Screening tonight at the Lightbox at 9:45pm is this thriller of a documentary, that pulls the curtain back from the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts within the continental United States and the revelation that it isn’t all as above-board and by the book as the public would like to believe. Saeed, alias Shariff, an ex-con has been working…
Hot Docs 2015: Tuk-Tuk – Romany Saad
Screening today at the Scotiabank theatre at 9:15 is this vibrant and intriguing look at the streets of Cairo, through the eyes of three young boys. Bika, Abdullah and Sharon are young, energetic, and hardworking, driving their motorized rickshaws, tuk-tuks, through the busy back streets and throughways of the city. Definitely not old enough to…
Hot Docs 2015: Raiders! – Jeremy Coon & Tim Skousen
Screening today at the Hart House theatre at 9:30 is a documentary that completely encapsulated my youth and filled me with awe, and a fire to create. Back in 1981, a film came along that changed many a young viewer, myself included, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. It affected a number of…
The Eclipse (1962) – Michelangelo Antonioni
Continuing my exploration of the drama genre after my viewing of Last Tango in Paris for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. So I settled in to have my introduction to the films of Antonioni, and, I liked what I saw. The shots, looks and moments are all wonderfully composed, as…
Hot Docs – A Woman Like Me – Alex Sichel, Elizabeth Giamatti
When Alex Sichel is diagnosed with terminal cancer, she immediately envisions another woman – a different version of herself – who undergoes the same journey, but in the spirit of living through it, rather than dying from it. Ever the filmmaker, Alex embarks on a mission to tell her own story, through both voices –…
Orphan Black S03E02 – Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis
Buckle up Clone Club, after a week’s rest, Orphan Black (tonight on Space) dives right back into things this week as the Castors (Ari Millen) continue their pursuit of the Ledas (Tatiana Maslany) in the hopes of obtaining the clones’ original tissue samples. There are a couple of familiar faces in this week’s ep….
Hot Docs 2015: Circus Dynasty – Anders Riis-Hansen
Screening today at the Lightbox theatre at 6:30 (rush tickets only, I’m afraid) is this magical, and heart-touching love story set against the back drop of one of Europe’s largest circuses, the Circus Arena! Patrick Bendino is the heir apparent to his the family circus, he’s trained, he’s skilled, and he’s learning to manage and be ringmaster, he’s…
Hot Docs 2015: Chuck Norris Vs Communism – Ilinca Calugareanu
Screening today at the Hart House theatre at 9:30pm is this masterful, and highly enjoyable documentary that plays like a Cold War thriller. The year is 1985. The place, Romania, a country under strict control by its socialist/communist government, there’s one television channel for the nation, and it broadcasts nothing but state propaganda. The…
Doctor Who (Jon Pertwee) – Carnival of Monsters
The Doctor suffers from a Honey, I shrunk the Kids episode this week in a four-part story penned by Robert Holmes that ran from 27 January to 17 February, 1973. As the Time Lords have lifted The Doctor’s (Pertwee) exile, he and Jo (Katy Manning) decide to knock about the universe in the TARDIS and see…
Hot Docs 2015: The Barkley Marathons – The Race That Eats Its Young – Annika Iltis & Timothy Kane
This evening at the Isabel Bader theatre there were laughs and applause at one of the most entertaining documentaries surely to grace the screen at Hot Docs this year had its first screening. Paired with the delightful, Born To Be Mild short directed by Andy Oxley, which showcased some rather intentionally uninteresting people in England….
