This year marked my third time going to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary festival. With me seeing a grand total of 36 films, this year’s Hot Docs was one of my busiest film festival experiences ever. This year’s Hot Docs selection was at a particularly high quality and I ended up enjoying the majority […]
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I was a very busy person during the 20th anniversary of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Altogether, I watched 36 feature documentaries and 4 short documentaries that played as part of the festival. I’m happy to say that I was able to write-up full reviews for 24 of these films over the course
To finish finish off my Hot Docs experience for the year, I chose this this upbeat film about a group of brothers, who perform together as the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. All eight members of this band are the sons of anti-establishment Sun-Ra trumpeter Phil Cohran and got their starts performing as buskers on the streets
The music industry is no stranger to hoaxes. In fact, the story of the Milli Vanilli, the pretty-boy duo of the late 1980s, who were exposed as lip-syncers, probably remains the most infamous hoax of music history. However, compared to Silibil n’ Brains, the main subjects of Jeanie Finlay’s documentary The Great Hip-Hop Hoax, Milli
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There comes a moment in everyone’s lives when they reach a crossroads. While many people end up living normal and mundane lives, others find a greater calling. Blood Brother tells the story of Rocky Braat, who decided to move from Pittsburgh to India, in order to help out at a hostel for women and kids
It has only been within the last century when the second stage of life, known as adolescence, began to be defined. Before then, you were either known as a child or an adult and it was not uncommon to see children as young as 12 working in factories. When child labour laws were introduced in
In Searching for Bill, a man named Bob Maser travels from his home in New Orleans to Detroit, in order to recover his car, which was stolen by a grifter named Bill. After finding Bill’s notebook in the car, Bob decided to go on a cross-country roadtrip to location this elusive figure. In the meantime,
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It is commonly said that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. Some believe that sex is a commodity and there is absolutely nothing wrong with exchanging money for sexual services. On the other hand, there are those that believe that prostitution is a form of male oppression, which has no need to exist in today’s
In Baltimore, there is an infamous group of dirt bikers named the “12 O’Clock Boys,” who ride through the streets of the city every weekend, often in groups of over a hundred. Their name comes from their ability to pop wheelies and drive completely straight back. The Baltimore police consider the 12 O’Clock Boys to
How the mind works remains one of mankind’s biggest mysteries. In fact, the mind is considered to be the most complicated organ in the universe. Even though scientists try, we have still have not fully cracked the inner-workings of the mind, especially when it comes to mental disorders. Free the Mind focuses on Professor Richard
