Hot Docs has wrapped its 11-day hybrid edition, handing out three more cash prizes, announcing audience top picks, and tipping the hat to the 225 films from 63 countries that screened during the festival.
The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. 25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.
“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.
Mark Bone’s “Okay! (The Asd Band Film),” which follows four autistic musicians as they prepare for their first live gig, is the second Roger...
The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. 25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.
“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.
Mark Bone’s “Okay! (The Asd Band Film),” which follows four autistic musicians as they prepare for their first live gig, is the second Roger...
- 5/9/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Prime Video announced The Kids in the Hall is set to premiere on May 13 followed by the companion docuseries The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks on May 20.
More premiere dates and a slew of new Canadian originals were also revealed during the Prime Video Presents Canada showcase event in Toronto on Wednesday.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s ahead:
The Sticky is a half-hour series revolving around Ruth Clarke, a tough, supremely competent, middle-aged Canadian maple syrup farmer who’s had it with being hemmed in by the polite, bureaucratic conventions native to her country’s identity — especially now that Canada’s bureaucracy is threatening to take away everything she loves: her farm, her comatose husband and her right to freedom.
With the help of Remy Bouchard, a pint-sized local blockhead, and Mike Byrne, an aging low-level mobster, Ruth changes her fate — and transforms the future of her...
More premiere dates and a slew of new Canadian originals were also revealed during the Prime Video Presents Canada showcase event in Toronto on Wednesday.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s ahead:
The Sticky is a half-hour series revolving around Ruth Clarke, a tough, supremely competent, middle-aged Canadian maple syrup farmer who’s had it with being hemmed in by the polite, bureaucratic conventions native to her country’s identity — especially now that Canada’s bureaucracy is threatening to take away everything she loves: her farm, her comatose husband and her right to freedom.
With the help of Remy Bouchard, a pint-sized local blockhead, and Mike Byrne, an aging low-level mobster, Ruth changes her fate — and transforms the future of her...
- 4/13/2022
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Discovery+ is just over a month old and the streamer is already restocking its slate of original documentaries.
The digital platform has added eight documentaries, including a number of festival titles, to its slate. This comes ahead of its virtual TCA presentation.
Films include My Beautiful Stutter, Future People: The Family of Donor 5114, The Walrus and the Whistleblower, Groomed, Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad, Genius Factory, Apocalypse ’45 and Yellowstone: Super Volcanoes.
My Beautiful Stutter, which launches March 11, follows five kids who stutter, ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States and all walks of life. After experiencing a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, these children meet others who stutter at an interactive arts-based program, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. It is directed by Ryan Gielen (Stop the Bleeding) and exec produced by Paul Rudd, Mariska Hargitay, Peter Hermann, George Springer and Patrick James Lynch...
The digital platform has added eight documentaries, including a number of festival titles, to its slate. This comes ahead of its virtual TCA presentation.
Films include My Beautiful Stutter, Future People: The Family of Donor 5114, The Walrus and the Whistleblower, Groomed, Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad, Genius Factory, Apocalypse ’45 and Yellowstone: Super Volcanoes.
My Beautiful Stutter, which launches March 11, follows five kids who stutter, ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States and all walks of life. After experiencing a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, these children meet others who stutter at an interactive arts-based program, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. It is directed by Ryan Gielen (Stop the Bleeding) and exec produced by Paul Rudd, Mariska Hargitay, Peter Hermann, George Springer and Patrick James Lynch...
- 2/11/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
It's one thing to fight for a end to the keeping of marine mammals in amusement parks because it's something you're ethically opposed to. it's another to do it because one of those marine mammals is your friend.
The Walrus and the Whistleblower tells the story of Phil Demers and his parental feelings towards a walrus named Smooshi whose residence in Niagara Falls' Marineland gives him serious cause for concern. It's easy enough to understand his misgivings when we see footage of other animals there being mistreated or showing signs of serious ill health - footage that Marineland has not even tried to explain. Easy, too, to understand the bond between them from watching footage of them at play back when Phil worked as an animal trainer - the so-called 'walrus whisperer'. This much, however, could be communicated in a short. Nathalie Bibeau's feature length documentary fills most of the rest.
The Walrus and the Whistleblower tells the story of Phil Demers and his parental feelings towards a walrus named Smooshi whose residence in Niagara Falls' Marineland gives him serious cause for concern. It's easy enough to understand his misgivings when we see footage of other animals there being mistreated or showing signs of serious ill health - footage that Marineland has not even tried to explain. Easy, too, to understand the bond between them from watching footage of them at play back when Phil worked as an animal trainer - the so-called 'walrus whisperer'. This much, however, could be communicated in a short. Nathalie Bibeau's feature length documentary fills most of the rest.
- 11/24/2020
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“Crip Camp,” “Gunda” and “Time” are among the films that have made Doc NYC’s 2020 “Short List,” an annual attempt by the New York-based festival to identify the nonfiction films most likely to play a significant part in awards season.
Those three films were also included in the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations for Best Documentary Feature, and on the International Documentary Association’s shortlist from which the Ida chooses nominees for the Ida Documentary Awards. They are the only three movies to land on all three lists.
Nine additional films on the Doc NYC list were also singled out either by the Ida or Critics Choice: “Boys State,” “Collective,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “MLK/FBI,” “76 Days,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Truffle Hunters” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”
Other films on the Doc NYC list, which is made up of 15 documentaries, are “I Am Greta,” “On the Record” and “A Thousand Cuts.
Those three films were also included in the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations for Best Documentary Feature, and on the International Documentary Association’s shortlist from which the Ida chooses nominees for the Ida Documentary Awards. They are the only three movies to land on all three lists.
Nine additional films on the Doc NYC list were also singled out either by the Ida or Critics Choice: “Boys State,” “Collective,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “MLK/FBI,” “76 Days,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Truffle Hunters” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”
Other films on the Doc NYC list, which is made up of 15 documentaries, are “I Am Greta,” “On the Record” and “A Thousand Cuts.
- 11/9/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival and staple of the New York film community, announced the lineup for its 11th edition, running online November 11-19 and available to viewers across the US. The program includes new films about John Belushi, Pope Francis, Bill T. Jones, Jamal Khashoggi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank Zappa, and many more. The 2020 festival lineup includes 107 feature-length documentaries among over 200 films and dozens of events. Included are 23 World Premieres, 12 international or North American premieres, and 7 US premieres. Fifty-seven features (53% of the lineup) are directed or co-directed by women and 36 by Bipoc directors (34% of the feature program).
World Premieres at the festival include Nelson G. Navarrete and Maxx Caicedo’s “A La Calle,” Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s “The Meaning of Hitler,” Gong Cheng and Yung Chang’s “Wuhan Wuhan,” Sian-Pierre Regis’s “Duty Free,” Noah Hutton’s “In Silico,” Nancy Buirski’s “A Crime on the Bayou,...
World Premieres at the festival include Nelson G. Navarrete and Maxx Caicedo’s “A La Calle,” Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s “The Meaning of Hitler,” Gong Cheng and Yung Chang’s “Wuhan Wuhan,” Sian-Pierre Regis’s “Duty Free,” Noah Hutton’s “In Silico,” Nancy Buirski’s “A Crime on the Bayou,...
- 10/15/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
"I am the creation that MarineLand hoped to never create. I am their worst nightmare." Gravitas Ventures has released an official trailer for an activism documentary titled The Walrus and The Whistleblower, made by Canadian filmmaker Nathalie Bibeau. The doc won the Top Audience Award at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Canada. Part-time mailman and ex-trainer at MarineLand in Niagara Falls, Phil Demers (follow him @walruswhisperer) is a whistleblower who's sued for $1.5 million for plotting to steal a walrus, starting a personal quest against the backdrop to end marine mammal captivity. "The Walrus and the Whistleblower is a stranger-than fiction tale that plays out against the swell of a paradigm shift in our relationship with animals. At its heart are questions of compassion for others, humans and animals alike, the nuances of all our stories, and the hills we are willing to die on." I almost always enjoy these invigorating activism docs,...
- 10/1/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Gravitas to distribute in Us, holds international rights.
Raven Banner’s specialty distribution label Northern Banner Releasing has acquired Canadian rights from Bunbury Films to Hot Docs audience award winner The Walrus And The Whistleblower.
Nathalie Bibeau produced and directed the film about Phil Demers aka the ‘Walrus Whisperer’, a former animal trainer who is being sued by his former employer MarineLand in Ontario after blowing the whistle on what he claims to be animal abuse.
Bunbury Films’ Frederic Bohbot produced The Walrus And The Whistleblower and negotiated the rights deal with Northern Banner partner Michael Paszt during the recent Cannes virtual market.
Raven Banner’s specialty distribution label Northern Banner Releasing has acquired Canadian rights from Bunbury Films to Hot Docs audience award winner The Walrus And The Whistleblower.
Nathalie Bibeau produced and directed the film about Phil Demers aka the ‘Walrus Whisperer’, a former animal trainer who is being sued by his former employer MarineLand in Ontario after blowing the whistle on what he claims to be animal abuse.
Bunbury Films’ Frederic Bohbot produced The Walrus And The Whistleblower and negotiated the rights deal with Northern Banner partner Michael Paszt during the recent Cannes virtual market.
- 7/3/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The 2013 documentary “Blackfish” was a gamechanger for animal rights activists that turned SeaWorld’s abusive treatment of Orca whales into a national issue. “The Walrus and the Whistleblower” may not contain quite such breadth, but it’s a natural extension of this urgent subgenre, with the intimate dynamic between one man and his beloved furry marine animal coming across as both devastating and more than a little surreal.
The saga of Phil Demers, the former trainer at Niagara Falls theme park Marineland, has many strange chapters, but director Nathalie Bibeau’s first feature assembles them into a fascinating overview. When Demers defected from Marineland in 2012, he embarked on a winding path to rescue his beloved walrus from captivity, and that saga is at once alarming and strange. Saddled with a $1.5 million lawsuit from Marineland, Demers takes his crusade to the streets, but the battle stretches on. While the movie gets...
The saga of Phil Demers, the former trainer at Niagara Falls theme park Marineland, has many strange chapters, but director Nathalie Bibeau’s first feature assembles them into a fascinating overview. When Demers defected from Marineland in 2012, he embarked on a winding path to rescue his beloved walrus from captivity, and that saga is at once alarming and strange. Saddled with a $1.5 million lawsuit from Marineland, Demers takes his crusade to the streets, but the battle stretches on. While the movie gets...
- 6/11/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Nathalie Bibeau's The Walrus and the Whistleblower, about a former trainer at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, turned whistleblower, on Sunday picked up the top Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, which was forced online this year by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The first runner-up was Elizabeth St. Philip's 9/11 Kids, which follows 16 students now in their 20s and who were in the room with President George W. Bush when he was told about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And the second runner-up is David France's Welcome to Chechnya documentary for HBO about activists ...
The first runner-up was Elizabeth St. Philip's 9/11 Kids, which follows 16 students now in their 20s and who were in the room with President George W. Bush when he was told about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And the second runner-up is David France's Welcome to Chechnya documentary for HBO about activists ...
Nathalie Bibeau's The Walrus and the Whistleblower, about a former trainer at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, turned whistleblower, on Sunday picked up the top Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, which was forced online this year by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The first runner-up was Elizabeth St. Philip's 9/11 Kids, which follows 16 students now in their 20s and who were in the room with President George W. Bush when he was told about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And the second runner-up is David France's Welcome to Chechnya documentary for HBO about activists ...
The first runner-up was Elizabeth St. Philip's 9/11 Kids, which follows 16 students now in their 20s and who were in the room with President George W. Bush when he was told about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And the second runner-up is David France's Welcome to Chechnya documentary for HBO about activists ...
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