In Dahomey, director Mati Diop achieves something rare and profound: she transforms a historical documentary into a poetic meditation on colonial violence, cultural loss, and the fragile act of restitution. The film follows the return of 26 royal treasures, looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1892 by French colonial forces and finally repatriated to their homeland, Benin, in November 2021.
READ MOREThe Light Before the Sun is a raw, thought-provoking meditation on fame, mental health, and the limits of self-help, brought to life through the nuanced script by Rob Baker. This mid-length feature follows Daniel Wolf, a celebrated self-help guru played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Jamie Thomas King, as he returns home from an international book tour to an empty house and an even emptier sense of self. Snowed in, with his family away and his usual support system out of reach, Daniel must face the anxieties he has taught others to master. The film sets off with a familiar, well understood struggle: being forced to face ourselves without the distractions we so carefully construct.
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Superboys of Malegaon is a film based on the life of Nasir Shaikh, an amateur filmmaker from the town of Malegaon.
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Lisandro Alonso‘s Eureka is an atmospheric, contemplative film structured as a triptych that explores the experiences of Indigenous peoples across the Americas that spans time, geography, and history.
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Paying For It, the live-action adaptation of Chester Brown’s best-selling graphic novel, “a comic-strip memoir about being a john”, co-written and directed by Sook-Yin Lee (Octavio is Dead! Year of the Carnivore) had its world premiere in the Platform programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
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Written and directed by Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas, Aberdeen shines a light on the indomitable Aberdeen, who has been forced from her home due to flooding. As she adjusts to big-city life, she must face the inter-generational cycle of trauma that has been tearing her family apart for 5 generations in order to protect her grandchildren.
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The TIFF Docs programme is one I often support each year I attend the festival. Documentaries have a way to get us to learn and discuss topics that can be sensitive, infuriating and at times quite difficult yet necessary to address.
At TIFF this year, I watched two documentaries covering the war in Ukraine. Below is a brief summary of each and some thoughts I would like to share with you.
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César Fierro has just become a free man and needs to rebuild his life after being unjustly sentenced to death in Texas. He spent most of his life in solitary confinement, deprived of any physical contact with other human beings. Despite the challenges, Cesar remains determined to find true freedom.
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Faced with unfavourable laws and incessant police harassment, three young co-founders struggle to keep their startup alive. A motorcyclist faces dark times with his family after losing his livelihood. doctor struggles with his conscience on the job while battling outdated government policies. A police pair find themselves on different sides of the law with a difficult choice to make.
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The picking of sweetgrass becomes an action — and word — with profound meaning in this gently mesmerizing piece by multidisciplinary writer and artist shalan joudry.
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