Hot Docs festival opens Thursday with ‘The Manor’
Posted April 25, 2013 8:00 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The 20th annual Hot Docs festival will open Thursday with the world premiere of The Manor, a documentary about a Jewish family running a Guelph strip club.
Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson called the movie “a family portrait of epic bad taste,” adding it was “bound to be a crowd pleaser.”
The Manor, from first-time Canadian director Shawney Cohen, follows Cohen as he helps his father run the struggling family business. His father, who weighs 400 pounds, is eager for his upcoming fat-reduction surgery, while his mother is 85 pounds and refusing treatment.
There’s an industry-only screening at 7 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema, followed by the 9:30 p.m. premiere. Cohen will attend both screenings.
Hot Docs will showcase 205 titles – whittled down from 2,386 submissions – in 11 screening programs during the 11-day festival.
The films come from 43 countries, including Poland, Russia, Uunited Arab Emirates, Haiti, Iran, Georgia, South Africa and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
There will be 44 world, 51 international, 31 North American, 46 Canadian and 14 Toronto premieres.
The Hot Docs festival runs April 25 to May 5.
Click here for tickets.
