Hot Docs 2012

WE KNOW A LIST OF OVER 189 FILMS CAN BE DAUNTING, SO HERE ARE OUR TOP FIVE PICKS FOR THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL.

Story by Nina Cherry
Images courtesy of Hot Docs

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Director: Alison Klayman
Run time: 91
Rating: PG
Subtitled

Hot Doc’s Official Selection and opening this year’s festival, this internationally acclaimed documentary grants the audience full access into the life of renowned artist and Chinese activist, Ai Weiwei (http://aiweiweineversorry.com/) Watch Weiwei’s struggle to be heard as he critiques his country and expresses himself through his art. Insightful and powerful, if you are able to make it out to only one documentary, this should be it.

About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now
Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Run time: 72 mins

In the last few years, festivals have been bombarded by model documentaries investigating everything from anorexia to sexual abuse. About Face takes yet another approach at it looks at the effects of time on a models career. Christie Brinkley, Jerry Hall, Isabella Rosselini and more discuss the business of aging in the beauty-based industry

The World’s Most Fashionable Prison
Director: CK Mak
Run Time: 67 mins
Rating: PG
Subtitled

What would Tim Gunn think? Watch (http://vimeo.com/37379774) as designer Puey Quinones works with a group of inmates in a Philippine maximum security facility. From basic sewing to a full-production fashion show, can these inmates make it work?

Garden in the Sea
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer
Run Time: 68 mins
Subtitled

Is there anything more beautiful than clear blue water? Watch as Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias creates an underwater installation in the Sea of Cortez. Garden in the Sea can be described as nature porn and it is truly breathtaking

Laura
Director: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa
Run Time:78 mins
Rating: PG

Sneaking into parties by night and living in a shoebox apartment by day is Laura (http://vimeo.com/14173845), a South American socialite in New York. Barbosa is fascinated by his subject, who vehemently protects her status as diva, despite her obvious poverty. But the documentary tasks a twist when Laura begins to use Barbosa and his film crew to her own advantage.