by Bruce Kirkland
Sadly, despite being an exciting art form and a source of enlightenment, documentaries do not travel well through cinemas.
Exceptions such as Oscar-winner An Inconvenient Truth ($48.8 million worldwide) and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fahrenheit 9/11 ($222.4 million worldwide) merely prove the rule. Obviously, they were hits as well as controversial catalysts for public debate.
But docs in general are almost dead in theatres.
So it is great news that the genre is alive and well and living on DVD in specialized collections. One outstanding series comes from Canada’s KinoSmith, run by its president, Robin Smith. This innovative independent distributor just added four new titles to its Hot Docs DVD Collection, bringing the series to seven.
The first-wave was: The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, RIP!: A Remix Manifesto and FLicKeR. The new titles are Unmistaken Child, The Bodybuilder and I, Prom Night in Mississippi and The Betrayal. With three more titles due in June (Burma VJ, Collapse and The Unforeseen) and two in July (Army of One and When We Were Boys), the Hot Docs DVD Collection is heating up. For those of us who love docs, it is incendiary.
Hot Docs is a Toronto phenomenon, a filmfest that is as important in its specialized niche in the spring as the Toronto International Film Festival is for all film genres in the fall. KinoSmith’s DVD series takes Hot Docs across Canada. Everyone can participate, at least for these titles.
All major DVD stores can carry these films, or order them in if they do not stock them. But two major chains are on-board with special displays devoted to the collection.
One is HMV, which has always supported docs by celebrating the offbeat, odd and obscure on its shelves. Good on them. The surprise partner is Blockbuster, which has an appalling record of supplying only mainstream fare. Giving the Hot Docs Collection its own focus in many Blockbuster stores is a nice change of pace: Hurrah!
For obvious reasons with documentaries, it is worth knowing what they are about. While filmmaking style is critical to getting the message across, it doesn’t mean much if the message does not intrigue the viewer. So here are capsule takes on the new titles:
- Prom Night in Mississippi: Fuelled by Morgan Freeman’s passion for Civil Rights, this uplifting, life-affirming, Canadian-made doc examines how a high school in Charleston, Miss., was forced to integrate its student population in 1970 but ignorantly refused to allow blacks to go to the senior prom. In 2008, that finally changed when the school finally accepted Freeman’s offer to pay for the prom — if integrated. And, guess what, it became a great experience for all. Directed by Canadian Paul Saltzman.
- Unmistaken Child: When Tibetan Buddhist leader Lama Konchog died in 2001, he left behind a daunting task for another monk: To find his reincarnated being. This Israeli film chronicles the extraordinary, four-year mission. Directed by Nati Baratz.
- The Bodybuilder and I: In this Canadian production, an estranged son, filmmaker Bryan Friedman, rediscovers his father during the elder man’s bizarre odyssey to regain his competitive bodybuilding crown at 59.
- The Betrayal: It took 23 years to film and earned a 2009 Oscar nomination as best documentary feature. Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath’s American-made film shows what compelled Phrasavath’s family to migrate from Laos to New York after America’s dirty Vietnam War spilled over into their home country.
One bonus is that KinoSmith will donate a percentage of each sale to the Hot Docs Education Fund for school programs related to documentary films. Youth need not be wasted on the young — if they are learning.
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