Toronto filmmaker Barry Avrich is adding to the recent tide of on-screen swindler stories with a new feature documentary set to premiere at the 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

The Talented Mr. Rosenberg is among the first slate of Special Presentation films announced for the festival, running April 28 to May 8 in Toronto and streaming online to audiences across Canada on Hot Docs at Home.

Melbar Entertainment Group founder Avrich (Made You Look, The Last Mogul) wrote and directed the Canadian film, about Toronto entrepreneur and convicted con man Albert Rosenberg (pictured), a.k.a the Yorkville Swindler. Avrich also produced, along with Caitlin Cheddie and Mark Selby.

Courtney Shea is co-producer/co-writer, while Avrich and Selby are also executive producers on the project, which will have its Canadian broadcast premiere on CBC’s The Passionate Eye banner later this fall.

The film comes after several other recent projects on con artists, including Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna.

The rest of the Hot Docs Special Presentations announced Tuesday (March 15) are international titles, most of which have already have their world premieres elsewhere.

However, there are two other world premieres, including Ireland’s Million Dollar Pigeons, about pigeon masters who compete in highest-stakes bird races. It’s directed by Gavin Fitzgerald and produced by Samantha Corr.

The other world premiere is The Quiet Epidemic, a U.S. doc about the contentious medical debate surrounding chronic Lyme disease. Lindsay Keys and Winslow Crane-Murdoch directed. The producers are Keys, Daria Lombroso, and Chris Hegedus.

Image courtesy of Melbar Entertainment Group