documentaries about the rise and fall of media company Vice, former Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and disability rights activist Patrice Jetter are heading to the Toronto Film Festival.
TIFF‘s Docs program gets underway Sept. 5 and will feature 21 nonfiction films from 24 countries. The program will open with the world premiere of Eddie Huang’s “Vice Is Broke,” an investigation into the once high-flying digital news outlet that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after boasting a valuation of $5.7 billion in 2017.
Huang, the former host of Vice’s “Huang’s World” has a unique perspective on the story, said Thom Powers, lead TIFF documentary programmer. “Eddie gives an insider account of what happened at Vice Media,” said Powers. ” He has a personal axe to grind because when the company filed for bankruptcy, he was one of its many creditors. The film is both funny and poignant as he interviews other people who made Vice into a significant cultural force.
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In “The Last Republican,” director Steve Pink Kinzinger (“Hot Tub Time Machine”) profiles conservative politician Kinzinger as he breaks ranks with the GOP to criticize Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Kinzinger, who remains a staunch conservative, let Steve Pink, who is a Hollywood left winger, make a film about him because Kinzinger is a big fan of ‘Hot Tub Time Machine,'” explained Powers.
“The Last Republican” is one of several political docus heading to TIFF. Billy Corben and Jen Gatien’s “Men of War,” about former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who was arrested on July 31 in connection to his failed 2020 coup to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, will make its world debut in Toronto. Another ripped-from-the-headlines documentary, “No Other Land,” about the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement and settler expansion in the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta will make its Canadian premiere at TIFF. The film won the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
“No Other Land” is one the most powerful films of the year,” said Powers. “I would be shocked if it doesn’t enter deep into the awards conversation this year.”
Other notable titles in this year’s TIFF docu lineup include Raoul Peck’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” about the life, work, and legacy of the late South African photographer who chronicled the inhumanity of apartheid for the world. In May the documentary won the the L’Oeil d’or prize – the top award for documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures will release “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” this fall.
Powers winnowed the list of 21 docs from over 900 submissions. The lineup consists of 17 films, including “Vice is Broke,” “The Last Republican” and “No Other Land,” that are seeking distribution.
The recent collapse of Participant Media and Disney’s decision to remove the Afghan war documentary “Retrograde” from all its streaming platforms, combined with streaming giants’ general disinterest in controversial social issue films, make doc sales out of TIFF a tenuous prospect.
“We have the privilege to be putting forward what we think are the most powerful films we saw this year,” said Powers. “The people who come to TIFF have a privilege to see those films. We all collectively advocate as loudly as we can for opportunities for other people to see those films, whether those opportunities come at other festivals or on global streamers. I can pick the films that I think most people want people to see, and then it’s up to the people who run those distribution companies to choose which films they can be an advocate for.”
This year’s TIFF Doc lineup also features films profiling women, including Sinéad O’Shea’s “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story,” about the late Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer; Leila Amini’s “A Sisters’ Tale,” about the director’s sister; and Ted Passon’s “Patrice: The Movie” about disability rights activist Patrice Jetter.
Those TIFF doc titles join a number of documentaries already announced as part of the gala and platform programs, including the world premieres of “Elton John: Never Too Late,” “Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe,” “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band,” “Will & Harper,” “The Wolves Always Come at Night,” “Viktor” and “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara.”
The full list of the TIFF Docs lineup follows:
“A Sisters’ Tale”
Leila Amini
Switzerland/France/Iran
International Premiere
Sales Title
“Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story”
Sinéad O’Shea
Ireland/United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”
Raoul Peck
France
North American Premiere
“From Ground Zero”
Wissam Moussa, Nidal Damo, Ahmed Hassouna, Alaa Ayoub, Karim Satoum, Bashar Al Babisi, Khamis Masharawi, Nida’A Abu Hasna, Tamer Nijim, Ahmed Al Danaf, Rima Mahmoud, Muhammad Al Sharif, Basil El Maqousi, Mustafa Al Nabih, Rabab Khamis, Mustafa Kulab, Alaa Damo, Hana Eleiwa, Mahdi Kreirah, Aws Al Banna, Islam Al Zeriei, Etimad Washah
Palestine/France/Qatar/Jordan
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Living Together”
Halima Elkhatabi
Canada
World Premiere
“Men of War”
Jen Gatien, Billy Corben
USA/Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Mistress Dispeller”
Elizabeth Lo
China/USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“No Other Land”
Yuval Abraham, basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Palestine/Norway
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title
“Patrice: The Movie”
Ted Passon
USA
World Premiere
“Russians at War”
Anastasia Trofimova
Canada/France
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“So Surreal: Behind the Masks
Neil Diamond, Joanne Robertson | Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Space Cowboy”
Marah Strauch, Bryce Leavitt
USA
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Sudan, Remember Us
Hind Meddeb
France/Tunisia/Qatar
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Tata Lina Vdovîi”
Radu Ciorniciuc
Romania/Germany/Netherlands
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Temporary Shelter”
Anastasiia Bortuali
Iceland
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Freedom of Fierro”
Santiago Esteinou
Mexico/Canada/Greece
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Last of The Sea Women”
Sue Kim
USA
World Premiere
“The Last Republican”
Steve Pink
USA
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Vice Is Broke”
Eddie Huang
USA
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Wishing on a Star”
Peter Kerekes
Italy/Slovakia/Czech Republic/Austria/Croatia
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Your Tomorrow”
Ali Weinstein
Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
