Hot Docs ended a couple weeks ago and I had the opportunity of checking it out. Overall, I had a positive experience at Hot Docs and thought the screening locations were well chosen. The energy from the volunteers and everyone else was amazing, and I cannot wait for next year’s Hot Docs Festival!
Daughters of Malakeh by Jet Homoet and Sharog Heshmat Manesh, follows the social dreams and roles of 3 generations of women in Sharog’s family in Iran. His sister Maryam is a strong central figure, being the breadwinner and support system of the household. The conflict between the private and patriarchal public spheres is evident when she wants to marry but is conflicted between her personal security in navigating Iran’s perilous marriage laws (in particular for women) and her personal desires. Interestingly, the men playing secondary roles in the private lives of these characters.
After the screening, we were introduced to another sibling; a brother who hasn’t been to Iran in 30 years and for the first time was able to see his family’s life since he left at the screening. It was a touching human moment at Hot Docs.
This is My Picture When I Was Dead by Al Massad is about the four-year-old Bashir who is killed in the assassination of his father, a Palestinian revolutionary, in Athens 1983. Bashir ends up living through his death. Him and his father’s story are told in this personal tale set amidst the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the 70's through to today. Themes touched on include the importance of land, mortality, and ‘big’ politics verses ‘small’ personal issues. We see Bashir following in his father’s footsteps using political cartoons and satire in place of guns and military operations.
You’ve Been Trumped by Anthony Baxter and Canadian producer Richard Phinney follows the events occurring after Donald Trump buys and begins to develop one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive wildernesses whilst attempting to remove local landowners who live in proximity to his project. Local residents do what they can to fight back, sometimes winning and sometimes suffering the predictable consequences of going against the Trump. The story is told without narration and is an interesting clash between environmental issues, the values of capitalism and the media, and traditional Scottish values.
Image courtesy photojunkie
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