Documentary

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: A One-On-One With Committed’s Vic Cohen

By: Addison Wylie Where there’s a Howie Mandel production, Vic Cohen is most likely close by.  It’s quite obvious the two comedians are close supportive friends, however audiences are seeing that connection run deeper in the documentary Committed. For twelve years, Mandel has recorded Cohen with a video camera and chronicled his budding career as a comic and as an outrageous, fearless performer.  The documentary has been also been shaped by co-directors Reed Grinsell and Steve…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Elephant’s Dream’ and ‘Milk’

Elephant’s Dream (DIR. Kristof Bilsen) By: Addison Wylie As Kinshasa’s struggling economy heals after the civil war in the DRC, its population waits for stable change.  People try to march on with their community through unfortunate situations with limited resources, but it’s achingly hard.  A sequence featuring a reckless fire burning downtown shows the audience how dire Kinshasa’s firefighting team is. Supreme danger spirals out of control, the help is flustered, and panicked pedestrians criticize. …

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Nuestro Monte Luna’ and ‘Welcome to Leith’

Nuestro Monte Luna (DIR. Pablo Alvarez-Mesa) By: Trevor Jeffery Nuestro Monte Luna is a story of a bullfighting school, and the teenage boys who attend to train in a well-hated tradition. Nuestro Monte Luna’s narrative starts strong.  It manages to immediately set up the scenario – you’re not just watching people in Choachi, but you are experiencing the little Colombian town through the camera.  However, as the movie trails on, interest wanes and clarity takes a…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘The Circus Dynasty’ and ‘The Messenger’

The Circus Dynasty (DIR. Anders Riis-Hansen) By: Gregory Breen The Circus Dynasty’s opening caption prepares the audience for the doc’s concept – a grand dynamic between two of Europe’s greatest circus families. The Berdino family (one of Europe’s largest families of artists) and the Casselly family (the world’s most award-winning artist family) have been delighting audiences all across Europe with the joint circus Arena for 21 years.  A special relationship has developed with the two clans creating…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘The Amina Profile’ and ‘Seth’s Dominion’

The Amina Profile (DIR. Sophie Deraspe) By: Trevor Jeffery The Amina Profile is three stories in one: a three-part politically charged long-distance romance with a twist;  a bit of Going the Distance meets a bit of Milk, with a lot of Catfish. It’s a story of civil unrest under a dictatorship told through a somber love story: two women meant for each other, with half a world between them – Sandra in Montreal and Amina in Damascus.  Six…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Lowdown Tracks’ and ‘Orion: The Man Who Would Be King’

Lowdown Tracks (DIR. Shelly Saywell) By: Gregory Breen If you have ever stopped to smell the roses and listen to a busker, chances are Lowdown Tracks will bring a tear to your eye.  In this heartfelt and engrossing film, activist and musician Lorraine Segato seeks to meet Toronto’s street musicians and record some of the wonderful tunes they play. Segato meets Woody Cormier, Anthony Van Zant, Maryann Epp, Bruce Bathgate and Katt Burr – five very special,…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Committed’ and ‘Hadwin’s Judgement’

Committed (DIR. Howie Mandel, Reed Grinsell, Steve Sunshine) By: Addison Wylie Vic Cohen was a faithful writer on The Howie Mandel Show, but had the presence of someone who was weak.  Mandel (who is naturally attracted to peculiar, desperate people) wanted to learn more about him, and decided to keep a camera rolling on the pair;  documenting their collaborations as well as Cohen’s growth as a confident performer. By capturing twelve years of footage, Committed…

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Shoulder the Lion’ and ‘The Wolfpack’

Shoulder the Lion (DIR. Erinnisse Rebisz, Patryk Rebisz) By: Trevor Jeffery If the subject matter about artists isn’t clear enough the art-house-meets-documentary style Shoulder The Lion boasts should certainly make the viewer aware that the filmmakers really, really like art.  A lot. In front of the camera are three inspiring figures: Graham Sharpe, a musician living with a constant ringing in his ear, reminding him that his tinnitus will eventually take his hearing, and with it, the…

Reviews

Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me

By: Mark Barber The Oscar-nominated doc Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the title legendary country singer through both his final tour and his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.  Necessarily poignant (if artificial) and urgent about the subject and his inevitably fatal illness, the film still occasionally struggles with the presence of exploitation. Numerous interviews with family, friends, and celebrities set up a touching rumination on the ineluctable flow of time.  But the oft-witty Campbell serves…

Reviews

Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame

By: Addison Wylie Montrealer Giuseppe Marinoni is a respected inspiration who builds bicycles.  His work continues to be appreciated by cyclists worldwide.  But, what a peculiar fellow he is. Marinoni’s attitude changes like the wind.  One moment, he’s freely talking to documentarian Tony Girardin about the process behind his constructions, and the next minute, he’s berating the filmmaker for asking silly questions.  Then again, the 75-year-old has a dry sense of humour that could only…