I'm a film festival virgin. Well, I was a virgin until Hot Docs 2008 popped that cherry. I graduated from college last spring and had never attended a film festival, let alone gone to a festival with a film that had my name in the credits (I'm the associate producer on BLAST!). This past week at Hot Docs has been a frenzy of activity, packed full with parties, talks with directors, and even a few movies. I learned a lot this week, and I'd like to share some of my newfound knowledge with my fellow fledgling festival goers.

DON'T:
Buy all your movie tickets on the first day.

It may be tempting to go ahead and buy all your tickets at once, especially if the films you want to see are selling out fast, but don't. Hold on to a few of your tickets for later in the week. Depending on what the festival buzz is, you may find that you want to go see a movie you weren't initially interested in. Talk to people and ask them what movies they enjoyed, you may find a gem. Also, you never know who you may meet. It's good to have some extra tickets in case you meet a director or a producer who invites you to see their film. You can make some great friends and contacts by just showing up to their screening.

DO:
Have a glass of wine at parties...or two or three.

Unless you're a natural extrovert, mingling at the industry parties can be a bit intimidating. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and you may find yourself being the awkward wallflower virgin that you are. The truth is, it's not as bad as it seems. Those people who look like they're life long friends actually just met five minutes ago. Most people at these parties don't really know the person they're talking to. So just relax. Have a glass of wine, take a deep breath, and strike up a conversation with that person who isn't talking to anyone else either. Some good ice breakers are: “Do you have a film here?” “Are you a filmmaker?” and the classic “See any good movies lately?”

DON'T:
Leave before the Q&A

I know you're in a rush and really need to get to the next screening before it sells out, but give yourself an extra 15 minutes to stick around for the Q&A after the films. A lot of times directors bring characters from the film with them to the Q&A, and it can be a real treat to actually meet the person you just spent 2 hours watching. If you're an aspiring filmmaker, Q&A sessions can be a great place to learn more about what it takes to make a film, so use them – don't be afraid to ask that burning question. Also, you'll have a better chance of meeting the director after the crowd thins out.

DO:
Get business cards made.

Even if you're not working in the film industry or you're just an unpaid intern, make some business cards and hand them out to people you meet. Part of a film festival is shameless self-promotion. Everyone does it, and you'll be at a disadvantage if you don't. If you're unsure what to put on your business card, just call yourself freelance, or better yet just write 'filmmaker.' In his intro to Rebel Without a Crew, Robert Rodriguez says that you can't be a filmmaker until you start calling yourself one. So get a business card and start handing it out.

DON'T:
Judge a book by it's cover.

Filmmakers are an interesting and diverse lot. There's really no way to tell who someone is or what they do just by looking at them. Just because that guy is in a nice suit doesn't mean he's a producer. And just because that woman looks like a crazy cat lady doesn't mean she's not an award winning filmmaker. So put aside your preconceptions and just go talk to people. You never know who you may meet.

DO:
Arrive at screenings at least 15 minutes early.

Even if you've already got your tickets, try to get to the screenings early. The lines will fill up very fast, and the theater even faster. Trust me, you don't want to end up sitting in the front row craning your neck for three screenings in a row. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet and need to get them at the door, give yourself even more time. Depending on how popular the movie is, some lines can be as long as two blocks!

DON'T:
Forget your student ID (or your AARP card)

If you're still a student, or if you like me and you're lucky enough that your ID doesn't have an expiration date, be sure to bring your ID along. At Hot Docs, all daytime screenings are free to students and seniors (most other festivals have a similar policy). Take advantage of this as much as possible – it's a great way to keep your costs down.

DO:
Wear comfortable shoes.

This one is pretty much self-explanatory. You will be doing a lot of walking to and from theaters, parties, and running errands. You'll go broke if you try to take a cab everywhere. If you desperately need to wear those 3 inch pumps to the party tonight, bring them in a bag and wear some flats to get to where you're going.

DON'T:
Expect a vacation.

Sure you may be a new city, staying in a hotel, and going to bars – but a vacation this is not. Don't expect to get to see much of the city outside the area of the festival. You will be constantly busy, running back and forth between screenings and working, and you're lucky if you get a chance to float around in that nice big pool the hotel has. Don't get me wrong, you'll a lot of fun, but by the time you get home you'll be ready for a vacation.

DO:
Go see some movies.

If you're at the festival as part of the industry, your schedule is going to be very full. You'll have errands to run and work to do before your own screening, talks, meetings and panels to attend, and schmoozing to do at parties. It can get a bit overwhelming, and in the midst of this whirl wind it may be hard to find time to go to screenings. If at all possible, try to give yourself at least one day where all you do is go see movies. Or give yourself at least one mandatory screening a day. It may be a pain to get to, but once you're there you'll enjoy the chance to sit back, relax, and watch some great films.

Today was the 2nd and final screening of BLAST! at Hot Docs. We were in the Royal theater - a very nice space - and had a great turn out. For those of you not in the know, BLAST! is an adventurous film about a team of scientists who build a revolutionary telescope and fly it from a NASA high-altitude balloon. The largely grad student team is lead by Mark Devlin, PhD (brother of director Paul Devlin) and Barth Netterfield, PhD, a professor at the University of Toronto. Doing away with traditional documentary formulas like talking heads, BLAST! focuses on the daily lives and challenges facing the scientists. It is a great look at just what it takes to get science done. And I must say, that after a week of watching documentaries about poverty, tragedy and war, BLAST! was by far the most uplifting film I saw all week. The audience response was resounding once again, and the Q&A was really wonderful. Many of the scientists and grad students featured in the film showed up for the screening and fielded much of the Q&A.

After the screening, a few of us ventured out to the 'unofficial Hot Docs after party' - which turned out to be a house party on an island. We took a 10 minute ferry ride to a small island community full of beautiful little beach houses. The house the party was at had a huge backyard right on the water with a bonfire raging and a beautiful view of the downtown Toronto skyline. With the festival over, it seemed like everyone was much more relaxed - more focused on having a good time than schmoozing and handing out business cards. I met several locals (many of whom were longtime Burning Man attendees, oddly enough) and was told that there is so much demand to live on the islands that there's actually a lottery to determine who gets to live there. If I ever decide to flea the US, that island is at the top of my list for awesome places to live. This was by far the highlight of the whole trip, and I'm really glad I got to go!

Hot Docs has been one amazing ride. I learned a lot, worked a lot and had a ton of fun. I certainly hope to make it back again!

What with work, the awards ceremony, receptions and parties, I only made it to Full Battle Rattle today - but what a great film it was! Deep in the middle of the Mojave desert in California, the United States military has set up a replica of an Iraqi village as part of an elaborate simulation which serves as a training ground for troops preparing to deploy to Iraq. Full Battle Rattle follows one battalion through their two weeks of stay attempting to stabilize Median Wasl - a fake Iraqi village complete with Iraqi immigrants and asylum seekers playing the role of Shia, Sunni, Iraqi police and insurgents alike. The extent of detail in the simulation is really amazing, and it's easy to forget that the attacks and explosions are all controlled and non-lethal. I found it particularly interesting to hear the stories and opinions of the Iraqi's playing the villagers. With so much discussion and speculation on the situation in Iraq, it is refreshing to see what those who have experienced it first hand feel about it. That being said though, the film does a great job of staying largely apolitical. The filmmakers focus entirely on the events that take place in Medina Wasl and the lives of the people living and working there without digressing and becoming didactic about the larger issues. The most powerful part of the film comes at the end when the batalion is told they are being deployed to Iraq for a year. The expressions on their faces and the tears in the eyes of their families speak volumes more than any pundit or candidate ever could. Full Battle Rattle provides a provocative and interesting look into a complex situation - a great film that's not to be missed!

Another day packed with doc goodness! First I got to see Carts of Darkness, a delightful film about homeless men who get their thrills racing shopping carts down the hilled roads of North Vancouver. The filmmaker, Murray Siple tells us that he used to shoot snowboarding, but after being paralyzed in a car accident, he hasn't picked up a camera in 10 years – until now. It is really amazing to watch as he spends time with the men and begins to establish a very close and trusting relationship with them. Siple tags along as Ray, the rowdy and vivacious main character, shows him the best carts for racing, the best spots for camping out, and how to make a living collecting bottles. The uniqueness of this film is that the men recognize Siple as a societal outsider himself (because of his wheelchair), and are much more willing to open up to him and to accept him as a friend. I must say that this was one of my favorite films of the whole festival – not to be missed.

Another film that dealt with the issues of societal outsiders was Be Like Others, which focused on transsexuals living in Iran. I was surprised to learn that although homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, sex change operations are legally permitted for diagnosed transsexuals. The movie follows several pre-op men as they deal with the cultural ramifications facing them on their way to becoming a woman. Because of her connection with the doctor who performs the operations, director Tanaz Eshaghian had the opportunity to talk to and follow many different men and women at different stages of their transition. But in a way, I felt that this was a disadvantage, because the uniqueness of some of the characters was lost in the sea of voices featured in the film. There were a few moments when certain characters really stood out from the crowd, including when one woman expressed her regret over getting the operation and alienating her entire family. But I never really got the feeling that I fully knew or could empathize with any one particular character. Overall, the film wasn't so much character driven as it was informative for someone unfamiliar with the mores and laws of Islamic culture regarding transsexuals.

Next I saw Mechanical Love. For the most part this movie followed Professor Ishiguro the creator of a very realistic robotic duplication of himself. I had seen some short videos of him with the robot on YouTube before, and it was really interesting to get to delve into it and learn about Ishiguro's motivations. Surprisingly, Ishiguro talks very little about the process of building the robot or the technology behind it. Rather, he offers his ruminations on the definitions of humanness and the implications of trying to manufacture life. The film also looks at residents in nursing homes who keep Pero (an adorable robotic seal) as a pet. It was great to see their reactions and attachments to the toy – one lady carries it with her wherever she goes. Mechanical Love offered an interesting comment on the kinds of relationships that people establish with robots and artificial intelligence. It was a great compliment to Second Skin, which looked at how online gaming is changing how we define interaction and relationships.

Finally I saw Killer Poet, a film that told the story of Norman Porter - a man convicted for murder in the 60's who later escaped from prison. He moved to Chicago where he took on the name J.J. Jameson and became well known as a poet there. During his 20 years living in Chicago, Porter was an upstanding citizen, a volunteer in his church, and a dear friend to many in his community. The filmmakers had access to many different people with different perspectives on Porter's case - from the families of the victims who want to return Porter to prison, to his friends and church members who believe him to be reformed, to the police force that has been tracking him for 20 years. This creates a really well rounded story and a very in depth look at just who this man is.

Gore and gamers. That was the theme of the movies I saw today. I started the day off with Dance with a Serial Killer by Nigel Williams, which tells the story of Francis Heaulmes an infamous serial killer in France in the 1980's. The movie is told largely through Jean-Francois Abgrall, the relentless cop who followed and ultimately cracked the case, leading to Heaulmes's conviction for 9 murders. While the story was very interesting, I felt that we never really got a sense for Abgrall's personality – although one does get the feeling that he is quite an intense person. It seemed that the characters in the film were sacrificed to some degree in order to get the complicated narrative of Heaulmes's history and crimes across.

Next up was Second Skin, a movie which I've been looking forward to seeing since I heard about it's premiere this year at SXSW. The movie takes a humorous yet intelligent look into the world of MMORPGs (or Massively Multilayer Online Role Playing Games for the non l33t). The movie was made by two self-professed gamers, Juan Carlos Pineiro and Peter Brauer, and the subject matter is approached in a very loving and playful sort of way (no pun intended). The main themes of the film are the social implications of these online games – how they alter human interactions, change how we think of relationships, and impact our social lives outside of the virtual world. Many different kinds of gamers were represented in the film, from your typical 30 something gamer guy roommates, couples who met in game, handicapped gamers who use gaming to experience the world in ways they otherwise can't, to gaming addicts who spend 14+ hours a day online and lose everything because of it. These character driven stories are nicely complimented by interviews with leaders from the gaming industry and facts and statistics about gaming culture. (For example, did you know that for every 1 female gamer, there are 10 male gamers? Yeh, I'm not surprised either). I was a bit disappointed that they chose to focus almost completely on World of Warcraft (and to a lesser extent EverQuest) while entirely ignoring more social platforms such as Second Life. Aside from that, Second Skin does a great job of entertaining while at the same time providing a thought provoking look at the brave new world of virtual reality.

After that, I made my way to Passage by John Walker, a film which was was hailed as a provocative combination of fiction and documentary. The film investigates the story of John Rae, a Scottish explorer who the many assert discovered the Northern Passage but was systematically erased from history. Using actors, period costumes, and scripted dialog, a tale of exploration, cannibalism, and deceit unfold. However, I found that the most interesting parts of this film were not the fictionalized events (which often felt painfully like formulaic reenactments), but the verite scenes in which the actor playing Rae attempts to better understand his character. For example, (ACTOR) spends a large amount of time in the Arctic with an Inuit guide, who shows him how to hunt, skin an elk, build an igloo and live off the land. Another fascinating part of the film comes when the great-grandson of Charles Dickens, apologizes to Inuit statesman Tagak Curley for his ancestor's slander of the native people. Overall, the film has a fascinating subject matter, but the blending of fact and fiction in this case works better in theory than in action.

I wrapped up the day with yet another film about tragedy and cannibalism. Stranded: I come from a Plane that Crashed in the Mountains tells the horrific tale of a team of young men from Uruguay whose plane crashed in the Andes on their way to a football game in Chile in the 70's. Their story of desperation, starvation, and ultimately cannibalism is known internationally. But what makes this film stand out from the scores of other movies and shows covering the story is that Gonzalo Arijon, the director, was actually friends with several of the men before the event occurred. He actually made the film at the request of the survivors – who felt they had been misrepresented in the media. The result are painfully candid re-tellings of the tragedy. The story is told entirely from the 14 survivors, who are now in their 50's. In the film, several of the men return to the sight of the crash with their children, who are now the age they were when the tragedy struck. In his introduction to the film, the director described it as not simply a movie, but an experience – and indeed he was right. Although the film is close to 2 hours long, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The viewer is constantly reminded that this is not fiction – these are real men, recounting their real experiences of surviving a plane crash, holding loved ones as they died in their arms, freezing, starving, and being left to die in a baron hellish landscape for 72 days. The pain and visceral reaction to these memories is etched on the mens' faces as they relive a situation that no one should ever have to experience. Extremely powerful and emotionally draining, this film is not to be missed.

Up Next: Carts of Darkness, Be Like Others, Mechanical Love, and Killer Poet

Day 2:
What a day! Getting everything prepared for our premiere took up most of my time today. Thankfully, I got to take a brief brake to attend the Doc Mogul award luncheon for Nick Fraser. Nick is our executive producer for BLAST!, so I've actually gotten to meet him a few times before. It was a real treat to hear all of the speakers talk about all of Nick's accomplishments. Being new to the world of documentary myself, I realize I have much to learn, and it's great to know there are seasoned professionals like Nick Fraser willing to go to bat for fledgling filmmakers.

The evening's festivities started off with a reception hosted by the University of Toronto for the BLAST team. It was really great to meet the scientists – after working on the film for the past 9 months, I feel like I already know them! After the reception, it was off to the TDF party, and then the premiere of BLAST! The theater was packed and we couldn't have asked for a better audience. It was really exhilarating to finally see the finished product on the big screen. It has been months since I've seen the film all the way though, and with the hard work of director Paul Devlin, it really pulled together. It was engaging, entertaining and exciting, and judging by the audience response, I wasn't the only one who thought so!

This is the first film that I have taken an active role in since I graduated college last spring. Ever since I was in high school, I used to sit in the theaters and watch as the credits roll by and tell myself – someday my name will be up there. It's not often that you get to fulfill a dream, and I am honored and grateful to have my name on such a great film. Now it's time to relax and see some movies!

Monday April 21

After weeks of frantic anticipation, I finally arrived in Toronto for Hot Docs this morning! So exciting to be a part of the largest documentary film festival in North America! Due to a various errands to prepare for our premier of BLAST! tomorrow, a shampoo explosion in my luggage, and the mixer party in honor of Canadian filmmakers, I was only able to make it to one film – the late night screening of Carny. What a way to start off the festival!

Carny, directed by Alison Murray, offers an intimate and surprisingly beautiful look into the lives of a group of carnival workers. I half expected this film to be a voyeuristic spectacle – relishing the strangeness and 'otherness' of people who don't live or look like the rest of us. What I found was a film that effortlessly portrays the humanity and passion of the carnival workers. I was supprised to learn that most of the carnival workers actually chose to live and work at the carnival, rather than turning to it as a last resort. The main character of the film is Hairy, a delightful young woman with a real lust for life. Like many of the characters, Hairy has had a hard life and a rough childhood. For her, working at the carnival is her chance to have the fun and joy that she never got as a child. It's really a joy to watch her explain how much she loves what she does. After watching this movie, I don't think I'll ever walk through a carnival without thinking about the lives and stories of the people who make it all happen.



Coming up next: Luncheon for Nick Fraser and the BLAST! Premiere