Every year when I send out the call for TIFF doc picks, I especially look forward to the response from film programmer Tom Hall because he always answers with the same care applied to his great blog Backrow Manifesto. Here's his reply:

The sun is starting to set a little bit earlier, the evenings have cooled down ever so slightly; I can almost smell the autumn in the air. Toronto beckons and I am more than ready. I am honored that Thom Powers has offered me the opportunity to once again share my excitement, not only for the festival as a whole (and for the documentary program in particular), but for a few select titles that seem to be right in my cinematic sweet spot.

The Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (pictured) - One of the artists whose playing changed the way I thought about classical music, Glenn Gould remains something of an enigmatic figure for me; his death at the much-too-young age of 50 came well before I could truly appreciate him, but his commitment to recorded music (and his decision to abandon the concert stage) left us with a rich and mysterious body of performance, radio recordings and even wildlife documentaries. I am very interested to see how Peter Raymont and Michèle Hozer handle the delicate balance between the man and his music.

The Art Of The Steal - Albert Barnes is a fascinating character. An American physician and inventor of the once-popular antiseptic drug Argyrol, Barnes spent  much of his time and money collecting modern art. His collection, valued today in the billions of dollars, is kept in the Barnes Foundation, a gem of a museum in the Philadelphia area. There was a recent controversy surrounding the collection (I won't say more in case I might spoil things), so I am very interested to see where Don Argott takes the tale. Either way, the history of the collection itself, which features hundreds of works by Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh among many others, promises to be thrilling.

Waking Sleeping Beauty - I love animation and I really love the work of both Disney and Pixar in recent years, so I am very much interested in seeing Don Hahn's behind the scenes look at how Disney's animation studio rebounded from a long, difficult spell as a backseat proposition to the slew of Disney live-action features that dominated the 1970's and 80's (The Apple Dumpling Gang, anyone?). It should be a lot of fun for fans of the movies and the studio. Not every film about the Disney brand has been flattering, and I am hoping for a warts-and-all history of the studio that shows what really went on behind closed doors.

John Greyson's Covered looks to be mandatory viewing. This short looks at an ugly moment in 2008 when the first-ever Sarajevo Queer Festival was the subject of violent attacks by members of the so-called Vehabi movement. Exposing intolerance is a powerful responsibility, and so I am determined to catch Greyson's take on this vital subject.

Finally, for anyone reading this thinking that Chris Rock's Good Hair is a film you might get away with not seeing, I cannot recommend it enough. It an absolutely hilarious, excellent piece of filmmaking that debunks much of what we think we know about African-America's self-image. It is warm and generous and at the same time deeply skeptical of the beauty myth, but Rock gets the balance just right and has made one of the most surprising movies of the year. A must see.