CBC reporter Matthew McKinnon interviews TIFF Documentary Programmer Thom Powers here. Below is an excerpt...
[Right: Made in Jamaica]
Q: What specific challenges were involved in shaping this year?s lineup?
A: Music-related
documentaries has always been a strong genre, but this year more than
ever. We have [programmed] a great range, from Kurt Cobain: About a Son to Made in Jamaica to several others, not to mention the biggest attention-getter of all the docs at the festival, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.
There is always a lot of filmmaking around music, and often it tends to be a lot of formulaic filmmaking ? the Behind the Music,
VH1 [kind of thing]. None of these documentaries follow those kinds of
formulas. They?re all very solid and deep films unto themselves.
They?re not just being carried by the fact that there are celebrities
in them. They have other things to say.
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