Chris McDonald
Photo: Courtesy of Hot Docs
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has grown steadily since its debut in Toronto 15 years ago, drawing some 80,000 people to screenings last year. In addition, the Toronto Documentary Forum—a series of industry conferences, market events, and networking opportunities—attracts delegates from around the world to the annual festival. Chris McDonald, executive director of Hot Docs, says he's enjoying some down time before the 2008 festivities start on Thursday. "It's actually a bit quieter for me now than it has been in months," he said. "Last week and this week is quite nice because we're at the point in our evolution where we have a large team—we've got over 100 people working for us at this time of year—so there's a good infrastructure in place." Hot Docs runs April 17 to 27.
The festival is a week away. What are you working on?
We're still busy recruiting the 250 volunteers we'll need over the course of the 11 days. We're finalizing last-minute travel plans for the filmmakers who are coming in from around the world. All of the special events—there are over a dozen receptions and parties that we organize ourselves—we're putting the finishing touches on those. There are over 170 films that we're screening, so we're getting copies of prints and other data from around the world, which is a major undertaking. The box office is open and extremely busy, as are [industry] pass sales because we will have approximately 2,000 registered delegates—broadcasters, distributors, filmmakers, producers—at the festival beyond the public audience. The schedule is locked, and the program guide, which details all the films, is back from the printer, so a lot of work has been completed.This is the 15th anniversary of Hot Docs. Do you have any special events planned?
Our opening night is at the Winter Garden Theatre, and it's the first time we've used this beautiful and venerable theatre—it seats close to 1,000 people. And we've come up with a new design to celebrate the 15th year. There are a number of large parties during the week, including one at the Mars Building and another at the ROM during the week. What we really decided to do, though, was put our resources onto the screen. So rather than celebrating the anniversary with just a party or a poster, we decided to dedicate resources to expanding the program: We're going from 130 to 170 films, and we're going from 203 screenings to 253 screenings. It was a conscious decision on our part to expand capacity as much as possible and to bring more filmmakers to the festival.
Is there anything else that's new this year?
We added another theatre, so for the first time during prime time, we will have seven concurrent screenings. You always worry that you're going to spread the audience a little thinner by adding a new venue, but that hasn't been the case for us. Every time we've added a new venue to the festival, our per-screening attendance has stayed the same. We only expand once we're confident we can actually fill the cinemas to the same levels we have historically.
We've also added a second thematic program this year called Next, and it's a program highlighting films and filmmakers who are exploring artists and the creative process. In addition, there's a new program called Make Me a Believer that explores spirituality and faith.
What are some of the bigger challenges in putting together a festival of this size?
Finding the venues is always critical, and finding screening venues that are close to each other. Oddly enough, Toronto is a difficult city—besides the fact that we have, I think, more film festivals than any city in the world, it's difficult to find the right venues to host your industry activities. We consciously avoided going to a hotel, conference-type venue, so being able to find the right place is hard. At U of T, we're centered around the Isabel Bader Theatre and Victoria College, and that's worked very well for us.
But it's tough to find a venue that's the right character. We're not Microsoft; we're a mid- to large-size international festival, so you don't want to appear too corporate or upmarket. You want seem friendly, approachable, and convenient, and that's always been a challenge. Then there are things you can't control, like the weather or the Maple Leafs getting into the playoffs.
How do you promote the festival?
It's incredibly important to let the public know about the festival—that it's not just about the films, it's about the entire experience of going to the cinema—from how legible the Web site is, how easy it is for people to buy tickets, how friendly the volunteers are, how punctual you are with your screening times. Marketing and outreach is key, because it has to be very easy for people to understand how to navigate your event. We have great partnerships with the weekly publications—The Toronto Star, CBC radio—and contra-deals with trade publications. We also distribute 750,000 copies of our screening schedule through a number of means. That's what's so important: putting the information in people's hands and always building on outreach activities.
Who is attending this year's festival that you're really excited about?
Richard Leacock is getting an outstanding achievement award. He's 80-something years of age and was a driving force behind one of the major movements in documentary film, a real pioneer and legendary filmmaker, and we're screening almost 10 of his films, so that'll be exciting. Philip Morris is coming, an Academy Award winner and one of the most important documentary filmmakers in the last 20 years. And also, we're giving an award to Nick Fraser, a commissioning editor at the BBC, who is considered one of the finest documentary commissioning editors in the world. He's very prolific and has remarkable taste.
The festival is a week away. What are you working on?
We're still busy recruiting the 250 volunteers we'll need over the course of the 11 days. We're finalizing last-minute travel plans for the filmmakers who are coming in from around the world. All of the special events—there are over a dozen receptions and parties that we organize ourselves—we're putting the finishing touches on those. There are over 170 films that we're screening, so we're getting copies of prints and other data from around the world, which is a major undertaking. The box office is open and extremely busy, as are [industry] pass sales because we will have approximately 2,000 registered delegates—broadcasters, distributors, filmmakers, producers—at the festival beyond the public audience. The schedule is locked, and the program guide, which details all the films, is back from the printer, so a lot of work has been completed.This is the 15th anniversary of Hot Docs. Do you have any special events planned?
Our opening night is at the Winter Garden Theatre, and it's the first time we've used this beautiful and venerable theatre—it seats close to 1,000 people. And we've come up with a new design to celebrate the 15th year. There are a number of large parties during the week, including one at the Mars Building and another at the ROM during the week. What we really decided to do, though, was put our resources onto the screen. So rather than celebrating the anniversary with just a party or a poster, we decided to dedicate resources to expanding the program: We're going from 130 to 170 films, and we're going from 203 screenings to 253 screenings. It was a conscious decision on our part to expand capacity as much as possible and to bring more filmmakers to the festival.
Is there anything else that's new this year?
We added another theatre, so for the first time during prime time, we will have seven concurrent screenings. You always worry that you're going to spread the audience a little thinner by adding a new venue, but that hasn't been the case for us. Every time we've added a new venue to the festival, our per-screening attendance has stayed the same. We only expand once we're confident we can actually fill the cinemas to the same levels we have historically.
We've also added a second thematic program this year called Next, and it's a program highlighting films and filmmakers who are exploring artists and the creative process. In addition, there's a new program called Make Me a Believer that explores spirituality and faith.
What are some of the bigger challenges in putting together a festival of this size?
Finding the venues is always critical, and finding screening venues that are close to each other. Oddly enough, Toronto is a difficult city—besides the fact that we have, I think, more film festivals than any city in the world, it's difficult to find the right venues to host your industry activities. We consciously avoided going to a hotel, conference-type venue, so being able to find the right place is hard. At U of T, we're centered around the Isabel Bader Theatre and Victoria College, and that's worked very well for us.
But it's tough to find a venue that's the right character. We're not Microsoft; we're a mid- to large-size international festival, so you don't want to appear too corporate or upmarket. You want seem friendly, approachable, and convenient, and that's always been a challenge. Then there are things you can't control, like the weather or the Maple Leafs getting into the playoffs.
How do you promote the festival?
It's incredibly important to let the public know about the festival—that it's not just about the films, it's about the entire experience of going to the cinema—from how legible the Web site is, how easy it is for people to buy tickets, how friendly the volunteers are, how punctual you are with your screening times. Marketing and outreach is key, because it has to be very easy for people to understand how to navigate your event. We have great partnerships with the weekly publications—The Toronto Star, CBC radio—and contra-deals with trade publications. We also distribute 750,000 copies of our screening schedule through a number of means. That's what's so important: putting the information in people's hands and always building on outreach activities.
Who is attending this year's festival that you're really excited about?
Richard Leacock is getting an outstanding achievement award. He's 80-something years of age and was a driving force behind one of the major movements in documentary film, a real pioneer and legendary filmmaker, and we're screening almost 10 of his films, so that'll be exciting. Philip Morris is coming, an Academy Award winner and one of the most important documentary filmmakers in the last 20 years. And also, we're giving an award to Nick Fraser, a commissioning editor at the BBC, who is considered one of the finest documentary commissioning editors in the world. He's very prolific and has remarkable taste.
