Docs opening this week

Oscar winner Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) returns this week with his latest film The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Photography. Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20×24 camera. For the next thirty-five years she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her Cambridge, Massachusetts studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. As pictures begin to fade and her retirement looms, Dorfman gives Errol Morris an inside tour of her backyard archive. Variety’s Andrew Barker calls is “a gentle-hearted gem, as profoundly subtle as it is subtly profound.”

With just a week to go until Canada’s sesquicentennial, Hot Docs is ready to unveil its major Canada 150 project, In the Name of All Canadians. This anthology film features a half dozen short docs by six different filmmaking teams who confront the image of a rosy Canada. Rather than look back on the 150 years that have passed, these films look forward and asks audiences to confront the divides and prejudices that keep Canada from being the ideal nation we pretend it to be. The film premieres at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema before its Canada Day theatrical run shortly thereafter. It’s your patriotic duty to see this doc! (Check back soon for the POV review of In the Name of All Canadians.)

Opening this Week:

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Dir. Steve James | USA | 88 min.
-Vancouver, BC: Vancity Theatre – Fri, June 23 – Mon, June 26; Thurs, June 29

A Better Man
Dir. Attiya Khan, Lawrence Jackman | Canada | 79 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Mon, June 26

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Photography
Dir. Errol Morris | USA | 75 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29
-Vancouver, BC: Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29

Bill Frisell: A Portrait
Dir. Emma Franz | Australia | 114 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Sat, June 24
—>Bill Frisell will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Call of the Forest
Dir. Jeff McKay | Canada | 82 min.
-Edmonton, AB: Metro Cinema – Sun, June 25
—>Skype Q & A with Diana Beresford-Kroeger following the screening.
—>Pick up a copy of POV #106 to read more about Call of the Forest!

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary
Dir. John Scheinfeld | USA | 99 min.
-Montreal, QC: Cinema du Parc – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Sat, June 24 – Sun, June 25; Wed, June 28 – Thurs, June 29

Expo 67: Mission Impossible
Productions de la Ruelle | Canada | 68 min.
-Montreal, QC: Cinema du Parc – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29

The Gardener
Dir. Sébastien Chabot | Canada | 88 min.
-Kingston, ON: The Screening Room – Sat, June 24
-Ottawa, ON: ByTowne Cinema – Fri, June 23 – Sat, June 24
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Sun, June 25 – Mon, June 26; Thurs, June 29

In the Name of All Canadians
Dir. Ariel Nasr & Aisha Jamal; Patrick Reed & Andréa Schmidt; Karen Chapman; Khoa Le; Jérémie Wookey, Annick Marion, Janelle Wookey; Vivian Belik & Jennifer Bowen Allen | Canada | 75 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Wed, June 28

Kedi
Dir. Ceyda Torun | Turkey/USA | 79 min.
-Montreal, QC: Cinema Beaubien – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29
-Montreal, QC: Cinema du Parc – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29

The Last Stand: The Vanishing Caribou Rainforest
Dir. Colin Arisman | USA
-Vancouver, BC: Rio Theatre – Thurs. June 29
—>Filmmaker in attendance!

Manifesto
Dir. Julian Rosefeldt | Australia/Germany | 95 min.
-Calgary, AB: Globe Cinema – Fri, June 23 – Sun, June 25; Tues, June 27 – Thurs, June 29
-Vancouver, BC: Vancity Theatre – Tues, June 27

Quebec My Country Mon Pays
Dir. John Walker | Canada | 90 min.
-Montreal, QC: Cinema Beaubien – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29
-Montreal, QC: Cinema du Parc – Fri, June 23 – Thurs, June 29

The Road Forward
Dir. Marie Clements | Canada | 101 min.
-Markham, ON: Markham Village Library – Thurs, June 29
-Oakville, ON: Sheridan College Trafalgar Campus – Fri, June 23
-Toronto, ON: Kosa Studio – Thurs, June 29

The Stairs Feature | Review
Dir. Hugh Gibson | Canada | 95 min.
-Victoria, BC: The Vic – Fri, June 23 – Sun, June 25

The Untold Stories of Amistead Maupin
Dir. Jennifer Kroot | USA | 90 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Sun, June 25
—>Director Jennifer Kroot will participate in a post-screening Skype Q&A.

Vancouver: No Fixed Address
Dir. Charles Wilkinson | Canada | 75 min.
-Vancouver, BC: Rio Theatre – Fri. June 23
—>Filmmaker in attendance!

Retro Screenings:

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Dir. Alanis Obomsawin | Canada | 1993 | 120 min.
-Vancouver, BC: Vancouver Cinematheque – Thurs, June 29

The Last Waltz
Dir. Martin Scorsese | USA | 1978 | 117 min.
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Fri, June 23

Monterey Pop
Dir. D.A. Pennebaker | USA | 1968 | 78 min.
-Cobourg, ON: Cobourg Loft – Wed, June 28 – Thurs, June 29
-Toronto, ON: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Fri, June 23
-Toronto, ON: Revue Cinema – Sat, June 17

Warrendale
Dir. Allan King | Canada | 1967 | 101 min.
-Toronto, ON: TIFF Bell Lightbox – Tues, June 27

Via: POV Magazine