Hot Docs 2008

"She looks very passionate, would make a very good wife," says a stranger describing the face of another stranger. Conversation is a fascinating and frank look at the hidden judgments we habitually make about others based on their faces. In this cleverly composed and edited short doc, filmmakers Lenka Clayton and James Price explore the semiotics of body language. We observe candid interviews with 29 strangers from the streets of London, England, as they read another stranger's face. It's a revealing study of how we readily project our fears and hopes onto people we don't know. What does a face really tell you about a person and what does it tell you about your own preconceptions and prejudices? -Sarah Whitehouse

What do a former assassin, guerrilla, hustler and gang member all have in common? A beauty pageant, of course! Colombia is a country well known for its pageants, so the fact that Bogota's Women's Penitentiary holds an annual crowning is not completely out of the ordinary. For Maira, Viviana, Angela and Angie, the competition offers temporary excitement and respite from the crushing boredom, isolation and depression of prison life. La Corona (The Crown) moves beyond the novelty of big-house dress up and raises larger issues-femininity as identity, overrun prisons, arbitrary sentencing and civil war. -Angie Driscoll Co-presented with aluCine Toronto Latin@ Media Festival

Take a trip on a connecting road that doesn't exist between three mistrustful countries that may not even want to be linked. Filmmaker Boris Despodov embarks on just such a haphazard journey as he attempts to travel along Corridor #8, the massive infrastructural project joining Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. Commissioned by the EU in 1997, the complex rail and road system is designed to connect the Black and Adriatic seas and lift the economic hopes of the farmers and blue-collar workers along its way. But after millions of euros and 10 years, little progress has been made. An unfinished Bulgarian railway tunnel is used for growing mushrooms, threats of roadside Albanian blood feuds expose the growing cultural unrest within and between nations, and peoples' skepticism about their future is degenerating into abject apathy. Absurdly funny, quintessentially Balkan and poignantly revealing, Corridor #8 is a fascinating portrait of the new unified Europe. -Myrocia Watamaniuk

C-SPAN meets the art scene in A Crime Against Art. This film is based on a "trial" staged at an art fair in Madrid in February 2007. In turn, both trials were inspired by the mock trials organized by André Breton in the 1920s and '30s. All raise a number of polemical issues in the world of contemporary art: collusion with the "new bourgeoisie," instrumentalization of art and its institutions, the future possibility of artistic agency and other pertinent topics. Filmmaker Hila Peleg's trial begins with the assumption that a crime has been committed, yet its nature and evidence are allusive and no victims have come forward. The testimonies and cross-examinations become an attempt by the Judge to unravel the nature of the mysterious "crime against art." Set as a television courtroom drama and filmed by four camera crews, the six-chapter serial presents a condensed 100-minute version of the trial. Co-presented with 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art.

Crisis is another brilliant political film by Drew Associates that documents the 1963 standoff between Governor George Wallace and President John F. Kennedy over Wallace's attempt to prevent two black students from registering at the University of Alabama. The Kennedy government had issued a court order to the university to integrate its black and white students. The Drew team gained access to several offices in the Kennedy administration in order to film them dealing with the resulting crisis. The film cuts back and forth between Attorney General Robert Kennedy's office in Washington D.C., the Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who is their man on the ground in Alabama, and George Wallace. The result and the approach are fascinating. Many felt that it was inappropriate to film the president making crucial decisions as if "eavesdropping." Others felt that it was a piece of sensationalist propaganda. These reactions are a testament to the film's intentions-to get the inside story-and proof that a good documentary will always inspire debate. -Shannon Abel

Every image tells a story in this sensitively crafted mosaic that captures the soul of everyday life in Havana. An irresistible soundtrack drives and narrates the camera's sensitive observations of the mundane and the unexpected with lyrics of love, longing and betrayal. A woman prepares a meal in her tiny kitchen, construction workers toil as people sing on the street, Fidel Castro appears on television playing the paternal role and majestic waves crash into a pier as the song cycle builds to a crescendo that always leads back to Cuba. This timely glimpse into the lives of ordinary Cubans under Castro was the last film made by director and DP, Fernand Bélanger. Knowing his time was limited, his camera is pulled to moments representing the essential pulse of life. Sadly, Belanger died before the film was finished, so the film was completed by his co-directors and longtime collaborators, Louise Dugal and Yves Angrignon. -Gisèle Gordon Co-presented with the Images Festival.

Jamshid Aminfar's paintings are haunting and inspired. With stylized bodies, almost cartoon-like faces and a sharply defined colour palette, his work contains expressive echoes of the works of Edvard Munch and Keith Haring. Using found objects for his canvases, Jamshid paints and displays his portfolio on Tehran's street corners, persisting despite constant haranguing and abuse from the police. Both Jamshid's art and circumstance can be traced to medical complexities as an infant which have left him mentally depressed and introverted. His fear, insecurities and psychological trauma are visually portrayed by the filmmaker using evocative, impressionistic animated sequences, all skillfully intertwined into the film's story. As Jamshid prepares for his first exhibition, he falls in love with a young French woman visiting Iran. His feelings are predictably unrequited, but Cyanosis deftly uses animation to show how his heartbreak can inspire renewed beginnings and new paintings. -Brett Hendrie

Six years ago, 65-year-old photographer Hai Tran fell in love with 3-D photography and is on a mission to share its wonders with as many people as possible. His passion for photography began as a child in Vietnam, continued when he fled with his young family in a small boat with three cameras and a suitcase of photographs, and culminated in Calgary where he eventually opened one of Canada's largest vintage camera stores. Director Siu Ta reveals the history of the family through Hai's wonderful photos as well as intimate and funny stories from his wife and children. Ta captures Hai's ebullience when a moose poses for his camera, his joy as he shows his work to strangers and his sadness as he is forced to close the store. Hai's charisma, volatile personality and love for photography light up this film. In English and Vietnamese with English subtitles. - Lynne Fernie

May, 1989. On a hot, sunny afternoon in Brest, France, a sunbathing woman lies murdered on a crowded beach. She was stabbed to death in broad daylight without any apparent motive and so detective Jean-François Abgrall begins an extraordinary investigation that will lead him to France's most terrifying psychopath. An unstable drifter with a violent past, Francis Heaulmes arouses suspicion but evades arrest. Driven by instinct and a brilliant police mind, however, Abgrall cannot dismiss him. As a string of similarly grizzly murders all leading to Heaulmes is discovered, a chilling cat and mouse game ensues between Abgrall and the highly intelligent madman. Heaulmes taunts the detective with spectacularly detailed hand-drawn maps of murder scenes, then implores his innocence. Yet Abgrall must continue to engage Heaulmes to find the facts. In this gripping policier, Abgrall himself finally shares the astonishing story of how he brought France's most notorious serial killer to justice. -Myrocia Watamaniuk