I’m heading up to HotDocs this weekend to celebrate with Ron Mann, whose work is featured in this year’s Focus On program of a mid-career filmmaker. The retrospective was curated by filmmaker Astra Taylor, whose Examined Life recently made the festival circuit and a wonderful screening in Austin as part of AFS’s Doc Tour. I’m very excited to see Ron and Astra, and hopefully get to see a bit of their Toronto.

I’ll also be moderating a panel on Monday, Creativity in Doc Making at 1 PM on Monday, May 4. Panelists include Jennifer Baichwal, Act of God (Canada), Laura Bari, Antoine (Canada), Peter Liechti, The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Switzerland) and Menna Laura Meijer, Sweety, The Friends, Betrayal and Murder of Maja Bradaric (Netherlands). I’m excited to watch their films and to think about creativity in doc making. It’s a subject that tends to get overlooked by people who are getting into documentary. They watch a lot of nonfiction television and think that a doc has to follow a certain form while in reality, the best docs push the boundaries of the form. Please stop by if you can!

Of course, there are way more films on my wish list than I’ll be able to see but here are the ones I’m hoping to catch:

21 Below Produced by my friends over at Indiepix, I’m curious to see what this one is all about. I saw a trailer at some point and wanted to see more.
Ali Shan This is the new film by the  director of Up the Yangtze, one of my favorite films from last year.
Big River Man I missed this one at Sundance and I heard good things. I’m going to try to catch up with it.
Bitch Academy A class in gold digging? Ok, I’m interested.
The Cove Another film from Sundance that I missed, although I missed it intentionally as I have a hard time watching animal slaughter. We’ll see if I can get myself to watch.
International Documentary Challenge I’ve been on the screening committee for this program the last two years. I’d like to catch up with the program at the theater and hear how folks are responding to the short docs.
El Olvido Heddy Honigman, need I say more?
Let’s Make Money Part of the Let’s Make Money sidebar of films dealing with the topic of money. Several of the films look really intriguing and as usual with HotDocs strands, hit the nail on the head.
Rough Aunties Directed by Kim Longinotto and producered by We Are Together crew Teddy Leifer and Paul Taylor. I’m in.
Sergio Recommended by Aj Schnack.
The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy Rings of Into The Wild, a story I loved.

Of the films in the program that I’ve seen, here are some recommendations:

Winnebago Man So far universally acclaimed. This one will make you feel good, and we need that right now.
Zombie Girl A fun look at a young Austin filmmaker. Zombie love not necessary to enjoy this one.
The Way We Get By See my recent post about the film.
The Yes Men Fix The World Besides the fact that The Yes Men are hilarious and smart as hell, this was a fun movie experience. A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, as the saying goes.
Burma VJ A haunting story of perseverance in the face of extreme difficulty.  I got a press release that the featured journalist, “Joshua” will attend the festival. Should be an amazing Q&A!
The Jazz Baroness I caught this one at Sheffield and really enjoyed it. I’m not a jazz fan but if you are, this one is a must-see.
Over the Hills and Far Away Seriously, you won’t be sorry. This is a wonderful story, beautifully told. Can’t miss.
Reporter Eric Daniel Metzgar’s latest (The Chances of the World Changing, Life.Support.Music)
Steel Homes Made by City of Cranes filmmaker Eva Weber.
Tyson While this film came across as typical mysoginistic fare when I saw it at Sundance, I do think it is more complicated than that. It’s worth watching, if only to have a conversation about it.
We Live in Public A really intriguing film about the effects of overindulging in our digital lives. I was mesmerized watching it at SXSW and couldn’t stop talking about it.