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Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes @ Hot Docs 2014: Baring It All and Barely Keeping Quiet

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is fast approaching, which means it’s time to  check out some of the docs that will be playing this year. The festival has been known to feature a variety of different work capturing all sorts of subjects and world events.  There’s simply no other festival like it, which explains why it’s become the largest film festival for docs in North America. Hot Docs is one of my favourite festivals…

Reviews

Mistaken for Strangers

By: Addison Wylie There’s this strange little number named Mistaken for Strangers that has me all around impressed.  The documentary is a peculiar one because it plops the audience in a position that automatically has us feeling very skeptical moments out of the gate. We’re quickly introduced to the film’s focus – the rock and roll band The National – and shown the key element all five musicians have in common.  Each member has a…

Reviews

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

By: Addison Wylie Documentarians Daniel Geller and Danya Goldfine have a fascinating story on their hands with The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden.  It’s a real-life murder mystery that took place in the 1930’s within the secluded collection of islands located near Ecuador. In the late 20’s, a couple seeking independence and an escape from civilization took to Floreana to start a new life.  Surrounded by tortoises and iguanas, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch…

Reviews

Afflicted

By: Addison Wylie Afflicted isn’t a found footage film, but rather a mockumentary documenting Derek Lee and Clif Prowse’s year long trip around the world.  The film does, however, use the same techniques we’ve seen in previous found footage horrors.  Luckily, the filmmakers in charge of this creature feature know what they’re doing. In fact, there are a lot of things filmmakers/co-stars Lee and Prowse do brilliantly in Afflicted.  Firstly, the duo cover their asses extremely…

Reviews

Run Run It’s Him

By: Addison Wylie If I have one positive to say about Matthew Pollack’s autobiographical documentary, it’s that the film is rightfully titled.  By the end credits, I didn’t want anything to do with Pollack.  I actually wished I hadn’t bothered with this icky film in the first place. Run Run It’s Him is supposed to serve as a coping tool and a means of comprehension for Pollack with his obsessive addiction to pornography.  Matthew’s fascination…

Reviews

Alive Inside

By: Addison Wylie Alive Inside is a touching documentary that may have entered your life without you even knowing. A video circulated around the Internet featuring Henry, a mumbling man living with dementia who’s mind is expanded when he listens to music. His eyes bulge, he starts to move in his seat, and he can inspiredly recollect memories. This segment emotionally affected people across the globe, and it’s just one of the many moving moments…

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Hot Docs 2014

Out of all the festivals I’ve ever covered, the Hot Docs Film Festival is one of my favourites.  It’s a festival that always promises a deep array of different types of documentaries from a variety of different countries.  It’s very hard to find one doc that resembles another in Hot Docs. The press conference held at Toronto’s Bloor Hot Docs Theatre on March 18 certainly built the buzz well.  The audience had the pleasure of…

CrowdFUNding

CrowdFUNding: Jamie Tiernay’s Kenny vs. Spenny: On The Road

By: Addison Wylie It’s no competition that Kenny vs. Spenny – whether you like it or not – has become a staple in Canadian pop culture. Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice’s reality television show featured the buddies going toe-to-toe with each other in various matches such as Who Can Win a Ten Mile Race and Who Can Stay in a Haunted House the Longest.  However, as the competitions became increasingly irreverent and Hotz’s strategies more…

Reviews

Bettie Page Reveals All

By: Addison Wylie I appreciate Academy Award nominee Mark Mori wanting to “reveal all” about pinup model Bettie Page with his new doc literally titled Bettie Page Reveals All, but I feel as if he may have gone too far right out of the gate. The documentary gives viewers a confidential look into Page’s life whilst using vintage privy interview answers from the model herself to string along narration. The documentary’s structure could – and…

Reviews

Particle Fever

By: Addison Wylie At first, Particle Fever is a tough movie to be enthusiastic about if the evolution of the LHC (the Large Hadron Collider) doesn’t already make you jazzed. Since the film revolves around those physicists who were involved with the creation of the LHC, Particle Fever could’ve cashed in on the pop culture craze The Big Bang Theory has materialized.  The topic at hand would’ve been taken seriously, but the physicists would’ve been…