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Hot Docs has returned for ten days in its traditional slot at the end of April and beginning of May, the 2022 event happening both online and in cinemas in Downtown Toronto. While there are dozens of films covering all manner of topics, UrbanToronto's focus is on the films that cover the urban condition in the world today, and the issues that people face trying to make a go of it despite the challenges.
Six years ago, when the next film first played at Hot Docs, I had never heard of Constantine, Algeria's third largest city. It's ancient enough that the Modern History section of its Wikipedia article starts in the late 12th century. Constantine lies about halfway along the main highway between Algiers and Tunis, about 80km south of the Mediterranean, and rather spectacularly, it is perched on a cliff that overlooks the rolling coastal plateau to the north of it, with a deep gorge running through it, spanned by seven bridges. The city is caught in time somewhere between all of the eras it has lived through, no doubt the time changing depending upon which neighbourhood café you find yourself in. Café Désirs explores this remarkable setting and finds young men who feel repressed by the dominant culture looking for ways to break free of haram—the restriction of freedoms placed on Algerian society following the country's dark decade of 1992-2002. Director Raymonde Provencher's gorgeous film will have you asking yourself what freedoms your city affords you, and whether you feel you've found your place in it.
Café Désirs only gets one screening as it is part of a retrospective of Provencher's work;
2:30 PM on Monday, May 2 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox,
but you can also procure a ticket for online viewing at home.
More than a collection of buildings, cities are a parade of humanity. Pawel Losinski's The Balcony Movie is the ultimate city-dweller's act of people-watching. Losinski has set up his camera on his balcony, and day after day calls down to passersby, asking them to open-up about themselves for his film. Into the banal moments are mixed often hilarious exchanges, and sometimes deeper, surprisingly revealing ones. Some of the initially shy passersby become regulars. If the fence and the balcony railing between them are symbolic of the barriers between us and our neighbours, then Losiniski's attempts to coax out conversations is the community-building we look for in our communities.
The Balcony Movie's first screening has already occurred, but the second screening will be at:
11:30 AM on Wednesday, May 4 at the Varsity 7.
Otherwise, a 5-day window has already opened for online viewing.
Tickets for in-cinema or online screenings for these or any other Hot Docs 2022 films can be purchased here, or you can go to the cinemas on the day-of: new blocks of tickets are reserved for same-day sales each day.
