Hot Docs | Through the glass, part 3
photos and text by Ray Pride
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), with its controversial 2007 "Crystal" addition jutting out of the 1912 edifice, hosted some screenings and several receptions. Street level views are striking, as is this one from the rooftop bar of the Park Hyatt, a popular dusk destination.
Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University, appeared on the "Open Source/Fair Use" panel and signed copies of her primo primer, "Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction" afterward.
A $5000 prize went for the second year to an emerging filmmaker whose work shares the "passion, humor, strong sense of social justice and personal point of view" of the late Canadian filmmaker and mentor Lindalee Tracey, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 49. Among her films: "A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada" and "Anatomy of Burlesque." Her husband, filmmaker Peter Raymont and her son presented the award to Elizabeth Lazebnik.
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.
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), with its controversial 2007 "Crystal" addition jutting out of the 1912 edifice, hosted some screenings and several receptions. Street level views are striking, as is this one from the rooftop bar of the Park Hyatt, a popular dusk destination.
HBO-Cinemax President of Documentary and Family Programming Sheila Nevins talked for an hour with Hot Docs director of Programming Sean Farnel about her passions and the philosophy of the company's essentially hands-off commitment to documentary. She described the work as "nudging the world" despite "business dot dot dot."
"I wouldn't say rare or rarefied or elitist but I wouldn't say popular like a TV show or popular like filling a movie theater. It's an exciting form; it doesn’t have to be popular. It's for people who care about the universe and about change. It's not pup culture. It has to make you tingle in some way, if it's an HBO docu. You ask what's an HBO documentary, it's like asking, 'what is love?'"Do they nurture filmmakers?
"I wouldn't say nurture. If you we don't like you, we turn you out in the cold. Maybe you can teach me, what is the attraction of [theatrical], of showing your film to three guys in raincoats? What's wrong with TV?"
Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University, appeared on the "Open Source/Fair Use" panel and signed copies of her primo primer, "Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction" afterward.
A $5000 prize went for the second year to an emerging filmmaker whose work shares the "passion, humor, strong sense of social justice and personal point of view" of the late Canadian filmmaker and mentor Lindalee Tracey, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 49. Among her films: "A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada" and "Anatomy of Burlesque." Her husband, filmmaker Peter Raymont and her son presented the award to Elizabeth Lazebnik.
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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