Hot Docs Festival Enlists 200+ Films With Gender Equality

Hot Docs: The world’s leading documentary festival, Hot Docs has enlisted more than 200 movies under the theme of gender equality.

The film festival which is set to run online from April 29 to May 9 includes films and documentaries with 50 % women directors.

The Hot Docs Festival has enlisted 219 movies from 66 countries across 12 programs. Some of the notable films include A.rtificial I.mmortality, Wuhan Wuhan, The Death of My Two Fathers, Come Back Anytime, Viral, and so on.

Talking about the film that leads the way for others is A.rtificial I.mmortality directed by Ann Shin. The opening film asks a vital question: 'If you could live forever through AI, would you?'. The film features commentary from Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University Hiroshi Ishiguro, artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel, and mindfulness guru Deepak Chopra.

Further on the Hot Docs Festival conducts various programs with different films and documentaries listed under them.

The Special Presentations program would premiere the movie Wuhan Wuhan which depicts the scenario of a Chinese city during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then the movie, The Death of My Two Fathers talks about race, death, and the importance of family inspired by videos the filmmaker watches that were recorded by his terminally ill father.

The  International Spectrum program premieres Any Given Day and Magaluf Ghost Town. While the World Showcase program covers the movies like Neighboring Moon, Blue Box and more.

Shane Smith, the director of programming in the Hot Docs Festival said, "This year’s opening night film speaks to the moment we’re living in, but also to a brave new world that awaits us." He further added, "Documentaries are vitally important to helping us understand the world we live in, and to build bridges of understanding across cultural, social and political divides, particularly at this unprecedented moment in time."

"This year’s Hot Docs program features the best in outspoken, outstanding documentary storytelling from 66 countries, all of which will connect us to each other in ways that inspire, inform and illuminate," Smith said.

Similar to the theme of the Hot Docs Festival was the theme of the London India Film Festival (LIFE) that came out last year. The theme of LIFE had put the spotlight on the women filmmakers.

Image Credits : Iris Ng