Hot Docs at home on CBC
FRIENDS is sharing recommendations for great Canadian content to lighten the load of our shared experience during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Help us share these Canadian gems with even more people and support Canadian artists during the pandemic. Become a patron today.
The annual Hot Docs Festival is a spring tradition for documentary buffs and an opportunity for them to go deep behind the scenes of their favourite films. For the past twenty-five years, fans from across Canada and the world have travelled to Toronto to catch the premieres of critically acclaimed films as well as panels with the filmmakers and subjects of the documentaries themselves. It shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that the 2020 Hot Docs Festival has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily for us, Hot Docs is premiering a small selection of feature documentaries on CBC, the free CBC Gem and the documentary Channel. Hot Docs at home on CBC is launching tomorrow, April 16, and here are three documentaries that we think you definitely shouldn't miss.
The spread of COVID-19 has underscored how information—or lack of it—can mean the difference between life and death. Using archival materials, filmmakers Richard Poplak and Diana Neille constructed a compelling historical account of how information was weaponized by British firm Bell Pottinger, one of the world’s most prominent PR and reputation management agencies. Their keen ability to develop and disseminate personal branding for disgraced politicians, dictators and companies was highly sought after by the rich and powerful. They seemed unstoppable, until one of their campaigns incited a flashpoint of racial tensions in South Africa and became an unmitigated disaster for these veteran spin doctors.
Branchez-vous à votre culture en vous abonnant aujourd'hui!
Isolation doesn't have to be isolating. Sign up and be part of the movement.
Filmmaker Tamara Dawit's aunt Sally had always been an enigma—someone she understood to be an important part of the family but who she knew very little about. With the help of Dawit's four remaining aunts, she slowly pieces together Sally's life and the mystery of her disappearance forty years ago. What Dawit unravels is a portrait of Sally as an aristocrat-turned-communist-rebel amid Ethiopia's violent political upheaval in the 70's, dubbed the Red Terror.
Nathan Bibeau's portrait of animal-trainer-turned-activist Philip Demers is a powerful demonstration of how social media can become a tool for activism. After working for a decade at Niagara Falls' popular tourist spot Marineland, Demers and several co-workers quit their jobs and started drawing public attention to the mistreatment of the animals there. The legal and emotional toll that followed pushed Demers and those around him close to the edge, but his firsthand account of Marineland's practices helped animal rights activist mount a campaign to shut it down. His social media following also exploded almost overnight, giving him an even bigger spotlight for his cause.