Still Lots to See at Hot Docs 2023
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(May 5, 223 – Toronto, ON) As of 5:00PM today, there will be 72 screenings left to see at Hot Docs. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday are your last chances to see what are the best documentaries programmers could find for the 30th anniversary of this important festival. In fact, of the 2848 submissions only 214 films were selected and of those one-third, 70 had their World Premieres in Toronto.
As always, our focus is on Canadian films and earlier today 4 Canadian docs had their last screenings. Those titles are Caiti Blues, I Lost My Mom, Mother Saigon and Upstream. The good news is, online streaming begins today, May 5 and continues until May 9.
However, you don’t want to miss The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain. On April 18, 1955, pathologist Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, while performing the autopsy on Albert Einstein, decides to steal the dead scientist’s brain hoping it will reveal the source of genius and make him a star. Instead, it leads to his ruin like a relic cursed. Click here to read our interview with the film’s director Michelle Shephard.
The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain screens:
May 5 – 5:30PM – Isabel Bader Theatre
Later tonight, July Talk: Love Lives Here (pictured above) will have its final screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. In case you didn’t know (I didn’t) July Talk is the name of a three-time JUNO Award-winning band from Toronto. Set in 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic turns serious, the band faces the uncomfortable reality that their touring days might be over and that means a shaky financial future for the five band members. They decide to book the Stardust Drive-In Theatre north of Toronto for two nights in August and Director Brittany Farhat decides to shoot the event. As she put it, “Their concept for the drive-in performances became my place of hope in an unprecedented time, a beacon in the dark drawing me towards it. But how could their idea possibly work? I only knew I needed to be there with my camera.”
July Talk: Love Lives Here screens:
May 5 – 9:00PM – TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Also see: Hot Docs tickets and passes.
Also see: May 2023 Film Festivals.
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
