Warming up to Hot Docs
LIVE JAZZ + HOT DOCS OLDIES: Hot Docs may not begin its 20th anniversary edition until April 25 but its Annex HQ is already busy with screenings and events.
On April 8 at 6:30 p.m., the sounds of Sicily will fill the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema with a special tribute to the island’s musical traditions with La Voce di Rosa, a new documentary about the life and legacy of singer and social activist Rosa Balistreri, one of Italy’s most revered performers in the 1960s and ’70s.
Along with a Q&A by director Nello Correale, the movie will be followed by a performance by the Sicilian Jazz Project, the Juno-nominated trio featuring Toronto jazz-scene heavyweights Roberto and Michael Occhipinti and singer Dominic Mancuso.
All month long, the Bloor also devotes plenty of screen space to the Hot Docs 20, a generous assortment of award-winners and audience faves from past festivals.
This week’s lineup includes Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (April 5 at 9:15 p.m.), the Oscar-winning dolphin-slaughter exposé The Cove (April 6 at 3 p.m.), The Falls ( April 7 at 3 p.m.) and 65 RedRoses (April 9 at 6:30 p.m.).
Hot Docs regulars can also vote for their own favourite documentary. The winner will be screened April 24.
MANET ON SCREEN: With its popular array of specialty programming, now the movie chain invites art lovers into its multiplexes as well.
A program that launches this week, Exhibition: Great Art on Screen, offers virtual tours of exhibitions at some of the world’s foremost museums and galleries. The series launches with Manet: Portraying Life.
A showcase of work in a recent exhibition by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the 100-minute presentation screens at 11 local Cineplex theatres on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. with encores on April 28 and May 25.
The art of Edvard Munch and Johannes Vermeer get a similar degree of scrutiny later this year.
FILM-FEST ROAD MAP: The spring film festival season heads into full swing this weekend with Cinefranco at the Royal and the Toronto Silent Film Festival at downtown venues.
As for movies with no spoken languages, one must-see is Tokyo Chorus, an early effort by Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu that screens April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Carlton. Also next week, TIFF Kids launches its actionpacked daytime program of films for young people aged 3 to 13 at TIFF Bell Lightbox on April 9. ReelWorld begins a five-day program at Famous Players Canada Square on April 10 at 7 p.m. Not to be outdone, the Images Festival of experimental, independent and otherwise adventurous-minded film, video and new media begins with an opening reception celebrating J.K. Kelly’s new video installation work at the Scrap Metal gallery on Dublin St. on April 10 and an opening-night gala matchup between drone-loving composer Tim Hecker and filmmaker Robert Todd at St. Anne’s Anglican Church on April 11.
NO CASINO TORONTO SCREENING: The local activist group’s campaign to stop the drive for a downtown mega-casino includes a benefit screening of Owning Mahowny, the 2003 true-life tale that starred Philip Seymour Hoffman as a Toronto bank manager whose gambling addiction led to one of the most brazen finan- cial crimes in Canadian history. It plays April 7 at 4 p.m. at the Revue Cinema. It’s followed by a talk by Gary Stephen Ross, author of the book on which the movie is based.
SHORTS THAT ARE NOT PANTS: The cheekily titled local short-film series continues with a diverse slate for April. Canadian selections include two additions to “Beastly Bards,” local animator Hector Herrera’s delightful ongoing series of vignettes starring poetry-spouting monsters. From Sweden comes the fulllength version of Las Palmas, an excerpt of which became a major viral hit thanks to its hilarious scenes of a toddler’s rampage through a tiki bar. Many more delights await viewers on April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Carlton.
MANBORG’S LAST NIGHT: What will we do without the protection of the man-machine hero of director Steven Kostanski’s no-budget sci-fi marvel? Manborg plays the last of its winter series of late-night screenings at the Royal on April 5 at 11:30 p.m.
PRECIOUS AT BOOKS ON FILM: A key figure in the10-year process of adapting Sapphire’s novel Push into the Oscar-winning hit known as Precious, producer Lisa Cortés joins host Eleanor Wachtel to talk about the project’s history in this month’s edition of the TIFF subscription series Books on Film. The event takes place at the Lightbox on April 8 at 7 p.m.