2016 edition of Hot Docs Festival unveils full lineup – Sundance docu ‘Bad Kids’ bought by FilmRise

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LOS ANGELES, March 23, (RTRS):  Burning topics, boundary-pushing formats, and films by and about women take center stage at the 2016 edition of Hot Docs, North America’s premier doc-cinema festival and confab, which raised the curtain on its full 232-pic slate in Toronto.

The 11-day event opens April 28 with the world premiere of Rama Rau’s “League of Exotique Dancers,” which exposes the golden era of North American burlesque through the real stories of legendary performers.

The marquee program Big Ideas presents the world premieres of US director Beth Murphy’s “What Tomorrow Brings,” about the founder of an Afghan girls’ school, and Tiffany Hsiung’s “The Apology,” a portrait of “comfort women” in Japanese-occupied Asia circa WWII. Other films include SXSW headliner “Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru,” Tribeca-premiering “Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four” and “The Happy Film,” and ESPN’s “O.J. Simpson: Made in America,” with film subjects, experts and directors set to engage in extended post-screening conversations.

Performance

Matt Johnson’s Sundance-headturner “Operation Avalanche” (Lionsgate), a live, collaborative rock’n’roll documentary cinema performance by Oscar-nominated director Sam Green and artist Brent Green, interactive installations, and a slew of virtual-reality films are among the attractions of the festival’s newly expanded Doc X sidebar.

The competitive international spectrum program includes the world premieres of US directors Todd Wider and Jedd Wider’s “Where I Am,” Catalina Mesa’s “The Infinite Flight of Days,” Mike Day’s “The Islands and the Whales,” and Juan Mejia Botero and Jake Kheel’s “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

World Showcase, the fest’s global centerpiece, screens 38 features, among them the world premieres of US director Jessie Deeter’s “A Revolution in Four Seasons,” about two young, opposing female leaders shaping Tunisia’s emerging democracy; Alon and Shaul Schwarz’s historical investigation “Aida’s Secret”; Jonny von Wallstrom’s “The Pearl of Africa”; Antony Butts’ look at pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, “DIY Country”; Maria Arlamovsky’s exploration of the in-vitro fertilization debate, “Future Baby”; Katja Gauriloff’s “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest”; and Susan Gluth’s “Urmila: My Memory Is My Power.”

The tech-savvy generation of “sealfie”-snapping Inuit activitists (Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s “Angry Inuk”), a real-life pinball wizard (Nathan Drillot and Jeff Petry’s”Wizard Mode”), a highly skilled all-female Kurdish liberation brigade (Zayne Akyol’s “Gulistan, Land of Roses”), and a daredevil stunt driver who inspired a bizarre concept album (John Bolton’s “Aim for the Roses”) are among the subjects explored in films receiving their world premieres in the competitive Canadian spectrum program.

In addition to “League,” special presentations screens 30 high-profile premieres, hits from the fest circuit and master works. World-premiering titles include Jared P. Scott’s “The Age of Consequences” (climate change), Brendan Byrne’s “Bobby Sands: 66 Days,” Darby Wheeler’s “Hip-Hop Evolution,” Jerry Rothwell’s “Sour Grapes” (vintage wine fraud) and Kevin McMahon’s “Spaceship Earth.”

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festivals runs April 28 to May 8 in Toronto.

 Also:

LOS ANGELES: FilmRise has acquired worldwide distribution rights for the Sundance Film Festival documentary “The Bad Kids.”

The movie will receive a theatrical release in September and make its television debut on the upcoming season of the PBS series “Independent Lens.”

Filmmakers Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe (“Lost in La Mancha”) chronicle one principal’s mission to realize the potential of students whom the system has deemed lost causes in an impoverished Mojave Desert community. The film is set at Black Rock Continuation High School, an alternative school for students at risk of dropping out.

The doc chronicles one year at the school as Principal Vonda Viland coaches three at-risk teens — a new father who can’t support his family, a young woman grappling with sexual abuse and an angry young man from an unstable home.

“Fulton and Pepe locate both heartbreak and hope in their intertwined tales of people fighting to gain control of their (and others’) lives,” Variety’s Nick Schager wrote in his review.

“Tackling one of the most pressing issues in the American educational system, ‘The Bad Kids’ sheds light on the exceptional work of public school teachers helping students rise above generational poverty,” said FilmRise CEO Danny Fisher. “An inspirational story, the film proves there is hope in even the most difficult circumstances, and we are honored to be bringing the film to theaters this fall.”

The deal was negotiated by Fisher and FilmRise’s Max Einhorn with Zac Bright and Abby Davis of Preferred Content.

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