Movie history, Hollywood dreams, conspiracies, finger-pointing, millions of dollars, back-stabbing, and the most iconic items in cinema history, Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz are the topics up for perusal in White’s documentary, The Slippers. Having its Canadian Premiere this afternoon at the Lightbox at 3:15pm, the film delves into the world…
Tag: documentary
Hot Docs 2016: Credit for Murder – Vladi Antonevicz
In a documentary that plays more like a thriller than a Hot Docs, Antonevicz’s dark entry into this year’s film festival is a stunning ride. Using pacing, framing and structure like a standard Hollywood thriller this one captivatesd as much as it generates hate for it’s ready made villains, Neo-Nazis. When a YouTube video…
Hot Docs 2016: Chatting with The League of Exotique Dancers
The Hot Docs Film Festival gets underway today, and it’s opening night film features some amazing women. Sue and I got to sit down and chat with three of them, the film’s director, Rama Rau as well as burlesque legends, Camille 2000 and Judith Stein. We chatted about the film, feminism, burlesque, stripping, stage…
Speed Sisters (2015) – Amber Fares
Opening today at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema is this highly enjoyable, and completely captivating documentary about the first all-women race car team in Palestine. We join Marah, Noor, Mona, Betty, and Maysoon as they put the pedal to the metal, and bust barriers in the racing and Middle Eastern world. The audience climbs…
Hip Hop-eration (2014) – Bryn Evans
Opening today at the Bloor Hot Docs theater is this crowd pleasing, completely charming documentary that follows a group of seniors, some of whom are in their late nineties, as they leave their home from a small island off the coast of New Zealand to travel to Las Vegas to take part in the…
District 9 (2009) – Neill Blomkamp
So the Neill Blomkamp is next up in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book (I am loving this thing) with his first feature film, District 9, that was produced by Peter Jackson. As a commentary on race, apartheid, and just how badly we as a species can exploit and hurt others, District 9 may be more…
Black Christmas: Season’s Grievings Editon (1974) – Bob Clark
Some people love the happy joyous type of films at Christmas, and while there is something to be said for all that good-will, happy endings and schmaltz that seem to highlight most of them, that morbid, macabre underside of humor and the holidays seem to be more appealing… As much as I loved Scrooged,…
Raging Bull (1980) – Martin Scorsese
We move back to Drama in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, and take a look at Martin Scorsese’s biopic on boxing legend Jake La Motta, brought to visceral life by an Oscar wining performance by Robert De Niro. As succesful as La Motta would prove to be inside the boxing ring,…
TIFF 2015: P.S. Jerusalem (2015) – Danae Elon
Having its World Premiere today at Scotiabank, and screening again on the 16th and the 19th is this poignant and powerful documentary from filmmaker Danae Elon. Elon invites us into the life of her and her family, as she documents a journey of the heart, and the search and discovery of home. Born in Jerusalem,…
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of D. Moreau (2014) – David Gregory
It’s odd. While I was reviewing the 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau a couple of months ago, I was made aware of this fantastic documentary. I missed seeing it when it screened her in Toronto. It just seemed so strange, I was literally watching the film when my Facebook feed notified…
The Mind Reels 