Canadians hot for documentaries

Hot Docs festival kicks off 14th session

By VARIETY STAFF, TAMSEN TILLSON

'Girls Rock!,' about a music camp, met a good response at Toronto's popular Hot Docs fest.

TORONTO -- Toronto auds sure love their docs, as evidenced by the 14th edition of the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival, North America's largest doc fest and market.

With the number of filmgoers well outstripping projections midway through the fest, organizers expect a more than 25% increase in public attendance by the time Hot Docs, which kicked off April 19 in Toronto, wraps on April 29, with numbers topping out as high as 70,000.

"There is a large audience mobilized to see these movies," says director of programming Sean Farnel.

Theatrical standouts amid the slate of 130 docs are "Girls Rock!" a rousing tale of a rock-'n'-roll camp for girls from Arne Johnson and Shane King; "Without the King," an expose of the powder keg in Swaziland from Michael Skolnik; opening night film "In the Shadow of the Moon," directed by David Sington; Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine's "War/Dance"; "Forbidden Lies," from Anna Broinowski; and "Wings of Defeat," from Risa Morimoto.

Those who packed the house April 24 sat through a 30-second blackout partway through the world preem of "Kike Like Me," an exploration of Jewishness from Jamie Kastner ("Djangomania!"), after an interview subject with controversial views on the Holocaust threatened to sue.

As with any film fest, technology is increasingly taking a front seat at Hot Docs, and savvy filmmakers and distributors are taking advantage.

Fest organizers inked a deal with Austin, Tex.,-based independent film distributor B-Side Entertainment to supply info on which films were drawing Web site traffic. "The game is to help the festival build buzz and awareness for its programming," says B-Side principal Jonathan Berkowitz, "and the benefit for us is we get to watch all that happens, and we get a pretty good idea of what films are hot."

Although it's just 18 months old, B-Side, which distribs "Before the Music Dies," has already made similar arrangements with about 40 film festivals across the U.S. and has about 100 more on its dance card for 2007. The Hot Docs deal is one of its largest to date.

Former ad-man Curt Johnson mobilized his considerable promotional talents to get the spotlight on his offering, "Your Mommy Kills Animals," a provocative look at animal rights which opens in Canada in August.

Johnson marshaled multiple grassroots previews, raw footage and trailers on MySpace, as well as a "YMKA" musicvideo and dance mix by Greg Scarinci.

At the fest, the campaign included six-foot bunnies and Animal Liberation Front lookalikes handing out buttons, stickers and t-shirts, and others around town wearing flat screens playing the film's trailer; all of it accomplished for $1,100. "I wanted to raise awareness, because for international sales, I knew we needed to make a splash," says Johnson ("Michael Moore Hates America.")

Pic played to a full house and Johnson says he is close to a U.S. deal.

"There are so many alternatives now, the only way to cut through the clutter is to be organized, smart and figure out how to reach your audience," says Farnel. "You can't sit around and wait for theatrical magic to happen."