North America's largest documentary film festival runs for 11 days, April 29 - May 9, presenting over 170 films from more than 35 countries and welcoming hundreds of international filmmakers and industry delegates to Toronto. Important part of the festival is industry section and its Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF) - a dynamic pitching event that stimulates international co-production financing for projects at various levels of completion. Apart from that festival runs The Doc Shop market that offers an interactive, on-demand viewing experience, with access to an extensive selection of documentary films and factual entertainment programs from around the world.
During the festival and forum, The Doc Shop is a fully digital, on-site video library that offers accredited industry passholders on-demand access to 1500+ documentaries, including many of the Festival's official selection.
For additional information see www.hotdocs.ca
Arsy-Versy (Miro Remo, 2009)
Slovakia, 23 min.
The film is a story of a mother and her son Lubos who lives in a world turned upside-down, or, arsy-versy. Lubos broke free from the world as generally conceived by others to arrive at the supreme human-nature symbiosis; he flew away to a planet purely inhabited by butterflies - intelligent beings. The sole focus of his life energy, enriched by a great deal of empathy, is being channelled into his amateur photography and film making, the climax of his fascination with natural phenomenon being his unique study of bats. By way of communicating with the upside-down creatures he is fascinated with, he attempts to achieve the utmost understanding between man and beast. He is assisted by his mother who has been a great research and life support to him, but is now apprehensive about her son’s future. „What will become of the kid?“ she wonders. Those who „knew“ him thought him lost up to the moment they saw the arsy-versy film; now it’s them who are losing it!
Osadne (Marko Skop, 2009)
Slovakia, 65 min.
Osadne is a film about an encounter between current top European leaders and the local politicians from the last village on the edge of the European Union. The small village of Osadné welcomes a delegation from the European Parliament. And vice versa – the mayor and priest from OSADNÉ visit Brussels institutions on invitation from the European Parliament.
Disco & Atomic War (Jaak Kilmi, 2009)
Estonia, 80 min.
Disco and Atomic War tells the story of a strange kind of information war in which a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And loses. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's worldviews in those days - in ways that now seem slightly odd. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit. Disco and Atomic War offers its own version of recent history, mixing spy games into a human tragicomedy.
