Hot Docs | Through the glass, part 2
photos and text by Ray Pride
Hot Docs largely unwinds in the same zones as September's Toronto International, around pricey Yorkville and booming residential skyscrapers just south, as well as the grounds of Toronto U's Victoria College. Nearby Yonge Street still preserves some of its traditional tackiness, from its late-night cruising scene to tchotchke shops like this, purveying the latest refinements in gag technology.
The Hot Docs board of directors' annual Outstanding Achievement Award went to documentary pioneer Ricky Leacock, 86 years young. (Early in his career, Leacock worked with Robert Flaherty on "Louisiana Story" and later directed "Monterey Pop.") At the panel "The Feeling of Being There," Leacock dispensed pithy observations in his rich English purr: "Tripods are always in the wrong place"; "All these young filmmakers around, it's so weird"; and of "fly-on-the-wall" filmmaking: "Flies aren't very intelligent. You have to know what you're looking for. You're looking for the moment."
The Toronto Documentary Forum is a parallel event within Hot Docs, where 500 delegates observe thirty pre-selected international project presentations made by producers and commissioning editors, with over 130 key executives observing. Photographs during sessions are discouraged, but pitches from figures such Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight"), BBC Storyville's Nick Fraser, Peter Raymont and Danny Alpert, followed by pointed questions by programmers on three sides, are fast, dense and furious. Traditions include a draw from a Mountie hat for pitching position and a bottle of Grant's Scotch whisky at the presenter's seats—just in case.
Rudy Buttignol, Knowledge Network's president and CEO, was creative Head of Network Programming at TVO (TV Ontario), is one of the moderators at the parallel event for documentary pitching, the Toronto Documentary Forum. At a late afternoon reception at the Rogers Industry Centre at Victoria College.
Magnolia Pictures' Senior VP Tom Quinn, on the "Doc Forecast: The Next Five Years" panel. The panel's prognosis? Everybody knows something; nobody knows anything.
Ray Pride is a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker and movie critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at Movie City Indie; links to his work are at his own site.
Hot Docs largely unwinds in the same zones as September's Toronto International, around pricey Yorkville and booming residential skyscrapers just south, as well as the grounds of Toronto U's Victoria College. Nearby Yonge Street still preserves some of its traditional tackiness, from its late-night cruising scene to tchotchke shops like this, purveying the latest refinements in gag technology.
The Hot Docs board of directors' annual Outstanding Achievement Award went to documentary pioneer Ricky Leacock, 86 years young. (Early in his career, Leacock worked with Robert Flaherty on "Louisiana Story" and later directed "Monterey Pop.") At the panel "The Feeling of Being There," Leacock dispensed pithy observations in his rich English purr: "Tripods are always in the wrong place"; "All these young filmmakers around, it's so weird"; and of "fly-on-the-wall" filmmaking: "Flies aren't very intelligent. You have to know what you're looking for. You're looking for the moment."
The Toronto Documentary Forum is a parallel event within Hot Docs, where 500 delegates observe thirty pre-selected international project presentations made by producers and commissioning editors, with over 130 key executives observing. Photographs during sessions are discouraged, but pitches from figures such Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight"), BBC Storyville's Nick Fraser, Peter Raymont and Danny Alpert, followed by pointed questions by programmers on three sides, are fast, dense and furious. Traditions include a draw from a Mountie hat for pitching position and a bottle of Grant's Scotch whisky at the presenter's seats—just in case.
Rudy Buttignol, Knowledge Network's president and CEO, was creative Head of Network Programming at TVO (TV Ontario), is one of the moderators at the parallel event for documentary pitching, the Toronto Documentary Forum. At a late afternoon reception at the Rogers Industry Centre at Victoria College.
Magnolia Pictures' Senior VP Tom Quinn, on the "Doc Forecast: The Next Five Years" panel. The panel's prognosis? Everybody knows something; nobody knows anything.
Ray Pride is a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker and movie critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at Movie City Indie; links to his work are at his own site.
Michael Jones is the film festival editor at Variety.com. 
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