Although the Toronto International Film Festival has become known worldwide for its glitzy star-studded premiers and highly anticipated Oscar-contending film releases, documentary fans have reason to love this fest as well. Non-fiction film from around the globe is highlighted in the TIFF Docs programme, which offers a collection of unfailingly eye-opening works. These films are often just as thrilling and engaging as their fictive counterparts, and always offer filmgoers a chance to learn something new or to view an event from an alternative perspective. Here are five documentaries playing at TIFF 2014 that I cannot wait to discover.
Red Army
Director Gabe Polsky’s documentary Red Army (2014) has already met with great success at the Cannes International Film Festival, so it is with excitement that we find it playing right here at TIFF. This film takes a look at the Soviet hockey team and its infamous rivalries with its North American counterparts during the 1980s. Film and hockey fans alike will be drawn to this documentary that promises to offer an exciting story of loyalty and patriotism set in the world of sports.
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Merchants of Doubt
Filmmaker Robert Kenner has already received critical acclaim for his documentary Food, Inc. (2008), and now he returns to the Festival with Merchants of Doubt (2014). This film takes a revealing look into the world of so-called “experts” on climate change, who are actually actors paid to cast doubt in the public and delay governmental progress. Kenner desires to discover what motivates these professional sceptics, and since he is known for asking the tough questions, his new work is sure to be as revealing and influential as those that came before it.
National Gallery
National Gallery (2014) has been generating buzz for reasons other than only the age of its prolific eighty-four-year-old director. This privileged look into the London National Gallery promises to reveal tours, meetings, restorations, classes, and even protests in a manner that will fascinate art and film lovers alike. Wiseman is granted the kind of access that only a renowned documentarian such as he can enjoy, and audiences are sure to reap the rewards. Known for his observational approach to filmmaking, the lack of interviews and narration in Wiseman’s works make his documentaries stand out in a unique manner within this programme.
Seymour: An Introduction
When actors turn documentarians, the result can be fascinating. Seymour: An Introduction (2014) is brought to us by personal favourite Ethan Hawke, whose directed films have screened at the Festival in previous years. This work takes us into the world of Seymour Bernstein, an elderly Manhattan man who gave up a career as a concert pianist in order to teach music instead. As one of Bernstein’s greatest admirers, Hawke is the ideal filmmaker to document this man’s story and capture his reflections on art and life.
The Look of Silence
The Look of Silence (2014), the hotly anticipated sequel to hit documentary The Act of Killing (2012), delves even further into the historical event brought to light by director Joshua Oppenheimer two years ago. After viewing Oppenheimer’s film about Indonesia’s anti-communist purges that took place in the 1960s, one man decided to seek out and confront each of the individuals who took part in the murder of his brother, and Oppenheimer captured it all on film. Those who were taken by The Act of Killing, told from the perspective of the victors, cannot miss The Look of Silence, which now shows the same story but from the point of view of the victims.
