Hot Docs!

We are fortunate enough to be a Hot Docs school, and have access to documentary films during the festival.

Please give me feedback on which one(s) you think we should bring to GHSS.  Viewings will take place in the Film Studies class and at lunch in the library.


CHASING ICE
D: Jeff Orlowski | USA | 2012 | 75 min
This visually stunning film follows renowned National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers—undeniable evidence that our planet is in crisis.
https://chasingice.com/


 
THE CROSSING
D: George Kurian | Norway | 2015 | 55 min
Arabic with English Subtitles
In this vivid chronicle of a humanitarian crisis, cameras accompany a group of remarkably optimistic middle-class Syrian families forced into extraordinary choices as they risk smugglers, death and indifference in a desperate bid for freedom.
 
 
DRIVING WITH SELVI
D: Elisa Paloschi | UK | 2016 | 52 min
In Kannada with English Subtitles
Selvi, like so many girls living within India’s patriarchal culture, is forced to marry at a young age, only to find herself in a violent and abusive marriage. One day in deep despair, she chooses to escape, going to a highway with the intention of throwing herself under the wheels of a bus. Instead she gets on the bus, choosing to live, and goes on to become South India’s first female taxi driver. We first meet 18-year-old Selvi at a girls shelter in 2004—timid, soft-spoken, a fresh runaway from a difficult life. Over a ten-year journey, we see a remarkable transformation as Selvi finds her voice and defies all expectations—learning to drive, starting her own taxi company, leading seminars to educate other women and much more. This character-driven story highlights the challenges that millions of devalued women and girls in India face. In a society where women are often considered expendable or worthless, Selvi refuses to accept this estimation for herself, moving beyond the pain she’s experienced to create an entirely new life.
 
FED UP
D: Stephanie Soechtig | USA | 2014 | 60 min
Combining the personal stories of three families struggling with weight issues with a provocative and revealing exposé of the food industry, Fed Up will turn your perspective on diet, nutrition and health inside out.
 
FRAME 394
D: Rich Williamson | Canada | 2016 | 29 min
Frame 394 profiles an eccentric young man from Toronto who, through the power of the internet, manages to entangle himself in one of America’s most high-profile police shooting cases.


 
HANDSOME & MAJESTIC
D: Nathan Drillot, Jeff Petry | Canada | 2016 | 12 min
"Handsome & Majestic" follows the story of Milan Halikowski, a teenager from the rural city of Prince George, BC. As a recently transitioned transgender boy, Milan deals with discrimination and abuse from his peers and teachers at school, as he seeks to find other kids like himself. Throughout these hardships, he becomes a role model and an advocate for trans people in his small community.
 
 
MIGRANT DREAMS
D:  Min Sook Lee | Canada | 2016 | 88 min
In English, Indonesian and Spanish, with English subtitles.
Deceptive brokers and systemic exploitation are starkly exposed in this stirring story of two courageous Indonesian women caught in Canada’s migrant worker program, fighting for basic rights in the face of debt bondage and low paying work.
 
WHO IS DAYNI CRISTAL?
D: Marc Silver | UK Mexico | 2013 | 85 min
English and Spanish with English subtitles
Arizona’s desert claims another migrant’s life. With only the tattoo “Dayani Cristal” as a clue, a search begins across the continent to discover his identity and the people he may have left behind. With Gael García Bernal.
 
WIZARD MODE
D: Nathan Drillot, Jeff Petry | Canada | 2016 | 98 min
Combo! Meet one of the world's top pinball players, an earnest and well-liked young man whose single-minded skill is a function of autism - both limiting and expanding his ability to interact in the world as he rises in international rankings.
 
YOU’VE BEEN TRUMPED TOO
D: Anthony Baxter | UK | 2016 | 80 min
This timely and explosive film explores the fascinating and deeply troubling confrontation between a feisty 92-year-old Scottish widow and her family and a billionaire attempting to become the most powerful man in the world.