Hot Docs - Winnepeg

THE BEST OF HOT DOCS TO SCREEN IN WINNIPEG NEXT WEEK

NOVEMBER 11 TO 13 AT WINNIPEG’S CINEMATHEQUE; FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE

Toronto, November 3, 2011 – Hot Docs and partners the National Screen Institute, On Screen Manitoba and DOC Winnipeg are pleased to present the Best of Hot Docs, a weekend of documentary screenings, Friday, November 11, to Sunday, November 13, at the Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque, 100 Arthur Street. The Best of Hot Docs celebrates the Winnipeg premiere of four sold-out hits from this year’s Hot Docs lineup, and works by two of Manitoba’s own unique documentary filmmaking talents. Best of Hot Docs Passes are $25 and individual tickets are $9. Both are now available for purchase in-person at the On Screen Manitoba office, 003-100 Arthur Street, or by phone at 204-927-5898.

BEING ELMO co-director Philip Shane and UNSPEAKABLE director John Paskievich will be in attendance to introduce their films and participate in post-screening Q&As. Additional filmmakers will participate in post-screening Q&As via Skype, where possible.

HELL & BACK AGAIN

D: Danfung Dennis | UK, USA | 88 min

Friday, November 11, at 7:00 p.m.

“Four stars… one of the best-looking docs I’ve seen in years” – NOW Magazine

Danfung Dennis was a photojournalist covering the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan when he had a revelation. “I found that I was unable to capture the brutal realities on the ground,” he told indieWIRE. “The public was numb to these same images of war and the traditional media outlets were not committed to their coverage of the conflicts.” Customizing gear built for still photography, he returned to Afghanistan with the intention of conveying what he witnessed as honestly and truthfully as possible. The result is one of the great recent films about war, a visually arresting and intimately powerful story of soldiers in battle and at home, that does the impossible: it shakes our shell-shocked senses with the brutal realities of war and the profundity of human resilience, love and compassion.

UNSPEAKABLE

D: John Paskievich | Canada (Manitoba) | 89 min

Saturday, November 12, at 2:00 p.m.

Director John Paskievich in attendance!

“touching, articulate…a fascinating introduction and overview of stuttering’s bewildering nature” – Uptown

Stuttering is as old as human speech. Moses stuttered. Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, King George VI, Tiger Woods and Julia Roberts were afflicted with the disorder—and so is the director of this film. In a deeply personal quest to understand a medical enigma, award-winning documentarian John Paskievich leads us through the maze of treatments, theories, attempted cures and frustrations experienced by people who stutter. Children tell heartbreaking tales about being stigmatized by teachers and picked on by peers; adults talk about how stuttering has shaped their identities. Paskievich himself reveals the humiliation he experienced when doing radio and television interviews during a cross-Canada retrospective tour of his films. With this powerful and moving film, Paskievich breaks the silence about this hidden disorder and makes a “call for liberation, not from stuttering, but the ignorance and stigma that surround it.”

Screening With:

FAHRENHEIT 7-ELEVEN

D: Walter Forsberg | Canada (Manitoba) | 14 min

On a fateful night in 1985, Burton Cummings of The Guess Who fame entered a 7/11, and left bloodied and battered, scorning his hometown as ‘Negativipeg.’ This urban legend is retold by an eclectic group of Winnipeg residents, participating in dramatic re-enactments that bring humour and hubris to a city that is its own worst enemy. Part One of the Burton Cycle is pure Winnipeg folklore.

YOU’VE BEEN TRUMPED

D: Anthony Baxter | UK | 95 min

Saturday, November 12, at 8:00 p.m.

“A political hot potato…(a) David vs. Goliath tale” - The Hollywood Reporter