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Toronto features in two more full-length documentaries playing at Hot Docs 2016, and in a short presented before one of the two. One will be of particular interest to transit buffs, the other to those concerned with the plight of the homeless on our streets.
Off The Rails and Tiny Tracks
Off The Rails tells the story of Darius McCollum, a guy who loves and knows the New York transit system like no one else. Darius has driven the trains and buses, and helped in emergency situations numerous times—it's just that he's not an employee, and never has been. Darius is dealing with Aspergers Syndrome and a compulsion that he just cannot stop quell. Toronto-born director Adam Irving's film delves into a corrections system in New York that simply is not set up to get Darius the help he needs. With loads of footage in the New York system, and recreations of some events filmed in Toronto's system, the film will be fascinating for anyone who themselves has a thing for transit, while it travels with Darius far past the line where other enthusiasts would stop.
Off The Rails is paired with Tiny Tracks, a beautifully filmed exploration of a Toronto basement "train set", except as we learn, it's streetcars, and it's built in a beautifully re-created Boston setting. Amazing things can be found in our neighbourhoods, and director Naomi Hocura brings to light the extraordinary accomplishment of some Toronto hobbyists.
Fri, May 6, 1 PM, Lightbox • Sat, May 7, 9 PM, Scotiabank • Sun May 8, 7:15 PM, Innis • Look for Tickets
A Dog's Life and Just A Dog
A Dog's Life is an uncompromising look by Montreal-based director Hélène Choquette at those who live on the streets of Montréal and Toronto with their dogs. Dealing with the loss of nearly everything else they hold dear, the subjects of A Dog's Life will tell you that their pets and their best friends and the best the therapists that they could ever have. At the same time, very few shelters are equipped to accept pets, making life for the subjects even more difficult. While some passersby want to know "how can you feed a dog when you don't have any money?", we learn how the animals are the last source of acceptance and love those on the streets often have.
The film is paired with the short Just A Dog, recounting a callous police shooting of a girl's best friend—her St. Bernard—in Hartford, Connecticut, and how her father was not going to just sit back and let the matter go without consequences.
Sat, May 7, 1:30 PM, Lightbox • Look for Tickets
