Jonathan Rosenbaum is an esteemed film critic and author of several books. He published thousands of reviews and articles since the 1960s, many of which can be found on his web site.

He gratifies us with these Doc picks from this year's Festival:

Since I'm on the Fipresci jury this year in Toronto, I have less freedom than usual about what I can and should see; specifically, I have to concentrate on about two dozen Special Presentations having world premieres.  

But here none the less are the first three documentary programs I'd like to get to first, regardless of what festival section they're showing in:

1.  Of Time and the City (Terence Davies). The single film I'm most eager to see in Toronto is the first film in eight years by my favorite English filmmaker, whose inability to find funding to make films on a regular basis is an international catastrophe. A memoir about his home town, Liverpool, sounds like a perfect subject for him.

2. 24 City (Jia Zhangke) (pictured above right). The other film I'm most eager to see in Toronto is the latest feature by one of my two favorite mainland Chinese filmmakers (along with the older master Tian Zhuangzhuang). Yes, I know it's being shown in Visions and has generally been described as part documentary and part fiction, but films and filmmakers are more important than categories and festival sections, and Jia's the one who's been teaching me the most about contemporary China.

3. Les Plages d?Agnès  (Agnès Varda). Another memoir that sounds irresistible,  made by a filmmaker whom I'd already describe as a master indexer of her own life and work.