Hot Docs 2008

In his latest film, Luke Fowler presents the reclusive life of Bogman Palmjaguar, a one-time patient of R.D. Laing, the iconoclast psychotherapist featured in Fowler's earlier work What You See Is Where You're At. Evocative field recordings, landscape imagery and personal narrative are meticulously interwoven to produce a portrait not only of a man who desperately sought refuge but of the surrounding environment in which he seeks solace.

Leacock's first film documents the daily activities of his father's banana plantation on the Canary Islands. His film won him an audience with master documentarian Robert Flaherty who would later hire Leacock to shoot Louisiana Story.

An intimate, gritty and poetic adventure following the lives of carnies, travelling fairground workers who have abandoned the security of the "real world" for the refuge and variety of the road. Deep pain is masked behind the huge grin of Hairy, the charismatic lesbian cotton-candy seller. Through her eyes, we see a world of unlikely Romeos, easy love and fierce friendships that obscure personal hardship and troubled pasts. Often from an underclass that has few options, the carnies struggle with addiction, loneliness, poverty and shattered dreams, finding solace only in the company of their own, who accept them as they are. Some have worked the fairs for more than 50 years, some were born or escaped into it, but all are gripped by the romance of the bright midway lights lyrically captured in lush interludes of Kodachrome Super 8. -Gisèle Gordon Co-presented with Women in Film and Television - Toronto.

On the way to cash in bottles for a few dollars, a group of homeless men turn into road warriors, careening their grocery carts down the death-defying hills of North Van at speeds of 70 kilometres per hour. There are dangers and sometimes a man is seriously injured. "That's life. Everybody in extreme sports gets bruises," says Big Al, a cart racer and hell raiser just out of prison. Director Murray Siple loves speed and made sports films until a car accident 10 years ago rendered him quadriplegic. So when he met these guys cashing in bottles at the supermarket, a friendship and mutual trust developed through the understanding that their disabilities make them invisible to society. Fergie, "pickeled as a newt," sings a wicked version of Tennessee Stud. Max barbecues a gourmet salmon in the liquor store parking lot. Al takes us on a tour of grocery stores to teach us how to choose exactly the right vehicle. In the tradition of the best documentaries, both subjects and filmmakers are revealed as fragile, funny and fully human. -Lynne Fernie

The Chair is a compelling account of the fight of lawyers Don Moore and Louis Nizer to save convicted murderer Paul Crump from the electric chair. The film begins five days before the scheduled execution date. Their argument supporting sentence commutation is based on testimony from Crump's prison warden and others that Crump had changed for the better during his nine years in prison. This argument for clemency based on a prisoner's reform would set a legal precedent. The Drew team records some unexpectedly intimate moments. Moore, full of conviction and energy, has been lobbying the Catholic Church for support. When he receives a call informing him that the church has decided to back Crump's commutation, Moore breaks down and cries. The Chair is a poignant social document still relevant some 50 years later, when controversy regarding the realities of prisoner reform and the death penalty still exist. -Shannon Abel

A candid look at the 1968 Police Chiefs Convention in Hawaii offers an interesting perspective on the members of an institution whose popularity with the public was in decline. Leacock follows the chiefs and their wives: they test guns, learn to hula dance and frankly discuss their tarnished public image. Interestingly, this short film has often been presented with Pennebaker's, Monterey Pop. -Shannon Abel

The last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel-former dissident, leader in the Velvet Revolution, playwright, poet, essayist and Rolling Stones fan-is simply an icon among contemporary political leaders. A former enemy of the state who came to be freely elected as its leader, Havel was thrust into the spotlight of international politics and celebrity. Filmmaker Pavel Koutecký was given unprecedented access to Havel, following him from 1992, on the cusp of the first election of the newly formed Czech Republic, to his return to civilian life in 2003. The result is fascinating. Whether giving Keith Richards restaurant tips or facilitating the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Havel is seen to be always, resolutely, himself. An honest portrait of an honest politician, Citizen Havel is a rare gem of a documentary. -Sean Farnel

Falling in love with the wrong person can have devastating repercussions for Mohawks on the Kahnawake reserve in Quebec. Award-winning director Tracey Deer takes a courageous look at her home community, raising questions of identity, history and tradition through the lives of four inspiring Mohawk women. With warmth, depth and humour, stories unfold about the heartbreaking costs of "marrying out" of their Mohawk Nation, the challenges faced by kids of mixed backgrounds, and the conflict between love and preserving the fabric of their community. Having children with the men they love can mean forfeiting their offspring's legal native status, including the right to live with their families on the reserve. The film doesn't flinch from the history of Canada's racist and sexist government policy, including the brutal force used against them during the Oka Crisis in 1990. A groundbreaking film and a powerful story of the triumph of love and the human spirit. -Lynne Fernie Co-presented with imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Lilibeth Cuenca explores the national sport of her native Philippines, cockfighting. Blending the pop music persona of a half-plucked dancing cock with bloody documentary footage of real fights and betting, she critiques male domination and macho culture.