The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has revealed a robust slate of homegrown films having their world premiere at the 30th anniversary instalment, which will open with Canada-Greenland-Denmark copro Twice Colonized.

The full lineup was announced on Tuesday (March 28) and will kick off on April 27 with the Canadian premiere of Twice Colonized, which made its world bow at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

The film looks at Greenlandic Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter’s journey to fight for the human rights of Indigenous people of the Arctic. It is directed by Danish filmmaker Lin Alluna and produced by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril of Nunavut-based Red Marrow Media, Emile Hertling Péronard of Greenland’s Ánorâk Film, and Bob Moore of Montreal’s EyeSteelFilm.

Newly announced feature-length world premieres tapped for the Toronto festival running through May 7 include Cynara (pictured), directed by Sherien Barsoum, a founding member of the Racial Equity Media Collective who also produced alongside Frequent Flyer Films’ Bryn Hughes.

The story, executive produced by journalist and filmmaker Michelle Shephard and Hughes, examines Canada’s justice system as it looks at a case that turned fatal when a mother called emergency dispatchers seeking help for her disabled daughter after a break-in. The doc is being distributed worldwide (excluding Canada) by Espresso Media International.

Cynara will screen in the Canadian Spectrum competitive program, which also includes the world premiere of I’m Just Here for The Riot, about the chaos that ensued after the Vancouver Canucks lost the 2011 Stanley Cup final. It’s directed by Asia Youngman and Kathleen Jayme, and produced by Michael Grand and James Brown. The film is screening with the world premiere of Canadian short Skyline, directed by JR Reid, who also produced with Ivy Knight and Yvonne Tsui.

Other homegrown feature world premieres in Canadian Spectrum include the Brittany Farhat-directed July Talk: Love Lives Here, which looks at the titular band’s drive-in pandemic concert and is produced by Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein, with levelFILM as distributor; director-producer Jean-Philippe Marquis’ Silvicola, which explores the human impact on forests and is screening with the world premiere of Sebastian Ko’s Canadian short Pomological; and director Zack Russell’s Someone Lives Here, which is produced by Matt King and Andrew Ferguson and features a Toronto carpenter who built shelters for unhoused people.

Canadian world premieres in that section are rounded out by director Francois-Xavier De Ruydts’ Subterranean, which is produced by Jenny Rustemeyer and features hobbyist cavers in Canada; and the Xin Liu-directed Upstream, in which the filmmaker revisits childhood friends in Northern China’s rustbelt. It’s produced by Tianyuan Jiang.

All feature-length titles in Canadian Spectrum are eligible to win the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award, the DGC Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary Award, and the two new awards introduced this year — the Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary and the John Kastner Award. Directors in Canadian Spectrum with fewer than two previous feature film credits are also eligible to win the Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award.

In the Persister program of feature films featuring “strong, inspirational women” is the world premiere of Rama Rau’s Coven, which is produced by Storyline Entertainment CEO Ed Barreveld and follows three millennial women as they explore their identities and ancestors’ rituals as witches. Coven is being distributed worldwide (excluding Canada) by Espresso Media International.

The World Showcase program has the world premiere of Canadian feature-length doc The Lebanese Burger Mafia, a look at an Alberta fast-food chain from director Omar Mouallem, who also produced alongside Dylan Rhys Howard. Back Road Productions has secured worldwide sales and distribution rights to the crowd-funded film, which has been acquired by Cairo-based distributor MAD Solutions, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

Also in that section is Canada-Iraq-U.S.-Sweden copro Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story, directed by Kordo Doski, who also produced alongside Lina Hanson, Jose Moreno Brooks and Paul Canterna. The film is about Kurdish refugees who form a professional soccer team in Sweden. Then there’s the world premiere of Canadian short Hebron Relocation from director Holly Andersen and producers Latonia Hartery, Kat Baulu and Rohan Fernando.

Having its world premiere in the Artscapes program is Echo of Everything, a Canadian feature-length exploration of the power of music, directed by Cam Christiansen and produced by him along with Bonnie Thompson.

Six seniors preparing for a synchronized swimming championship competition are featured in Canadian feature-length doc Unsyncable, directed by Megan Wennberg. Unsyncable is produced by Tell Tale Productions with executive producer Edward Peill and producer Erin Oakes. It will make its world premiere in Human Kind, a new theme program featuring stories of “kindness, connection, and collaboration.”

Series in the lineup include the North American premiere of the four-part Lac-Mégantic: This is Not an Accident, which is in the Deep Dive program and is directed by Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) and produced by Montreal’s Trio Orange. Annie Sirois is producer on the Canadian series, about one of Canada’s worst rail disasters that unfolded in 2013 in Quebec. Falardeau also co-wrote the series with Nancy Guerin. Lac-Mégantic will make its world premiere at next month’s Canneseries.

Other Canadian shorts having world bows at Hot Docs include: Loud & Here by Playback 10 to Watch 2022 recipient Josiane Blanc; Last Respects from producer-director Megan Durnford; Field Notes from director-producer Aisha Jamal; and the season finale of the documentary series Witness (Scarborough Pictures), produced by Amar Wala and Soko Negash.

The Canadian shorts world premieres are rounded out by: director-producer Myriam Francois’ Canada-U.K. copro Finding Alaa; The Butterfly Effect by director-producer Kelly O’Brien; Sean Stiller’s Ancestral Threads; Do You Hear What I Hear? by Cat Mills; Janelle Niles: Inconvenient by Kelly Zemnickis and Cass Gardiner; Ian Keteku’s Mind Check 1-2, 1-2; Rising From the Ashes by Sara Ben-Saud; Farhiya Ahmed’s Sisterhood Softball; Beautiful Poison by director Dan Ashby and producer Lucy Taylor; Canada-U.S. copro Billets and Blooms by director Dominic Gill and producer Nadia Gill; and Richard da Costa’s Emission Impossible: The Future of Flight.

There are also a slew of homegrown titles making either their Canadian, North American, international or Ontario premieres at the festival, which has a total of 56 docs and projects from Canada, chosen from a total of 2,848 submissions from around the world. The full lineup is available on the Hot Docs website.

As previously announced, the Special Presentations program will include the world premieres of the aforementioned Shephard’s The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain and director Barry Avrich’s Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella.

Image courtesy of Frequent Flyer Films