‘If I was going to be completely selfish, I’d tell my programmers…’I’m going to stick to the nonfiction films,” says Alan Franey, executive director of the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Franey’s festival has become the go-to fall event in Canada for feature documentaries, with 100 nonfiction entries occupying one-third of the film program. Clearly that choice starts from the top.

When it’s pointed out to the articulate and opinionated Franey that featuring documentaries at a festival might strike his audience as being as entertaining as eating broccoli, VIFF’s lead programmer admits that, on the whole, ‘they’d rather eat candy and drink wine than have some good vegetables – even if they enjoy them once they get them in their mouths. But I don’t think that metaphor applies to all nonfiction cinema. And it’s also probably true that ‘consuming’ some fictional films is a bit like chewing glass.’

A major section in VIFF’s Nonfiction Features category is devoted to arts and letters. A wide range of material is covered, ranging from Loos Ornamental, a study of modernist architect Adolf Loos, to Dancing with Time, about septuagenarian former ballet dancers. But the vast amount of films selected celebrate music – from jazz to world to rock and classical.

‘Music is my greatest love,’ admits Franey. ‘I’ve learned so much through cinema about music. You can often travel to the place where it’s made. Understanding the context of the music really adds to the experience.’

Among the music films screening this year are Old Man Bebo, which covers legendary pianist Bebo Valdes’ return to Cuba after an absence of 40 years; The Wrecking Crew, about the brilliant but hitherto anonymous Los Angeles studio musicians who played on such ’60s hits as Strangers in the Night, Good Vibrations, Mr. Tambourine Man, Pink Panther Theme and Mrs. Robinson; Throw Down Your Heart, a travelogue which follows virtuoso banjo player Bela Fleck on a trip to jam with African musicians; Teak Leaves at the Temples, which offers a soundtrack of Javanese music and free jazz; and Celia the Queen, a lovely tribute to the ‘queen of salsa,’ singer Celia Cruz.

Though Franey can’t pick one favorite from such a disparate list, he enthuses over Philip Scheffner’s The Halfmoon Files. ‘It’s quite extraordinary,’ he says. ‘It conjures ghosts.’ The film uses archival footage from the First World War recorded and shot in a POW camp in Germany, which is now archived at Humboldt University. ‘The voices create a spectral presence in the modern landscape,’ comments Franey.

Many nonfiction films deal with topics apart from arts and letters. Apology of an Economic Hitman exposes a secret cabal that helped to create America’s dominance in the world’s global market; The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab is a delightful recording of the prestigious Bocuse d’Or culinary contest; Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers profiles Cambodian prostitutes and their tragic, endangered lives, and My Life Inside chronicles the terrifying circumstances that forced an illegal Hispanic immigrant into serving life in prison in Texas.

Again, Franey is pleased to comment on a couple of films that he enjoyed among the many that were programmed for VIFF.

‘Read After My Death, by director Morgan Dews, recreates his grandparents and their marriage – but it isn’t just about old people [a topic of great interest to boomers with aging relatives]. Dews was inspired to make the film after he discovered a bunch of letters and home movies after one of them had died. It shows that there can be revelations hidden in the closet all the time – and that we should look at old people differently,’ says Franey.

Another film that uses home movies is Chris and Don: A Love Story, which examines the relationship between writer Christopher Isherwood, whose writings inspired Cabaret, and his lover, the artist Don Bachardy.

‘Their relationship was very controversial at the time,’ says Franey. ‘Very few were willing to defend it. So it’s refreshing to see a film that shows you that life is not quite so simple and what they had was a beautiful thing.’

Asked about his audiences’ reception to docs at VIFF, Franey is clear: ‘We do gangbusters with documentaries. I think people make docs for all the right reasons. Often, they could be making more money as academics, but documentary filmmakers are often making something that is very important to their heart. It might be about a personal relationship, or family history or a topic that they love. There’s a kind of integrity that goes with nonfiction filmmaking.’