Hot Docs 2019 – That’s a Wrap
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(May 3, 2019 – Toronto, ON) By rough count there are about 140 films that will screen over the last three days of the 26th annual edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. Many of them are Canadian, and some of them are our favourites. It would not be fair to mention those we privately like. In fact, we like them all, there are just some, a very few, we like better.
Looking at the collection of Media passes we hang on the viewing screen of our antique Moviola, Northernstars has been reporting on the Canadian films at Hot Docs for 13 years. Actually we’ve done that almost from the first year we began publishing and this collection only represents the years I have asked for and been given media accreditation, for which I am grateful. I have had the pleasure of taping interviews with a few directors over the years and this year it was terrific to meet and talk with Tasha Hubbard about her film, especially since it had been selected to be the opening night film. I look forward to talking with other directors as their films move on from the festival circuit to theatrical release.
Documentaries are the most important form of filmmaking. Designed to do exactly what the word means, these are moments in history and remain valid from the first day the cameras began to roll to long, long into the future. Many documentaries become even more important decades after they were first released.
As we move into the final weekend of Hot Docs, instead of us repeating the list of Canadian films we think you should consider, I’d like to wrap our coverage and urge you to spend some time looking at what’s playing. One of the best ways to start is to think about what interests you and then do a search by film subject.
Our last report on this year’s festival will be when the awards are announced and festival organizers give us the stats on attendance. Meanwhile…enjoy the festival. I plan to as well.
Ralph Lucas is the Founder and Publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
