GAT at HOT DOCS 2024
BEETHOVEN’S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY
A Film by Larry Weinstein
World Premiere
Country: Canada
Languages: English
Produced by Liam Romalis, Jason Charters, Riddle Films Inc.
Runtime: 83 minutes
Trailer
Website
In early 2023, filmmaker Larry Weinstein set out to make a documentary about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was supposed to be about how far we have come in the 200 years since it was written. But when world events pull Larry into his own film, the question becomes a deeply personal one. Beethoven’s Nine is a documentary about music, but also about war and hope. It follows nine unique individuals, including Ukrainian musicians, a deaf composer, a Polish rock star, a best-selling author, a legendary cartoonist and Weinstein himself, as they try to better understand the legacy of Beethoven’s Ninth, the composer’s own struggles, the inspiration music can provide and how humanity continues to look for hope even in the darkest times.
Screenings:
Apr 28, 5:15pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 2
April 30, 11:30am – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3
DEATH OF A SAINT
A Film by Patricia Bbaale Bandak
International Premiere
Country: Denmark
Languages: Danish, Luganda, English, with English subtitles
Produced by: Victor Cunha, Monolit Films. Supported by New Danish Screen/Danish Institute of Film
Runtime: 91 minutes
Trailer
Website
On Christmas Eve 1989, when film director Patricia Bbaale Bandak is two years old, her mother is shot and dies in the family home in Uganda. On Christmas Eve 2013, Patricia gives birth to a daughter of her own and names her Imelda after her late mother. Today, more than 30 years after the murder, she travels to Uganda to delve into the traumatic past and find out why her mother was killed and to get closer to who her mother really was. But how can you paint a truthful picture when culture dictates that you cannot speak ill of the deceased? And when you struggle to ask your father the difficult but necessary questions? Through dusty archive footage, shaky and humorous conversations with her brothers in Denmark and her family in Uganda, ‘Death of a Saint’ moves slowly towards an understanding of the brutal murder and of her mother, but also of motherhood, family life and Patricia herself.
Screenings:
April 30, 2:30pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3
May 2, 12:45pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 1
FRAGMENTS OF A LIFE LOVED
A Film By Chloé Barreau
International Premiere
Country: Italy
Language: Italian + French with English Subtitles
Produced by: Matteo Rovere, Leonardo Godano – Groenlandia
World Sales: Coccinelle Film Sales
Runtime: 95 minutes
Trailer – French
Trailer – English
Media Assets
Over the course of our lives, we fall in love with the most diverse people.
Teenage crush, physical passion, long-distance relationship, profound bond: every story is different, every experience unique. Since she was 16 years old, between Paris and Rome, Chloé Barreau has filmed her lovers. While in a relationship, she was already creating the memory of it, writing letters, snapping photos, obsessively filming…
But every story has two points of view. What about her exes? What do they remember?
Fragments Of A Life Loved reconstructs the life of a woman, the director, based solely on the interviews of the people who loved her: Sébastien, Jeanne, Laurent, Ariane, Rebecca, Anne, Jean-Philippe, Anna, Bianca, Marina, Marco, Caroline…
Intimate first-hand accounts, mixed with private found footage… an astonishing trip down memory lane, for helpless romantics.
Screenings:
April 30, 5:00pm – Scotiabank Theatre 5
May 2, 2:00pm – TIFF Lightbox 2
SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS
A Film by Ken Wardrop
North American Premiere
Country: Ireland
Languages: English
Produced by Andrew Freedman, Samantha Corr, Venom Films
Sales: Autlook Filmsales
Runtime: 86 minutes
Trailer
Website
It’s the most magical time of the year – under the magnifying glass that is the holiday season, joy and pain lie close together. While a small Irish town prepares for a fast approaching Christmas, some struggle with the stress and expectation that comes with it. Shot on 35mm, Ken Wardrop creates a different kind of holiday movie with compassion, Irish humour and a lot of heart.
Screenings:
April 30, 8:15pm – Tiff Bell Lightbox 3
May 2, 4:45pm – Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema 7
XIXI
A Film by Fan Wu
World Premiere
Country: Taiwan, Philippines, Germany
Languages: Mandarin, French, English
Produced by Fan Wu & Venice Atienza, Svemirko Films
Runtime: 100 minutes
Clip
Website
In my last summer in Europe after studies, I befriended XiXi, a Chinese improvisation artist. For a time, we were free from the ideologies we grew up in. Over years of correspondence between Europe and Asia, our friendship that was a window to freedom, evolved into a room where what was silenced found its voice, forcing us to face the vulnerability that comes with the autonomy we realize we have always possessed. Through video diaries, moments from our everyday lives, the film makes a sincere attempt to unearth generational wounds, and challenge inherited beliefs, creating a space for dialogue on the political questions of society’s acceptable values and how all these affect the innermost part of a person’s life.
Screenings:
April 28, 4:15pm – Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema 5
April 30, 8:15pm – Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema 5
May 4, 11:30am – Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema 6