Ryan McNeil
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – it’s amazing how far the art of documentary has come over the last several years. What was once a very dry and static art form has become as fluid and innovative as any other style of filmmaking out there. No longer is it about the story a film wants to tell, but also about how it wants to tell it. With this in mind, there are few more interesting times for filmgoing in this city than the end of April when the Hot Docs festival returns.
In case you’re new around here, Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary film festival which is about to celebrate its 21st year.
This time around the subject matter at hand looks at everything from people coping with break-ups, to ghost stories, to rock stars, to environmental disasters, to Big Bird.
Yours truly will be doing a bit of a cram session over the next week or so to get in as many titles as possible before the craziness goes into full-force on Thursday.
The Matinee will be covering the festival beginning next Thursday, and I’m happy to report that once again, there will be more than one perspective on the action. For the 2014 festival, Jess Rogers of Reel Insight will be checking out several docs and posting reactions on this space. Joining her this year is Kate Bradford from Kate Has a Blog. In addition to words from those clever lasses, look for the usual onslaught of reaction pieces, and hopefully two or three audio dispatches in the way of podcasts.
If you’re in the Toronto area, I highly recommend joining in on the fun. There’s a great energy around the festival – probably helped in no small part by the arrival of spring after such a bleak winter. The festival’s site is your home base for what’s showing and how to see it, can be found here.
If you’re outside the Toronto area, stick with The Matinee from April 24th until May 4th.
Truth is more interesting than fiction.