Director David Sington recalls an era of confidence and rocket-mounted cameras in his Hot Docs opening film In the Shadow of the Moon

Docs must indeed be hot, judging by the continuing growth of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

The global documentary industry is more than keeping pace with Hot Docs’ growing audiences.

Michael Moore, Judaism and Toronto-haters inspired filmmakers to create some of the Canadian highlights at this year’s Hot Docs. Now, these docmakers can only wait and see how the public and industry respond at North America’s most important documentary festival.

The Toronto documentary festival will open its 13th edition with In the Shadow of the Moon, a look back at the Apollo astronauts of the ’60s and ’70s

Forty years ago, in an era remembered for Expo ’67, Trudeaumania and the rise of Canadian nationalism, the federal Liberals decided to fund a new organization designed to ‘foster and promote the development of a feature film industry in Canada.’

Wayne Clarkson assumed the role of Telefilm Canada executive director in January 2005, taking over from Richard Stursberg, who bolted to take over as head of CBC TV. Clarkson came in with impressive credentials, as former chief of the Canadian Film Centre, the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the Toronto film festival.

In January 1957, the CBC broadcast a tough, short documentary set in the dives and flophouses of Downtown Eastside Vancouver. Strikingly shot in black and white with moving scenes of drunks fighting in alleyways and panhandlers begging passers-by for change, it depicted the lives of downtrodden members of Canadian society. That film was Skidrow, and it retains the capacity to shock and touch a viewer. It also marked the debut of Allan King, one of Canada’s finest filmmakers.

A ‘living cinema’ event, an exhibit of lightboxes glowing on black walls, a sequential photo display and a book launch featuring video projections highlight the TIFF2006 Canadian Retrospective on the multifaceted Peter Mettler.

Successful independent films need imaginative, well-written scripts. Plot, incident and character development are essential if a producer isn’t relying on high-end special effects to generate an audience. Yet it was only 20 years ago that a system was established to provide financial aid for scriptwriters to create new material for Canadian cinema.

Celebrating 20 years as Canada’s leading supporter of script development hasn’t changed the hard-working ethos of industry veteran John Galway and his staff of three at The Harold Greenberg Fund at the Toronto offices of Astral Media.