Sean Farnel has been the Director of Programming at Hot Docs since 2006.
Prior to that, he had my job programming the Real to Reel section for TIFF. He shared memories of those years on
Doc Blog 06.
Today, he weighs in with his doc picks for TIFF 08:
Examined Life....I was just entering this title into my screening schedule and mistakenly typed Unexamined Life....which is such a Freudian slip, and exactly why I not only want to, but need to, see this film. The consolations of philosophy, and all that. I think the filmmaker, Astra Taylor, is Canadian, sometimes.
A Time to Stir...Paul Cronin's film about Peter Whitehead was simply mesmerizing and, I have to add, quite personally inspiring on a number of levels. For one, I've taken up falconry. Cronin also edited Herzog On Herzog, a compilation of his astute and penetrating interviews with Werner Herzog. I owe him big time here, as I cribbed so many of his questions for my own live interview with Herzog. Now, he makes an epic film on a subject, the occupation at Columbia University in '68, which I find fascinating as history and, I believe, with the potential for significant contemporary resonance. So, Paul Cronin, you're the dope.
Blind Loves...(pictured above right) Its not really a doc, more like a reality-based drama, imho.But so what, I'm not a purist, and this is a compelling and tender look at relationships among the blind (yes, I've seen it, so more of a plug than an "I'm excited to see" thing).
Paris, Not France..... Yeah, she's no philosopher or student radical, she's never interviewed Werner Herzog, and she's not blind (except to my love for her)... but so what. I'm first in line. Fuck you.
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