Mike Maggiore programs the premieres at New York's Film Forum with Director Karen Cooper. That theater has long been a prime launching pad for docs post-TIFF including this year's hits VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR and FOOD, INC. Here is Mike's response to our call for 2009 doc picks:

I get the sense that Documentary Programmer Thom Powers is carving out something of a wildlife theme this year: loggerhead turtles, bees, sleigh dogs, owls, Richard Nixon. (Pictured: TURTLE: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY). It may play like Mutual of Toronto's Wild Kingdom - but I'll certainly want to see every one of them. In all seriousness, we're very happy to see two of Film Forum's fall engagements premiering in Toronto - Frederick Wiseman's LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS (in the Mavericks section) and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.

Now that the shameless self-promotion has been put to rest, three documentaries I'm most excited to see are:

1) THE ART OF THE STEAL (Dir. by Don Argott) This is based on a fascinating case of art plundering involving the Barnes collection, which boasts a trove of world-class paintings yet continues to be the subject of a thorny legal dispute. The excellent art reporter / critic David D'Arcy is an authority on this case and is apparently interviewed in the film.

2) COLONY (Dir. by Carter Gunn, Ross McDonnell) Much has been reported in the past few years about how bee colonies are mysteriously dying - "colony collapse disorder," as they call it. I've read that many farmers have blamed pesticides, and at least one study suggested that the radiation generated by cell phone usage is a possible culprit. Whatever it is, I'm intrigued to see how this Irish documentary treats this phenomenon by following several American beekeepers' experiences.

3) S/T (Dir. by Lisandro Alonso) Although this film clocks in at less than a minute, I'm excited to watch anything by Alonso (LIVERPOOL, LA LIBERTAD), an exceptionally talented Argentine filmmaker. The only image I've seen from it is that of a remarkably transfixing owl. Apparently it was a favorite of this year's Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film (BAFICI), where it was shown as the festival's official trailer; critic Robert Koehler called it "the greatest festival trailer I've ever seen."