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Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2016: ‘Cheer Up’ and ‘How to Build a Time Machine’

May 1, 2016Addison Wylie0 Comments

Cheer Up (DIR. Christy Garland) By: Shannon Page Miia is the coach of the Ice Queens, a teenage cheerleading team from Finland’s Article Circle that regularly places dead-last in national competitions.  Determined to win, Miia travels to Texas to learn the art of winning from the world champions, Cheer Athletics, and returns to Finland with the intention of turning her team around.  The pressure that she puts on her girls to become the best pushes the…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2016: ‘The Pearl of Africa’ and ‘Putuparri and the Rainmakers’

April 30, 2016Wylie Writes Staff0 Comments

The Pearl of Africa (DIR. Jonny von Wallström) By: Shannon Page Director Jonny von Wallström’s first full-length documentary is the story of Cleopatra Kambugu, a transgender woman living in Uganda who is forced to leave her country after a bill is passed making her gender identity punishable by life in prison or even execution.  The Pearl of Africa follows Cleo as she travels from Uganda to Thailand for sex reassignment surgery.

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2016: ‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’ and ‘Off the Rails’

April 27, 2016Wylie Writes Staff0 Comments

Bobby Sands: 66 Days (DIR. Brendan Byrne) By: Shannon Page Bobby Sands, a member of the Irish Republican Army, was only twenty-seven years old when he died in prison in 1981 after refusing food for 66 days.  Sands was the first of ten IRA prisoners to die as the result of a hunger strike in protest of their status as regular criminals, as opposed to political prisoners.

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2016: ‘A Dog’s Life’ and ‘Hotel Dallas’

April 23, 2016Wylie Writes Staff0 Comments

A Dog’s Life (DIR. Hélène Choquette) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Research has shown time and time again that pets are beneficial to homeless individuals, as they provide love, support and companionship to a marginalized, frequently ignored population.  A Dog’s Life is a study of the benefits and hardships that come along with being homeless with a dog, discovered through interviews with several people in this particular situation.  What follows are anecdotes about a variety of topics…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2016: ‘Credit for Murder’ and ‘Tickled’

April 21, 2016Wylie Writes Staff1 Comment

Credit for Murder (DIR. Vladi Antonevicz) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi A video appears on YouTube which depicts the ritualistic slaughter of two men by masked individuals: one man is beheaded and the other is shot.  The video appears to come from Russia.  The Russian authorities say it is fake, until one man is identified after his father comes forward.  This is the beginning of an unusual and captivating story about Russian neo-Nazis, recounted by a Jewish filmmaker…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi’ and ‘Raiders!’

May 6, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi (DIR. Neil Broffman) By: Shannon Page If you own a computer, have a Facebook account, frequent Twitter, or read the news – basically, if you interact with information and technology at all – you should watch Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi.  The emotional and thoughtful film, directed by Neil Broffman, tells the story of a Brown University student who went missing one month prior to the Boston Marathon bombings and…

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Reviews

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

May 3, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Many associate angst with Kurt Cobain.  The feeling is riddled throughout his musical work and how he presented Nirvana to the world.  With Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, documentarian Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) has peeled back the musician’s enigmatic career to find the origin behind his hurt and disassociation. Cobain is respectfully represented as someone who was robbed out of an upbringing he wished he had growing up…

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