New films from Kevin McMahon, Larry Weinstein and John Greyson were among the 36 world premieres unveiled as the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival announced its full line-up today. The festival runs in Toronto from April 30 to May 10.McMahon’s Waterlife explores the complex ecology of and environmental damage wrought upon the Great Lakes while Weinstein’s Inside Hana’s Suitcase unravels the story behind a suitcase from Auschwitz and the girl who scrawled her name within it. Greyson’s Fig Trees pays tribute to hero activists of the HIV/AIDS movement.The competitive International Spectrum program includes several world premieres, including Mads Brügger’s The Red Chapel, which follows a Danish journalist and two comedians in North Korea; Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s Mugabe And The White African, the story of a white farmer’s efforts against Zimbabwe’s reclamation policy; and Mary Rosanne Katzke’s About Face: The Story Of Gwendellin Bradshaw, about a young woman seeking to reconnect with the mentally ill mother who disfigured her as a baby.The competitive Canadian spectrum program has ten world premieres including a feature from Academy Award-nominated documentary short director Hubert Davis entitled Invisible City, the story of two black teenagers from a poor Toronto neighbourhood; Ganesh: Boy Wonder, from feature director Srinivas Krishna about the international media sensation of a poor Indian couple and their quest to resolve the extreme facial deformity of their son; and Alison Rose’s long-awaited Love At The Starlite Motel, a peak behind the numbered doors of one of Miami’s busiest motels.Other major titles at the festival are the international premiere of Sundance US Documentary Audience Award-winner The Cove, Louie Psihoyo’s expose of the Japanese dolphin harvest and the international premiere of Kirby Dick’s Outrage, an indictment of closeted US politicians who hypocritically campaign against gay rights. The film makes its world premiere at Tribeca shortly beforehand. Making its Canadian premiere is Mercedes Stalenhoef’s Carmen Meets Borat, the story of the hapless Romanian villagers who were duped into appearing as the Kazakhstani idiots in Borat.Hot Docs opens with the previously announced world premiere of Jennifer Baichwal’s Act Of God.

Topics