The new documentaries our writers can't wait to see.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Hi, Art!

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Hi, art lovers!

 
CBC Arts

CBC Arts

 
The 30th edition of the Hot Docs Festival is now underway, and you can bet we’ve been queuing up to see some great films this weekend. Find our list of must-sees below, and if a trip to downtown Toronto isn’t on your immediate to-do list, we have streaming recos as well, courtesy of CBC News Entertainment. I should mention that Hot Docs isn’t the only non-fiction film fest that’s happening this spring. A bunch of our staff picks will be screening at Doxa (Vancouver) and NorthwestFest (Edmonton), too. 

But in the meantime, we’ll have even more Hot Docs coverage on the site next week. Watch for essays by filmmakers including Omar Mouallem. The Edmonton-based director is at Hot Docs with The Lebanese Burger Mafia. It’s a supersized version of this great short doc: the story of a beloved Albertan franchise … that most Canadians have never heard of. We’ll have interviews with some of the filmmakers, too.

As for films of our own … If you follow any of CBC Arts’s social accounts, you might have seen a bunch of dance videos on your feed yesterday. Saturday was International Dance Day and Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, so our video team felt obliged to mark the double-barrelled #occasion. On the site, you’ll find bios of all the dancers, plus info on the bookstores featured in their performances.
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Painted photograph of a sun-dappled forest glen. A woman in shorts and a white tank tap stands in the distance at the centre of the composition, her back toward the viewer.

Sarah Anne Johnson

Woodland, a new solo exhibition from Sarah Anne Johnson, opens May 6 at the Stephen Bulger Gallery as part of Toronto’s Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.
 
Side by side photographs, both by Wynne Neilly. Left: a twilight landscape of fiery clouds peering behind trees in sihouette. Right: black and white photo of a person resting their head on their arms. The figure has a shaved head and tattooed arms and wears a peaceful, if not blank, expression.

Wynne Neilly

And on the subject of the festival … Remember the news about the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award that I mentioned last week? Before it arrives at the National Gallery of Canada, an exhibition featuring this year’s winners will be at Arsenal Contemporary Art as part of Contact. Find it there through June 17. These images are by Wynne Neilly, one of the honourees.
 
Dense colourful drawing in a surreal cartoon style. Depicts multiple fantasy creatures, perhaps part plant part animal.

Mitsuo Kimura

As a companion to an upcoming film program (POP Japan), the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto will be launching a free public art exhibition on May 9. Mitsuo Kimura is among the featured artists. 
 
Realistic painting of pink flowering cherry tree against a blue sky. Another image, like a painting of a snapshot of a dog in wintertime, is superimposed over the top of the tree.

Holly MacKinnon

Because it’s still cherry blossom season … in Toronto, at least. (Painting by newsletter reader Holly MacKinnon. She’s showing this piece as part of a group show at Wishbone art gallery in Montreal.)
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Still from I'm Just Here for the Riot. Photo of the aftermath of the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot. A Vancouver city street is covered with litter. Fires can be seen burning in the background. Cops in riot gear fill the scene. A lone man wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey and cap kneels on the ground, his hands behind his head, as if awaiting arrest.
Hot Docs

What to watch at Hot Docs

 
The nine documentaries our writers can’t wait to see.
 
Still from This World is Not My Own. Seen: an animated puppet of artist Nellie Mae Rowe in her yard. She is a Black woman wearing a white nightgown and dark framed glasses. She places a beer bottle on the branch of a tree already decorated with many glass bottles.
Hot Docs

Want even more Hot Docs picks?

 
You’ve got it! These five films are about women whose stories demand to be heard. 
 
Still from Satan Wants You. Medium close-up of Michelle Smith, a white woman with a short tight perm wearing a high-collar blue dress with puffy sleeves. She is in front of a red background and is appearing on an early 1980s television show.

Satan Wants You

 

How one Canadian book caused the Satanic Panic

 
A new film at Hot Docs tells the story of Michelle Remembers, the ’80s bestseller that spawned a worldwide witch hunt.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Renée Condo

@condorenee
Photo of three framed artworks hung on a white wall. They are of different sizes but are all made of large painted beads to form floral patterns on white backgrounds.

Renée Condo

Renée is one of 25 artists who made this year’s Sobey Art Award long list. The National Gallery of Canada announced the news last week, and you can learn more about the nominees on its website. A little about Renée: she is based in Montreal and her art often references beadwork patterns from her Mi’gmaw culture. 
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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