The Goethe-Institut Toronto supports German Films at Hot Docs
While the busy full audience version of Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival that the Goethe-Institut has been partnering with for years, cannot happen in 2020 because of cinema closures and physical distancing measures, more than 135 official 2020 selections will be screened as part of Hot Docs Festival Online!
For the Festival's ten days, Ontario audiences will be able to stream documentary premieres, enjoy pre-recorded filmmaker Q&As with Hot Docs programmers, and partake in virtual live events all from the comfort of their homes.
Hot Docs Festival Online includes a number of German films and co-productions across the sections International Spectrum, World Showcase, and Special Presentation, including:
"The Forum", by Marcus Vetter, Germany, Switzerland 2019
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the most powerful leaders and thinkers on the planet gather, astonishing conversations unfold between the likes of Al Gore, Jair Bolsonaro and Greta Thunberg during an event with so much at stake.
"The Wall of Shadows", by Eliza Kubarska, Germany, Poland, Switzerland 2020
Desperate to earn money for their son’s education, a Nepalese Sherpa family breaks taboo and accompanies a western expedition on a holy mountain, wrestling with punishing conditions and their own religious beliefs along the way.
"Hong Kong Moments", by Bing Zhou, Hong Kong, Germany 2020
As pro-democracy protestors battle armed police in the streets of Hong Kong, ordinary citizens take sides. Cameras follow a cop, a paramedic, a tea shop owner and politicians as their city—an outlier of both western and Chinese power—quakes in crisis.
"Merry Christmas, Yiwu", by Mladen Kovacevic, Belgium, France, Germany, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland 2020
In a surreal Chinese city where 600 factories manufacture Christmas decorations year-round, workers’ daily routines and personal dramas unfold, all set against a society at the intersection of communism and globalism.
"Wood", by Monica Lãzurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, & Ebba Sinzinger, Austria, Germany, Romania 2019
A crack team of spies infiltrate a global syndicate operating in remote Russian forests, Chinese factories and Romanian mills to expose illegal timber trading. Hidden cameras capture the pace of human greed and natural destruction in this white-knuckle enviro-thriller.
"Mein Vietnam", by Tim Ellrich & Thi Hien Mai, Austria, Germany 2020
Living in limbo for 30 years—physically in Germany but virtually in Vietnam via constant Skyping and karaoke chatrooms—a couple is torn on where to call home when a storm destroys their house in Vietnam that held the promise of their eventual return.
Part of the Goethe-Institut focus on German Film
film still: "The Forum": Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Prof. Klaus Schwab in conversation with Canada's PM Justin Trudeau, Davos 2018
Back
