It’s midnight and I’m wiped! It’s my 2nd day at HotDocs in Toronto…I’ve seen 4 films, so already I’m already doing better than SXSW where I only managed a pathetic 3 screenings in 5 days. In addition to the theaters, I’ve discovered DocShop, the fest’s market and tape library and been to a few interesting panels. Today, I watched Walking to Werner at DocShop since I missed both screenings at the fest. I wasn’t as excited about the film after seeing it - I really liked the idea of following in the ideological footsteps of a mentor - it is a good effort on the part of first-time maker Linas Phillips but I had this nagging feeling that he was too concerned about seeing Herzog than on connecting to the universe and listening to his own heart, which is really the point of the exercise.

Erica and I had lunch with Toronto native Ron Mann, who we met at SXSW with his new film Tales of the Rat Fink. Before leaving his office he gave me a full set of Mann films including Grass, Poetry in Motion and a film by his mentor In the Year of the Pig by Emile de Antonio. I’m excited to watch them when I get home…and now I’m kicking myself…I should have had him autograph one for me;-)