Hot Docs has announced 17 documentary features that will be a part of this year’s Special Presentations program, a collection of world and international premieres; award-winners from the recent international festival circuit; and works by master filmmakers or films which feature star subjects. These films will screen as part of the 2015 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, running 23 April to 3 May.
The complete Special Presentations program and the full selection of films to screen at Hot Docs 2015 will be announced on 17 March, including the 2015 opening night film.
Featured award-winners from the recent international festival circuit include: Dreamcatcher, Drone, Hot to Change the World, (T)error and Western.
Special Presentation titles appear below, ordered alphabetically:
The Arms Drop
Director: Andreas Koefoed | Denmark | 2014 | 94 min | North American premiere
After narrowly escaping execution and surviving eight years in an Indian prison, a British arms dealer hunts down the MI5 agent who betrayed him, leading to a shocking confrontation with the Danish terrorist who started it all.
Being Canadian
Director: Robert Cohen | Canada, USA | 2014 | 89 min | World premiere
Calgary hometown boy turned Hollywood comedy guru Rob Cohen (The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory) returns to Canada on an epic quest to rediscover our national identity. Meeting up with Mike Myers, Seth Rogen and even the Trailer Park Boys along the way, just imagine Sherman’s March, but wearing a toque.
The Bolivian Case
Director: Violeta Ayala | Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, USA | 2015 | 75 min | World premiere
Three Norwegian teenaged girlfriends get caught smuggling cocaine out of Bolivia. Each is guilty, so why does only one take the fall? Cue a tabloid media storm, professional kidnappers and a behind-bars pregnancy in this sensational expose.
The Circus Dynasty
Director: Anders Riis-Hansen | Denmark | 2014 | 75 min | Canadian premiere
The success and longevity of two of Europe’s greatest circus families hangs in the balance as their respective heirs fall for one another—but combining love and work may be their greatest challenge yet.
Democrats
Director: Camilla Nielsson | Denmark | 2014 | 109 min | Canadian premiere
Can sworn political enemies work together for a common good? Follow Zimbabwe’s unlikely coalition government of reigning dictator Mugabe’s party and his opposition as they slyly maneuver and reluctantly negotiate to forge a new constitution.
A Different Drummer: Celebrating Eccentrics
Director: John Zaritsky | Canada | 2014 | 86 min | Toronto premiere
Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky celebrates eccentrics in this light-hearted but affectionate look at non-conformists—from a Utah cave dweller who hasn’t used money in 12 years, to a beloved Vancouver psychic often seen with her pet duck in a buggy.
Dreamcatcher
Director: Kim Longinotto | UK | 2015 | 98 min | Canadian premiere
Acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto crafts a deeply moving portrait of a former teenage prostitute who fought her way off the streets to become an unstoppable force for change in the lives of Chicago’s at-risk women.
Drone
Director: Tonje Hessen Schei | Norway | 2014 | 78 min | Canadian premiere
A penetrating investigation into the war on terror’s defining weapon—the armed drone—featuring incisive analysis from pilots, military experts and powerless bystanders who live in fear of becoming the collateral damage of this high-tech weaponry.
Every Last Child
Director: Tom Roberts | UAE, Pakistan | 2015 | 82 min | Canadian premiere
Caught in the crosshairs of violence and politics, healthcare workers are everyday heroes as they struggle to protect children from polio in Pakistan—the epicentre for this crippling disease that has once again become a global threat.
How to Change the World
Director: Jerry Rothwell | UK, Canada | 2015 | 112 min | Canadian premiere
In the early 1970s, a group of young Canadians combined forces to create Greenpeace. Using interviews and previously unseen footage, this is the story of a group of friends who set out to change the world.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Director: Brett Morgen | USA | 2015 | 132 min | Canadian premiere
In this first fully authorised cinematic portrait of music legend Kurt Cobain, never-before-seen home movies, striking animation and interviews with those who knew him best take us into the life and mind of an icon.
The Last Mogul
Director: Barry Avrich | Canada, USA | 2005 | 110 min | Anniversary screening
To celebrate ten years since its release, a special screening of Barry Avrich’s The Last Mogul allows audiences to revisit this portrait of one of the most powerful men in show business: Lew Wasserman.
Paris is Burning
Director: Jennie Livingston | USA | 1990 | 71 min | Anniversary screening
Electrifying audiences with a window into the fierce—and fiercely competitive—world of the 1980s New York black and Latino LGBT ball scene, this paradigm-shifting classic is as audacious and profound as the day it was released 25 years ago.
(T)error
Director: Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe | USA | 2014 | 93 min | International premiere
This Sundance award winner exposes the shocking practices and murky justifications driving FBI counter-terrorism investigations by following an informant who provides full access on the trail of a new suspect.
Ware of Lies
Director: Matthias Bittner | Germany | 2014 | 89 min | North American premiere
How did one refugee in Germany become the US government’s justification for the 2003 Iraq invasion? The unrepentant Iraqi ‘engineer’—the lone source of weapons of mass destruction misinformation—finally reveals how the war based on his lie truly began.
Welcome to Leith
Director: Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker | USA | 2015 | 86 min | International premiere
A real-life horror story unfolds in the near-deserted town of Leith, North Dakota, when a dangerous white supremacist attempts to buy up land in a plot to establish a community of neo-Nazis.
Western
Director: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | USA, Mexico | 2014 | 93 min | International premiere
As a cowboy and a lawman navigate their rapidly changing hometowns and an ever-growing divide, Western paints a stunning and subtle portrait of two towns straddling the US-Mexico border that previously existed in harmony.
