The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has selected the recipients of this year’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund. The five documentary projects, chosen from 43 applicants, will receive $85,000 in total grants from the fund. Of the five projects, three have been selected from Quebec and two are from British Columbia. The $1 million fund, which was established with a gift from the Rogers Foundation in 2016, offers financial support to Canadian documentary filmmakers in the form of production grants.

This year’s selected projects include Jeremy Xido’s The Bones (Intuitive Pictures), about the high-stakes business of dinosaur bone trading; Ron Chapman’s Rock & Roll Revival (Screen Siren Pictures and Chapman Productions), in which a concert promoter attempts to bring the world’s biggest band to Toronto in 1969; Francois-Xavier De Ruydts’ Explore: An Underground Journey (Peg Leg Films), in which teams of hobbyist cavers attempt to break records for exploring the longest and deepest caves in Canada; Anjali Nayar’s Just a Band (Ink & Pepper Productions), a coming-of-age story about the Afro-electric-pop group of the same name; and Zaynê Akyol’s Rojek, One Day (Metafilms), a rare portrait of terrorist organization the Islamic State as seen via members currently detained in Syria.

Deepa Mehta named DGC Visionaries Award winner

The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival has named Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta as this year’s DGC Visionaries Award recipient. The award includes a $2,000 “pay it forward” prize to an emerging director of the winner’s choice; Mehta selected Indians in Cowtown director Agam Darshi. Mehta also took part in a masterclass workshop as part of the festival, hosted by entertainment journalist Johanna Schneller. Mehta is best known for her Elemental film trilogy, Earth, Fire and Water, and is in post-production on her latest film Funny Boy. Last year’s recipient of the annual award was prolific TV director Helen Shaver, whose feature Happy Place recently ran in the Vancouver International Film Festival.

AMI reveals new slate of original podcasts

Broadcaster and media company Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) have announced six new original podcasts to premiere between October and November. Each podcast features a different host that delves into the life experiences of members of the blind, partially sighted and disability community and are “personality driven,” according to Andy Frank, manager, AMI-audio. The new podcasts are Becki Zerr’s The Blind Reality (premiered Oct. 13); Amy Amantea’s Accessing Art with Amy (Oct. 15); Kevin Naidoo’s A Yogi’s Guide to Health and Wellness (Oct. 20); Jennie Bovard’s Low Vision Moments (Oct. 29); Terry Kelly’s Tales from the Halifax School for the Blind (Nov. 3); and Fern Lulham’s Into You (Nov. 5).

With files from Realscreen

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