There is a strong Danish presence at this year's Hot Docs festival in Toronto, which takes place April 25 to May 5.
In ‘Death of a Saint’, filmmaker Patricia Bbaale Bandak returns to her native Uganda to confront her dark past 30 years after losing her mother in a brutal crime. Throughout the film, Patricia attempts to find out who her mother was. However, cultural differences and the shadow of a brutal murder constantly looms over her journey. Her mother is described as a saint, but Patricia wants to understand who she really was as a person. ‘Death of a Saint’ has been selected for the international competition and is produced by Victor Cunha for Monolit Film with support from the Danish Film Institute.
'Daughter of Genghis', directed by Christian Als, Kristoffer Poulsen and Knud Brix, follows female Mongolian gang leader Gerel Byamba for seven years. Byamba is the leader of the Mongolian organization Gerel Khas, an all-female, ultra-nationalist group that wants to cleanse Mongolia of corruption and Chinese oppression and return the nation to the greatness it had in the time of Genghis Khan. 'Daughter of Genghis' is screened in the Festival Favourites section and is produced by Andreas Dalsgaard for Elk Film with support from the Danish Film Institute.
'Echo of You', which was selected for IDFA last year, follows a group of Danish men and women over the age of 80 who have all lost their life partner and examines how the bereaved deal with this great heartbreak. 'Echo of You' is directed by Zara Zerny and produced by Maria Møller Kjeldgaard for Manna Film with support from the Danish Film Institute.
'Echo of You' is screened in the Changing Face of Europe program, which the joint European association of film institutions, European Film Promotion, is behind with support from the EU's Creative Europe MEDIA program. Under Hot Docs, the program presents nine new European documentaries and their directors – selected by the Hot Docs programming team from the European Film Promotion nominated films – that illustrate and explore a new and modern Europe from a cultural, social, geopolitical and economic perspective.
Screening in the main competition for short films is 'Eternal Father', an intimate and existential story about how a family is affected by the father's decision to freeze his body after his death. 'Eternal Father' is director Ömer Sami's graduation film from the National Film School of Denmark and was selected for IDFA last year.
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, better known as Hot Docs, takes place every year in Toronto, Canada and is one of the most prominent documentary film festivals in the world.
The festival is an important platform for documentary filmmakers to reach the North American market and serves as a meeting place for the international documentary industry.
Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organization of Canada. Last year, the Danish documentary 'The Mountains' by Christian Einshøj won two awards at the festival, including the Best International Feature Documentary Award.