Sunday 6 May 2012

Hot Docs

Toronto has a big film scene. TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) is huge with hundreds of thousands swarming the city to see the year's best films and is deeming the second biggest and best film fest after Cannes.

Over the last few weeks another film fest has Toronto buzzing - Hot Docs. Featuring documentaries from around the world, Hot Docs is North America's biggest documentary festival. Hot Docs has re-opened Bloor Cinema for this year's Hot Docs, and will continue to show only documentaries at the 800!!! seat theatre. 
(photo http://pingpongfilm.co.uk/press)

Which is where we saw 'Ping Pong' today. A look at octogenarians representing their countries at an international table tennis tournament in singles and doubles +80 and +85 age categories. The film followed a few competitors in the lead up to the tournament and in the six months that followed. Like any great film, it was emotionally charged and had you immediately connected to the central figures (other than that American woman who was a little die hard for my taste, asking what the 100 year old Aus was doing at the tournament 'she can't even move'!). The film left me contemplating what it really means to be old, the fight between mind and body, and also the general experience of watching a film in a theatre. 

We're incredibly lucky in Toronto to have a theatre dedicated to documentaries alone (apparently there's  one other doc only theatre Worldwide - an 14 seater in Zagreb). Not only do documentaries give life to unique and interesting stories, which typically result in learning something new about a culture, event or idea, but the reality of these stories gives you a much stronger connection to what you're seeing. I feel very lucky to have the collective experience of the movie cinema on my doorstep to be able take advantage of this beautiful idea, without having to succumb to the banality of  reality TV (of which there is also plenty here). 

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