Hot Docs 2024 Dispatch 1
/Listen in as Arturo breaks down the first batch of films from Hot Docs 2024.
Lost in the Shuffle
Director: Jon Ornoy
Lost in the Shuffle features two-time world champion magician Shawn Farquhar, this documentary explores the unique relationship between the art of magic and playing cards.
Standing Above the Clouds
Director: Jalena Keane-Lee
“Standing Above the Clouds" showcases the efforts to protect Mauna Kea, a significant Hawaiian mountain, from a new telescope project.
Singing Back the Buffalo
Director: Tasha Hubbard
Singing Back the Buffalo features Indigenous activists, like filmmaker Tasha Hubbard, that during a time of environmental challenges, champion the return of buffalo herds to North America, aiming for sustainability and balance.
Red Fever
Directors: Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge
Filmmakers in Red Fever explore historical fascination with Indigenous Peoples globally through pop-culture examples. Indigenous scholars and artists dismantle appropriation myths that have persisted for more than a century.
The Ride Ahead
Directors: Samuel Habib, Dan Habib
“No one tells you how to be an adult, let alone an adult with a disability,” so director Samuel Habib in The Ride Ahead, goes on a road trip to interview disability rights pioneers and advocates, and adults with disabilities who have already been through what he’s facing to find wisdom and advice for forging his own path beyond high school.
This Is Going To Be Big
Director: Thomas Charles Hyland
In rural Victoria, Australia, a specialist school is getting ready for a time-travel-themed musical. This Is Going To Be Big follows these neurodiverse teenagers as they utilize the musical to unleash their talents with the audience as they connect with them and themselves.
The Click Trap
Director: Peter Porta
The Click Trap explains how digital ads use algorithms accurately targeting users, raising concerns about digital mind-control. Tech giants aim to limit harmful content but profits may outweigh ethics. Can online business operate ethically? Expert analysis explores digital ad's societal impact and its threat to global democracy.
Smiling Georgia
Director: Luka Beradze
In No Name, Georgia citizens were left with toothless grins after the 2012 campaigning president vowed to fund subsidized dental care. When the incumbent party lost they scrapped the dental plan. Smiling Georgia, catches up with the citizens of No Name eight years later as there are new promises on the horizon for the 2020 election.
So This Is Christmas
Director: Ken Wardrop
So This Is Christmas is filled with Irish humour, compassion and sincere curiosity, this alternative holiday movie captures the authentic joys and pains of the most wonderful time of the year.
American Cats: The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly
Director: Todd Bieber
American Cats: The Good, The Bad, and The Cuddly covers how on its surface, declawing appears to be a simple and harmless procedure for the convenience of pet owners, but is in fact a huge industry, protected by a powerful lobby, that not only promotes but profits from this inhumane procedure that generates “one billion dollars a year for a quick 11-minute surgery.
