jury Prize for Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – McDonald discussed a new slate of programming designed to open Hot Docs up to the city and the nation.

Once again, Hot Docs will reach out beyond the downtown core with screenings at the Regent, Revue and Fox theatres. But this year the festival goes national, simulcasting two feature-length Canadian documentaries – titles to be announced – and their live post-screening filmmaker Q&As to audiences in 50 Cineplex theatres across the country.

New programs introduced this year include the Rise Against series – which focuses on activism and global social issues with titles including Brian Knappenberger’s We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists and Petr Lom’s Back To The Square, about Egypt after the recent revolution – and Nightvision, a place for cultural curiosities like Chris James Thompson’s Jeff, about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and Francophrenia (Or: Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where The Baby Is), James Franco’s self-made documentary about his time on General Hospital.

Special Presentations include Up The Yangtze director Yung Chang’s new doc China Heavyweight, about young boxers training in rural China Marley, a biography of reggae icon Bob Marley from Kevin Macdonald (Touching The Void, The Last King Of Scotland) and Detropia, a look at the devastated city of Detroit from Jesus Camp directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing.

The Canadian Spectrum program boasts 29 shorts and features, 14 of them world premieres. Titles include Matt Embry and Larry Day’s topical Theo Fleury: Playing With Fire, which examines the fallen hockey star’s tragic history of abuse and addiction Rosie Dransfeld’s Who Cares?, about Edmonton sex workers, and Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math’s The Final Member, described in the press package as a film about “Iceland’s famous penis museum.” Okay then.

The cutting-edge series Next returns with looks at LCD Soundsystem (Shut Up And Play The Hits), Rick Springfield (An Affair Of The Heart) and Canadian author Mazo De La Roche (The Mystery Of Mazo De La Roche).

The festival will present its Outstanding Achievement Award to Quebec documentarian Michel Brault Toronto filmmaker John Kastner (interviewed here about his 2010 Hot Docs entry Life With Murder) is the subject of this year’s Focus On retrospective.

The 19th annual Hot Docs festival runs from April 26 to May 6. Tickets and passes can be purchased at the festival box office at 783 Bathurst Street, or online at hotdocs.ca.

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