Mark Wigmore Posts - The Moviefone Blog

Hot Doc a Day: 'The Hollywood Complex'

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 8th 2011 7:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Doc a Day: 'Becoming Chaz'

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 7th 2011 7:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival, kicks off its 2011 run on April 28 in Toronto. Jam-packed with documentaries running through May 8, Moviefone Canada will be there from start to finish, offering up looks at some of the festival's noted films.

Chaz Bono is a man.

This wasn't always the case. Gender transition is examined emotionally, spiritually and physically in the stellar documentary 'Becoming Chaz,' which captures the final moments of Sonny and Cher's daughter -- before she becomes their son.

The film joins Chaz and girlfriend Jennifer well into the process. What once was a lesbian couple now find themselves realizing the complications that come with transitioning. Jennifer is an amazing supporter with a great sense of humor about a new regime of surgeries, testosterone injections and weight gain -– but what about living with a man?

Hot Doc a Day: 'Love Shines'

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 6th 2011 7:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival, kicks off its 2011 run on April 28 in Toronto. Jam-packed with documentaries running through May 8, Moviefone Canada will be there from start to finish, offering up looks at some of the festival's noted films.

What hasn't been said about Ron Sexsmith? The musician's musician, this Canadian singer/songwriter (and damn fine guitarist) is a favorite of the greats. Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Chris Martin, Feist and Sir Paul McCartney think he's one of the world's great melody makers and lyricists. Critics prop him up and industry types listen to his records, but every honest-to-God fan has been hard-won for the shy troubadour. Will Sexsmith ever be a household name, or will he always be an acquired taste?

This is what documentary 'Love Shines' tries to find out. Director Douglas Arrowsmith follows Sexsmith while he makes his most recent recording, 'Long Player Late Bloomer' in Los Angeles. At the helm -- a guy usually reserved for the Metallicas, Bon Jovis and Motley Crues of this world –- producer Bob Rock. The hope is that these two talents can force the industry to recognize the pop genius of the Sexsmith discography.

Hot Docs Looks Into Underworld of 'Grinders' Poker

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 5th 2011 10:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Family man, filmmaker and gambler Matt Gallagher hit tough times some years back. No work and a wife and child to support, he took his poker hobby and turned it into his profession. The hours were bad, the competition was brutal and the whole racket is illegal, but somewhere in that nasty brew was the idea for a film. 'Grinders' was born out of circumstance, need and luck.

This documentary follows the men (and some women) who make poker their lives. Old pros, up-and-comers, game managers and success stories make up the collage of characters profiled in the film. Gallagher travels from his native Toronto all the way to Las Vegas to tell his tale, and the results are fascinating.

Moviefone sat down with Gallagher to discuss this underground world of illegal poker, and how it can turn from a hobby into a job into an obsession.

Hot Doc a Day: Alan Zweig's 'Vinyl'

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 5th 2011 7:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival, kicks off its 2011 run on April 28 in Toronto. Jam-packed with documentaries running through May 8, Moviefone Canada will be there from start to finish, offering up looks at some of the festival's noted films.

When alt-comic/anti-hipster-schlubb Harvey Pekar suddenly pops onto the screen with no identifying credit in Alan Zweig's 'Vinyl,' it becomes clear how this documentary reached cult status.

The late creator of the superhero-free comic, 'American Splendor,' simply weighs in on music and relationships, just like everyone else does in 'Vinyl.' Watch a little closer and there's Canadian writer/actor Don McKellar, director Guy Maddin, Daniel Richler, Bruce LaBruce, and writer/columnist Geoff Pevere. Heck, Bruce MacDonald produced the thing. If these were the guys hanging with Zweig before he had an audience as a filmmaker, it's no wonder Hot Docs has decided to make his litany of projects the focus of the 2011 fest.

Other titles by Zweig at the fest include the 'Vinyl' sequels 'Loveable' and 'I Curmudgeon,' his 'Early Shorts,' the recent prison system doc 'A Hard Name,' and 'Vinyl: The Alternate Take.'

Hot Doc a Day: 'Love Always, Carolyn: A Film About Kerouac, Cassady and Me'

By Mark Wigmore (Subscribe to Mark Wigmore's posts), Posted May 4th 2011 7:00AM

Filed under: Documentaries, Hot Docs Film Festival, Moviefone Canada

Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival, kicks off its 2011 run on April 28 in Toronto. Jam-packed with documentaries running through May 8, Moviefone Canada will be there from start to finish, offering up looks at some of the festival's noted films.

When myth becomes reality, is it worth pushing back with the truth? What if your truth is wrong?
These are the questions asked of Carolyn Cassady in 'Love Always, Carolyn: A Film About Kerouac, Cassady and Me'; forty years after the death of her iconic husband Neal, it seems the record on his life and the details of his legend are somewhat off by her count. But does anybody care?

If you haven't been influenced by the beat generation, you likely know someone who has. Your free-spirited girlfriend, a college buddy who was into everyone and everything, or that Deadhead guy you met at a party.

Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were the poster boys for the group. Their post-WWII writings and the way they lived their lives has been studied, copied and celebrated for the better half of a century. Many attribute the existence of their tiny group as the blueprint to a hippie movement.