Thursday 3 May 2012

Day 4 at Hot Docs

Second day at Hot Docs Forum, one of our favorite pitches won the Shaw Media Fund Prize. Her name is Maria Teresa Larrain and her film is called 'Shadow Girl'. It is a story about how she loses her sight and continues to work as a filmmaker. Maria Teresa was very inspiring and Lee had the chance to sit and talk with her this morning. She shared some helpful advice..'keep your story close to your heart and don't listen to all the discouraging noise from the film industry.' Good reminder for us not to get too caught up in the broadcast world, we know the reasons we are making Defensora and we know we will finish it.

Today we caught two screenings, one was called "Finding North' a US film about hunger in America and  the 'Price of Gold', a German film about 'ninja' miners in Mongolia. They were diverging styles of documentary storytelling and played to different audiences. Watching the latest documentaries gives us a sense of the trends and themes in the market.

We are close to the end of our time here in Toronto. Everything we have learned will make Defensora a better film. Tomorrow we will be interviewing lawyers involved in the lawsuits in our film.

Never a dull moment!