TIFF 2011: Real to Reel Strikes Gold with Herzog, Wiseman, Demme, Yu, Gibney, Berlinger, Broomfield, Fricke, Glawogger and 15 Hour Film from Mark Cousins

We had an smidgen of an idea that the Real to Reel section might be especially strong this year, but with the likes of Frederick Wiseman, Rithy Panh, Jonathan Demme, Werner Herzog, Jessica Yu, Alex Gibney, Joe Berlinger, Ron Fricke, Nick Broomfield and Michael Glawogger, we’re now beginning to think that Thom Powers’ section has not only outclassed Toronto’s sister event Hot Docs, but just about any other doc-related film festival.

Among the noteworthy World Premieres announced, we look forward to Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified) Urbanized, Andrey Paounov’s The Boy Who Was King, Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss and the mind-numbing miscarriage of justice that has produced a trilogy of films from Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory). Chronos and Baraka helmer Ron Fricke brings us what will be a visual feast in Samsara, and certainly good for a couple of laughs we have Jessica Yu’s most important docu to date with Last Call at the Oasis (it employs Jack Black), Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill’s Sarah Palin – You Betcha! and Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope from Morgan Spurlock. And because Thom Powers either hates us or loves us, TIFF will be presenting The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Mark Cousins’ epic 15-hour documentary points to a thousand film samples and 12 decades of film history. Finally for 1980’s Habs fans, Alex Gibney continues on his 2-3 films per year pace with The Last Gladiators.

Among the best items from the film festival circuit, from Berlin we finally get to see 3D used for something other than making an extra buck off from families, Wim Wenders’ Pina. From Cannes, we get Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmas’ This is not a Film, Kim Ki-Duk’s Arirang and Rithy Panh’s Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell. From Venice, a trio of hot docu items in Frederick Wiseman’s Crazy Horse, Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful and Michael Glawogger’s Whores’ Glory. Here’s the complete batch of docu films, excluding the pair that were announced last week (From The Sky Down and Pearl Jam Twenty) and the pair put in the Masters section (Wenders and Panahi).

Real to Reel

The Boy Who Was King 
Andrey Paounov, Bulgaria/Germany World Premiere
Director Andrey Paounov (The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories) explores the strange history of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who became Bulgaria

Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fans Hope  
Morgan Spurlock, USA World Premiere
Have you ever imagined a place where Vulcans and vampires get along? Where wizards and wookies can be themselves? Welcome to Comic-Con San Diego. What started as a fringe comic book convention for 500 fans has grown into the pop culture event of the year that influences every form of entertainment, now attended by over 140,000. Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope explores this cultural phenomenon by following the lives of seven attendees as they descend upon the ultimate geek mecca. Includes interviews with Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Frank Miller and Matt Groening.

Crazy Horse 
Frederick Wiseman, USA/France North American Premiere
Documentary master Frederick Wiseman (La Danse, Boxing Gym) spent ten weeks exploring the legendary Parisian cabaret club Crazy Horse, which boasts the greatest and most chic nude dancing in the world. Founded in 1951, the club has become a Parisian nightlife 
‘must’ for any visitor, ranking alongside the Eiffel tower and the Louvre. Wiseman

Dark Girls 
Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry, USA World Premiere
It seems beyond comprehension that a child would ask her mother to put bleach in the bathwater to lighten her skin. Yet this is a reality for many members of the African diaspora. For many black women – who, like all women, are often judged by their physical appearance – being dark-skinned becomes their defining characteristic. Actor/director Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry set out to examine why skin colour bias persists and how it affects the lives of women on the receiving end of it.

Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell 
Rithy Panh, France/Cambodia International Premiere
Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime caused the death of some 1.8 million people, representing one-quarter of the population of Cambodia. Rithy Panh first explored the legacy of Cambodia

Gerhard Richter Painting 
Corinna Belz, Germany International Premiere
Gerhard Richter, one of the internationally most significant contemporary artists of our times, granted filmmaker Corinna Belz access to his studio in the spring and summer of 2009 where he was working on a series of large abstract paintings. In quiet, highly concentrated images, the film gives us a fly-on-the-wall perspective of a very personal, tension-filled process of artistic creation. In her intelligent and perceptive film, Corinna Belz brings us closer to the complex processes of artistic creation. Gerhard Richter Painting is the penetrating portrait of an artist at work – and a fascinating film about the art of seeing.

Girl Model 
Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, USA World Premiere
Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. Girl Model follows Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese
market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a 13-year-old plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the center of Tokyo with promises of a profitable career. After Ashley

I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful
Jonathan Demme, USA North American Premiere
Carolyn Parker was the last to leave her neighbourhood when a mandatory evacuation order was decreed as Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in the summer of 2005, and was the first resident to return to her now flood-devastated community. Mrs. Parker takes us deep inside her personal biography as a child born in the 1940s, raised in segregated New Orleanst outspoken voices in the fight for every New Orleanian

In My Mother’s Arms 
Atia Al Daradji and Mohamed Al Daradji, Iraq/Netherlands/United Kingdom World Premiere
Husham works tirelessly to build the hopes, dreams and prospects of the 32 damaged children of war under his care at a small orphanage in Baghdad

Into the Abyss
Werner Herzog, USA World Premiere
Exploring a triple homicide case in Texas, Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Grizzly Man) probes the psyches of those involved, including the 28-year-old death row inmate scheduled to die within eight days of appearing on-screen. Herzog

Last Call at the Oasis,” Jessica Yu, USA World Premiere
We‟re running out of water, and contaminating what’s left. How long before the well runs dry? In unravelling this interconnected global crisis, Last Call at the Oasis focuses on the country with the largest water footprint – the United States – and explores why the threat hasn’t hit home. Academy Award®-winning director Jessica Yu draws upon the research of scientists and enlists diverse voices ranging from the real Erin Brockovich, exemplifying feisty resistance, to actor Jack Black, supplying welcome comic relief.

The Last Dogs of Winter
Costa Botes, New Zealand World Premiere
Canadian Eskimo Dogs or Quimmiq were once indispensible to human life in the arctic. Today, the breed faces extinction. Since 1976, Brian Ladoon has stuck to a promise to maintain a viable breeding colony of the animals, battling chronic underfunding, wandering polar bears, officialdom and shocking weather to keep his word.

The Last Gladiators
Alex Gibney, USA World Premiere
Chris “Knuckles” Nilan can chart his hockey career by his scars. He earned those stripes as one the NHL Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) explores the rough and tumble world of hockey.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, USA World Premiere
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” chronicles the 18-year odyssey of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, three teens incarcerated for a horrifying crime they claim they did not commit. In the latest installment of the acclaimed documentary film series about the “West Memphis Three,” facts are reexamined, new evidence is revealed, and new suspects are scrutinized. The film is a riveting look at American justice.

Paul Williams Still Alive 
Stephen Kessler, USA World Premiere
A documentary filmmaker tracks down Grammy and Oscar award-winning actor/singer/songwriter Paul Williams in an attempt to find out what happened to his fallen idol. Paul Williams was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. He was everywhere – on The Tonight Show 50 times and appeared on variety shows, sitcoms, game shows and movies from The Love Boat to Phantom of the Paradise.
But in the 1980s, he just disappeared. This movie is about what happened when filmmaker Stephen Kessler finds him.

Samsara
Ron Fricke, USA World Premiere
Samsara is a Tibetan word that means “the ever turning wheel of life,” a concept both intimate and vast, the perfect subject for filmmakers Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson whose previous collaborations include Chronos and Baraka. Samsara takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation that spans the globe on a journey of the soul. Through powerful images pristinely photographed in 70mm and a dynamic music score, the film illuminates the links between humanity and the rest of the nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet.

Sarah Palin – You Betcha!
Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, United Kingdom World Premiere
Nick Broomfield’s quest for the real Sarah Palin involves battling the icy snows of Alaska in mid-winter to speak to the school friends, family, and Republican colleagues that in previous days gave their heart, soul and belief to the charismatic, charming, intoxicating ex-hockey mom. But it’s not all plain sailing. People are frightened to talk; Wasilla makes Twin Peaks look like a walk in the park. It’s a devout evangelical community – 76 churches with a population of only 6 thousand, and the Crystal meth capital of Alaska. Broomfield brings his celebrated wit and determination to cracking her story.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Mark Cousins, United Kingdom World Premiere
Filmed on four continents over six years, this epic 15-hour documentary tells the story of innovation in the movies based on the acclaimed book of the same title by Mark Cousins. Featuring exclusive interviews with legendary filmmakers like Stanley Donen and Abbas Kiarostami, The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a passionate, cinematic journey across 11 decades of cinema, and a thousand films.

The Tall Man
Tony Krawitz, Australia International Premiere
This is the story of Palm Island, the Australian tropical Paradise where one morning Cameron Doomadgee swore at a policeman and forty-five minutes later lay dead in a watch-house cell. It’s also the story of that policeman, the tall enigmatic Christopher Hurley who prior to Doomadgee’s death had been decorated for his work with aboriginal communities. Based on Chloe Hooper’s award winning book, The “Tall Man” explores one of Australia’s most sensational cases of culture clash and the haunting moral puzzle at its core.

Undefeated
Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, USA International Premiere
In 2004, football coach Bill Courtney took on the daunting job of coaching at Manassas High School in inner-city Memphis, where players are more likely to wind up in jail than in college. The Manassas Tigers were perennial whipping boys of the league, bereft of victories, funds, and morale. Courtney recruited a group of freshmen to turn things around, and in their first season they got creamed. But with each passing year they won more games and more respect. At the start of the season in 2009, Courtney set a goal: to win the first play-off game in the school

Urbanized 
Gary Hustwit, U.S./United Kingdom World Premiere
Director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified) completes his design film trilogy with Urbanized. Exploring the design of cities with the world‟s foremost architects, policymakers and engaged citizens, Urbanized frames a global discussion about how the design of our cities affects our lives.

Whores’ Glory
Michael Glawogger, Austria/Germany North American Premiere
“Whores’ Glory” is a cinematic triptych on prostitution: three countries, three languages, three religions. In Thailand, women wait for clients behind glass panes, staring at reflections of themselves. In Bangladesh, men go to a ghetto of love to satisfy their unfulfilled desires on indentured girls. And in Mexico, women mix hard drugs with sex labour to avoid facing their own reality. In worlds where the most intimate act has become a commodity, these women have physically and emotionally experienced everything that can happen between a man and a woman. For this they have always received money, but it has not made their lives rich in anything but stories.