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Thursday, June 03, 2004
Hot Docs 2004
Work, Vodka, Name-dropping & More Work
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (it's not a film festival because most docs are shot on video) is the largest documentary festival in North America and the second-largest in the world after the huge IDFA fest in The Netherlands. I did the festival graphics and that was the cause of my four-month blog break. But I love work and the festival was the most fun I've ever had on a project.
And the reviews? Here's what indieWIRE had to say:
Last year, Hot Docs' central command moved closer to the Toronto International Film Fest's turf descending around chic Bloor Street (from Toronto's bohemian Little Italy). The festival is also bigger, not just in size, but also in stature -- it is now the largest doc fest in North America. Yet somehow its growth has not strained the mechanics behind the operation -- this year things appeared even more organized and more polished, from the cute, orange Hot Docs T-shirts worn by the volunteers, to the thick film catalogue (priced at an economical CDN$2 per copy!), to the noticeably slicker, more streamlined graphic design of the festival's print materials. It feels this year like Hot Docs is blossoming into the younger sister of TIFF (as opposed to say, its "poor country cousin"). This growth has also not changed the festival's warmth for filmmakers, delegates, and the public alike. "I have nothing but positive things to say about Hot Docs," says filmmaker Sarah Goodman, who also attended last year. "It's becoming bigger, but at the same time it's still very nurturing."
I'm so vain, I probably think that paragraph is about me ... wait, it is!
And to bring it all back to blogging for a moment, take a look at this:
 
The image on the left comes to you straight from my computer. The image on the right was sent from my computer to a service bureau where it was printed on a slide and then sent to the Bloor Cinema where it was projected on the screen where the guy from the world-famous photo blog, Daily Dose of Imagery snapped an audience shot. He then posted the pics on his blog and I copied them without permission to my computer and reposted one here! That's technology in action, Dennis DeYoung!
It's a month late, but here's a quick rundown of my experience at this year's festival:
Opening Night, April 23
By the time Opening Night finally hit, I was already exhausted. I'd been working non-stop for much of the previous two months including a six-day stretch when I clocked 96 hours, the longest I've ever stayed focused on work in a single week. I was still working up until an hour before the cocktail party that kicked off opening night.
The Opening Night film was The Ritchie Boys at the Bloor and I geeked out in the theatre because all the the stuff I'd designed was everywhere. Everything from the screening schedule to the passes to the invites to the slides and signs had my sweaty fingerprints on them. My best celebrity sighting that evening happened when I was waiting to get into the theatre and spotted Natalie & Davezilla walking across the street.
The party afterwards was held in Walker Court at the AGO and it's a great space for a party but won't be after Frank Gehry sticks a squirrelly staircase in the middle of it. All the faces you'd expect to see at a Toronto arts event were there but Enza Anderson was the only person in attendance who'd had her picture taken with Alice. Later in the evening Olivia Chow sat with us for a bit and showed us her crazy schedule on her PDA. The woman never stops. She is running against Tony Ianno again in the upcoming federal election -- she almost caught him last time, it'll be interesting to see if she can unseat him this round.
Canadian Spectrum Opening, April 24
Work kept me from the screening (The Take by Avi Lewis & Naomi Klein) but it didn't keep me from the party.
Hollywood Blamb says, "Never miss the parties!"
The bar where the party was held touted itself as 'a little piece of New York in the middle of Toronto'. In that case, I'm never going back to New York because the bartenders were stingy with the booze & College Street-rude.
I spotted Jian Ghomeshi, an old acquaintance from university who I used to terrorize (can I still use that word in polite company?) with editorial cartoons when he was the president of the student council. So I said 'hi' and then, a few weeks later at a family gathering I had this conversation with a cousin:
COUSIN #1: Mir loves Jian Ghomeshi.
BLAMB: Really?
COUSIN #2: He's a beautiful man.
BLAMB: Really?
COUSIN #1: He was in Moxy Fruvous right?
COUSIN #2: I don't care, all I know is that he's perfect ...
BLAMB: Really?
SPONSOR SCREENING, April 25
I was the sponsor of the screening of The President vs. David Hicks on the Sunday night and Eva from the world of blogging joined us. Before the screening a slide was projected with my 'BrettLamb.com' sponsor logo on it and a woman in the row behind me muttered to her husband, "Brett Lamb. He's the guy who sells the condos, right?" I felt the urge to turn around and growl, "No, that's BRAD LAMB! I'M BRETT LAMB!" Probably a good thing that I didn't.
On Monday night I saw No. 17 which was my favourite doc of the festival and the next night I saw Army of One, which was another good one about the experiences of three young people who decide to join the US Army following 9/11 (and a good choice, Richard Gere attended a screening at the Bloor that night so I avoided that hub-bub).
At the Army of One screening, I was mistaken for a celebrity. James was sitting in the row behind me and we talked for a bit and I told him a little about doing the graphics. Then, when the lights went down they rolled the festival trailer and at the end of it, the sponsor logos appear and my logo was in a pretty prominent spot. There was a couple sitting beside me and when my logo appeared the woman nodded towards me and said to her boyfriend, "That's Brett Lamb." Then her boyfriend punched me in the mouth and shouted, "My condo sucks!"
After that screening I went to the South African Delegation Party and ate mashed potatoes in sundae cups. Robert Lantos was my favourite celeb sighting from that one. I didn't go up to him and ask, "Diamonds? What was that about?" even though I wanted to.
Later in the evening I felt someone rubbing my arm and then the person started hanging off my arm and I looked down and there was a woman who was obviously drunk and she looked up at me and said, "Oh, you're not Marc." Because of my shaved head and her drunken haze, she'd mistaken me for Marc Glassman.
No film or fun on Wednesday (I missed the TDF party at the AGO) because I was busy assembling the motion graphics for the Awards Ceremony and I wasn't even sure that the bloody thing was going to work, so I had to prepare back-up PowerPoint slides as well. The next day I delivered and tested the motion stuff and it all seemed like it was going to work fine and that was the last major piece of work I had to do.
That night I went to see Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling which had the best title graphics of any of the docs (most docs have crappy titles -- if you're a doc-maker ... give me a ring!).
Awards Ceremony, April 30
By this point I was tired of geeking out so watching the motion graphics do their thing didn't phase me as much as it would have earlier in the week. I allowed myself the opportunity to geek out as much as possible since, I figured, you only do your first international film festival once, so you should enjoy it! Anyhow, the graphics ran without a hitch and looked good except that the orange colour didn't look as orange as it should have because of the video projection. You can see the award winners here.
At the Awards party I got to meet Michael MacLear who was being honoured with the Outstanding achievement Award and this comparison crossed my mind: This guy was the only Western journalist to get into the North during the Vietnam War. I draw cartoons about aliens making poop jokes!
So, there I was at the party and I spotted a woman from my fitness class so I went over and said, "Hey, you're from my fitness class!" And she said, "Oh yeah?" in a tone of voice that clearly resonated with, "Sir, you are clearly insane!" And she abruptly started talking to someone else and I abruptly went and got another martini. In another strange turn, Alan Zweig, whose doc I, Curmudgeon was in the festival, started doing my fitness class right after the festival ended. I didn't see his doc but after surveying a bunch of opinions, I found that the crankier you are, the more likely you are to enjoy it. I'm expecting it to be my favourite film ever! Anyhow, I don't want to get into details or jinx it, but last night I did a little behind-the-scenes string-pulling to try and help that filmmaker get on the path to getting lucky ... yes, that's what I've been reduced to: helping Alan Zweig get laid. Don't tell anyone, I'm trying to keep it quiet.
Closing Night, May 2
The closing night film was Control Room, a behind-the-scenes look at Al Jazeera during the US invasion of Iraq.
The closing night party was at the ROM and there was a lot of the Iceberg Vodka leftover so they were pouring the drinks pretty strong. Apparently, the Iceberg Vodka is made with real icebergs which is funny because I always assumed that vodka was only only ingredient in vodka and even had its own place on the Periodic Table. The night got off to a good start when the woman (who just directed her first doc for the NFB) from my fitness came over and talked to us.
The combination of strong drinks and the relief of being finished made me feel a little giddy so when I bumped into Lorraine Segato I didn't hesitate to geek out for a moment and say, "Wow, Lorraine Segato!" I think I needed to do that to balance out some karma. See, when I was in my last year of university, I was talking with Doug Saunders (now a Globe columnist) one afternoon and he told me a story about how he'd been in the elevator in the student centre with Lorraine Segato and, on purpose, he asked her "Are you with the band?" even though he recognized her and she replied, "I'm Lorraine Segato!" and he thought her haughty reply was hilarious. Anyhow, finally after all these years, someone recognized Lorraine Segato. Rise up, rise up!
That night, warm and safe, I thought of all of the fun friends I'd met at the Hot Docs festival.
9:27 PM
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