By: Jolie Featherstone Becky Hutner’s urgent Fashion Reimagined is an important report, rendered through masterful storytelling. Formally hired to edit docs (Revolution, Being Canadian), it’s near impossible to believe that Fashion Reimagined is Hutner’s feature-length documentary directorial debut.
By: Danyal Somani Squaring The Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) is a documentary about the creation of Hipgnosis, a UK company that has created iconic album covers, such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, and Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy.
I was having trouble figuring out how to review Insanity because it’s such a personal project. It’s less of a conventional documentary and more of an outlet for filmmaker Wendy Hill-Tout (Marlene) and her family to decompress and reflect on James Bruce Hill-Tout, Wendy’s missing and homeless Schizophrenic brother.
Lisa Cortés’ Little Richard: I Am Everything is a perfect documentary for people with an interest in the legendary musician. It’s a thorough breakdown that guides unfamiliar movie goers (like myself) through Little Richard’s life and career, and it sports plenty of exciting concert footage and entertaining interviews that would make any loyal fan giddy.
By: Trevor Chartrand Cat Daddies is a documentary about, you guessed it, men who own cats. As someone with a career in the pet industry, and as a ‘Cat Daddy’ myself, I could safely assume I’m the target audience for Hye Hoang’s movie. While I had high hopes for Cat Daddies to spin some riveting “tails” (eh? eh?!), this doc, unfortunately, is barely fur-deep.
When assault accusations and confessions rise to the surface, the attention is usually – and surprisingly – scattered. I always assume that all the focus would be towards the victims first, followed by the perpetrator and other elements in the story but, sadly, that’s not always the case. Although the #MeToo movement helped shed light on these crimes, there’s still difficulty to deliver justice or invest trust towards victims.
As one of the very first celebrity chefs, Charlie Trotter spent the early 2000s on top of the culinary world. In her new documentary Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter, writer/director Rebecca Halpern (History Channel’s Gangland) traces Charlie’s rise to prominence and the enduring mark that he left on the culinary world.
By: Jeff Ching Clean Slate is a documentary that can be described as The Fabelmans meets Dopesick. Instead of trying to cover the opioid crisis and the countless lives that have been ruined because of it, Clean Slate takes a more grounded approach; simply focusing on two best friends (Cassidy and Joshua) in rehab, whose lives have been ruined by their addiction to painkillers. However, Cassidy and Joshua share one passion – their love of…
Academy Award-winning director Laura Poitras (Citizenfour; My Country, My Country) doesn’t hold back in her latest documentary, a devastating portrait of fiery artist and activist Nan Goldin. Words like “heartbreaking” and “inspiring” are insufficient to describe this powerful story of community, activism, and survival.
Representing Canada in the competition to be selected for the Best International Feature Film category is Jason Loftus’ semi-animated doc Eternal Spring, and I’m honoured to have such a strong movie in our corner. But while we wait for confirmation that the movie made the cut, audiences can check out this Hot Docs award-winning masterpiece during its current, exclusive theatrical run – I urge you to seek it out and see it on the biggest…